To my Friends in China
THE object of this book
is to describe the operation upon and within old, conservative, exclusive China
of the three great transforming forces of the modern world--Western trade,
Western politics and Western religion. These forces are producing stupendous
changes in that hitherto sluggish mass of humanity. The full significance of
these changes both to China and to the world cannot be comprehended now. There
is something fascinating and at the same time something appalling in the
spectacle of a nation numbering nearly one-third of the human race slowly and
majestically rousing itself from the torpor of ages under the influence of new
and powerful revolutionary forces. No other movement of our age is so colossal,
no other is more pregnant with vmeaning. In the words of D. C. Bougler,
"The grip of the outer world has tightened round China. It will either
strangle her or galvanize her into fresh life."
The immediate occasion
of this volume was the invitation of the faculty of Princeton Theological
Seminary to deliver a series of lectures on China on the Student Lectureship
Foundation and to publish them in book form. This will account in part for the
style of some passages. I have, however, added considerable material which was
not included in the lectures, while some articles that were contributed to the
Century Magazine, the American Monthly Review of Reviews and other magazines
have been inserted in their proper place in the discussion. The materials were
gathered not only in study and correspondence but in an extended tour of Asia
in the years 1901 and 1902. In that tour, advantage was taken of every
opportunity to confer with Chinese of all classes, foreign consuls, editors,
business men and American, German and British officials, as well as with
missionaries of all denominations. Everywhere I was cordially received, and, as
I look at my voluminous note-books, I am very grateful to the men of all faiths
and nationalities who so generously aided me in my search for information.
No one system of
spelling Chinese names has been followed for the simple reason that no one has
been generally accepted. The Chinese characters represent words and ideas
rather than letters and can only be phonetically reproduced in English.
Unfortunately, scholars differ widely as to this phonetic spelling, while each
nationality works in its own peculiarities wherever practicable. And so we have
Manchuria, Mantchuria and Manchouria; Kiao-chou, Kiau-Tshou, Kiao-Chau, Kiau-
tschou and Kiao-chow; Chinan and Tsi-nan; Ychou, Ichow and I-chou; Tsing-tau
and Ching-Dao; while Mukden is confusingly known as Moukden , Shen-Yang,
Feng-tien-fu and Sheng- king. As some authors follow one system, some another
and some none at all, and as usage varies in different parts of the Empire, an
attempt at uniformity would have involved the correction of quotations and the
changing of forms that have the sanction of established usage as, for example,
the alteration of Chefoo to Chi-fu or Tshi-fu. I have deemed it wise, as a
rule, to omit the aspirate (e. g, Tai-shan instead of T'ai-shan) as
unintelligible to one who does not speak Chinese. Few foreigners except
missionaries can pronounce Chinese names correctly anyway. Besides, no matter
what the system of spelling, the pronunciation differs, the Chinese themselves
in various parts of the Empire pronouncing the name of the Imperial City
Beh-ging, Bay-ging, Bai-ging and Bei-jing, while most foreigners pronounce it
Pe-kin or Pi-king. I have followed the best obtainable advice in using the
hyphen between the different parts of many proper names. For the rest I join
the perplexed reader who devoutly hopes that the various commit- tees that are
at work on the Romanization of the Chinese language may in time agree among
themselves and evolve a system that a plain, wayfaring man can understand without
provocation to wrath.
156 Fifth Avenue,
New York City.
THE author gratefully
acknowledges the kindness with which his book has been received not only in
this country but in England and China. In this edition he has corrected a
number of errors that appeared in the first edition and has availed himself of
later statistical information. He is under special obligations to the Rev. W.
A. P. Martin, D. D., LL. D., of Wuchang, and the Rev. Arthur H. Smith, D. D.
LL. D., of Pang-chwang, for valuable counsel. These distinguished authorities
on China have been so kind as to study the book with painstaking care and to
give the author the benefit of their suggestions. All these suggestions have
been incorporated in this edition to the great improvement of its accuracy.
The result of the
Russia-Japan War is noticeably accelerating the new movement in China. The
Chinese have been as much startled and impressed by the Japanese victory as the
rest of the world and they are more and more disposed to follow the path which
the Japanese have so successfully marked out. The considerations presented in
this book are therefore even more true to-day than when they were first
published. The problem of the future is plainly the problem of China and no
thoughtful person can afford to be indifferent to the vast transformation which
is taking place as the result of the operation of the great formative forces of
the modern world.
156 Fifth Avenue,
New York City.
I. THE ANCIENT EMPIRE .
. . . . . . . . . . 15
II. DO WE RIGHTLY VIEW
THE CHINESE . . . . . 25
III. ATTITUDE TOWARDS
FOREIGNERS-CHARACTER AND ACHIEVEMENTS . . . . . . . . . 35
IV. A TYPICAL PROVINCE
. . . . . . . . . . . 45
V. A SHENDZA IN
SHANTUNG. . . . . . . . . . 52
VI. AT THE GRAVE OF
CONFUCIUS. . . . . . . . 65
VII. SOME EXPERIENCES
OF A TRAVELLER-FEASTS, INNS AND SOLDIERS . . . . . . . . . 84
VIII. WORLD CONDITIONS
THAT ARE AFFECTING CHINA . 101
IX. THE ECONOMIC
REVOLUTION IN ASIA. . . . .111
X. FOREIGN TRADE AND FOREIGN
VICES . .121
XI. THE BUILDING OF
RAILWAYS . . . . . . . .130
XII. THE AGGRESSIONS OF
EUROPEAN POWERS . . .145
XIII. THE UNITED STATES
AND CHINA . . . .154
XIV. DIPLOMATIC
RELATIONS-TREATIES. . . . . .165
XV. RENEWED
AGGRESSIONS. . . . . . . . . . .174
XVI. GROWING IRRITATION
OF THE CHINESE--THE REFORM PARTY . . . . . . . . .184
XVII. THE BOXER
UPRISING. . . . . . . . .193
XVIII. BEGINNINGS OF
THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE--THE TAI-PING REBELLION AND THE LATER DEVELOPMENT. .
. . . . . . . .217
XIX. MISSIONARIES AND
NATIVE LAWSUITS . . . .228
XX. MISSIONARIES AND
THEIR OWN GOVERNMENTS .236
XXI. RESPONSIBILITY OF
MISSIONARIES FOR THE BOXER UPRISING . . . . . . . . . . .249
XXII. THE CHINESE
CHRISTIANS. . . . . . .268
XXIII. THE STRAIN OF
READJUSTMENT TO CHANGED ECONOMIC CONDITIONS . . . . . . . .280
XXIV. COMITY AND
COOPERATION. . . . . . .290
XXV. IS THERE A YELLOW
PERIL. . . . . . . . .305
XXVI. FRESH REASON TO
HATE THE FOREIGNER.320
XXVII. HOPEFUL SIGNS. .
. . . . . . . . . . . .333
XXVIII. THE PARAMOUNT
DUTY OF CHRISTENDOM. . . .351
INDEX. . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .371
HE must be dead to all
noble thoughts who can tread the venerable continent of Asia without profound
emotion. Beyond any other part of the earth, its soil teems with historic
associations. Here was the birthplace of the human race. Here first appeared
civilization. Here were born art and science, learning and philosophy. Here man
first engaged in commerce and manufacture. And here emerged all the religious
teachers who have most powerfully influenced mankind, for it was in Asia in an
unknown antiquity that the Persian Zoroaster taught the dualism of good and
evil; that the Indian Gautama 600 years before Christ declared that
self-abnegation was the path to a dreamless Nirvana; that less than a century
later the Chinese Lao-tse enunciated the mysteries of Taoism and Confucius
uttered his maxims regarding the five earthly relations of man, to be followed
within another century by the bold teaching of Mencius that kings should rule
in righteousness. In Asia it was 1,000 years afterwards that the Arabian
Mohammed proclaimed himself as the authoritative prophet. There the God and Father
of us all revealed Himself to Hebrew sage and prophet in the night vision and
the angelic form and the still, small voice; and in Asia are the village in
which was cradled and the great altar of the world on which was crucified the
Son of God.
We of the West boast of
our national history. But how brief is our day compared with the succession of
world powers which Asia has seen.
Chaldea began the march
of kingdoms 2,200 years before Christ. Its proud king, Chedor-laomer, ruled
from the Persian Gulf to the sources of the Euphrates, and from the Zagros
Mountains to the Mediterranean. Then Egypt arose to rule not only over the
northeastern part of Africa, but over half of Arabia and all of the preceding
territory of Chaldea. Assyria followed, stretching from the Black Sea nearly
half-way down the Persian Gulf and from the Mediterranean to the eastern
boundary of modern Persia. Babylon, too, was once a world power whose monarch
sat
"High on a throne of royal state, which far
Outshone the wealth of Ormus or of Ind."[1]
Persia was mightier still. Two
thousand years before America was heard of, while France and Germany, England
and Spain, were savage wildernesses, Persia was the abode of civilization and
culture, of learning and eloquence. Her empire extended from the Indus to the
Danube and from the Oxus to the Nile, embracing twenty satrapies each one of
whose governors was well-nigh a king. Alexander the Great, too, at the head of
his invincible army, swept over vast areas of Asia, capturing cities, unseating
rulers, and bringing well-nigh all the civilized world under his dominion. And
was not Rome also an Asiatic power, for it stretched not only from the firths
of Scotland on the north to the deserts of Africa on the south, but from the
Atlantic Ocean on the west to the River Euphrates on the east.
Altogether it is a
majestic but awful procession, overwhelming us by its grandeur and yet no less
by its horror. It is a kaleidoscope on a colossal scale, whose pieces appear
like fragments of a broken universe. Empires rise and fall. Thrones are erected
and overturned. The mightiest creations of man vanish. Yea, they have all waxed
"old as doth a garment," and "as a vesture" are they
"changed."
But were these ancient
nations the last of Asia? Has that mighty continent nothing more to contribute
to the world than the memories of a mighty past? It is impossible to believe
that this is all. The historic review gives a momentum which the mind cannot
easily overcome. As we look towards the Far East, we can plainly see that the
evolution is incomplete. Whatever purpose the Creator had in mind has certainly
not yet been accomplished. More than two-thirds of those innumerable myriads
have as yet never heard of those high ideals of life and destiny which God
Himself revealed to men. It is incredible that a wise God should have made such
a large part of the world only to arrest its development at its present
unfinished stage, inconceivable that He should have made and preserved so large
a part of the human race for no other and higher purpose than has yet been
achieved.
Within this generation,
a new Asiatic power has suddenly appeared in a part of Asia far removed from
the region in which the wise men of old lived and studied, and the might of
that nation is even now checking the progress of huge and haughty Russia. But
brilliant as has been the meteoric career of Japan, there is another race in
Asia, which, though now moving more sluggishly, has possibilities of
development that may in time make it a dominant factor in the future of the
world. Great forces are now operating on that race and it is the purpose of
this book to give some account of those forces and to indicate the stupendous
transformation which they are slowly but surely producing.
The magnitude of China is
almost overwhelming. In spite of all that I had read, I was amazed by what I
saw. To say that the Empire has an area of 4,218,401 square miles is almost
like saying that it is 255,000,000,000 miles to the North Star; the statement
conveys no intelligible idea. The mind is only confused by such enormous
figures. But it may help us to remember that China is one-third larger than all
Europe, and that if the United States and Alaska could be laid upon China there
would be room left for several Great Britains. Extending from the fifty-fourth
parallel of latitude southward to the eighteenth, the Empire has every variety
of climate from arctic cold to tropic heat. It is a land of vast forests, of
fertile soil, of rich minerals, of navigable rivers. The very fact that it has
so long sustained such a vast population suggests the richness of its
resources. There are said to be 600,000,000 acres of arable soil, and so
thriftily is it cultivated that many parts of the Empire are almost continuous
gardens and fields. Four hundred and nineteen thousand square miles are
believed to be underlaid with coal. Baron von Richthofen thinks that
600,000,000,000 tons of it are anthracite, and that the single Province of
Shen-si could supply the entire world for a thousand years. When we add to this
supply of coal the apparently inexhaustible deposits of iron ore, we have the
two products on which material greatness largely depends.
The population proves
to be even greater than was supposed, for while 400,000,000 was formerly believed
to be a maximum estimate, the general census recently taken by the Chinese
Government for the purpose of assessing the war tax places the population of
the Empire at 426,000,000. This, however, includes 8,500,000 in Manchuria,
2,580,000 in Mongolia, 6,430,020 in Tibet and 1,200,000 in Chinese Turkestan.
Some of these regions are only nominally Chinese. Those on the western frontier
were until comparatively recent years almost as unknown as the poles. Sven
Hedin's description of those that he traversed is wonderfully fascinating. Only
a daring spirit, the explorer of the type that is born, not made, could have
pierced those vast solitudes and wrested from them the secret of their
existence. That Hedin had no money for such a costly quest could not deter this
Viking of the Northland. Kings headed the subscription and others so eagerly
followed that ample funds were soon in hand. Princes helped with equipment and
counsel. The Czar made all Russian railways free highways, and every local
official and nomad chieftain exerted himself to aid the expedition. Hedin does
not claim to give anything more than an ordered diary of his travels, together
with a description of the lands he explored and the peoples he found. But what
a diary it is! It takes the reader away from the whirl of crowded cities and
clanging trolley-cars into the boundless, wind-swept desert and the solitude of
majestic mountains where the lonely traveller wanders with his camels through
untrodden wildernesses or floats down the interminable stretches of unknown
rivers, while night after night he sleeps in his tiny tent or under the open
sky. The author failed to reach the long-sought Lassa, the suspicious Dalai
Lama refusing to be deceived or cajoled and sternly sending the inquisitive
traveller out of the country. But the expedition of three years and three days
was rich in other disclosures of ruined cities and great watercourses and lofty
plateaus and majestic mountain ranges. The population is sparse in those
desolate wastes, and the scattered inhabitants are wild and uncouth and free.
Manchuria, however, is
far from being the barren country that so many imagine it to be. It is, in many
respects, like Canada, a region embracing about 370,000 square miles and of
almost boundless agricultural and mineral wealth. The population, save in the
southern parts, is not yet dense but it is rapidly increasing.
But in central and
eastern China, the conditions are very different. Here the population can only
be indicated by a figure so large that it is almost impossible for us to
comprehend it. Consider that the eighteen provinces alone, with an area about
equal to that part of the United States east of the Mississippi River, have
eight times the population of that part of our country.
"There are twice as many people in China as on the four
continents-- Africa, North and South America and Oceanica. Every third person
who toils under the sun and sleeps under God's stars is a Chinese. Every third
child born into the world looks into the face of a Chinese mother. Every third
pair given in marriage plight their troth in a Chinese cup of wine. Every third
orphan weeping through the day every third widow wailing through the night are
in China. Put them in rank, joining hands, and they will girdle the globe ten times
at the equator with living, beating human hearts. Constitute them pilgrims and
let two thousand go past every day and night under the sunlight and under the
solemn stars, and you must hear the ceaseless tramp, tramp, of the weary,
pressing, throbbing throng for five hundred years."[2] There is something amazing in the immensity
of the population. Great cities are surprisingly numerous. In America, a city
of nearly a million inhabitants is a wonderful place and all the world is
supposed to know about it. But while Canton and Tien-tsin are tolerably
familiar names, how many in the United States ever heard of Hsiang-tan-hsien ?
Yet Hsiang-tan- hsien is said to have 1,000,000 inhabitants, while within
comparatively short distances are other great cities and innumerable villages.
In the Swatow region, within a territory a hundred and fifty miles long and
fifty miles wide, there are no less than ten walled cities of from 40,000 to
250,000 inhabitants, besides hundreds of towns and villages ranging from a few
hundred to 25,000 or 30,000 people. Men never tire of writing about the
population adjacent to New York, Boston and Chicago. But in five weeks'
constant journeying through the interior of the Shantung Province, there was
hardly an hour in which multitudes were not in sight. There are no scattered
farmhouses as in America, but the people live in villages and towns, the latter
strongly walled and even the former often have a mud wall. As the country is
comparatively level, it was easy to count them, and as a rule there were a
dozen or more in plain view. I recall a memorable morning. It was Friday, June
28, 1901. We had risen early, and by daylight we had breakfasted, and started
our carts and litters. In our enjoyment of the cool, delicious morning air, we
walked for several li. Just before the sun rose, we crossed a low ridge and
from its crest, I counted no less than thirty villages in front of us, while
behind there were about as many more, the average population being apparently
about 500 each. For days at a time, my road lay through the narrow, crowded
street of what seemed to be an almost continuous village, the intervening farms
being often hardly more than a mile in width.
Imagine half the
population of the United States packed into the single state of Missouri and an
idea of the situation will be obtained, for with an area almost equal to that
of Missouri, Shantung has no less than 38,247,900 inhabitants. It is the most
densely populated part of China. But the Province of Shan-si is as thickly
settled as Hungary. Fukien and Hupeh have about as many inhabitants to the
square mile as England. Chih-li is as populous as France and Yun-nan as
Bulgaria.
The density of China's
population may be better realized by a glance at the following detailed
comparison between the population of Chinese provinces and the population of
similar areas in the United States:
ProvincesArea Square MilesPopulationHupeh,71,41035,280,685Ohio and
Indiana76,6705,864,720Honan,67,94035,316,800Cheh-kiang,36,67011,580,692Kentucky,40,0001,858,635Kiang-si,6819,4758026
532,125Kentucky and Tennessee,81,7503,626,252Kwei-chou,67,1607,650,282Virginia
and West Virginia,64,7702,418,774Yun-nan,146,68012,324,574Michigan and
Wisconsin,111,8803,780,769Fukien,46,32022,876,340Ohio,40,7603,672,316Chih-li,115,80020,937,000Georgia,50,9801,837
353Shantung,55,97038,247,900New England,62,0004,700,945Shan-si,81,83012,200,456Illinois,56,0003,826,851Shen-si,75,2708,450,182Nebraska76,8401,058,910Kan-su,125,45010,385,376California,155,9801,208,130Sze-chuen,218,48068,724,890Ohio,
Ind., Ill., Ky.,173,43011,350,219Ngan-hwei,54,81023,670,314New
York,47,6005,997,853Kiang-su,38,60013,980,235Pennsylvania,44,9855,258,014Kwan-tung
and
Hainan,99,97031,865,251Kansas,81,7001,427,096Kwang-si,77,2005,142,330Minnesota,79,2051,301,826Hunan,83,38022,169,673Louisiana,45,0001,110,569 Perhaps the most thoroughly typical
city in China is Canton. The approach by way of the West River from Hongkong
gives the traveller a view of some of the finest scenery in China. The green
rice-fields, the villages nestling beneath the groves, the stately palm-trees,
the quaint pagodas, the broad, smooth reaches of the river reflecting the
glories of sunset and moon- rises and the noble hills in the background combine
to form a scene worth journeying far to see.
But Canton itself is
unique among the world's great cities, and the most sated traveller cannot fail
to find much that will interest him. After much journeying in China, we thought
we had seen its typical places, but no one has seen China until he has visited
Canton. With an estimated population of 1,800,000, it is the metropolis of the
Empire. The number of people per acre may be less than in some parts of the
East Side in New York, for the houses are only one story in height. But the
crowding is amazing. The streets are mere alleys from four to eight feet wide,
lined with open-front shops, so filled overhead with perpendicular signs and
cross coverings of bamboo poles and mattings that they are in as perpetual
shade as an African forest, and so choked with people that men often had to
back into a shop to let our chairs pass. No wheeled vehicle can enter those
corkscrew streets and we saw no animal of any kind save two cows that were
being led to slaughter.
And the hubbub! Such
shouting and yelling cannot be heard anywhere else in the world. Our chair
coolies were in a constant state of objurgation in clearing a way. Everybody
seemed to be bellowing to everybody else and when two chairs met, the din
shattered the atmosphere. A foreigner excites a surprising amount of curiosity,
considering the number that visit Canton. Troops of boys followed us and there
was a good deal of what sounded like cat-calling. But it was all good- natured,
or appeared to be.
The unpretentious
shop-fronts often beckon to mysteries that are well worth penetrating--tobacco
factories where coolies stamp the leaves with bare feet; tea, gold, dye and
embroidery shops where designs of exquisite delicacy are exhibited; silk-
weaving factories where fine fabrics are made on the simplest of looms; feather
shops where breastpins and other ornaments are made of tiny bits of feathers on
a silver base--a work requiring almost incredible nicety of vision and such
strain upon the eyes that the operators often become blind by forty. Another
curiosity is a shop where crickets are reared for fighting as the Filipino
fights cocks and the Anglo-Saxon fights dogs. The Chinese gamble on the result
and a good fighting cricket is sometimes sold for $100. The attendant put a
couple in a jar for our alleged amusement and they began fighting fiercely. But
I promptly stopped the mêlée as I did not enjoy such sport.
The river is one of the
sights of China. It is crowded with boats of all sizes. The owner of each lives
on it with his family, the babies having ropes tied to them so that if they
tumble into the water, they can be pulled out.
Altogether, it is a
remarkable city. Viewed from the famous Five-Story Pagoda, on a high part of
the old city wall, it is a swarming hive of humanity. As one looks out on those
myriads of toiling, struggling, sorrowing men and women, he is conscious of a
new sense of the pathos and the tragedy of human life. If I may adapt the words
of the Rev. Dr. Richard S. Storrs on the heights above Naples, at the Church of
San Mar- tino, on the way to St. Elmo--I suppose that every one who has ever
stood on the balcony of that lofty pagoda "has noticed, as I remember to
have noticed, that all the sounds coming up from that populous city, as they
reached the upper air, met and mingled on the minor key. There were the voices
of traffic, and the voices of command, the voices of affection and the voices
of rebuke, the shouts of sailors, and the cries of itinerant venders in the
street, with the chatter and the laugh of childhood; but they all came up into
this incessant moan in the air. That is the voice of the world in the upper air,
where there are spirits to hear it. That is the cry of the world for
help."[3]
TOO much has been made
of the peculiarities of the Chinese, ignoring the fact that many customs and
traits that appear peculiar to us are simply the differences developed by
environment. Eliza Scidmore affirms that "no one knows or ever really will
know the Chinese, the most comprehensible, inscrutable, contradictory, logical,
illogical people on earth." But a Chinese gentleman, who was educated in
the United States, justly retorts: "Behold the American as he is, as I
honestly found him--great, small, good, bad, self-glorious, egotistical,
intellectual, supercilious, ignorant, superstitious, vain and bombastic. In
truth," he adds, "so very remarkable, so contradictory, so
incongruous have I found the American that I hesitate."[4]
The Chinese are, indeed,
very different from western peoples in some of their customs.
"They mount a horse on the right side instead of the left. The old
men play marbles and fly kites, while children look gravely on. They shake
hands with themselves instead of with each other. What we call the surname is
written first and the other name afterwards. A coffin is a very acceptable
present to a rich parent in good health. In the north they sail and pull their
wheelbarrows in place of merely pushing them. . . . China is a country where
the roads have no carriages and the ships have no keels; where the needle
points to the south, the place of honour is on the left hand, and the seat of
intellect is supposed to lie in the stomach; where it is rude to take off your
hat, and to wear white clothes is to go into mourning. Can one be astonished to
find a literature without an alphabet and a language without a
grammar?"[5] It would never
occur to us to commit suicide in order to spite another. But in China such
suicides occur every day, because it is believed that a death on the premises
is a lasting curse to the owner. And so the Chinese drowns himself in his
enemy's well or takes poison on his foe's door-step. Only a few months ago, a
rich Chinese murdered an employee in a British colony, and knowing that
inexorable British law would not be satisfied until some one was punished, he
hired a poor Chinese named Sack Chum to confess to having committed the murder
and to permit himself to be hung, the real murderer promising to give him a
good funeral and to care for his family. An Englishman who thought this an
incredible story wrote a letter of inquiry to an intelligent Chinese merchant
of his acquaintance and received the following reply:
"Nothing strange to Chinamen. Sack Chum, old man, no money, soon
die. Every day in China such thing. Chinaman not like white man-- not afraid to
die. Suppose some one pay his funeral, take care his family. `I die,' he say.
Chinaman know Sack Chum, we suppose, sell himself to men who kill Ah Chee.
Somebody must die for them. Sack Chum say he do it. All right. Police got him.
What for they want more?" These
things appear odd from our view-point and there are many other peculiarities
that are equally strange to us. But it may be wholesome for us to remember that
some of our customs impress the Chinese no less oddly. The Frankfurter Zeitung,
Germany, prints the following from a Chinese who had seen much of the Europeans
and Americans in Shanghai:
"We are always told that the countries of the foreign devils are grand
and rich; but that cannot be true, else what do they all come here for? It is
here that they grow rich. They jump around and kick balls as if they were paid
to do it. Again you will find them making long tramps into the country; but
that is probably a religious duty, for when they tramp they wave sticks in the
air, nobody knows why. They have no sense of dignity, for they may be found
walking with women. Yet the women are to be pitied, too. On festive occasions
they are dragged around a room to the accompaniment of the most hellish
music." A Chinese resident
in America wrote to his friends at home a letter from which the following
extract is taken:
"What is queerer still, men will stroll out in company with their
wives in broad daylight without a blush. And will you believe that men and
women take hold of each other's hands by way of salutation? Oh, I have seen it
myself more than once. After all, what can you expect of folk who have been
brought up in barbarous countries on the very verge of the world? They have not
been taught the maxims of our sages; they never heard of the Rites; how can
they know what good manners mean? We often think them rude and insolent when
I'm sure they don't mean it they're ignorant, that's all."[6] A call that I made upon a high official in an
interior city developed a curious interest. He was a pale, thin man, apparently
an opium smoker and a mandarin of the old school. But he was intelligent enough
to ask me not only about "the twenty-story buildings of New York,"
but "the differences between the various Protestant sects," and in
particular about "the Mormons and their strength!" Who could have
imagined that the Latter Day Saints of Utah could be known to a Chinese
nobleman of Chih-li? Verily, our own idiosyncrasies are known afar.
It will thus be seen
that mutual recriminations regarding national peculiarities are not likely to
be convincing to either party. Human nature is much the same the world over.
From this view-point at least we may discreetly remember that
"There is so much bad in the best of us,
And so much good in the worst of us,
That it hardly behoves any of us
To talk about the rest of us."
I do not mean to give an
exaggerated impression of the virtues of the Chinese or what Mrs. Isabella Bird
Bishop calls "a milk-and-water idea" of heathenism. Undoubtedly, they
have grave defects. Official corruption is well-nigh universal. A correspondent
of the North China Herald reports a well- informed Chinese gentleman of the
Province of Chih-li as expressing the conviction that one-half the land tax
never reaches the Government. "But that is not all," said he.
"There are other sources of income for the hsien official. Thus
here in this county, thirty-five or forty years ago, the Government imposed an
extra tax for the purpose of putting down the Tai-ping rebellion, and the
officials have continued to collect that tax ever since. Of course if the
literati should move in the matter and report to Paoting-fu, the magistrate
would be bounced at once; but they are not likely to do so. The tax is a small
one, my own share not being more than five dollars or so." China's whole public service is rotten
with corruption. Offices with merely nominal salaries or none at all are
usually bought by the payment of a heavy bribe and held for a term of three
years, during which the incumbent seeks not only to recoup himself but to make
as large an additional sum as possible. As the weakness of the Government and
the absence of an outspoken public press leave them free from restraint, China
is the very paradise of embezzlers. "Any man who has had the least
occasion to deal with Chinese courts knows that `every man has his price,' that
not only every underling can be bought, but that 999 out of every 1,000
officials, high or low, will favour the man who offers the most
money."[7]Dishonesty is not, as with the white race, simply the recourse
in emergency of the unscrupulous man. It is the habitual practice, the rule of
intercourse of all classes. The Chinese apparently have no conscience on the
subject, but appear to deem it quite praise- worthy to deceive you if they can.
Gambling is openly,
shamelessly indulged in by all classes. As for immorality, the Rev. Dr. J.
Campbell Gibson of Swatow says that "while the Chinese are not a moral
people, vice has never in China as in India, been made a branch of
religion." But the Rev. Dr. C. H. Fenn, of Peking, declares "that
every village and town and city--it would not be a very serious ex- aggeration
to say every home,--fairly reeks with impurity." The Chinese are, indeed,
less openly immoral than the Japanese, while their venerated books abound with
the praises of virtue. But medical missionaries could tell a dark story of the
extent to which immorality eats into the very warp and woof of Chinese society.
The five hundred monks in the Lama Temple in Peking are notorious not only for
turbulence and robbery, but for vice. The temple is in a spacious park and
includes many imposing buildings. The statue of Buddha is said to be the
largest in China--a gilded figure about sixty feet high--colossal and rather
awe-inspiring in "the dim religious light." But in one of the temple
buildings, where the two monks who accompanied us said that daily prayers were
chanted, I saw representations in brass and gilt that were as filthily obscene
as anything that I saw in India. There is immorality in lands that are called
Christian, but it is disavowed by Christianity, ostracized by decent people and
under the ban of the civil law. But Buddhism puts immorality in its temples and
the Government supports it. This particular temple has the yellow tiled roofs
that are only allowed on buildings associated with the Imperial Court or that
are under special Imperial protection. Mr. E. H. Parker, after twenty years'
experience in China, writes,
"The Chinese are undoubtedly a libidinous people, with a decided
inclination to be nasty about it. . . . Rich mandarins are the most profligate
class. . . . Next come the wealthy merchants. . . . The crapulous leisured
classes of Peking openly flaunt the worst of vices. . . Still, amongst all
classes and ranks the moral sense is decidedly weak. . . . Offenses which with
us are regarded as almost capital-- in any case as infamous crimes--do not
count for as much as petty misdemeanours in China.[8] More patent to the superficial observer is a cruelty
which appears to be callously indifferent to suffering. This manifests itself
not only in most barbarous punishments but in a thou- sand incidents of daily
life. The day I entered China at Chefoo, I saw a dying man lying beside the
road. Hundreds of Chinese were passing and repassing on the crowded
thoroughfare. But none stopped to help or to pity and the sufferer passed
through his last agony absolutely uncared for and lay with glazing eyes and
stiffening form all unheeded by the careless throng. Twenty-four hours
afterwards, he was still lying there with his dead face upturned to the silent
sky, while the world jostled by, buying, laughing, quarrelling, heedless of the
tragedy of human life so near. And when in Ching-chou-fu, I stopped to see if I
could not give some relief to a woman who was writhing in the street, I was
hastily warned that if I touched her unasked, the populace might hold me
responsible in the event of her death and perhaps demand heavy damages, if,
indeed, it did not mob me on the spot. Undoubtedly the Chinese are often
deterred from aiding a sufferer because they fear that if death occurs
"bad luck" will follow them, a horde of real or fictitious relatives
will clamour for damages, and perhaps a rapacious magistrate will take
advantage of the opportunity to make a criminal charge which can be removed
only by a heavy bribe. And so the sick and poor are often left to die uncared
for in crowded streets, and drowning children are allowed to sink within a few
yards of boats which might have rescued them. But everywhere in China, little
attention is paid to suffering and many customs seem utterly heartless.
In spite, too, of the
agnostic teachings of Confucius and their own practical temperament, the
Chinese are a very superstitious people and live in constant terror of evil
spirits. The grossest superstitions prevail among them, while beyond any other
people known to us they are stagnant, spiritually dead, densely ignorant of
those higher levels of thought and life to which Christianity has raised whole
classes in Europe and America.
Some people who are
ignorant of the real situation in China are being misled by an anonymous little
book entitled "Letters From a Chinese Official." The author insists
that Anglo-Saxon institutions are far inferior to the institutions of China. He
declares that "our religion (Chinese) is more rational than yours, our
morality higher and our institutions more perfect," and that there is less
real happiness in Europe and America than in China. As for Christianity, he
regards it as quite impracticable. He holds that Confucianism is feasible and
that Christianity is not, and much more to the same effect. There is strong
internal evidence that the author is not a Chinese at all, but a cynical
European. At any rate, the book is an ex parte statement of the most glaring
kind, omitting the good in Europe and America and the bad in China. One who has
visited the Celestial Empire gasps when he reads that the Chinese houses are
"cheerful and clean," that the Chinese live the life of the mind and
the spirit to a far higher degree than the Christian peoples of the West, and
that Chinese life has a dignity and peace and beauty which Europe cannot equal.
"Such silence! Such sounds! Such perfume! Such colour!" the author
rhapsodizes. Bishop Graves, of Shanghai, who has spent a quarter of a century
in China and who is therefore presumably competent to speak, declares:
"Far be it from me to belittle the beauty of the Chinese landscape;
but why did he not leave out that about the perfume? Why, you can smell China
out at sea! However, it is just as easy to imagine the perfume as the rest of
it, while you are writing. . . . Exaggeration is the most conspicuous note of
these `Letters.' Any one who has not seen China can test whether this book is
true to fact by comparing it with any narrative of sober travel, and if he
happens to live in China, his own nose and eyes are a sufficient witness. . . .
The writer takes the worst of our morals, the weakest of our religion, the most
debasing of our industrial conditions, the most pernicious of our vices, and
against them he sets not the best that China can show, but an exaggerated
picture which is false to fact. This is not argument but trickery, because it
presumes on the fact that one's readers will know no better." Indeed, the Rev. Dr. C. H. Fenn, who
has resided in Peking for ten years, writes that he cannot believe that the
author of "Letters from a Chinese Official" is a sincere man. He
continues:
"I would be almost willing to assert that it is impossible for a
man, brought up in China, then spending many years abroad, to return to China
and write such a book in honesty and sincerity of heart. He could not possibly
help knowing that nine-tenths of what he was writing about China was absolutely
untrue, that her political, legal, social, domestic and personal life are
rotten to the core, and that only in a few exceptional cases is any pretence
even made of living according to the ethics of Confucius. It might be possible
for an educated man, whose surroundings had always been of an exceptionally
good character, and who had never gone outside of his own province or studied
foreign books, to write with some enthusiasm of the beauties of Chinese life,
but not for any one else." Still,
at a time when the Chinese are being vociferously abused, it is only fair that
we should give them credit for the good qualities which they do possess. I ask
with Dr. William Elliott Griffis: "In talking of our brother men, what
shall be our general principle, detraction or fair play? Because lackadaisical
writers picture the Christless nations as in the innocence of Eden, shall we,
at the antipodes of fact and truth, proceed to blacken their characters? Shall
we compare the worst in Canton, Benares or Zululand, with the best in London,
Berlin or Philadelphia? Surely God cannot look with complacency or hear with
delight much of the practical slander spoken among white folks and Anglo-Saxons
of His children and our brothers."
There has been too much
of a disposition to think of the Chinese as a mass, almost as we would regard
immense herds of cattle or shoals of fish. Why not rather think of the Chinese
as an individual, as a man of like passions with ourselves? Physically,
mentally, and morally he differs from us only in degree, not in kind. He has
essentially the same hopes and fears, the same joys and sorrows, the same
susceptibility to pain and the same capacity for happiness. Are we not told
that God "hath made of one blood all nations of men"? We complacently
imagine that we are superior to the Chinese. But discussing the question as to
what constitutes superiority and inferiority of race, Benjamin Kidd declares
that "we shall have to set aside many of our old ideas on the subject.
Neither in respect alone of colour, nor of descent, nor even of the possession
of high intellectual capacity, can science give us any warrant for speaking of
one race as superior to another." Real superiority is the result, not so
much of anything inherent in one race as distinguished from another, as of the
operation upon a race and within it of certain uplifting forces. Any
superiority that we now possess is due to the action upon us of these forces.
But they can be brought to bear upon the Chinese as well as upon us. We should
avoid the popular mistake of looking at the Chinese "as if they were
merely animals with a toilet, and never see the great soul in a man's
face."[9] "There is nothing," says Stopford Brooke, "that
needs so much patience as just judgment of a man. We ought to know his
education, the circumstances of his life, the friends he has made or lost, his
temperament, his daily work, the motives which filled the act, the health he
had at the time--we ought to have the knowledge of God to judge him
justly."
We need in this study a
truer idea of the worth and dignity of man as man, a realization that back of
almond eyes and under a yellow skin are all the faculties and the possibilities
of a human soul, to grasp the great thought that the Chinese is not only a man,
but our brother man, made like ourselves in the image of God. Let us have the
charity which sees beneath all external peculiarities our common humanity,
which leads us to respect a man because he is a man; which, no matter what
complexion he may have, no matter where he lives, no matter to what degradation
he has fallen, will take him by the hand and endeavour to elevate him to a
higher plane of life. For him we need an enthusiasm for humanity which shall
not be a sentimental rhetoric, but a catholic, throbbing love, remembering that
he is
"Heir of the same inheritance,
Child of the self-same God,
He hath but stumbled in the path
We have in weakness trod."
Ruskin reminds us that the
filthy mud from the street of a manufacturing town is composed of clay, sand,
soot and water; that the clay may be purified into the radiance of the
sapphire; that the sand may be developed into the beauty of the opal; that the
soot may be crystallized into the glory of the diamond and that the water may
be changed into a star of snow. So man in Asia as well as in America may, by
the transforming power of God's Spirit, be ennobled into the kingly dignity of
divine sonship. We shall get along best with the Chinese if we remember that he
is a human being like ourselves, responsive to kindness, appreciative of
justice and capable of moral transformation under the influence of the Gospel.
He differs from us not in the fundamental things that make for manhood, but
only in the superficial things that are the result of environment. From this
view-point, we can say with Shakespeare:--
"There is some sort of goodness in things evil,
Would men observingly distil it out."
Those who are wont to refer so
contemptuously to the Chinese might profitably recall that when, in Dickens'
"Christmas Carol," the misanthropic Scrooge says of the poor and
suffering: "If he be like to die, he had better do it and decrease the
surplus population,"--the Ghost sternly replies:--
TO understand China's
attitude towards foreigners, the following considerations must be borne in
mind:--
First, the conservative
temperament of the Chinese. It is true but misleading, to say that they have
"no word or written character for patriotism, but 150 ways of writing the
characters for good luck and longlife." For while the Chinese may have
little love for country, they have an intense devotion to their own customs.
For nearly 5,000 years, while other empires have risen, flourished and fallen,
they have lived apart, sufficient unto themselves, cherishing their own ideals,
plodding along their well-worn paths, ignorant of or indifferent to the
progress of the Western world, mechanically memorizing dead classics, and
standing still comparatively amid the tremendous onrush of modern civilization.
I say comparatively still, for if we carefully study Chinese history, we shall
find that this vast nation has not been so inert as we have long supposed. The
very revolutions and internal commotions of all kinds through which China has
passed would have prevented mere inertia. But when we compare these movements and
the changes that they have wrought with the kaleidoscopic transformations in
Europe and America, China appears the most stationary of nations. She has moved
less in centuries than western peoples have in decades. The restless
Anglo-Saxon is alternately irritated and awed by this massive solidity, not to
say stolidity. There is, after all, something impressive about it, the
impressiveness of a mighty glacier which moves, indeed, but so slowly and
majestically that the duration of an ordinary nation's life appears
insignificant as compared with the almost timeless majesty of the Chinese
Empire.
Second, the vastness of
China. Her territory and population are so enormous that her people found
sufficient scope for their energies within their own borders. They therefore
felt independent of outsiders. The typical European nation is so limited in
area and is so near to equally civilized and powerful peoples that it could not
if it would live unto itself. The situation of most nations forces them into
relations with others. But China had a third of the human race and a tenth of
the habitable globe entirely to herself, with no neighbours who had anything
that she really cared for. It was inevitable, therefore, that a naturally
conservative people should become a self- centred and self-satisfied people.
Third, the character of
adjacent nations. None of them were equal to the Chinese in civilization and
learning, while in territory and population, they were relatively
insignificant. Even Japan, by far the most powerful of them, has only a tenth
of China's population, while her remarkable progress in intelligence and power
is a matter of less than a couple generations. Until recently, indeed, Japan
was as backward as China and was not ashamed to receive many of her ideas from
her larger neighbour, as the number of Chinese characters in the Japanese
language plainly show. As for China's other neighbours, who were they? Weak
nations which abjectly sent tribute by commissioners who grovelled before the
august Emperor of the Middle Kingdom, or barbarous tribes which the Chinese
regarded about as Americans regard the aboriginal Indians. Gibson translates
the following passage from a Chinese historian as illustrative at once of
China's haughty contempt of outsiders and of her reasons for it:
"The former kings in measuring out the land put the Imperial
territory in the centre. Inside was the Chinese Empire, and outside were the
barbarous nations. The barbarians are covetous and greedy of gain. Their hair
hangs down over their bodies, and their coats are buttoned on the left side.
They have human faces, but the hearts of beasts. They are distinguished from
the natives of the Empire both by their manners and their dress. They differ
both in their customs and their food, and in language they are utterly
unintelligible. . . . On this account the ancient sage kings treated them like
birds and beasts. They did not contract treaties, nor did they attack them. To
form a treaty is simply to spend treasure and to be deceived; to attack them is
simply to wear out the troops and provoke raids. . . . Thus the outer are not
to be brought inside. They must be held at a distance, avoiding familiarity. .
. . If they show a leaning towards right principles and present tributary
offerings, they should be treated with a yielding etiquette; but bridling and
repression must never be relaxed for conforming to circumstance. Such was the
constant principle of the sage monarchs in ruling and controlling the barbarian
tribes." It is not surprising,
therefore, that when foreigners from the distant West sought to force their way
into China, the Chinese, knowing nothing of the countries from which they came,
should have regarded them in accordance with their traditional belief and
policy regarding the inferiority of all outsiders.
The resultant
difficulty was intensified by the indifference, to use no harsher term, of the
foreigner to the fact that the Chinese are a very ceremonious people, extremely
punctilious in all social relations and disposed to regard a breach of
etiquette as a cardinal sin. "Face" is a national institution which
must be preserved at all hazards. No one can get along with the Chinese who
does not respect it.
"It is an integral part of both Chinese theory and practice that
realities are of much less importance than appearances. If the latter can be
saved, the former may be altogether surrendered. This is the essence of that
mysterious 'face' of which we are never done hearing in China. The line of Pope
might be the Chinese national motto: 'Act well your part, there all the honour
lies'; not, be it observed, doing well what is to be done, but consummate
acting, contriving to convey the appearance of a thing or a fact, whatever the
realities may be. This is Chinese high art; this is success. It is
self-respect, and it involves and implies the respect of others. It is, in a
word, 'face.' The preservation of 'face' frequently requires that one should
behave in an arbitrary and violent manner merely to emphasize his protests
against the course of current events. He or she must fly into a violent rage,
he or she must use reviling and perhaps imprecatory language, else it will not
be evident to the spectators of the drama, in which he is at the moment acting,
that he is aware just what ought to be done by a person in his precise
situation; and then he will have 'no way to descend from the stage,' or in
other words, he will have lost 'face.'"[10] Even in death this remains the ruling passion. Chinese coffins
require much wood and are an expensive burden in this land where timber is
scarce, for Confucius said that a coffin should be five inches thick. So the
poorer Chinese thriftily meet this requirement by making the sides and ends
hollow! Thus "face" is saved.
In these circumstances,
it was very important that the relations of Europeans to China should be
characterized not only by justice but by tact and at least decent respect for
the feelings and customs of the people. The chief cause of China's hostility to
foreigners undoubtedly lies in the notorious and often contemptuous disregard
of these things by the majority of the white men who have entered China and by
the Governments which have backed them.
There is much in the
Chinese that is worthy of our respectful recognition. Multitudes are indeed,
stolid and ignorant, but multitudes, too, have strong, intelligent features.
Thousands of children have faces as bright and winning as those of American
children. More strongly than ever do I feel that Europe and America have not
done justice to the character of the Chinese. I do not refer to the bigoted and
corrupt Manchu officials, or to the lawless barbarians who, like the "lewd
fellows of the baser sort" in other lands, are ever ready to follow the
leadership of a demagogue. But I refer to the Chinese people as a whole. Their
view-point is so radically different from ours that we have often harshly
misjudged them, when the real trouble has lain in our failure to understand
them.
Let us be free enough
from prejudice and passion to respect a people whose national existence has
survived the mutations of a definitely known historic period of thirty-seven
centuries and of an additional legendary period that runs back no man knows how
far into the haze of a hoary antiquity; who are frugal, patient, industrious
and respectful to parents, as we are not; whose astronomers made accurate
recorded observations 200 years before Abraham left Ur; who used firearms at
the beginning of the Christian era; who first grew tea, manufactured gunpowder,
made pottery, glue and gelatine; who wore silk and lived in houses when our
ancestors wore the undressed skins of wild animals and slept in caves; who
invented printing by movable types 500 years before that art was known in
Europe; who discovered the principles of the mariner's compass without which
the oceans could not be crossed, conceived the idea of artificial inland
waterways and dug a canal 600 miles long; who made mountain roads which, in the
opinion of Dr. S. Wells Williams, "when new probably equalled in engineering
and construction anything of the kind ever built by Romans;" and who
invented the arch to which our modern architecture is so greatly indebted.
In the Great Bell
Temple two miles from Peking is one of the wonderful bells of the world. It is
fourteen feet high, thirty-four feet in circumference at the rim, nine inches
thick and weighs 120,000 pounds. It is literally covered inside and out with
Chinese characters consisting of extracts from the sacred writings, and the
Rev. Dr. John Wherry, who is an expert in the Chinese language, says that there
is "not one imperfect character among them." The bell when struck by
the big wooden clapper emits a deep musical note that can be heard for miles.
Such a magnificent bell vividly illustrates the stage of civilization reached
by the Chinese while Europe was comparatively barbarous, for the bell was cast
as far back as 1406 in the reign of Yung-loh, and the present temple buildings
were erected about it in 1578. The Germans began using paper in 1190, but Sven
Hedin found Chinese paper 1,650 years old and there is evidence that paper was
in common use by the Chinese 150 years before Christ. Until a few hundred years
ago, European business was conducted on the basis of coin or barter. But long
before that, the Chinese had banks and issued bills of exchange. There has
recently been placed in the British Museum a bank-note issued by Hung-Wu,
Emperor of China, in 1368.
The Chinese exalt
learning and, alone among the nations of the earth, make scholarship a test of
fitness for official position. True, that scholarship moves along narrow lines
of Confucian classics, but surely such knowledge is a higher qualification for
office than the brute strength which for centuries gave precedence among our
ancestors. A Chinese writer explains as follows the gradations in relative
worth as they are esteemed by his countrymen: "First the scholar: because
mind is superior to wealth, and it is the intellect that distinguishes man
above the lower orders of beings, and enables him to provide food and raiment
and shelter for himself and for other creatures. Second, the farmer: because
the mind cannot act without the body, and the body cannot exist without food,
so that farming is essential to the existence of man, especially in civilized
society. Third, the mechanic: because next to food, shelter is a necessity, and
the man who builds a house comes next in honour to the man who provides food.
Fourth, the tradesman: because, as society increases and its wants are
multiplied, men to carry on exchange and barter become a necessity, and so the
merchant comes into existence. His occupation --shaving both sides, the
producer and consumer--tempts him to act dishonestly; hence his low grade.
Fifth, the soldier stands last and lowest in the list, because his business is
to destroy and not to build up society. He consumes what others produce, but
produces nothing himself that can benefit mankind. He is, perhaps, a necessary
evil."[11]
While the Government of
China is a paternal despotism in form and while it is always weak and corrupt
and often cruel and tyrannical in practice, nevertheless there is a larger
measure of individual freedom than might be supposed. "There are no
passports, no restraints on liberty, no frontiers, no caste prejudices, no food
scruples, no sanitary measures, no laws except popular customs and criminal
statutes. China is in many senses one vast republic, in which personal
restraints have no existence."[12]
We must not form our
opinion from the Chinese whom we see in the United States. True, most of them
are kindly, patient and industrious, while some are highly intelligent. But,
with comparatively few exceptions, they are from the lower classes of a single
province of Kwan-tung--Cantonese coolies. The Chinese might as fairly form their
opinion of Americans from our day-labourers. But there are able men in the
Celestial Empire. Bishop Andrews returned from China to characterize the
Chinese as "a people of brains." When Viceroy Li Hung Chang visited
this country, all who met him unhesitatingly pronounced him a great man. The
New York Tribune characterizes the late Liu Kun Yi, Viceroy of Nanking, as a
man who "rendered inestimable services to China and to the whole
world," "a man of action, who acted with a strong hand and masterful
leadership and at the same time with a justice and a generosity that made him
at once feared, respected and loved."
After General Grant's
tour around the world, he told Senator Stewart that the most astonishing thing
which he had seen was that wherever the Chinese had come into competition with
the Jew, the Chinese had driven out the Jew. We know the persistence of the
Jew, that he has held his own against every other people. Despite the fact that
he has no home and no vGovernment, that he has been ridiculed and persecuted by
all men, that everywhere he is an alien in race, country and religion, he has
laboured on, patiently, resolutely, distancing every rival, surmounting every
obstacle, compelling even his enemies to acknowledge his shrewdness and his
determination till to-day in Russia, in Austria, in Germany, in England, the
Jew is bitterly conceded to be master in the editorial chair, at the bar, in
the universities, in the counting-house and in the banking office; while the
proudest of monarchs will undertake no enterprise requiring large expenditure
until he is assured of the support of the keen-eyed, swarthy-visaged men who
control the sinews of war. Generations of exclusion from agriculture and the
mechanical arts and of devotion to commerce, have developed and inbred in the
Jew a marvellous facility for trade.
And yet this race,
which has so abundantly demonstrated its ability to cope with the Greek, the
Slav and the Teuton, finds itself outreached in cunning, outworn in persistence
and over- matched in strength by an olive-complexioned, almond-eyed fellow with
felt shoes, baggy trousers, loose tunic, round cap and swishing queue, who
represents such swarming myriads that the mind is confused in the attempt to
comprehend the enormous number. The canny Scotchman and the shrewd Yankee are
alike discomfited by the Chinese. Those who do not believe it should ask the
American and European traders who are being crowded out of Saigon, Shanghai,
Bangkok, Singapore, Penang, Batavia and Manila. In many of the ports of Asia
outside of China, the Chinese have shown themselves to be successful
colonizers, able to meet competition, so that to-day they own the most valuable
property and control the bulk of the trade. It is true that the Chinese are
inordinately conceited; but shades of the Fourth of July orator, screams of the
American eagle! it requires considerable self-possession in a Yankee to
criticize any one else on the planet for conceit. The Chinese have not, at
least, padded a census to make the world believe that they are greater than
they really are. In June, 1903, the same New York newspaper that gave the
horrible details of the burning of a negro by an American mob within thirty
miles of Philadelphia announced that a Chinese, Chung Hui Wang, had taken the highest
honours in the graduating class at Yale University. Another New York journal,
in commenting on the fact that Chao Chu, son of the former Chinese minister, Wu
Ting Fang, was graduated in 1904 at the Atlantic City High School as the
valedictorian of a class of thirty-one, remarked:
"At every commencement there are honours enough to go around, and
those won by the Celestial contestants will not be begrudged them. Yet it is
not exactly flattering to smart American youth to realize that representatives
of an effete civilization after a few years' acquaintance with western ways can
meet our home talent on its own ground and carry off the prizes of
scholarship." A British consular
official, who spent many years in China and who speaks the language, declares
that in his experience of the Chinese their fidelity is extraordinary, their
sense of responsibility in positions of trust very keen, and that they have a
very high standard of gratitude and honour. "I cannot recall a case,"
he says, "where any Chinese friend has left me in the lurch or played me a
dirty trick, and few of us can say the same of our own colleagues and
countrymen." The Hon. Chester Holcombe, who quotes this, adds--"The
writer, after years of experience and intimate acquaintance with all classes of
Chinese from every part of the Empire, is convinced that the characterization
of the race as thus given by those who at least are not over-friendly does it
only scant justice."[13]
Many quote against the
Chinese the familiar lines--
"----for ways that are dark
And for tricks that are vain,
The heathen Chinee is peculiar."
But whoever reads the whole
poem will see the force of the London Spectator's opinion that it is a
"satire of the American selfishness which is the main strength of the cry
against the cheap labour of the Chinese," and that "it would not be
easy for a moderately intelligent man to avoid seeing that Mr. Bret Harte
wished to delineate the Chinese simply as beating the Yankee at his own evil
game, and to delineate the Yankee as not at all disposed to take offense at the
"cheap labour" of his Oriental rival, until he discovered that he
could not cheat the cheap labourer half so completely as the cheap labourer
could cheat him."
It is common for people
to praise the Japanese and to sneer at the Chinese. All honour to the Japanese
for their splendid achievements. With marvellous celerity they have adopted
many modern ideas and inventions. They are worthy of the respect they receive.
But those who have made a close study of both peoples unhesitatingly assert
that the Chinese have more solid elements of permanence and power. The Japanese
have the quickness, the enthusiasm, the intelligence of the French; but the
Chinese unite to equal intelligence the plodding persistence of the Germans, and
the old fable of the tortoise and the hare is as true of nations as it is of
individuals. Unquestionably, the Chinese are the most virile race in Asia
"Wherever a Chinese can get a foot of ground and a quart of water he will
make something grow." Colquhoun quotes Richthofen as saying that
"among the various races of mankind, the Chinese is the only one which in
all climates, the hottest and the coldest, is capable of great and lasting
activity." And he states as his own opinion: "She has all the
elements to build up a great living force. One thing alone is wanted-- the
will, the directing power. That supplied, there are to be found in abundance in
China the capacity to carry out, the brains to plan, the hands to work."
SHANTUNG is not only
one of the greatest, but it is in many respects one of the most interesting of
all the provinces of China. Its length east and west is about 543 miles and in
area it is nearly as large as the whole of New England. The name, Shantung,
signifies "east of the mountains." Forests once existed, but tillable
land has become so valuable that trees are now comparatively few save in the
villages and temples and about the graves of the rich. But for the most part,
Shantung resembles the great prairie regions of the western part of the United
States, broken by occasional ranges of hills and low mountains. The soil is
generally fertile, though in the southwestern part I found some stony regions
where the soil is thin and poor. South of Chinan-fu one finds the loess, a
light friable earth which yields so easily to wheel and hoof and wind and water
that the stream of travel through successive generations has worn deep cuts in
which the traveller may journey for hours and sometimes for days so far below
the general level of the country that he can see nothing but the sides of the
cut and in turn cannot be seen by others. The character of the soil and the
power of the wind and rain have combined not only to excavate these long
passages, but to cast up innumerable mounds and hills, often of such fantastic
shapes that one is reminded of the quaint and curious formations in the Bad
Lands of the Missouri, though the loess hillocks lack the brilliant colouring
of the American formations.
Throughout the province
as a whole, almost every possible square rod of ground is carefully cultivated
by the industrious people, so that in the summer time the whole country appears
to be continuous gardens and farms dotted with innumerable villages. Wheat
appears to be the chief crop and, as in the Dakotas, the entire landscape seems
to be one splendid field of waving, yellowing grain. But early in June the
wheat disappears as if by magic, for the whole population apparently, men,
women and children, turn out and harvest it with amazing quickness in spite of
the fact that everything is done by hand. Men and donkeys carry the grain to
smooth, hard ground spaces, where it is threshed by a heavy roller stone drawn
by a donkey or an ox or by men, and several times I saw it drawn by women. Then
it is winnowed by being pitched into the air for the wind to drive out the
feathery chaff. The methods vividly illustrate the first Psalm and other Bible
references-- gleaning, muzzling "the ox when he treadeth out the
corn," the threshing floor and "the chaff which the wind driveth
away."
One might suppose that
after the wheat harvest, stubble fields would be much in evidence. But they are
not, for the millet promptly appears. It is hardly noticeable when the wheat is
standing. But it grows rapidly, and as soon as the wheat is out of the way, it
covers great areas with its refreshing green, looking in its earlier stages
like young corn. It is of two varieties. One is a little higher than wheat,
with hanging head and a small yellow grain. The other is the kao-liang, which
grows to a height of about twelve feet. When small, it is thinned out to one
stalk or sometimes two in a hill so that it can develop freely. This stalk is
to the common people almost as serviceable as the bamboo to tropical dwellers.
It is used for fences, ceilings, walls and many other purposes. The grain of
the two varieties is the staple food, few but the richer classes eating rice
which is not raised in the north and is high in price. A third species of
millet, shu-shu, is used chiefly for distilling a whiskey that is largely used
but almost always at home and at night so that little drunkenness is seen by
the traveller.
Fuel is very scarce,
trees being few and coal, though abundant, not being mined to any extent. So
the people cook with stalks, straw, roots, etc., and in winter pile on
additional layers of wadded cotton garments. Chinese houses are not heated as
ours are, though the flues from the cooking fire, running under the brick kang,
give some heat, too much at times.
Silk is produced in
large quantities and mulberry trees are so common as to add greatly to the
beauty of the country. As the cocoons cannot be left on the trees for fear of
thieves, the leaves are picked off and taken into houses where the worms are
kept.
Poppy fields, too, are
numerous. The flowers are gloriously beautiful. I often saw men gathering the
opium in the early morning. After the blossoms fall off, the pod is slit and
the whitish juice, oozing out, is carefully scraped off. High hills rising to low
mountains add beauty to the western part of Shantung, while the more numerous
trees scattered over the fields as well as in the villages make extensive
regions look like vast parks.
The people are among
the finest types of the Chinese, tall, strong and, in many instances, of marked
intellectual power. To the Chinese, Shantung is the most sacred of the
provinces, for here were born the two mighty sages, Confucius and Mencius.
Politically, the
Province is divided into ten prefectures, each under a prefectural magistrate,
called a Chih-fu, and with a capital which has the termination "fu."
I-chou-fu, for example, is a prefectural city. Each fu is subdivided into ten
districts under a district magistrate or Chih-hsien, the capital, or county seat
as we should call it, having the termination "hsien" or
"hien" as for example Wei-hsien. There are 108 of these hsien cities.
Between the fu and the hsien cities are a few chou cities as Chining-chou. They
are practically small fus, Chining- chou having four hsiens under it. The
magistrate is called a Chou- kwan and is responsible directly to a Tao-tai who
is an official between the prefectural magistrate or Chih-fu and the Governor.
There are three Tao-tais in the province. At the provincial capital are the treasurer
or Fan-tai, the Nieh-tai or judge, the Hueh-tai or commissioner of education
and the salt commissioner, Yen-yuen. These are all high officials. Over all is
the Governor, virtually a monarch subject only to the nominal supervision of
the Imperial Government at Peking. He is appointed and may at any time be
removed by the Emperor, but during his tenure of office he has almost unlimited
power.
My tour of China
included two interesting months in this great province. As I approached Chefoo
on the steamer from Korea, I was impressed by the beauty of the scene. The
water was smooth and sparkling in the bright spring sunshine. The harbour is
exceptionally lovely. The shore lines are irregular, terminating in a high
promonotory on which are situated the buildings of the various consulates. To
the right, as the traveller faces the city, is the business section with its
wharves and well-constructed commercial buildings, while on the left is the
wide curve of a fine beach on which front the foreign hotel and the handsome
buildings of the China Inland Mission. Beyond the city, rises a noble hill on
the slopes of which stand the buildings of the Presbyterian Mission. From the
water, Chefoo is one of the most charming cities in all China.
Big, lusty Chinese in
their wide, clumsy boats called sampans, swarmed in the harbour. Sculling
alongside, the boatman caught the rail of the steamer with his boat-hook and
with the agility of a monkey scrambled up the long pole, dropped it into the
water and began to hustle for business. The babel of voices bidding for
passengers was like the tumult of Niagara hack-drivers, but we were so
fortunate as to be met by Dr. W. F. Faries and the Rev. W. O. Elterich of the
Presbyterian Mission and under their skillful guidance, we were soon taken
ashore.
A closer view of the
Chinese city proved less attractive than the captivating one from the harbour.
The population long ago over-ran the limits of the old city so that to-day most
of the people are outside the walls. Within those ancient battlements, the
streets are narrow and crooked, while the filth is indescribable. The visitor
who wishes to see something of the work and to enjoy the hospitality of the
noble company of Presbyterian missionaries on Temple Hill must either pass
through that reeking mess or go around it. There is, after all, not much choice
in the routes, for the Chinese population outside the walls has simply squatted
there without much order, and the corkscrew streets are not only thronged with
people and donkeys and mules, but malodorous with ditches through which all the
nastiness of the crowded habitations trickles. Why pestilence does not carry
off the whole population is a mystery to the visitor from the West, especially
as he sees the pools out of which the people drink, their shores lined with
washerwomen and the water dark and thick with the dirt of decades. Byron's
words in "Childe Harold" are as true of Chefoo as of Lisbon:
"But whoso entereth within this town,
That, sheening far, a celestial seems to be,
Disconsolate will wander up and down
'Mid many things unsightly to strange e'e;
For hut and palace show like filthily.
The dingy denizens are reared in dirt,
No personage of high or mean degree
Doth care for cleanness of surtout, or shirt,
Though shent with Egypt's plague, unkempt, unwashed, unhurt!"
The first open port of
Shantung was Teng-chou-fu, a quaint old city on the far northeastern point of
the Shantung promontory. It has been outstripped in importance by its later
rival, Chefoo, and is now ignored by the through steamers and seldom visited by
travellers. As the trip from Chefoo by land requires two long hard days over a
mountain range and as time was precious, I decided to go by water. The regular
coasting steamer was not running on account of danger from pirates, who had
been unusually bold and murderous in attacking passing vessels. But I succeeded
in hiring a small launch. It was a trip of fifty-five miles along the coast on
the open sea, but the weather was good and so we risked it. Several of the missionaries
took advantage of the occasion to visit friends in Tengchou-fu so that a
pleasant little party was formed.
We had intended to
start at 7:30 A. M., but some of our luggage and chair coolies, who had been
engaged to take us from Temple Hill to the launch at 6:30, did not come, and we
had to press into service some untrained "boys." Then, our chair
coolies, who had been carefully instructed as to their destination and who had
solemnly asserted that they knew just where to go, got separated from the others
and calmly took us to the Union Church. We appreciated their apparent
conviction that we needed to go to church, but we vainly tried to make them
understand that we wanted to go somewhere else. The delay would have become
exasperating if a small English boy who knew Chinese had not helped us out.
Then the two coolies who were carrying our valises and the lunch-baskets went
another way and sat down en route "to rest." They would doubtless be
sitting there yet if, after waiting till our patience was exhausted, we had not
sent men to find them. But that is Asia.
However, all arrived at
last and at 8:20 A. M. we cast off. The day was glorious and as the sea was not
rough enough to make any one ill, we had a delightful trip along the coast with
its bare, brown hills so much resembling the scenery of California. We reached
Teng-chou-fu at 3:15 and that the pirates were not imaginary was evident for as
we entered the harbour, they made a dash and captured a juuk{sic} less than a
mile away. An alarm cannon was fired and soldiers were running to the beach as
we landed.
While in Teng-chou-fu,
we witnessed a pathetic ceremony. There had been no rain for several weeks. The
kao-liang was withering and the farmers could not plant their beans on the
ground from which the winter wheat had been cut. The people had become alarmed
as the drought continued, and they were parading the streets bearing banners,
wearing chaplets of withered leaves on their heads to remind the gods that the
vegetation was dying, beating drums to attract the attention of the god, and
ever and anon falling on their knees and praying --"O Great Dragon! send
us rain." It was pitiful. This country is fertile but the population is so
enormous that, in the absence of any manufacturing or mining, the people even
in the most favoured seasons live from hand to mouth, and a drought means the
starvation of multitudes.
THE spring of 1901 was
not the most propitious time for a tour of the province of Shantung. It was
shortly after the suppression of the Boxer outbreak and the country was still
in an unsettled condition. The veteran Dr. Hunter Corbett, who had resided in
the province for a generation said, "We are living on a volcano and we do
not know at what moment another eruption will occur." Students returning
from the examinations at the capitol told the people that the Boxers were to
rise again and kill all the foreigners and Chinese Christians. The missionaries
did not believe the report, but they said that it might be believed by the
people and cause a renewal of agitation as such rumours the year before had
been an important factor in inciting the populace to violence. But the interior
of this great province was one of the objective points of my tour and I could
not miss it. Besides, if the missionaries could go, I could. Wives, however,
were resolutely debarred. No woman had yet ventured into the interior and the
authorities refused to approve their going. In case of trouble, a man can fight
or run, but a woman is peculiarly helpless. Nor could we forget that the
Chinese during the Boxer outbreak treated foreign women who fell into their
hands with horrible atrocity. So the wives, rather against their will, remained
in the ports.
Arrangements are apt to
move slowly in this land of deliberation. The genial and efficient United
States Consul at Chefoo, the Hon. John Fowler, joked me a little about my hurry
to start, laughingly remarking that this was Asia and not New York, and that I
must not expect things to be done on the touch of a button as at home. But
finding that a German steamer was to leave the next day for Tsing-tau, the
starting point for the interior, the energetic missionaries helped me to
"hustle the East" to get off on it. The Chinese tailor gasped when I
told him that I must have a khaki suit by six the following evening, but when
he learned that I was to sail and therefore could not wait, he promised rather
than lose the job. The next day the steamer agent notified me that the sailing
hour had been changed to four o'clock. I sent word to the tailor with faint
hope of ever seeing that suit, and when a later message gave three o'clock as
the real time, I abandoned hope. But the enterprising Celestial made his
fingers fly, finished the suit by 2:50 P. M., and took it to the house of my
hostess. Finding that I had already gone to the steamer, he hurried off to the
wharf, hired a sampan, sculled a mile and panting but triumphant placed the
suit in my hands just as the steamer was getting under way. His charge for the
suit, including all his trouble and the cost of the sampan, was $7 Mexican
($3.50).
Saturday found me in
Tsing-tau, and Monday, I turned my face inland, accompanied by the Rev. J. H.
Laughlin and Dr. Charles H. Lyon, and, as far as Wei-hsien, by the Rev. Frank
Chalfant, all of the Presbyterian mission, besides Mr. William Shipway of the
English Baptist mission, who was to accompany us as far as Ching-chou-fu.
To-day, the traveller can journey to Chinan-fu, the capital, in a comfortable
railway car, but I shall always be glad that my visit occurred in the old days
when the native methods of transportation were the sole dependence, for at that
time the new German railway was in operation only forty-six miles to the old
city of Kiao-chou.
The modes of conveyance
in the interior of China are five-- the donkey, the sedan chair, the
wheelbarrow, the cart and the shendza (mule litter), and naturally the first
problem of the traveller is to decide which one he shall adopt.
The donkey is all right
to one accustomed to horseback riding. But there is no protection from the sun
and rain and foreign saddles are scarce. The traveller piles his bedding on the
animal's back and climbs on top, sitting either astride or sideways. In either
case, the feet dangle unsupported by stirrups. It is hard to make long trips in
this way, to say nothing of the consideration that a man feels like an idiot in
such circumstances. "The outside of a horse is indeed good for the inside
of a man," but a mattress on top of a donkey is a different matter.
The chair is
comfortable for short distances, but it is comparatively expensive and, as no
change of position is possible, one soon becomes tired sitting in the fixed
attitude. In pity to your coolies, you walk up-hill and you are exposed to inclement
weather unless you hire a covered chair. This, however, is not only hot and
stuffy, but it makes people think you an aristocrat, as only officials or the
rich use such chairs in the country, though in cities they are a common means
of conveyance. Besides, I had travelled in a chair in Korea and I wished to try
something else in China.
The Chinese wheelbarrow
is a clumsy affair with a narrow seat on each side of a central partition. When
large and with an awning, it is not so uncomfortable, but it is not well
adapted to a long journey as it is slow and toilsome. When the mud is deep,
progress is almost impossible. Moreover, the labour of the barrow-men
constantly excites the sympathy of the humane traveller and the dismal screech
of the wheel revolving upon its unoiled axle is worse than the rasp of filing a
saw. The Chinese depend upon the shrieks of the wheel to tell them how the axle
is wearing, but the disconsolate foreigner finds that his nerves wear out much
faster than the wooden axle. In Tsing- tau, that agonizing screech proved too
much even for the stolid Germans and they posted an ordinance to the effect
that all barrow axles must be greased. The Chinese demurred, but a few arrests
taught them obedience, so that now the streets of the German metropolis no
longer resound with the hysterical wails and moans so dear to the heart of the
Celestial.
The Chinese cart is a
curious affair. There are no roads in the interior of China, except the ruts
that have been made by the passing of many feet and wheels for generations. In
dry weather, they are thick with dust and in the wet season they are fathomless
with mud. Almost everywhere they are distractingly crooked, and in many places
they are plentifully bestrewn with boulders of varying sizes. Instead of
spending money in making roads, the Chinese have applied their ingenuity to
making an indestructible cart. They build it of heavy timbers, with massive
wheels, thick spokes and ponderous hubs, and as no springs could survive the
jolting of such a vehicle, the body of the cart is placed directly upon the
huge axle. Then a couple of big mules are hitched up tandem and driven at
breakneck speed. A runaway in an American farmer's wagon over a corduroy road
but feebly suggests the miseries of travel in a Chinese cart. It may be good
for a dyspeptic, but it is about the most uncomfortable conveyance that the
ingenuity of man has yet devised. The unhappy passenger is hurled against the
wooden top and sides and is so jolted and bumped that, as the small boy said in
his composition, "his heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, stomach, bones and
brains are all mixed up." I tried the cart for a while and gently but
firmly intimated that if nothing better was available, I would walk. I am
satisfied that nothing short of a modern battleship under full steam could make
the slightest impression on the typical Chinese cart. In my humble opinion, a
Chinese cart is like any other misfortune in life. When necessary, it should be
taken uncomplainingly. But the person who takes it unnecessarily has not
reached the years of discretion and should be assigned a guardian.
I therefore turned to
the shendza. All things considered, it is the best conveyance for a long
interior journey in China. It consists of a couple long poles with a rope
basket work in the middle and a cover of matting. It is borne by two mules, and
has the advantage of protecting the traveller from the sun and from light
rains. An opening in the back gives him the benefit of any breeze while it is
possible to get occasional relief by changing position, as he can either sit
upright or lounge. Moreover, he can keep his bedding and a little food with
him. He need not walk up hills in mercy to weary coolies and he can make the
longer daily journeys which the superior endurance of mules permits. In
ordinary conditions on level ground, my mules averaged about four miles an
hour. The motion is a kind of sieve-and-pepper-box shaking that is not so bad,
provided the mules behave themselves, which is not often. My rear mule had a meek
and quiet spirit. He was a discouraged animal upon which the sorrows of life
had told heavily and which had reached that age when he appeared to have no
ambition in life except to stop and think or to lie down and rest. The lead
mule, however, was a cantankerous beast that wanted to fight everything within
reach and went into hysterics every time any other animal passed him. As this
occurred a score of times a day, the uncertainties of the situation were
interesting, especially when the rear mule paused or laid down without having
previously notified the lead mule. At such times, the sudden stoppage of the
power behind and the plunging of the power in front threatened the dislocation
of the entire apparatus, and as there is no way for the traveller to get out
except over the heels of a mule, life in a shendza is not always uneventful.
But I soon got used to the motion and to the mules, and even learned to read
and to doze in comparative comfort while the long-eared animals plodded and
jerked on in their own way.
The most trying thing
to the humane traveller is the soreness of the mules' backs. I insisted on
having mules whose backs were sound, but was told by both missionaries and
Chinese that they could not be had, especially in summer, as the swaying and
jerking of the shendza and the sweat and dust under the heavy pack-saddle
always make sores. It was all too true. I examined scores of mules and every
one had raw and bleeding abrasions and, in some cases, suppurating ulcers. For
a Chinese, our head muleteer was careful of his animals and washed them
occasionally, but no practicable care apparently can prevent a shendza from
making a sore back. The only solace I had was the evident indifference of the
mules themselves. They had never known anything better, and seemed to take
misery as a matter of course.
Our party, with the
goods we had to carry, for my missionary friends were returning to their
stations with the expectation of remaining, included three shendzas, two carts
and a pack-mule for our provisions. But the "mule" turned out to be a
donkey and unable to carry all we had planned for a larger animal. While
wondering how we were to get our supplies carried, we learned that a
construction train was about to start for the end of the track, which was said
to be Kaomi, fifty- five li[14] beyond Kiao-chou. We got permission to ride on
the flat car. In the hope that we might be able to secure a mule or another
donkey in Kaomi, we got aboard, leaving our shendzas and carts to follow. After
a lovely ride of an hour through wheat-fields interspersed with villages, our
train stopped twelve li from Kaomi, an unfinished culvert making further
progress impossible. As our caravan had gone by a different route and as no
coolies could be hired where we were, the question was how to get our goods
transported. Fortunately, a German Roman Catholic priest, who was also on the
construction train and who had wheelbarrows for his own goods, cordially told
us to pile our luggage on top of his. We gratefully accepted this kind offer,
and giving his coolies some extra cash for their labour, they good-naturedly
accepted the additional burden, while we footed the twelve li to Kaomi.
But the progress of the
barrows was slow and it was half- past eight when we reached Kaomi. In the
darkness we could not find the inn which the magistrate had set aside for
foreigners and the Chinese whom we met gave conflicting replies. But at that
moment, two resident Roman Catholic priests, Austrians, appeared and one of
them recognized Mr. Laughlin as the associate of Dr. Van Schoick, a
Presbyterian medical missionary who had sympathetically treated a fellow priest
during a long and dangerous illness several years before. He promptly invited
us to go with him, declaring that Dr. Van Schoick had saved the life of his
dearest friend. He was so cordially insistent that we accepted his invitation.
Our shendzas, carts and pack-mule were we knew not where, and we were hungry
after our long day. Warned by my experience in Korea that the traveller should never
trust to the punctuality of natives and pack-animals, I had insisted on taking
our bedding and a little food on the flat car. It was well that I did, for we
did not see our shendzas that night as they arrived after the city gates had
been shut so that they could not get in. But we had a little cocoa, tinned corn
beef, condensed milk, butter and marmalade. Same German soldiers sent three
loaves of coarse bread. Our priestly host added some Chinese bread, and so had
a good supper and afterwards a sound sleep.
At half-past four the
next morning, Mr. Laughlin remarked in a forty-horse power tone of voice that
it was time to get up. By the time the reverberations had died away, we were so
wide awake that further sleep was out of the question. Our cook was nowhere in
sight, so we prepared our own breakfast from the remains of last night's meal.
Bidding a grateful
farewell to our hospitable priests, we rode across an ancient lake bottom, low,
flat, wheat-covered and hot enough to broil meat. At half-past ten o'clock, we
reached Fau-chia-chiu, the boundary of the hinterland, where, near a temple
just outside the wall, we found Governor Yuan Shih Kai's military escort
awaiting us. It was after sundown when we reached Liu-chia-chuang, and we felt
half inclined to spend the night there with some genial German military
engineers, but our party had become separated during the day and as the others
had taken a road that did not pass through Liu- chia-chuang, we pushed on to
Hsi-an-tai, which we reached by a little after ten o'clock. By that time, it
was so dark that it was impossible to go further and we found lodgment in a
good- sized building which smelled to heaven. The odour was like that of a
decomposing body. However, it was too late and we were too weary either to hunt
up smells or to seek another lodging place. So after a hasty supper out of our
tinned food, we put up our cots and went to bed, Mr. Chalfant making a few
pleasant remarks about the bedbugs that always swarm in such a building, the
centipedes that sometimes crawl into the ears or nostrils of sleepers and the
scorpions that occasionally fall from the millet-stalk ceiling on to the bed or
scuttle across the floor to bite the person who unwarily walks in his bare
feet. Under the influence of such a soporific, I soon fell asleep. The next
morning we rose early, and while the cook was preparing our coffee and eggs, we
followed the trail of that awful odour to a corner of the building, where,
under some millet stalks, we found a rude coffin which we had not noticed in
the dim candlelight of the night before. A Chinese of whom we inquired said
that it was empty. We could not in courtesy open a coffin before dozens of
interested Chinese, but it was very plain to our olfactories that such an odour
required a prompt funeral.
As usual, a great but
silent crowd watched me as I wrote while the mules were being fed and at
Hsien-chung, where we stopped at noon to repair a shendza, Mr. Chalfant
translated a proclamation on a wall stating that an indemnity of 110,000 taels
had to be paid for damage to the railway during the Boxer outbreak and that
14,773 taels had been assessed on Wei County. The people read it with scowling
faces, but they said nothing to us, though they looked as if they wanted to.
At two o'clock, we
entered the ruined Presbyterian compound, a mile southeast of the city of
Wei-hsien. It was thrilling to hear on the scene of the riot Mr. Chalfant's
account of the attack by about a thousand furious Boxers; to see the place just
outside the gate where single-handed and with no weapon but a small revolver,
he had heroically held the mob at bay for several hours until the swarming
Boxers, awed by his splendid courage, divided, and while several hundred held
his attention, the rest climbed over the wall at another place and fired the
mission buildings. That the three missionaries escaped with their lives is a
wonder. But Mr. Chalfant quickly ran to the house where Miss Hawes and Miss
Boughton were awaiting him, hurried them down-stairs, and while the Boxers were
smashing the furniture on the other side of a closed door, snatched up a
ladder, assisted them over the compound wall at a point that was providentially
unguarded and hid them in a field of grain until darkness enabled them to make
their way exhausted but unhurt to a camp of German soldiers and engineers nine
miles distant and to escape with them to Tsing-tau. It was a remarkable
experience. If that door had not happened to be closed, and if a ladder had not
been carelessly left by a servant beside the house, and if the attack itself
had not occurred just before dark, undoubtedly all three would have been
killed. On each of those three ifs, lives depended.
Mr. Fitch cordially
welcomed us. Mr. Chalfant killed a centipede and various insects crawling on
the walls near my cot and a little after nine I was asleep. The next day we
took a walk through the city, impressed by its imposing wall and the throngs of
people who followed us and watched every movement. Outside the wall, we saw a
"baby house," a small stone building in which the dead children of
the poor are thrown to be eaten by dogs! I wanted to examine it, but was warned
not to do so, as the Chinese imagine that foreigners make their medicine out of
children's eyes and brains, and our crowds of watching Chinese might quickly
become an infuriated mob.
Immediately on our
arrival, we had sent our cards to the district magistrate and in the afternoon
he sent us an elaborate feast. As we were about to retire that evening, he
called in a gorgeous chair with a retinue of twenty attendants. He stayed half
an hour and was very cordial, and we had a pleasant interview. Wei-hsien is
famous for its embroideries, and great quantities are made, the women workers
receiving about fifty small cash a day (less than two cents). It was not
necessary to go to the stores as in America. The shopkeepers brought a great
number of pieces to our inn, covering the kang and every available table, chair
and box with exquisite bits of handiwork. Lured by the sight I became reckless
and bought four handsome pieces for 19,800 small cash ($6.06).
Resuming our journey on
a warm, sunny day, we entered Chiang-loa at noon. It was market day, and the
greatest crowd yet fairly blocked the streets. The soldiers had difficulty in
clearing a way for us. But while much curiosity was expressed, there was no
sign of hostility. Then we journeyed on through the interminable fields of
ripening wheat. Soon, mountains, which we had dimly seen for several hours,
grew more distinct and as we approached Ching-chou-fu towards evening, the
scene was one of great beauty--the yellowing grain gently undulating in the
soft breeze, the mountains not really more than 3,000 feet in height, but from
our stand on the plain looking lofty, massive and delightfully refreshing to
the eye after our hot and dusty journeying. The city has a population of about
25,000 and its numerous trees look so invitingly green that the traveller is
eager to enter.
But in this case also,
distance lent enchantment, for within, while there was not the filth of a
Korean village, yet the narrow streets were far from clean. Not a blade of
grass relieved the bare, dusty ground trampled by many feet, while the low,
mud- plastered houses were not inviting. A Chinese seldom thinks of making
repairs. He builds once, usually with rough stone plastered with mud or with
sun-dried brick. The roof is thatched and the floor is the beaten earth,
although in the better houses it is stone or brick. In time, the mud-plaster
or, if the walls are of sun-dried brick, the wall itself begins to
disintegrate. But it is let alone, as long as it does not make the house
uninhabitable, while paint is unknown. So the general appearance of a Chinese
town is squalid and tumbledown. Even the yamen of a district magistrate
presents crumbling walls, unkempt courtyards, rickety buildings and
paper-covered windows full of holes. The palaces of the rich are often
expensive, but the Asiatic has little of our ideas of comfort and order.
The Rev. J. P. Bruce
and Mr. R. C. Forsyth, of the English Baptist mission, the only members of the
station who were present, gave us a hearty welcome. The green shrubbery, the
bath-tub, the dinner of roast beef and the clean bedroom, were like a bit of hospitable
old England set down in China. None of the buildings here were injured by the
Boxers. But the marauders took whatever they could use, as dishes, utensils,
glass, linen, clothes, silver and plated ware, jewelry, etc., the total loss
being £4,000, including £1,000 for machinery. That machinery has an interesting
history. One of the members of the mission, Mr. A. G. Jones, conceived the idea
of relieving the poverty of the Chinese by introducing cotton weaving. Having
some private means and being a mechanical genius, he spent two years and £1,000
in devising the necessary machinery, much of which he made himself. He had
completed the plant and was trying to induce the Chinese to organize a company
of Christians who would operate the factory, when the building was burned by
the Boxers and the machinery reduced to a heap of twisted scrap-iron.
The women we met in
these interior districts had only partially bound feet, though they were still
far from the natural size. It was surprising to see how freely the women
walked, especially as several that I saw were carrying babies. But it was
rather a stumpy walk. Women of the higher class have smaller feet and never
walk in the public streets.
We left Ching-chou-fu
Monday morning, our genial hosts, including Mr. Shipway, who remained here,
accompanying us a couple of miles. The trees were more numerous, and as the
weather was cool, I greatly enjoyed the day. But the next day, we plodded under
dripping skies and through sticky mud to Chang-tien, where a night of unusual
discomfort in an inn literally alive with fleas and mosquitoes prepared us to
enjoy a tiffin with a lonely English Baptist outpost, the genial Rev. William
A. Wills, at Chou-tsun, which we reached at noon the following day, and then,
thirty li further on, the gracious hospitality of the main station at
Chou-ping. Only three men were present of the regular station force of seven
families and two single women, but they gave us all the more abundant welcome
in their isolation and loneliness. Of the 2,577 Chinese Christians of this
station, 132 were murdered by the Boxers and seventy or more died from
consequent exposure and injuries.
A vast, low lying plain
begins forty li north of Chou-ping and extends northeastward as far as
Tien-tsin. This plain is subject to destructive inundations from the Yellow
River and the scenes of ruin and suffering are sometimes appalling. Our
unattractive inn the next night was a two-story brick building with iron doors,
stone floors, walls two and a-half feet thick and rooms dark, gloomy,
ill-smelling as a dungeon and of course swarming with vermin, as savage bites
promptly testified. My missionary companion said that it was probably an old
pawnshop. Pawnbroking is esteemed an honourable, as well as lucrative, business
in China, and the brokers are influential men and often have considerable
property in their shops. The people are so poor that they sometimes pawn their
winter clothes in summer and their summer ones in winter.
At noon the next day,
we reached Chinan-fu, having made seventy li in six hours over muddy roads. Dr.
James B. Neal of the Presbyterian mission was alone in the city and gave us
hospitable welcome to his home and to the splendid missionary work of the
station, though he rather suggestively stopped our coolies when they were about
to carry our bedding into the house. He was wise, too, for that bedding had
been used in too many native inns to be prudently admitted to a well- ordered
household.
As we walked through
the city, the narrow streets were literally jammed, for it was market day.
Foreigners had been scarce since the Boxer outbreak a year before. Besides,
many of the people were from the country where foreigners are seldom seen
anyway. So we made as great a sensation as a circus in an American city. A
multitude followed us, and wherever we stopped hundreds packed the narrow
streets. Our soldiers cleared the way, but they had no difficulty, for though
the people were inquisitive they were not hostile. Three magnificent springs
burst forth in the heart of the city, one as large as the famous spring in
Roanoke, Virginia, which supplies all that city with water. It was about a
hundred feet across. The water might easily be piped all over Chinan-fu. But
this is China, and so the people patiently walk to the springs for their daily
supply.
WE were now approaching
the most sacred places of China. On a hot July afternoon of the second day from
Chinan-fu, the capital of the province, we saw the noble proportions of
Tai-shan, the holy mountain. The Chinese have five sacred mountains, but this
is the most venerated of all. Its altitude is not great, only a little over
4,000 feet, but it rises so directly from the plain and its outlines are so majestic
that it is really imposing. To the Chinese its height is awe-inspiring, for in
all the eighteen provinces there is no loftier peak.
Stopping for the night
at the ancient city of Tai-an-fu at the base of the mountain, we set out at six
the next morning in chairs swung between poles borne by stalwart coolies. My
curiosity was aroused when I found that they were Mohammedans and, as they
cordially responded to my questionings, I found them very interesting.
Centuries ago, their ancestors came to China as mercenaries, and taking Chinese
wives settled in the country. But they have never intermarried since. They have
adopted the dress and language of the Chinese, but otherwise they continue
almost as distinct as the Jews in America. They instruct their children in the
doctrines of Islam, though the Mohammedan rule that the Koran must not be
translated has prevented all but a few literati from obtaining any knowledge of
the book itself. They have done little proselyting, but natural increase,
occasional reenforcements and the adoption of famine children have gradually
swelled their ranks until they now number many millions in various parts of
China. In some provinces they are very strong, particularly in Yun-nan and
Kan-su where they are said to form a majority of the population. They are
notorious for turbulence and are popularly known as "Mohammedan
thieves." It must be admitted that they not infrequently justify their
reputation for robbery, murder and counterfeiting. More than once they have fomented
bloody revolutions, one of them, the great Panthay rebellion of 1885-1874,
costing the lives of no less than two million Moslems before it was suppressed.
But those who bore me
up the long slope of Tai-shan were as good-natured as they were muscular. There
is no difficulty about ascending the mountain, for a stone-paved path about ten
feet wide runs from base to summit. The maker of this road is unknown as the
earliest records and monuments refer only to repairs. But he builded well and
evidently with "an unlimited command of naked human strength," for
the blocks of stone are heavy and the masonry of the walls and bridges is still
massive.
As the slope becomes
steeper, the path merges into long flights of solid stone steps. Near the
summit, these steps become so precipitous that the traveller is apt to feel a
little dizzy, especially in descending, for the chair coolies race down the
steep stairway in a way that suggests alarming possibilities in the event of a
misstep or a broken rope. But the men are sure-footed and mishaps seldom occur.
The path is bordered by a low wall and lined with noble old trees. Ancient
temples, quaint hamlets, numerous tea-houses and a few nunneries with vicious
women are scattered along the route. A beautiful stream tumbles noisily down
the mountainside close at hand, alternating swift rapids and deep, quiet pools,
while as the traveller rises, he gains magnificent vistas of the adjacent
mountains and the wide cultivated plain, yellow with ripening wheat, green with
growing millet, and thickly dotted with the groves beneath which cluster the
low houses of the villages.
Up this long, steep
pathway to the Buddhist temples on the summit, multitudes of Chinese pilgrims
toil each year, firmly believing that the journey will bring them merit. We
reflected with a feeling of awe that
"The path by which we ascended has been trodden by the feet of men
for more than four thousand years. One hundred and fifty generations have come
and gone since the great Shun here offered up his yearly sacrifice to heaven.
Fifteen hundred years before the bard of Greece composed his Epic, nearly one
thousand years before Moses stood on Pisgah's mount and gazed over into the
promised land, far back through the centuries when the world was young and
humanity yet in its cradle, did the children of men ascend the vast shaggy
sides of this same mountain, probably by this same path, and always to
worship."[15] After a night
at Hsia-chang, we resumed our journey a little after daylight. The early
morning air was delightfully cool and bracing, but the sun's rays became fierce
as we entered the dry, sandy bed of the Wen River. By the time we reached the
broad, shallow stream itself, I envied the two mules and the donkey that
managed to fall into a hole, though I would have been happier if they had been
thoughtful enough to discard my spare clothes and my food box before they
tumbled into the muddy water. The whole day was unusually hot so that by the
time we reached Ning-yang, we were ready for a night's rest which even fighting
mules, vicious vermin, and quarrelling Chinese gamblers in the inn courtyard
could not entirely destroy.
As we approached
Chining-chou, the country became almost perfectly flat, a vast prairie. It was
carefully cultivated everywhere, the kao-liang and poppy predominating. The
soil was apparently rich, and the landscape was relieved from monotony by the
green of the cultivated fields and the foliage of the village trees. Dominating
all is the rather imposing walled city of Chining-chou. The high, strong wall,
the handsome gates and towers, the trees bordering the little stream and the
crowded streets looked quite metropolitan. With its imme- diate suburbs built
Chinese fashion close to the wall, Chining- chou has 150,000 inhabitants. It is
a business city with a considerable trade, the produce of a wide adjacent
region being brought to it for shipment, as it is on the Grand Canal which
gives easy and cheap facilities for exporting and importing freight. There is,
moreover, no loss in exchange as the danger of shipping bullion silver makes
the Chining business men eager to accept drafts for use in paying for the goods
they buy in Shanghai. Consequently there is a better price for silver here than
anywhere else in Shantung. The main street is narrow, shaded by matting laid on
kao-liang stalks and lined with busy shops. Along the Grand Canal, there is a
veritable "Vanity Fair" filled with clothing booths and deafening
with the cries of itinerant vendors.
But the loneliness of
the missionary in Chining-chou is great, for he is far from congenial
companionship. The tragedies of life are particularly heavy at such an isolated
post. Mr. Laughlin showed me the house where his wife's body lay for a month
after her death in May, 1899. Then, with his nine-year old daughter, he took
the body in a house-boat down the Grand Canal to Chin-kiang, a journey of
sixteen days. What a heart-breaking journey it must have been as the clumsy
boat crept slowly along the sluggish canal and the silent stars looked down on
the lonely husband beside the coffin of his beloved wife. Yet he bravely
returned to Chining-chou and while I travelled on, he remained with only Dr.
Lyon for a companion. I was sorry to part with them for we had shared many
long-to-be-remembered experiences, while at that time there was believed to be
no small risk in remaining at such an isolated post. But Dr. Johnson and I had
to go, and so early on the morning of June 17, we bade the brave fellows an
affectionate good-bye and left them in that far interior city, standing at the
East Gate till we were out of sight.
Fortunately, the day
was fine for rain would have made the flat, black soil almost impassible. But
as it was, we had a comfortable, dustless ride of sixty li to Yen-chou-fu, a
city of unusually massive walls, whose 60,000 people are reputed to be the most
fiercely anti-foreign in Shantung. Comparatively few foreigners had been seen
in this region and many of them had been mobbed. The Roman Catholic priests,
who are the only missionaries here, have repeatedly been attacked, while an
English traveller was also savagely assaulted by these turbulent conservatives.
But the Roman Catholics with characteristic determination fought it out, the
German consul coming from Peking to support them, and at the time of my visit,
they were building a splendid church, the money like that for the Chining-chou
cathedral, coming from the indemnity for the murder of the two priests in 1897,
which was in this diocese. Though great crowds stared silently at us, no
disrespect was shown. On the contrary, we found that by order of the district
magistrate an inn had been specially prepared for us, with a plentiful supply
of rugs and cushions and screens, while a few minutes after our arrival, the
magistrate sent with his compliments a feast of twenty-five dishes. Another
stage of nine miles brought us at four o'clock to the famous holy city of
China, Ku-fu, the home and the grave of Confucius.
Leaving our shendzas at
an inn, we mounted the cavalry horses of our escort and hurried to the
celebrated temple which stands on the site of Confucius' house. But to our keen
disappointment, the massive gates were closed. The keeper, in response to our
knocks, peered through a crevice, and explained that it was the great feast of
the fifth day of the fifth month, that the Duke was offering sacrifices, and
that no one, not even officials, could enter till the sacrifices were
completed. "When will that be?" we queried. "They will continue
all night and all day to-morrow," was the reply. We urged the shortness of
our stay and solemnly promised to keep out of the Duke's way. The keeper's eyes
watered as he imagined a present, but he replied that he did not dare let us in
as his orders were strict and disobedience might cost him his position if not
his life. So we sorrowfully turned away, and pushing through the dense throng
which had swiftly assembled at the sight of a foreigner, we rode through the
city and along the far- famed Spirit Road to the Most Holy Grove in which lies
the body of Confucius. It is three li, about a mile, from the city gate. The
road is shaded by ancient cedars and is called the Spirit Road because the
spirit of Confucius is believed to walk back and forth upon it by night.
The famous cemetery is
in three parts. The outer is said to be fifteen miles in circumference and is
the burial-place of all who bear the honoured name of Confucius. Within, there
is a smaller enclosure of about ten acres, which is the family burial place of
the dukes who are lineal descendants of Confucius, mighty men who rank with the
proudest governors of provinces. Within this second enclosure, is the Most Holy
Cemetery itself, a plot of about two acres, shaded like the others by fine old
cedars and cypresses. Here are only three graves, marked by huge mounds under
which lie the dust of Confucius, his son and his grandson. That of the Sage, we
estimated to be twenty-five feet high and 250 feet in circumference. In front
of it is a stone monument about fifteen feet high, four feet wide and sixteen
inches thick. Lying prone before that is another stone of nearly the same size
supported by a heavy stone pedestal. There is no name, but on the upright
monument are Chinese characters which Dr. Charles Johnson, my travelling
companion, translated: "The Acme of Perfection and Learning- Promoting
King," or more freely--"The Most Illustrious Sage and Princely
Teacher."
Uncut grass and weeds
grew rankly upon the mounds and all over the cemetery, giving everything an
unkempt appearance. One species is said to grow nowhere else in China and to
have such magical power in interpreting truth that if a leaf is laid upon an
abstruse passage of Confucius, the meaning will immediately become clear. There
are several small buildings in the enclosure, but dust and decay reign in all,
for there is no merit in repairing a building that some one else has erected.
As with his house, the Chinese will spend money freely to build a temple, but
after that he does nothing. So even in the most sacred places, arches and walls
and columns are usually crumbling, grounds are dirty and pavement stones out of
place.
A feeling of awe came
over me as I remembered that, with the possible exception of Buddha, the man
whose dust lay before me had probably influenced more human beings than any other
man whom the world has seen. Even Christ Himself has thus far not been known to
so many people as Confucius, nor has any nation in which Christ is known so
thoroughly accepted His teachings as China has accepted those of Confucius. Dr.
Legge indeed declares that "after long study of his character and
opinions, I am unable to regard him as a great man," while Dr. Gibson
"seeks in vain in his recorded life and words for the secret of his
power," and can only conjecture in explanation that "he is for all time
the typical Chinaman; but his greatness lies in his displaying the type on a
grand scale, not in creating it." But it is difficult even for the
non-Chinese mind to look at such a man with unbiassed eyes. Surely we need not
begrudge the meed of greatness to one who has moulded so many hundreds of
millions of human beings for 2,400 years and who is more influential at the end
of that period than at its beginning. Grant that "he is for all time the
typical Chinaman." Could a small man have incarnated "for all
time" the spirit of one-third of the human race? All over China the
evidences of Confucius' power can be seen. Temples rise on every hand.
Ancestral tablets adorn every house. The writings of the sage are diligently
studied by the whole population. When, centuries ago, a jealous Emperor
ruthlessly burned the Confucian books, patient scholars reproduced them, and to
prevent a recurrence of such iconoclastic fury, the Great Confucian Temple and
the Hall of Classics in Peking were erected and the books were inscribed on
long rows of stone monuments so that they could never be destroyed again. As a
token of the present attitude of the Imperial family, the Emperor once in a
decade proceeds in solemn state to this temple and enthroned there expounds a
passage of the sacred writings. For more than two millenniums, the boys of the
most numerous people in the world have committed to memory the Confucian primer
which declares that "affection between father and son, concord between
husband and wife, kindness on the part of the elder brother and deference on
the part of the younger, order between seniors and juniors, sincerity between
friends and associates, respect on the part of the ruler and loyalty on that of
the minister--these are the ten righteous courses equally binding on all
men;" that "the five regular constituents of our moral nature are
benevolence, righteousness, propriety, knowledge, and truth;" and that
"the five blessings are long life wealth, tranquillity, desire for virtue
and a natural death."
Surely these are noble
principles. That their influence has been beneficial in many respects, it would
be folly to deny. They have lifted the Chinese above the level of many other
Asiatic nations by creating a more stable social order, by inculcating respect for
parents and rulers, and by so honouring the mother that woman has a higher
position in China than in most other non-Christian lands.
And yet Confucianism
has been and is the most formidable obstacle to the regeneration of China.
While it teaches some great truths, it ignores others that are vital. It has
lifted the Chinese above the level of barbarism only to fix them almost
immovably upon a plane considerably lower than Christianity. It has developed
such a smug satisfaction with existing conditions that millions are well-nigh
impervious to the influences of the modern world. It has debased respect for
parents into a blind worship of ancestors so that a dead father, who may have
been an ignorant and vicious man, takes the place of the living and righteous
God. It has fostered not only premature marriages but concubinage in the
anxiety to have sons who will care for parents in age and minister to them
after death. It makes the child virtually a slave to the caprice or passion of
the parent. It leads to a reverence for the past that makes change a disrespect
to the dead, so that all progress is made exceedingly difficult and society
becomes fossilized. "Whatever is is right" and "custom" is
sacred. Man is led so to centralize his thought on his own family that he
becomes selfish and provincial in spirit and conduct, with no outlook beyond
his own narrow sphere. Expenditures which the poor can ill- afford are
remorselessly exacted for the maintenance of ancestral worship so that the
living are often impoverished for the sake of the dead. $151,752,000 annually,
ancestral worship is said to cost--a heavy drain upon a people the majority of
whom spend their lives in the most abject poverty, while the development of
true patriotism and a strong and well-governed State has been effectively
prevented by making the individual solicitous only for his own family and
callously indifferent to the welfare of his country. Confucianism therefore is
China's weakness as well as China's strength, the foe of all progress, the stagnation
of all life.
Confucianism, too,
halts on the threshold of life's profoundest problems. It has only dead maxims
for the hour of deepest need. It gives no vision of a future beyond the grave.
It is virtually an agnostic code of morals with some racial variations. Wu Ting
Fang, formerly Chinese Minister to the United States, frankly declares that
"Confucianism is not a religion in the practical sense of the word,"
and that "Confucius would be called an agnostic in these days." To
"the Venerable Teacher" himself, philosophy opened no door of hope.
Asked about this one day by a troubled inquirer, he dismissed the question with
the characteristic aphorism-- "Imperfectly acquainted with life, how can
we know death?" And there the myriad millions of Confucianists have dully
stood ever since, their faces towards the dead past, the future a darkness out
of which no voice comes.
But just because their
illustrious guide took them to the verge of the dark unknown and left them
there, other teachers came in to occupy the region left so invitingly open.
Less rational than Confucius, their success showed anew that the human mind
cannot rest in a spiritual vacuum and that if faith does not enter,
superstition will. Taoism and Buddhism proceeded to people the air and the
future with strange and awful shapes. Popular Chinese belief as to the future
is grewsomely{sic} illustrated in the Temple of Horrors in Canton with its
formidable collection of wooden figures illustrating the various modes of
punishment--sawing, decapitation, boiling in oil, covering with a hot bell,
etc. At funerals, bits of perforated paper are freely scattered about in the
hope that the inquisitive spirits will stop to examine them and thus give the
body a chance to pass. In any Chinese cemetery, one may see little tables in
front of the graves covered with tea, sweetmeats and sheets of gilt and silver
paper, so that if a spirit is hungry, thirsty or in need of funds, it can get
drink, food or money from the gold or silver mines (paper).
In the Temple for
Sickness, in Canton, where multitudes of sufferers pray to the gods for
healing, we saw an old woman kneeling before a statue of Buddha, holding aloft
two blocks of wood and then throwing them to the floor. If the flat side of one
and the oval side of the other were uppermost, the omen was good, but if the
same sides were up, it was bad. Others shook a box of numbered sticks till one
popped out and then a paper bearing the corresponding number gave the issue of
the disease. The stones of the court were worn by many feet and the pathos of
the place was pitiful.
Theoretically,
"Confucianism is a system of morals, Taoism a deification of nature and
Buddhism a system of metaphysics. But in practice all three have undergone many
modifications. . . . With every age the character of Taoism has changed. The
philosophy of its founder is now only an antiquarian curiosity. Modern Taoism
is of such a motley character as almost to defy any attempt to educe a
well-ordered system from its chaos."[16] As for Buddhism, its founder
would not recognize it, if he could visit China to-day. The lines:--
"Ten Buddhist nuns, and nine are bad;
The odd one left is doubtless mad----"
are suggestive of the depth to
which the religion of Guatama has fallen.
Indeed, it would be a
mistake to suppose that the Chinese people are divided into three religious
bodies as, for example, Americans are divided into Protestants, Roman Catholics
and Jews. Each individual Chinese is at the same time a Confucian, a Buddhist
and a Taoist, observing the ceremonies of all three faiths as circumstances may
require, a Confucian when he worships his ancestors, a Buddhist when he
implores the aid of the Goddess of Mercy, and a Taoist when he seeks to
propitiate the omnipresent fung-shuy (spirits of wind and water), and he has no
more thought of inconsistency than an American who is at the same time a
Methodist, a Republican and a Mason. Dr. S. H. Chester says that when he was in
Shanghai, he saw a Taoist priest conducting Confucian worship in a Buddhist
temple. Even if inconsistency were proved to the Chinese, he would not be in
the least disturbed for he cares nothing for such considerations. "Hence
it is that the Chinese religion of to-day has become an inextricable blending
of the three systems."[17] "The ancient simplicity of the state
religion has been so far corrupted as to combine in one ritual gods, ghosts,
flags and cannon. It has become at once essentially polytheistic and
pantheistic."[18]
The result is that the
average Chinese lives a life of terror under the sway of imaginary demons. He
erects a rectangular pillar in front of his door so that the dreaded spirits
cannot enter his house without making an impossible turn. He gives his tiled
roof an upward slant at each of the eaves so that any spirit attempting to
descend will be shunted off into space. Nor is this superstition confined to
the lower classes. The haughty, foreign-travelled Li Hung Chang abjectly
grovelled on the bank of the Yellow River to propitiate an alleged demon that
was believed to be the cause of a disastrous flood, and as late as June 4,
1903, the North-China Daily News published the following imperial decree:
"Owing to the continued drought, in spite of our prayers for rain,
we hereby command Chen Pih, Governor of Peking, to proceed to the Dragon temple
at Kanshan-hsien, Chih-li Province, and bring from thence to Peking an iron
tablet possessing rain-producing virtues, which we will place up for adoration
and thereby bring forth the much-desired rain." And so the followers of the most "rational" of teachers
are among the most superstitious people in the world. In attempting to clear
the mind of error, the great agnostic simply left it "empty, swept and
garnished for seven other spirits worse than the first."
As in the deepening
twilight we thoughtfully left the last resting-place of the mighty dead, a
platoon of thirty Chinese soldiers approached, drew their swords, dropped upon
one knee and shouted. The movement was so unexpected and the shout so
startlingly strident that my horse shied in terror and I had visions of
immediate massacre. But having learned that politeness is current coin the
world over, as soon as I could control my prancing horse, I raised my hat and
bowed. Whereupon the soldiers rose, wheeled into line and marched ahead of us
to our inn in the city. Dr. Johnson explained that the words shouted in unison
were: "May the Great Man have Peace," and that the platoon was an
escort of honour from the yamen of the district magistrate!
On the way, we stopped
to visit the temple of Yen, the favorite disciple whose early death left
Confucius disconsolate. The grounds are spacious. There is a remarkably fine
tree, tall, graceful and with silvery white bark. A huge stone turtle was
reverently kissed by one of our escort, who fondly believed that he who kissed
the turtle's mouth would never be ill. But as usual in China, the temple itself,
though originally it must have been beautiful, is now crumbling in decay.
It was late when we
returned, and as we were about to retire, wearied with the toils of the day,
the district magistrate called with an imposing retinue and cordially inquired whether
we had seen all that we wished to see. When we replied that we had been unable
to enter the great temple, he graciously said that he would have pleasure in
informing the Duke, who would be sure to arrange for our visit. The result was
a message at two o'clock in the morning to the effect that we might visit the
temple at daylight in the interval between the cessation of the sacrifices of
the night and their resumption at seven o'clock in the morning. Accordingly we
rose at three o'clock, and after a hurried breakfast by candle-light, we
proceeded to the temple. About a hundred Chinese were awaiting us, among them
two men in official dress. We did not deem it courteous to ask who or what they
were, but we supposed them to be from the magistrate's yamen, and as they were
evidently familiar with the temple, we gladly complied with their cordial
invitation to follow them.
I wish I had power to
describe adequately all we saw in that vast enclosure of about thirty acres,
with its stately trees, its paved avenues, its massive monuments, and, above
all, its imposing temple and scores of related buildings. One was the Lieh Kew
Kwei Chang Tien, the Temple of the Wall of the Many Countries. Here are 120
tablets, each about sixteen by twenty-two inches, and in the centre three
larger ones measuring two feet in width by four and a-half feet in height. In
front of these is a stone three and a-half feet by four and a-half, and bearing
the inscription: "Tribute from the Ten Thousand Countries of the World."
The Chinese solemnly believe that in these tablets all the nations of the earth
have acknowledged the preeminence of Confucius.
Then we visited three
gloomy buildings where the animals for sacrifice are killed--one for cattle,
one for sheep and one for pigs. Beyond them, we entered temples to the wife of
Confucius, to his parents and to the "Five Generations of Ancestors,"
though the last-mentioned contains tablets to nine generations instead of five.
On every side are scores of monuments, erected by or in honour of famous kings,
some of them by the monarchs of dynasties which flourished before the Christian
era.
Most notable of all is
the great temple of the sage himself, standing well back on a spacious
stone-paved terrace, around which runs a handsome marble balustrade. The eye is
at once arrested by the twenty-eight noble marble pillars, ten in front, ten in
the rear and four at each end. The ten in front are round and elaborately
carved, as magnificent a series of columns as I ever saw. The others are smooth,
octagonal pillars, but traced with various designs in black.
Within, there are
twelve other columns about four feet in diameter and twenty-five feet high,
each cut from a single tree and beautifully polished. Naturally, the central
object of interest is a figure of Confucius of heroic size but impossible
features. In front is the tablet with costly lacquered ornaments and pedestals,
and an altar on which were a bullock and two pigs, each carefully scraped and
dressed and lying with heads towards the statue and tablet. In several other
temples, notably in the one to the Five Generations of Ancestors, other animals
were lying, some evidently offered the day before and others awaiting the
worship of the day now beginning. Altogether I counted nineteen sacrificial
animals--one bullock, eight sheep and ten pigs. The great temple is of noble
proportions, with an overhanging roof of enormous size but constructed on such
graceful lines as to be exquisitely beautiful. But within dust reigns, while
without as usual the grass and weeds grow unchecked.
Last of all we visited
the library, though the name is a misnomer, for there are no books in it and
our courteous guides said there never had been. We ascended the narrow stairs
leading from the vast, empty, dusty room on the lower floor through an equally
empty second story to the third and topmost story, which is the home of
hundreds of doves. Going out on the narrow balustrade under the eaves in the
gray dawn of the morning, I looked upon the gorgeous gilded roof of the temple
near by and then down upon the many ancient buildings, the darkly solemn pines,
the massive monuments resting on ponderous stone turtles, and the group of
Chinese standing among the shadows and with faces turned curiously upward.
Suddenly a dove flew over my head and then the sun rose slowly and majestically
above the sombre tree-tops, throwing splendid floods of light upon us who stood
aloft. But the Chinese below were in the sombre shades of a night that for them
had not yet fully ended. I would fain believe that the physical was a parable
of the spiritual. All the maxims of the Acme of Perfection and
Learning-Promoting King have not brought the Chinese out of moral twilight.
After all these centuries of ceaseless toil, they still remain amid the mists
and shadows. But their faces are beginning to turn towards the light of a day
whose sun already touches the mountain-tops. Some even now are in that
"marvellous light," and it cannot be long before shining hosts of God
shall pour down the mountain-sides, chasing on noiseless feet and across wide
plains the swiftly retreating night "until the day dawn and the shadows
flee away."
At the outer gate, we
bade good-bye to the dignified officials who had so hospitably conducted us
through this venerable and historic place and who had taken such kindly pains
to explain its ancient relics and customs. Who were they? we secretly wondered.
Imagine our feelings when the lieutenant in command of our escort afterwards
informed us that they were the guardian of the temple and the Duke himself!
Leaving the city of the
mighty dead, we journeyed through a lovely region guarded by distant mountains.
At the walled city of Si-sui, sixty li distant, soldiers met us and apparently
the whole population lined the streets as we rode to our inn, where the yamen
secretary was awaiting us with a feast. This inn, too, had been specially
cleaned, and there were cushions, red cloths for the seats, and a screen for
the door. In the afternoon, the country became rougher. But while the soil was
thinner, the scenery was finer, an undulating region traversed by a shining
river and bounded by mountains which gradually drew nearer. One hundred and ten
li from Ku-fu, we stopped for the night at Pien-kiao, a small city with an
unusually poor inn but a magnificent spring. It gushed up over an area
twenty-five feet square and with such volume that the stream ran away like a
mill-race. The Emperor Kien Lung built a retaining wall about the spring and a
temple and summer- house adjoining. The wall is as solid as ever, but only a
few crumbling pillars and fragments remain of the temple and pavilion. The
Emperor affirmed that he was told in a vision that if he would build a stone
boat, the waters of the spring would float it to Nanking whither he wished to
go. So he built the boat of heavy cut stone, with a twelve-foot beam and a
length of fifty-five feet. It is still there with the prow five feet above the
ground, but the rest of the boat has sunk almost to the level of the earth
about it. Is the old Emperor's idea any more absurd to us than our iron boats
would have been to him?
The sun struggled long
with heavy mists the following morning and the air was so cool that I had to
wrap myself in a blanket in the shendza. By eight, the sun gained the victory
and we had another breezy, perfect June day. But the road was stony and trying
beyond anything we had yet seen. The villages were evidently poorer, as might
be expected on such a rocky soil. The people stared silently and did not so
often return my smiles. Whether they were sullen or simply boorish and
unaccustomed to foreigners I could only conjecture. Few white men had been seen
there.
A hard day's journey of
140 li through a rocky region brought us to Fei-hsien. Rain was falling the
next morning and the Chinese muleteers do not like to travel in rain. But the
prospect was for a steady pour and as we were in a wretched inn and only ninety
li from Ichou-fu, we wanted to go on. A present of 600 small cash for each
muleteer (twenty cents) overcame all scruples. Just as I had comfortably
ensconced myself in my shendza with an oilcloth on top and a rubber blanket in
front, I saw a centipede on my leg, but I managed to slay him before he bit me.
By nine, the rain ceased and though the clouds still threatened, we had a cool
and comfortable ride through hundreds of fields of peanuts, indigo and millet
to I-tang, where we stopped for tiffin at a squalid inn kept by a tall,
dilapidated looking Chinese, who rejoiced in the name of Confucius. He was
really a descendant of the sage and was very proud of the fact that his bones
were in due time to rest in the sacred cemetery at Ku-fu.
By 5:40 P. M. we
reached Ichou-fu, where the solitary Rev. W. W. Faris was glad to see another
white man. A stay of several days was marked by many pleasant incidents. There
was much of interest for a visitor to see. The mission work at Ichou-fu,
Presbyterian, includes two hospitals, one for men and one for women, a chapel
and separate day schools for boys and girls. The church has about a hundred
members and in the outstations there are ten other organized churches besides
ten unorganized congregations. All these churches and congregations provide
their own chapels and pay their own running expenses. Here also the officials
were most courteous. The Prefect, who promptly called with a retinue of fifty
soldiers and attendants, was a masterful looking man who conversed with
intelligence on a wide variety of topics. The day before our departure, we gave
a feast to the leading men of the city in return for their many courtesies.
Every invitation was accepted and thirty-five guests were present. They
remained till late and were apparently highly pleased.
Late in the evening, a
youth who had painfully walked 180 li, came to Dr. Johnson's dispensary and
presented the following note of introduction:
"Our office a
servant who getting a yellow sick, which suffered a few year and cured for
nothing. he trusted me to beg you to save his sick and I now ordered him to
going before you to beg you remedy facely. With many thanks to you,
"Yours sincerely,
"V. T. GEE."
Having done all that
was possible in so short a time to "save his sick," we resumed our
journey, thirty Chinese Christians accompanying us to the River I, a li from
the city. The atmosphere was gloriously clear and on the second day out,
crossing some high ridges, we had superb views of wide cultivated valleys, and
of Ku-chou, a famous city that is said to contain more literary graduates than
any other city of its size in the province.
Then followed a more
level country with interminable fields of kao-liang and many orchards of
walnuts, pears and cherries, while low mountains rose in the background. Men
and horses were tired after our long and hard journey, and the mules' backs
were becoming very sore. But the end drew near and the fifth day from Ichow-fu
we reached Yueh-kou, the border of the German hinterland. The German line is
near Kiaochou, but the rule is that Chinese soldiers must not come beyond this
point, 100 li from the line, and that German soldiers shall not cross it going
the other way except on the line of the railroad. Here therefore our escort had
to leave us, as Chinese and Germans have agreed that any armed men crossing the
line may be fired on, and even if there should be no casualty, both the German
and Chinese authorities might justly have protested if Americans violated the
compact. I suggested going on without an escort to our proposed night stop
thirty li further. But my more experienced companions thought it dangerous to
spend the night alone at an inn within this belt, as the villagers near the
line were as bitter against foreigners as any in the province, the German
brusqueness and ruthlessness having greatly exasperated them.
So we spent the night
at Yueh-kou. No one interfered with us the next day and by getting an early
start, we covered ninety long li to Kiao-chou by noon. After five weeks in a
mule litter, it seemed wonderful to make 138 li in three hours in a railway
car. By 6:50 P. M., we reached Tsing-tau, having, the missionaries said,
succeeded in "hustling the East to a remarkable degree." My note-book
reads--"A bath, clean clothes, a hot supper and a good night's sleep
removed the last vestige of weariness."
THE hardships of
interior travelling were less than I had supposed. It is true that there were
many experiences which, if enumerated, would make a formidable list. But each
as it arose appeared insignificant. As a whole, the trip was as enjoyable as
any vacation tour. The weather was as a rule fine. The sun was often hot in the
middle of the day, but cool breezes usually tempered the heat of the afternoon,
while the nights required the protection of blankets. There was some rain at
times, but not enough to impede seriously our progress. It was altogether the
most perfect May and June weather I have ever seen. Nor was it exceptional,
according to Dr. Charles Johnson who has spent many years in North China. But
of course I saw Shantung at its most favourable period. July and August are wet
and hot, while the winters are clear and cold.
I found a trunk an
unmitigated nuisance. Though it was made to order for a pack-mule, no
pack-mules could be hired in that harvest season, and the trunk was too heavy
for one side of a donkey, even after transferring all practicable articles to
the shendza. So it had to be put in a cart, and as a cart cannot keep up with a
shendza, I was often separated from my trunk for days at a time. Besides, a
couple valises would have held all necessary clothing anyway. I took a light
folding cot and a bag held a thin mattress, small pillow, sheets and two light
blankets, so that I had a very comfortable bed under the always necessary
mosquito net.
We also took a supply
of tinned food to which we could usually add by purchase en route chickens and
eggs, while occasionally in the proper season, we could secure string-beans,
onions, cucumbers, apricots, peanuts, walnuts and radishes. So we fared well.
The native food cannot be wisely depended upon by a foreigner. He cannot
maintain his strength, as the poorer Chinese do, on a diet of rice and
unleavened bread, while the food of the well-to-do classes, when it can be had,
is apt to be so greasy and peculiar as to incite his digestive apparatus to
revolt. Indeed, a Chinese feast is one of his most serious experiences. Most heartily,
indeed, did I appreciate the kindly motives of the magistrates who invited me
to these feasts, for their purpose was as generously hospitable as the purpose
of any American who invites a visitor to dinner. But the Chinese bill-of-fare
includes dishes that are rather trying to a Christian palate, and good form
requires the guest to taste at least each dish, for if he fails to do so, he
makes his host "lose face"--a serious breach of etiquette in China.
For example, here is the menu of a typical Chinese feast to which I was
invited, the dishes being served in the order given, sweets coming first and
soup towards the last in this land of topsy-turveydom:
1. Small cakes (five
kinds), sliced pears, candied peanuts, raw water-chestnuts, cooked water-chestnuts,
hard-boiled ducks' eggs (cut into small pieces), candied walnuts, honied
walnuts, shredded chicken, apricot seeds, sliced pickled plums, sliced dried
smoked ham (cut into tiny pieces), shredded sea moss, watermelon seeds,
shrimps, bamboo sprouts, jellied haws. All the above dishes were cold. Then
followed hot:
2. Shrimps served in
the shell with vinegar, sea-slugs with shredded chicken, bits of sweetened pork
and shredded dough --the pork and sea-slugs being cooked and served in fragrant
oil.
3. Bamboo sprouts,
stewed chicken kidneys.
4. Spring chicken
cooked crisp in oil.
5. Stewed sea-slugs
with ginger root and bean curd, stewed fungus with reed roots and ginger tops
(all hot).
6. Tarts with candied
jelly, sugar dumplings with dates.
7. Hot pudding made of
"the eight precious vegetables," consisting of dates, watermelon
seeds, chopped walnuts, chopped chestnuts, preserved oranges, lotus seeds, and
two kinds of rice, all mixed and served in syrup--a delicious dish.
8. Shelled shrimps with
roots of reeds and bits of hard- boiled eggs, all in one bowl with fragrant
oil, biscuits coated with sweet seeds.
9. Glutinous rice in
little layers with browned sugar between, minced pork dumplings, steamed
biscuits.
10. Omelette with
sea-slugs and bamboo sprouts, all in oil, bits of chicken stewed in oil, pork
with small dumplings of flour and starch.
11. Stewed pigs'
kidneys, shrimps stewed in oil, date pie.
12. Vermicelli and egg
soup.
13. Stewed pork balls,
reed roots, bits of hard-boiled yolks of eggs, all in oil.
14. Birds' nest soup.
The appetite being
pretty well sated by this time, the following delicacies were served to taper
off with:
15. Chicken boiled in
oil, pork swimming in a great bowl of its own fat, stewed fish stomachs, egg
soup.
16. Steamed biscuit.
Tea was served from the
beginning and throughout the feast. It was made on the table by pouring hot
water into a small pot half full of tea leaves, the pot being refilled as
needed. The tea was served without cream or sugar, and was mild and delicious.
Rice whiskey in tiny cups is usually served at feasts, though it was often
omitted from the feasts given to us. The Chinese assert that the alcohol is
necessary "to cut the grease." There is certainly enough grease to
cut.
The guests sit at small
round tables, each accommodating about four. There are, of course, no plates or
knives or forks though small china spoons are used for the soups. All the food
is cut into small pieces before being brought to the table, so that no further
cutting is supposed to be necessary. Each article of food is brought on in a
single dish, which is placed in the centre of the table, and then each guest
helps himself out of the common dish with his chop-sticks, the same chop-
sticks being used during the entire meal. It is considered a mark of
distinguished courtesy for the host to fish around in the dish with his own
chop-sticks for a choice morsel and place it in front of the guest. With
profound emotion, at almost every feast that I attended in China, I saw my
considerate hosts take the chop-sticks which had made many trips to their own
mouths, stir around in the central dish for a particularly fine titbit and
deposit it on the table before me. And of course, not to be outdone in
politeness, I ate these dainty morsels with smiles of gratified pride. As each
of the Chinese at the table deemed himself my host, and as the Chinese are
extremely polite and attentive to their guests, the table soon became wet and
greasy from the pieces of pork, slugs and chicken placed upon it as well as
from the drippings from the chop-sticks in their constant trips from the
serving bowls.
However, two small
brass bowls, fitting together, are placed beside each guest, who is expected to
sip a little water from the upper one, rinse his mouth with it and expectorate
it into the lower one. The emotion of the foreign visitor is intensified when
he learns that it is counted polite to make all the noise possible by smacking
the lips as a sign that the food is delicious, sucking the tea or soup noisily
from the spoon to show that it is hot, and belching to show that it is enjoyed.
Often, a dignified official would let his tea stand until it was cold, but when
he took it up, he would suck it with a loud noise as if it were scalding hot,
as he was too polite to act as if it were cold.
But the American or
European, who inwardly groans at a Chinese repast and who felicitates himself
on the alleged superior methods of his own race, may well consider how his own
customs impress a Celestial. A Chinese gentleman who was making a tour of
Europe and America wrote to a relative in China as follows:
"You cannot civilize these foreign devils. They are beyond
redemption. They will live for weeks and months without touching a mouthful of
rice, but they eat the flesh of bullocks and sheep in enormous quantities. That
is why they smell so badly; they smell like sheep themselves. Every day they
take a bath to rid themselves of their disagreeable odours but they do not
succeed. Nor do they eat their meat cooked in small pieces. It is carried into
the room in large chunks, often half raw, and they cut and slash and tear it
apart. They eat with knives and prongs. It makes a civilized being perfectly
nervous. One fancies himself in the presence of sword-swallowers. They even sit
down at the same table with women, and the latter are served first, reversing
the order of nature." So I
humbly adapted myself as best I could to Chinese customs and learned to like
many of the natives' dishes, though to the last, there were some that I merely
nibbled to "save the face" of mine host. Some of the dishes were
really excellent and as a rule all were well-cooked, although the oil in which
much of the food was steeped made it rather greasy. My digestive apparatus is pretty
good, but it would take a copper- lined stomach to partake without disaster of
a typical Chinese feast. But for that matter so it would to eat a traditional
New England dinner of boiled salt pork, corned beef, cabbage, turnips, onions
and potatoes, followed by a desert of mince pie and plum pudding and all washed
down by copious draughts of hard cider.
Chinese inns do not
impoverish even the economical traveller. Our bill for our tiffin stop was
usually 100 small cash, a little more than three cents, for our entire party of
about a score of men and animals. For the night, the common charge was 700
cash, twenty-three cents. Travellers are expected to provide their own food and
bedding and to pay a small extra sum for the rice and fodder used by their
servants and mules, but even then the cost appears ridiculously small to a
foreigner. Still, the most thoroughly seasoned traveller can hardly consider a
Chinese inn a comfortable residence. It is simply a rough, one-story building
enclosing an open courtyard. The rooms are destitute of furniture except
occasionally a rude table. The floor is the beaten earth, foul with the use of
scores and perhaps hundreds of years. The windows are covered with oiled paper
which admits only a dim light and no air at all. The walls are begrimed with
smoke and covered with cobwebs. Across the end of the room is the inevitable
kang--a brick platform under which the cooking fire is built and on which the
traveller squats by day and sleeps by night. The unhappy white man who has not
been prudent enough to bring a cot with him feels as if he were sleeping on a
hot stove with "the lid off."
The inns between
Ichou-fu and Chining-chou were the poorest I saw, and if a man has stopped in
one of them, he has been fairly initiated into the discomforts of travelling in
China. But wherever one goes, the heat and smoke and bad air, together with the
vermin which literally swarms on the kang and floor and walls, combine to make
a night in a Chinese inn an experience that is not easily forgotten. However,
the foreign traveller soon learns, perforce, to be less fastidious than at home
and I found myself hungry enough to eat heartily and tired enough to sleep
soundly in spite of the dirt and bugs. But the heat and bad air as the summer
advanced were not so easily mastered, and so I began to sleep in the open
courtyard, finding chattering Chinese and squealing mules less objectionable
than the foul-smelling, vermin-infested inns, since outside I had at least
plenty of cool, fresh air.
There is no privacy in
a Chinese inn. The doors, when there are any, are innocent of locks and keys,
while the Chinese guests as well as the innkeeper's family and the people of
the neighbourhood have an inquisitiveness that is not in the least tempered by
bashfulness. But nothing was ever stolen, though some of our supplies must have
been attractive to many of the poverty stricken men who crowded about us. On
one occasion, an inn-employee, who was sent to exchange a bank-note for cash,
did not return. There was much excited jabbering, but Mr. Laughlin firmly
though kindly held the innkeeper responsible and that worthy admitted that he
knew who had taken the money and refunded it. So all was peace. The innkeeper
was probably in collusion with the thief. This was our only trouble of the
kind, though we slept night after night in the public inns with all our goods
lying about wholly unprotected. Occasionally, especially in the larger towns,
there was a night watchman. But he was a noisy nuisance. To convince his
employers that he was awake, he frequently clapped together two pieces of wood.
All night long that strident clack, clack, clack, resounded every few seconds.
It is an odd custom, for of course it advertises to thieves the location of the
watchman. But there is much in China that is odd to an American.
On a tour in Asia, the
foreigner who does not wish to be ill will exercise reasonable care. It looks
smart to take insufficient sleep, snatch a hurried meal out of a tin can, drink
unboiled water and walk or ride in the sun without a pith hat or an umbrella.
Some foreigners who ought to know better are careless about these things and
good-naturedly chaff one who is more particular. But while one should not be
unnecessarily fussy, yet if he is courageous enough to be sensible, he will not
only preserve his health, but be physically benefited by his tour, while the
heedless man will probably be floored by dysentery or even if he escapes that
scourge will reach his destination so worn out that he must take days or
perhaps weeks to recuperate. I was not ill a day, made what Dr. Bergen called
"the record tour of Shantung," and came out in splendid health and
spirits just because I had nerve enough to insist on taking reasonable time for
eating and sleeping, boiling my drinking water, and buying the fresh vegetables
and fruit with which the country abounded. From this view-point, Dr. Charles F.
Johnson, who escorted me from Chining-chou to Tsing-tau, was a model. With no
loss of time, with but trifling additional expense and with comparatively
little extra trouble, he had an appetizing table, while water bottles and fruit
tins were always cooled in buckets of well water so that they were grateful to
a dusty, thirsty throat. It is not difficult to make oneself fairly comfortable
in travelling even when nearly all modern conveniences are wanting and it pays
to take the necessary trouble.
Throughout the tour, we
were watched in a way that was suggestive. When United States Consul Fowler
first told me that Governor Yuan Shih Kai would send a military escort with me,
I said that I was not proud, that I did not care to go through Shantung with
the pomp and panoply of war, that I was on a peaceful, conciliatory errand, and
preferred to travel with only my missionary companions. But he replied that
while the province was then quiet, no one could tell what an hour might bring
forth, that in the tension that existed even a local and sporadic attack on a
foreigner might be a signal for a new outbreak, that the Governor was trying to
keep the people in hand, and that as he was held responsible for consequences
he must be allowed to have his own men in charge of a foreign party that
purposed to journey so far into the interior. So, of course, I yielded.
When I lifted up my
eyes and looked on the escort at Kiao- chou, I felt that my fears of pomp and
panoply had been groundless, for the "escort" consisted of two
disreputable- looking coolies who had apparently been picked up on the street
and who were armed with antiquated flint-locks that were more dangerous to
their bearers than to an enemy. I am sure that these "guards" would
have been the first to run at the slightest sign of danger. We did not see them
again till we reached Kaomi, where we gave them a present and sent them back,
glad to be rid of them. We afterwards learned that they were only the retainers
of the local Kiao-chou yamen to see us to the border of the hinterland, which
Governor Yuan's troops were not permitted to cross.
But the men who met us
at the border were soldiers of another type--powerful looking cavalrymen on
excellent horses. Remembering the stories we had heard regarding the murder of
foreigners by Chinese troops who had been sent ostensibly to guard them, we
were relieved to find that there were only three of them, and as there were
three of us, we felt safe, for we believed that in an emergency we could whip
them. When on leaving Wei-hsien the number increased to five and then to six,
we became dubious. But we concluded that as we were active, stalwart men, we
might in a pinch manage twice our number of Chinese soldiers or, if worst came
to worst, as we were unencumbered by women, children or luggage, we could
sprint, on the old maxim,
"He that fights and runs away
Will live to fight another day."
But when a little later, the
force grew to eleven and then to fifteen, we were hopelessly out-classed,
especially as they were well-mounted and armed not only with swords but with
modern magazine rifles.
The result, however,
proved that our fears were groundless, for the men were good soldiers,
intelligent, respectful, well- drilled, and thoroughly disciplined. They
treated us with strict military etiquette, standing at attention and saluting
in the most approved military fashion whenever they spoke to us or we to them.
I was not accustomed to travelling in such state. Our three shendzas meant six
mules and three muleteers, one for each shendza. Our cook and "boy"
each had a donkey, and a pack-mule was necessary for our food supplies. So
including the men and horses of the escort, we usually had nineteen men and
twenty animals and a part of the time we had even a larger number. We therefore
made quite a procession, and attracted considerable attention. I suspect,
however, that some of those shrewd Chinese were not deceived as to my humble
station at home for one man asked the missionary who accompanied me whether I
travelled with an escort in America!
The lieutenant
commanding our escort said that he received forty-two taels a month,[19] the
sergeants eleven taels, and the privates nine taels. The men buy their own
food, but their clothing, horses, provender, etc., are furnished by the
Government. This is big pay for China. The lieutenant further said that
Governor Yuan Shih Kai had thirty regiments of a nominal strength of 500 each
and an actual strength of 250, making a total of 7,500, and that the soldiers
had been drilled by German officers at Tien-tsin. There are no foreign officers
now connected with the force, but there are two foreign educated Chinese who
receive 300 taels a month each. He further said that all the men with us had
killed Boxers and that he was confident that they could rout 1,000 of them. An
illustration of the reputation of these troops occurred during my visit in
Paoting-fu a little later. A messenger breathlessly reported that the Allied
Villagers, who had banded themselves together to resist the collection of
indemnity, had captured a city only ninety li southward and that they intended
to march on Paoting-fu itself. Three thousand of Yuan Shih Kai's troops had
been ordered to go to Peking to prepare for the return of the Emperor and
Empress Dowager, but the French general at Paoting-fu had forbade them coming
beyond a point a hundred li south of Paoting-fu, so that they were then
encamped there awaiting further orders. The Prefect hastily wired Viceroy Li
Hung Chang in Peking asking him to order these troops to retake the recaptured
city, as the Imperial troops were "needed here," a euphemism for saying
that they were useless. Li Hung Chang gave the desired order and the seasoned
troops of Yuan Shih Kai made short work of the Allied Villagers.
At any rate, those who
escorted me through Shantung were certainly good soldiers. They had splendid
horses and took good care of them, while several evenings they gave us as fine
exhibitions of sword drill as I ever saw. I was interested to find that seven
of them belonged to a total abstinence society, though none of them were
Christians. I became really attached to them. They were very patient, although
my journey compelled them to make a long and hard march for which they received
no extra pay. On the last evening of the trip, I gave them a feast in the most
approved Chinese style. I made a little farewell address and gave the officer
in charge the following letter which seemed to please them greatly:--
June 27th, 1901.
"To His Excellency,
"General Yuan Shih Kai,
"Governor of the Province of Shantung, China,
"SIR:
"In completing my tour of the Province of Shantung, I have pleasure in
expressing my high appreciation, and that of the missionaries of the
Presbyterian Church who accompanied me, of the excellent conduct of the
soldiers who formed our escort under the command of (Lieutenant) Wang Pa Chung.
Both he and his troopers were courteous and faithful, attentive to every duty
and meriting our admiration for the perfection of their discipline.
"We regret the
death of one of their horses, but we are satisfied that the soldier was in no
way to blame. The animal died in the inn courtyard early in the morning.
"I have had
pleasure in giving the officer and his men a feast. In addition I offered them
a present, but the Wang Pa Chung declined to accept it.
"Thanking you for
your courtesy in detailing such good soldiers for our escort,
"I have, sir, the
honour to be
"Your obedient servant,
(Signed) "ARTHUR J. BROWN."
I was impressed by the
refusal to accept the present, which was a considerable sum to Chinese. But the
men were evidently under strict orders. The lieutenant was polite and grateful,
but he said that he "could not accept a gift if it were ten thousand
taels."
During the whole tour,
these soldiers watched us with a fidelity that was almost embarrassing at
times. Not for a moment did they lose sight of us except when we were in the
mission compounds. If we took a walk about a village, they followed us. Eating,
sleeping or travelling, we were always watched. Several times we tried to
escape such espionage, or to induce the soldiers to turn back. We did not feel our
need of them, nor did I desire my peaceful mission to be associated with
military display. Besides, if hostility had been manifested, a dozen Chinese
soldiers would have been of little avail among those swarming millions. But our
efforts and protests were vain and we had no alternative but to submit with the
best grace possible.
Nor was this all, for
many of the magistrates whose districts we crossed en route added other
attentions. Indeed, they appeared to be almost nervously anxious that no mishap
should befall us. I had sent no announcement of my coming to any one except my
missionary friends, nor had I asked for any favour or protection save the usual
passport through the United States Consul. But the first Tao-tai I met politely
inquired about my route, and, as I afterwards learned, sent word to the next
magistrate. He in turn forwarded the word to the one beyond, and so on
throughout the whole trip. As we approached a city, uniformed attendants from
the chief magistrate's yamen usually met us and escorted us, sometimes with
much display of banners and trumpets and armed guards, to an inn which had been
prepared for our reception by having a little of its dirt swept into the
corners and a few of its bugs killed. Then would come a feast of many courses
of Chinese delicacies. A call from the magistrate himself often followed, and
he would chat amicably while great crowds stood silently about.
There was something
half pathetic about the attentions we received. Our journey was like a
triumphal procession. For example, twenty li from Chang Ku a messenger on
horseback met us. He had evidently been on the watch, for after kneeling he
galloped back with the news of our approach. Soon a dozen soldiers in scarlet
uniforms appeared, saluted, wheeled and marched before us to an inn where we
found rugs on the floor and kangs, a cloth on the table and two elevated seats
covered with scarlet robes. Attendants from the yamen with their red tasselled
helmets were numerous and attentive. Basins of water were brought and presently
the magistrate sent an elaborate feast. As we finished the repast, the
magistrate himself called. He was very affable and made quite a long call. In
like manner the district magistrate of Fei-hsien sent his secretary, personal
flags and twenty soldiers twenty li to meet us. They knelt as we approached and
shouted in unison--"We wish the great man peace!" So as usual we
entered the town with pomp and circumstance, our own escort added to the local
one making a brave show.
And these were typical
experiences. We could not prevent them and to resent them would have made the
official "lose face" and so embittered him. At Pien-kiao, where a
hundred of Governor Yuan Shih Kai's troops were stationed, the whole garrison
turned out, meeting us a couple of miles from the city and escorting us to our
inn with blares of trumpets which Dr. Johnson said were only sounded for high
officials. We were awakened at three o'clock the next morning by the bellowing
of calves and the braying of mules in the inn courtyard, and as we had our
longest day's journey ahead of us, we rose, breakfasted at four by candle-light
and were on the road at a quarter of five. But in spite of the early hour, the
whole garrison again turned out and lined the road at "present arms"
as we passed.
Think of the mayor of
an American city of fifty or a hundred thousand habitants hastening to call in
state on three unknown travellers, who were simply stopping for luncheon at a
hotel, and sending a couple dozen policemen to escort them in and out of town!
The Shantung Chinese are a strong, proud, independent people, and it must have
cost them something to be so effusive to foreigners. There was doubtless in it
some real regard for Americans and American missionaries. But policy was
probably also a factor. The officials felt that any further attack on
foreigners would be a pretext for further foreign aggression, an excuse for
Germany to advance from Kiao-chou, and they were anxious not to give occasion
for it. Each official was apparently determined to make it plain that he was
doing his duty in trying to protect these foreigners so that if they got hurt
it would not be his fault. Perhaps, too, he was not averse to showing the
populace that foreigners had to be guarded. I was half ashamed to travel in
that way. But I could not help myself. Sometimes I felt that the guard was not
so much for us as for the Chinese, assuring nervous officials that foreigners
should have no further excuse for aggression and warning the evil-disposed that
they must not commit acts which might get the officials into trouble.
Whatever the reasons
were, they were plainly impersonal. No one of us had any official status nor
were we as individuals of any consequence whatever to Chinese officials. We
were simply white men and as such we were regarded as representatives of a race
which had made its power felt. Perhaps the soldiers and the orders of Governor
Yuan Shih Kai had much to do with the quietness of the people, but some way I
felt perfectly safe. Whether any attack would have been made if I had been
allowed to journey quietly with my one or two missionary companions, I am not
competent to judge. Foreigners who had lived many years in China told me before
starting that my life would not be safe beyond rifle shot. They have told me
since that the profuse attentions that we received were mere pretence, that the
very officials who welcomed us as honoured guests probably cursed our race as
soon as our backs were turned, and that if the people had not understood from
the presence of troops and from the magistrates' marked personal attentions
that we were not to be molested, we might have met with violence in a dozen
places. The opinions of such experienced men were not to be lightly set aside.
All I can say is that
on these suppositions the Chinese are masters of the art of dissimulation, for
in all our journeyings through the very heart of the region where the Boxers
originated, and where the anti-foreign hatred was said to be bitterest, we saw
not a sign of unfriendliness. The typical official received us with the
courtesy of a "gentleman of the old school." The vast throngs that
quickly assembled at every stopping place, while silent, were respectful. We
tried to behave decently ourselves, to speak kindly to every man, to pay fair
prices for what we bought; in short, to act just as we would have acted in
America. And every man to whom we smiled, smiled in return. Wherever we asked a
civil question we got a civil answer. Coolies would stop their barrows, farmers
leave their fields to direct us aright. In all our travelling in the interior,
amid a population so dense that we constantly marvelled, we never heard a rude
word or saw a hostile sign. I naturally find it difficult to believe that those
pleasant, obliging people would have killed us if they had not been restrained
by their magistrates, and that the officials who exerted themselves to show us
all possible honour would have gladly murdered us if they had dared.
And yet less than a
year before, the Chinese had angrily destroyed the property and venomously
sought the lives of foreigners who were as peaceably disposed as we were,
ruthlessly hunting men and women who had never done them wrong, and who had
devoted their lives to teaching the young and healing the sick and preaching
the gospel of love and good will. Why they did this we shall have occasion to
observe in a later chapter.
SEVERAL outside forces
have pressed steadily and heavily upon the exclusiveness and conservatism of
the Chinese, and though they have not yet succeeded in changing the essential
character of the nation, they have set in motion vast movements which have
already convulsed great sections of the Empire and which are destined to affect
stupendous transformations. The first of these forces is foreign commerce.
To understand the
operation of this force, we must consider that its impact has been enormously
increased by the extension of facilities for intercommunication. The extent to
which these have revolutionized the world is one of the most extraordinary
features of our extraordinary age. It is startlingly significant of the change
that has taken place that Russia and Japan, nations 7,000 miles apart by land
and a still greater distance by water, are able in the opening years of the
twentieth century to wage war in a region which one army can reach in four
weeks and the other in four days, and that all the rest of the world can
receive daily information as to the progress of the conflict. A half century
ago, Russia could no more have sent a large army to Manchuria than to the moon,
while down to the opening of her ports by Commodore Perry in 1854, the few
wooden vessels that made the long journey to Japan found an unprogressive and
bitterly anti-foreign heathen nation with an edict issued in 1638 still on its
statute books declaring--"So long as the sun shall continue to warm the
earth, let no Christian be so bold as to come to Japan; and let all know that
the King of Spain himself, or the Christian's God, or the great God of all, if
He dare violate this command, shall pay for it with his head."
Nor were other
far-eastern peoples any more hospitable. China, save for a few port cities, was
as impenetrable as when in 1552 the dying Xavier had cried--"O Rock, Rock,
when wilt thou open!" Siam excluded all foreigners until the century's
first quarter had passed, and Laos saw no white man till 1868. A handful of
British traders were so greedily determined to keep all India as a private
commercial preserve that, forgetting their own indebtedness to Christianity,
they sneered at the proposal to send missionaries to India as "the maddest,
most expensive, most unwarranted project ever proposed by a lunatic
enthusiast," while as late as 1857, a director of the East India Company
declared that "he would rather see a band of devils in India than a band
of missionaries." Korea was rightly called "the hermit nation"
until 1882; and as for Africa, it was not till 1873 that the world learned of
that part of it in which the heroic Livingstone died on his knees, not till
1877 that Stanley staggered into a West Coast settlement after a desperate journey
of 999 days from Zanzibar through Central Africa, not till 1884 that the Berlin
Conference formed the International Association of the Congo guaranteeing that
which has not yet been realized "liberty of conscience" and "the
free and public exercise of every creed."
Even in America within
the memory of men still living, the lumbering, white-topped "prairie
schooner" was the only conveyance for the tedious overland journey to
California. Hardy frontiersmen were fighting Indians in the Mississippi Valley,
and the bold Whitman was "half a year" in bearing a message from
Oregon to Washington.
The Hon. John W. Foster
tells us in his "Century of American Diplomacy" that "General
Lane, the first territorial governor of Oregon, left his home in Indiana, August
27, 1848, and desiring to reach his destination as soon as possible, travelling
overland to San Francisco and thence by ship, reached his post on the first of
March following--the journey occupying six months. At the time our treaty of
peace and independence was signed in 1783, two stage-coaches were sufficient
for all the passengers and nearly all the freight between New York and
Boston." It is only seventy years since the Rev. John Lowrie, with his
bride and Mr. and Mrs. Reed, rode horseback from Pittsburg through flooded
rivers and over the Allegheny Mountains to Philadelphia, whence it took them
four and a-half months to reach Calcutta.
Nor was this all, for
scores of the conveniences and even necessities of our modern life were unknown
at the beginning of the nineteenth century. To get some idea of the vastness of
the revolution in the conditions of living, we have but to remind ourselves
that "in the year 1800 no steamer ploughed the waters; no locomotive
traversed an inch of soil; no photographic plate had ever been kissed by
sunlight; no telephone had ever talked from town to town; steam had never
driven mighty mills and electric currents had never been harnessed into
telegraph and trolley wires."[21] "In all the land there was no power
loom, no power press, no large manufactory in textiles, wood or iron, no canal.
The possibilities of electricity in light, heat and power were unknown and
unsuspected. The cotton gin had just begun its revolutionary work.
Intercommunication was difficult, the postal service slow and costly,
literature scanty and mostly of inferior quality."[22]
How marvellously the
application of steam as a motive power has united once widely separated
regions. So swiftly have the changes come and so quickly have we adapted
ourselves to them that it is difficult to realize the magnitude of the
transformation that has been achieved. We can ride from Pittsburg to
Philadelphia in eight hours and to Calcutta in twenty-two days. The journey
across our own continent is no longer marked by the ox-cart and the campfire
and the bones of perished expeditions. It is simply a pleasant trip of less
than a week, and in an emergency in August, 1903, Henry P. Lowe travelled from
New York to Los Angeles, 3,241 miles, in seventy-three hours and twenty-one
minutes. Populous states covered with a network of railway and telegraph lines
invite the nations of the world to join them in celebrating at St. Louis the
"Purchase" of a region which a hundred years ago was as foreign to
the American people as the Philippines now are. The Rev. Dr. Calvin Mateer, who
in 1863 was six months in reaching Chefoo, China, on a voyage from whose
hardships his wife never fully recovered, returned in a comfortable journey of
one month in 1902. To-day, for all practical purposes, China is nearer New York
than California once was.
No waters are too
remote for the modern steamer. Its smoke trails across every sea and far up
every navigable stream. Ten mail steamers regularly run on the Siberian
Yenisei, while the Obi, flowing from the snows of the Little Altai Mountains,
bears 302 steam vessels on various parts of its 2,000-mile journey to the Obi
Gulf on the Arctic Ocean. Stanley could now go from Glasgow to Stanley Falls in
forty-three days. Already there are forty-six steamers on the Upper Congo. From
Cape Town, a railway 2,000 miles long runs via Bulawayo to Beira on the
Portuguese coast, while branch lines reach several formerly inaccessible mining
and agricultural regions. June 22, 1904, almost the whole population of Cape Town
cheered the departure of the first through train for Victoria Falls, where the
British Association for the Advancement of Science has been invited to meet in
1905. Uganda is reached by rail. Five hundred and eighty miles of track unite
Mombasa and Victoria Nyanza. Sleeping and dining cars safely run the 575 miles
from Cairo to Khartoum where only five years ago Lord Kitchener fought the
savage hordes of the Mahdi. The Englishman's dream of a railroad from Cairo to
the Cape is more than half realized, for 2,800 miles are already completed. In
1903, Japan had 4,237 miles of well managed railways which in 1902 carried
111,211,208 passengers 14,409,752 tons of freight. India is gridironed by
25,373 miles of steel rails which in 1901 carried 195,000,000 passengers. A
railroad parallels the Burmese Irrawaddy to Bhamo and Mandalay. In Siam you can
ride by rail from Bangkok northward to Korat and westward to Petchaburee. The
Trans- Siberian Railway now connects St. Petersburg and Peking. In Korea, the
line from Chemulpho to Seoul connects with lines under construction both
southward and northward, so that ere long one can journey by rail from Fusan on
the Korean Strait to Wiju on the Yalu River. As the former is but ten hours by
sea from Japan and as the latter is to form a junction with the Trans-Siberian
Railway, a land journey in a sleeping car will soon be practicable from London
and Paris to the capitals of China and Korea, and, save for the ferry across
the Korean Strait, to any part of the Mikado's kingdom. The locomotive runs
noisily from Jaffa to venerable Jerusalem and from Beirut over the passes of
Lebanon to Damascus, the oldest city in the world. A projected line will run
from there to the Mohammedan Mecca, so that soon the Moslem pilgrims will
abandon the camel for the passenger coach. Most wonderful of all is the
Anatolian Railway which is to run through the heart of Asia Minor, traversing
the Karamanian plateau, the Taurus Mountains and the Cilician valleys to Haran
where Abraham tarried, and Nineveh where Jonah preached, and Babylon where
Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, and Bagdad where Haroun-al-Raschid ruled,
to Koweit on the Persian Gulf.
In a single month
forty-five Philadelphia engines have been ordered for India. The American
locomotive is to-day speeding across the steppes of Siberia, through the
valleys of Japan, across the uplands of Burmah and around the mountainsides of
South America. "Yankee bridge-builders have cast up a highway in the
desert where the chariot of Cambyses was swallowed up by the sands. The steel
of Pennsylvania spans the Atbara, makes a road to Meroe," and crosses the
rivers of Peru. Trains on the two imperial highways of Africa--the one from
Cairo to the Cape and the other from the upper Nile to the Red Sea--are to be
hauled by American engines over American bridges, while the "forty
centuries" which Napoleon Bonaparte said looked down from the pyramids see
not the soldiers of France, but the manufacturing agents of Europe and America.
Whether or not we are to have a political imperialism, we already have an
industrial imperialism.
Walter J. Ballard
declares[23] that the aggregate capital invested in railways at the end of 1902
was $36,850,000,000 and that the total mileage was 532,500 distributed as
follows:--
MilesUnited States202,471Europe180,708Asia41,814South America28,654North
America (Except U.S.)24,032Australia15,649Africa14,187 Jules Verne's story, "Around the World in Eighty
Days" was deemed fantastic in 1873. But in 1903, James Willis Sayre of
Seattle, Washington, travelled completely around the world in fifty-four days
and nine hours, while the Russian Minister of Railroads issues the following
schedule of possibilities when the Trans-Siberian Railroad has completed its
plans:--
From St. Petersburg to Vladivostok10 days" Vladivostok to San
Francisco10 "" San Francisco to New York4½ "" New York to
Bremen7 "" Bremen to St. Petersburg1½ "_____Total33 days As for the risks incident to such a tour, it
is significant that for my own journey around the world, a conservative
insurance company, for a consideration of only fifty dollars, guaranteed for a
year to indemnify me in case of incapacitating accident to the extent of fifty
dollars a week and in case of death to pay my heirs $10,000. And the company
made money on the arrangement, for I met with neither illness nor accident.
With a very few unimportant exceptions, there are now no hermit nations, for
the remotest lands are within quick and easy reach.
And now electricity has
ushered in an era more wondrous still. Trolley cars run through the streets of
Seoul and Bangkok. The Empress Dowager of China wires her decrees to the
Provincial Governors. Telegraph lines belt the globe, enabling even the
provincial journal to print the news of the entire world during the preceding
twenty-four hours. We know to-day what occurred yesterday in Tokyo and Beirut,
Shanghai and Batanga. The total length of all telegraph lines in the world is
4,908,921 miles,--the nerves of our modern civilization. And it is remarkable
not only that Europe has 1,764,790 miles, America 2,516,548 miles and Australia
277,419 miles, but that Africa has 99,409 miles and Asia 310,685 miles, Japan
alone having, in 1903, 84,000 miles beside 108,000 miles of telephone wires.
I found the telegraph
in Siam and Korea, in China and the Philippines, in Burma, India, Arabia, Egypt
and Palestine. Camping one night in far Northern Laos after a toilsome ride on
elephants, I realized that I was 12,500 miles from home, at as remote a point
almost as it would be possible for man to reach. All about was the wilderness,
relieved only by the few houses of a small village. But walking into that tiny
hamlet, I found at the police station a telephone connecting with the telegraph
office at Chieng-mai, so that, though I was on the other side of the planet, I
could have sent a telegram to my New York office in a few minutes. Nor was this
an exceptional experience, for the telegraph is all over Laos, as indeed it is
over many other Asiatic lands.
From the recesses of
Africa comes the report that the Congo telegraph line, which will ultimately
stretch across the entire belt of Central Africa, already runs 800 miles up the
Congo River from the ocean to Kwamouth, the junction of the Kassai and Congo
Rivers. A Belgian paper states that "a telegram dispatched from Kwamouth
on January 15th was delivered at Boma half an hour later. For the future, the
Kassai is thus placed in direct and rapid communication with the seat of
Government, and Europe is also brought close to the centre of Africa. Only a
few years ago, news took at least two months to reach Boma from the Kassai, and
the reply would not be received under another two months, and this only if the
parties were available and the steamer ready to start."
More significant still
are the submarine cables which aggregate 1,751 in number and over 200,000 miles
in length and which annually transmit more than 6,000,000 messages,
annihilating the time and distance which formerly separated nations. When King
William IV of England died in 1837, the news was thirty-five days in reaching
America. But when Queen Victoria passed away January 22, 1901, at 6:30 P. M.,
the afternoon papers describing the event were being sold in the streets of New
York at 3:30 P. M. of the same day! As I rose to address a union meeting of the
English speaking residents of Canton, China, on that fateful September day of
1901, a message was handed me which read, "President McKinley is
dead." So that by means of the submarine cable, that little company of
Englishmen and Americans in far-off China bowed in grief and prayer
simultaneously with multitudes in the home land.
Not only Europe and
America, but Siberia and Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia, Korea and
the Kameruns, Laos and Persia are within the sweep of this modern system of
intercommunication. The latest as well as one of the most important links in
this world system is the Commercial Pacific Cable between Manila and San
Francisco.
President Roosevelt
gave a significant illustration of the perfection of this system when, on the
completion of the Commercial Pacific Cable July 4, 1903, he flashed a message
around the earth in twelve minutes, while a second message sent by Clarence H.
Mackay, President of the Pacific Cable Company, made the circuit of the earth
in nine minutes.
What additional
possibilities are involved in the wireless system of telegraphy we can only
conjecture, but it is already apparent that this system has passed the
experimental stage and that it is destined to achieve still more amazing
results. A startling illustration of its possibilities was given by the
Japanese fleet March 22, 1904. A cruiser lay off Port Arthur and by wireless
messages enabled battleships, riding safely eight miles away, to bombard
fortifications which they could not see and which could not see them.
Commerce has taken
swift and massive advantages of these facilities for intercommunication. Its
ships whiten every sea. The products of European and American manufacture are
flooding the earth. The United States Treasury Bureau of Statistics (1903)
estimates that the value of the manufactured articles which enter into the
international commerce of the world is four billions of dollars and that of
this vast total, the United States furnishes 400,000,000, its foreign trade
having increased over 100 per cent. since 1895. While the bulk of the foreign
trade of the United States is with Europe, American business men are gradually
awaking to the greatness of their opportunity in Asia. A characteristic example
of their aggressiveness was given when President James J. Hill, of the Great
Northern Railroad, testified before a Government Commission, October 20,
1902:--
"We arranged with a line of steamers to connect with our road so
that we could get the Oriental outlet. I remember when the Japanese were going
to buy rails, I asked them where they were going to buy, and they said in
England or Belgium. I asked them to wait until I telegraphed. I wired and made
the rates, so that we made the price $1.50 a ton lower and sold for America
40,000 tons of rails. Then I got them to try a little of the American cotton,
telling them if it was not satisfactory I would pay for the cotton, and the
result was satisfactory." In these
ways, the interrelation of nations is becoming closer and closer, their
separation from the world's life more and more difficult. Dr. Josiah Strong
well observes:--
THE result of the
operation of this commercial force is an economic revolution of vast
proportions. When ever I went in Asia, I found wider interest in this subject
than in the aggressions of European nations. The reason is obvious. The common
people in Asia care little for politics, but the price of food and raiment touches
every man, woman and child at a sensitive point. Almost everywhere, the old
days of cheap living are passing away. Steamers, railways, telegraphs,
newspapers, labour-saving machinery, and the introduction of western ideas are
slowly but surely revolutionizing the Orient. Shantung wheat, which formerly
had no market beyond a radius of a few dozen miles from the wheat-field, can
now be shipped by railroad and steamship to any part of the world, and every
Chinese buyer has to pay more for it in consequence. In like manner new
facilities for export have doubled, trebled and, in some places, quadrupled the
price of rice in China, Siam and Japan. The Consul-General of the United States
at Shanghai reports that the prices of seventeen staple articles of export have
increased sixteen per cent. in twenty years while in Japan the increase in the
same articles for the same period was thirty-one per cent.[25]
The depreciation in the
value of silver has still further complicated the situation. The common Chinese
tael, which formerly bought from 1,500 to 1,800 cash (the current coin of
China), now buys only 950 cash. The Shanghai tael brings 897 cash, and the
Mexican dollar only 665. This of course, means that the common people, who use
only cash, have to pay a larger number of them for the necessaries of life. The
same difficulty is being felt to a greater or less extent in many other
countries of Asia, while in China, an already serious advance in prices is
being heightened by the heavy import taxes which have been levied to meet the
indemnity imposed by the Western Powers on account of the Boxer outbreak.
The prices of labour
and materials have sharply advanced in consequence of the enormous demands
incident to the construction of railways, with their stations, shops and
round-houses, the vast engineering schemes of the Germans at Tsing-tau, the
British at Wei-hai Wei and the Russians at Port Arthur, the extensive scale on
which the Legations have rebuilt in Peking, the reconstruction of virtually the
entire business portions of both Peking and Tien-tsin, as well as the
coincident rebuilding of the mission stations of all denominations, Protestant
and Catholic. It will be readily understood what all this activity means in a
land where there are as yet but limited supplies of the kind of skilled
labourers required for foreign buildings, and where the requisite materials
must be imported from Europe and America by firms who "are not in China
for their health."
It is futile to hope
that the competition will be materially less next year, or the year after, or
the year after that. Commerce and politics are planning works in China which
will not be completed for many years. Railway officials told me of projected
lines which will require decades for construction. China has entered upon an
era of commercial development. The Western world has come to stay, and while
there may be temporary reactions, as there have been at home, prices are not
likely to return to their former level. There are vast interior regions which
will not be affected for an indefinite period, but for the coast provinces,
primitive conditions are passing forever.
The knowledge of modern
inventions and of other foods and articles has created new wants. The Chinese
peasant is no longer content to burn bean oil; he wants kerosene. In scores of
humble Laos homes and markets I saw American lamps costing twenty rupees
apiece, and a magistrate proudly showed me a collection of nineteen of these
shining articles. Forty thousand dollars worth of these lamps were sold in Siam
last year. The narrow streets of Canton are brilliant with German chandeliers
and myriads of private houses throughout the Empire are lighted by foreign
lamps. The desire of the Asiatic to possess foreign lamps is only equalled by
his passion for foreign clocks. I counted twenty-seven in the private
apartments of the Emperor of China and my wife counted nineteen in a single
room of the Empress Dowager's palace, while cheaper ones tick to the delighted
wonder of myriads of humbler people. The ambitious Syrian scorns the mud roof
of his ancestors and will only be satisfied with bright red tiles imported from
France. In almost every Asiatic city I visited, I found shops crowded with
articles of foreign manufacture. "Made in Germany" is as familiar a
phrase in Siam as in America. Many children in China are arrayed only in the
atmosphere, but when I was in Taian-fu, in the far interior of Shantung,
hundreds of parents were in consternation because the magistrate had just
placarded the walls with an edict announcing that hereafter boys and girls must
wear clothes and that they would be arrested if found on the streets naked. At
a banquet given to the foreign ministers by the Emperor and the Empress Dowager
in the famous Summer Palace twelve miles from Peking, the distinguished guests
cut York ham with Sheffield knives and drank French wines out of German
glasses. Everywhere articles of foreign manufacture are in demand, and shrewd
Chinese merchants are stocking their shops with increasing quantities of European
and American goods. The new Chinese Presbyterian Church at Wei-hsien typifies
the elements that are entering Asia for it contains Chinese brick, Oregon fir
beams, German steel binding-plates and rods, Belgian glass, Manchurian pine
pews, and British cement.
India is eagerly buying
American rifles, tools, boots and shoes, while vast regions which depend upon
irrigation are becoming interested in American well-boring outfits. Persia is
demanding increasing quantities of American padlocks, sewing- machines and agricultural
implements. German, English and American machinery is equipping great cotton
factories in Japan. I saw Russian and American oil tins in the remotest
villages of Korea. Strolling along the river bank one evening in Paknampo,
Siam, I heard a familiar whirring sound and entering found a bare-legged
Siamese busily at work on a sewing- machine of American make. Nearly five
hundred of them are sold in Siam every year, and I found them in most of the
cities that I visited in other Asiatic countries. When I left Lampoon on an
elephant, six hundred miles north of Bangkok, a Laos gentleman rode beside me
for several miles on an American bicycle. There are thousands of them in Siam.
His Majesty himself frequently rides one and His Royal Highness, Prince Damrong,
is president of a bicycle club of four hundred members. The king's palace is
lighted by electricity and the Government buildings are equipped with
telephones, and as the nobles and merchants see the brilliancy of the former
and the convenience of the latter, they want them, too. In many parts of Asia
people, who but a decade or two ago were satisfied with the crudest appliances
of primitive life, are now learning to use steam and electrical machinery, to
like Oregon flour, Chicago beef, Pittsburg pickles and London jam, and to see
the utility of foreign wire, nails, cutlery, drugs, paints and chemicals.
Many other
illustrations of a changed condition might be cited. Knowledge increases wants
and the Oriental is acquiring knowledge. He demands a hundred things to-day
that his grandfather never heard of, and when he goes to the shops to buy his
daily food, he finds that the new market for it which the foreigner has opened
has increased the price.
Americans are the very
last people who can consistently criticise this tendency in Asia. It is the
foreigner who has created it, and the American is the most prodigal of all
foreigners. I never realized until I visited other lands how extravagant is the
scale of American life, not only among the rich, but the so-called poor. My
morning walk to my New York office takes me along Christopher Street, and I
have often seen in the garbage cans of tenement houses pieces of bread and meat
and half-eaten vegetables and fruit that would give the average Asiatic the feast
of a lifetime. In Europe, Americans are notorious as spendthrifts. In the
Philippine Islands, they have thrown about their money in a way which has
inaugurated an era of reckless lavishness comparable only to the California
days of "forty-nine." In the port cities of China, the porters asked
me extortionate prices because I was an American. Two or three coolies would
seize a suit case or change it from man to man every few minutes, on the
pretense that it was heavy. In Tien-tsin, you hire a jinrikisha and presently
you find a second man pushing behind, though the road is smooth as a floor. In
a few minutes a third appears to push on the other side, and once a fourth took
hold between the second and third. All of course demand pay, and it is
difficult to shake them off. They do not understand your protests, or they
pretend not to, and you have to be emphatic to get rid of them. At Tong-ku, my
sampan men calmly insisted on two dollars for a service that was worth but
forty cents. Everywhere, I found that it was wiser to make all purchases and
bargains through trusty native Christians, or to ascertain in advance what a
given service was really worth, pay it and walk off, deaf to all protestations
and complaints, even though as in Seoul, Korea, the men plaintively sat around
for hours. In Cairo, a certain hotel charged me on the supposition that because
I was an American, I was a millionaire or a fool--perhaps both. True, we have
hack-drivers and hotel-keepers in America who are equally rapacious, and a New
Yorker in particular need not go away from home to be overcharged. But it is
just because we have become so accustomed to this careless profusion at home
that we exhibit it abroad.
But it is useless to
protest against the increased cost of living in Asia. It is as much beyond
individual control as the tides. The causes which are producing it are not even
national but cosmopolitan.
Nor should we ignore
the fact that this movement is, in some respects at least, beneficial. It means
a higher and broader scale of life and such a life always costs more than a low
and narrow one. This economic revolution in Asia is a concomitant of a
Christian civilization which brings not only higher prices but wider
intellectual and spiritual horizons, a general enlarging and uplifting of the
whole range of life. There are indeed some vicious influences accompanying this
movement, as brighter lights usually have deeper shadows.
But surely it is for
good and not for evil that the farmers of Hunan can now ship their peanuts to
England and with the proceeds vary the eternal monotony of a rice-diet; that
the girls of Siam are being taught by missionary example that modesty requires
the purchase of a garment for street wear which will cover at least the
breasts; that the Korean should learn that it is better to have a larger house
so that the girls of the family need not sleep in the same room as the boys;
and that all China should discover the advantages of roads over rutty,
corkscrew paths, of sanitation over heaps of putrid garbage and of wooden
floors over filth-encrusted ground. Christianity inevitably involves some of
these things, and to some extent the awakening of Asia to the need of them is a
part of the beneficent influence of a gospel which always and everywhere
renders men dissatisfied with a narrow, squalid existence. To make a man decent
morally is to beget in him a desire to be decent physically.
The native Christians,
especially the pastors and teachers, are the very ones who first feel this
movement towards a higher physical life. Nor should we repress it in them, for
it means an environment more favourable to morals and to the stability of
Christian character as well as a healthful example to the community in which
they live. To say, therefore, that the average annual income of a Hindu is
rupees twenty-seven (nine dollars) is not to adduce a reason for holding the
pastors and evangelists of India down to that scale. They should, indeed, live
near enough to the plane of their countrymen to keep in sympathetic touch with them.
But they should not be expected or allowed to huddle in the dark, unventilated
hovels of the masses of the people, or, by confining themselves to one scanty
meal a day, have that gaunt, half-famished look which makes my heart ache every
time I think of the walking skeletons I saw in India. I am not ashamed but
proud of the fact that it costs the average Christian more to live in Asia than
it costs the average heathen, that the houses of the Laos Christians are better
than the single-roomed sheds about them, that the graduates of our Siam mission
schools for girls wear shirt waists instead of sunshine, that the members of
any one of our Korean churches spend more money on soap than a whole village of
their heathen neighbours whose bodies are caked with the accumulations of years
of neglect, that the sessions of our Syrian churches are Christian gentlemen in
appearance as well as in fact, and that the houses of our Chinese Christians do
not mix pigs, chickens and babies in one lousy, malodorous company.
But these altered
conditions have not yet brought the ability to meet them. The cost of living
has increased faster than the resources of the people. Only France and Russia
are primarily political in their foreign policy. England, Germany and the
United States are avowedly commercial. They talk incessantly about "the
open door." Their supreme object in Asia is to "extend their
markets." They are producing more than they can use themselves, and they
seek an opportunity to dispose of their surplus products. They are less
concerned to bring the products of Asia into their own territories. Indeed,
Germany and particularly the United States have built a tariff wall about
themselves, expressly to protect home industries from outside competition, and
not a few American manufacturers have recently been on the verge of panic on
account of Japanese competition. Europe and America are trying to force their
own manufactures on to Asia and to take in return only what they please.
In time, this will
probably right itself, in part at least. While the farmers of the Mississippi
Valley find living much more expensive than it was two generations ago, they
also find that they get more for their wheat and that they eat better food and
wear better clothes and build better houses than their grandfathers. The era of
railroads ended the days of cheap living, but it ended as well days when the
farmer had to confine himself to a diet of corn-bread and salt pork, when his
home was destitute of comforts and his children had little schooling and no
books. So the American working man of today has to pay more for the necessaries
of life than the working man of Europe, but he is nevertheless the best paid,
the best fed, the best clothed and the best housed working man in the world, a
far better and more intelligent citizen because of these very conditions.
The same changes will
doubtless take place in Asia. That great continent is capable of producing
enormous quantities of food, minerals and both raw and manufactured articles
which the rest of the world will sooner or later want. Already this foreign
demand is bringing comparative wealth to the rug dealers of Syria, the silk
embroiderers of China and the cloisonné and porcelain makers of Japan. But only
an infinitesimal part of the total population has thus far profited largely by
this wider market. Where one man amasses wealth in this way, 100,000 men find
that aggressive foreign traders exploit their wares by flooding the shops with
tempting articles which they can ill-afford to buy. The difficulty is rapidly
becoming acute. My inquiries in Japan led me to the conclusion that while the
cost of the staple articles of living has increased nearly 100 per cent. in the
last twenty years, the financial ability of the average Japanese has not increased
thirty per cent. In China, Siam, India, the Philippine Islands, and Syria I
found substantially similar anxieties though the proportions naturally varied.
"True, there has been commerce since the early ages, but caravans could
afford to carry only precious goods, like fine fabrics, spices and gems. These
luxuries did not reach the multitude, and could not materially change
environment. But modern commerce scatters over all the world the products of
every climate, in ever increasing quantities."
So the economic
revolution in Asia is characterized, as such revolutions usually are in Europe
and America, by wide-spread unrest and, in some places, by violence. The oldest
of continents is the latest to undergo the throes of the stupendous
transformation from which the newest is slowly beginning to emerge. The
transition period in Asia will be longer and perhaps more trying, as the
numbers involved are vaster and more conservative; but the ultimate result
cannot fail to be beneficial both to Asia and to the whole world.
It is therefore too
late to discuss the question whether the character and religions of these
nations should be disturbed. They have already been disturbed by the inrush of
new ideas and by the ways as well as by the products of the white man. Like
their ancient temples, the religions of Asia are cracking from pinnacle to
foundation. The natives themselves realize that the old days are passing
forever. India is in a ferment. Japan has leaped to world prominence. The power
of the Mahdi has been broken and the Soudan has been opened to civilization.
The King of Siam has made Sunday a legal holiday and is frightening his
conservative subjects by his revolutionary changes, while Korea is changing
with kaleidoscopic rapidity.
Whereas the opening
years of the sixteenth century saw the struggle for civilization, of the
seventeenth century for religious liberty, of the eighteenth century for
constitutional government, of the nineteenth century for political freedom, the
opening years of the twentieth century witness what Lowell would have called:--
THE influences that are
thus surging into the Middle Kingdom are tremendous. The beginnings of China's
foreign trade date back to the third century, though it was not until
comparatively recent years that it grew to large proportions. To-day the
leading seaports of China have many great business houses handling vast
quantities of European and American goods. The most persistent effort is made
to extend commerce with the Chinese. That the effort is successful is shown by
the fact that the foreign trade of China increased from 217,183,960 taels in
1888 to 583,547,291 taels in 1904. This shows the enormous gain of 168 per
cent., though this is slightly modified by the fact that the report for 1904
includes goods to the value of 402,639 taels carried by Chinese vessels which,
though plying between native and foreign ports, were not formerly reported
through the customs. According to official reports,[26] the foreign trade of
China has been growing rapidly during recent years, the only falling off having
been in the Boxer outbreak year 1900. In 1891, the imports into China were, in
round numbers, 134,000,000 taels and the exports were 101,000,000, a total of
235,000,000, and an excess of imports of 33 per cent. In 1904 the imports had
advanced to 344,060,608 taels and the exports to 239,486,683 taels, a total of
583,547,291 taels, an increase of 148 per cent. and an excess of imports of 44
per cent. In 1899 the total foreign trade of China had reached 460,000,000
taels. The next year it dropped to 370,000,000 taels, but in 1901 it sprang to
438,000,000 taels, and has advanced nearly 150,000,000 taels within the past
three years.[27]
The share of the United
States is larger than one might infer from the reports, as no inconsiderable
part of our trade goes to China by way of England and Hongkong and is often
credited to the British total instead of to ours. American trade has, moreover,
rapidly increased since 1900. We now sell more cotton goods to China than to
all other countries combined, the exports having increased from $5,195,845 in
1898 to $27,000,000 in 1905.[28] In the year 1904, 63,529,623 gallons of
kerosene oil valued at $7,202,110 were shipped from the United States to China.
The development of the flour trade has been extraordinary, the sales having
risen from $89,305 in 1898 to $5,360,139 in 1904.
In Hongkong, I found
American flour controlling the market. I learned on inquiry that years before,
a firm in Portland, Oregon, had sent an agent to introduce its flour. The
rice-eating Chinese did not want it, but the agent stayed, gave away samples,
explained its use and pushed his goods so energetically and persistently that
after years of labour and the expenditure of tens of thousands of dollars a
market was created. Now that firm sells in such enormous quantities that its
numerous mills must run day and night to supply the demand, and the annual
profits run into six figures. That city of Portland alone exported to Asia,
chiefly China, in 1903:--
849,360 barrels flour$2,974,620522,887 bushels wheat413,90146,847,975
feet lumber647,355Miscellaneous merchandise352,879-------Total$4,414,651 While cotton goods, kerosene oil and
flour are our chief exports to China, there is a growing demand for many other
American products. The utility of the American locomotive has become so
apparent that in 1899, engines costing $732,212 were sent to China and
additional orders are received every few months. With the enormous forests
bordering the Pacific Ocean in the states of Oregon and Washington, and with
the development of cheap water transportation, there is a rapidly widening
market in China for American lumber. Eastern Asia is too densely peopled to
have large forests, and those she has are not within easy reach. Native lumber,
therefore, is scarce and often small and crooked. That in common use comes from
Manchuria and Korea. I was impressed in Tsing-tau to find that the Germans are
using Oregon lumber and to be told that it is considered the best, and in the
long run, the cheapest. Oregon pine costs more than the Korean and Manchurian,
but it is superior in size and quality. The transportation charges to the
interior, however, are a heavy addition. Manchurian pine can be delivered at
such an interior city as Wei-hsien, via the junk port of Yang-chia-ko and
thence by land, for twenty dollars, gold, per thousand square feet, which is
considerably less than the Tsing-tau retail price for Asiatic lumber. Oregon
lumber costs in Shanghai, thirty-two dollars gold, per thousand, but an
importer estimated that it could be delivered at Tsingtau for twenty-five
dollars gold per thousand in large quantities.
The exports of the
United States to China, according to the reports of Consul-General Goodnow of
Shanghai, increased from $11,081,146 in 1900 to $18,175,484 in 1901 and
$22,698,282 in 1902, while for 1904 they reached the total of about
$24,000,000, a gain of nearly 125 per cent. since 1900 and of several hundred
per cent. as compared with 1894.
Meantime, the United
States imported from China goods to the value of $30,872,244 in 1904, which is
an increase of $14,255,956 over the imports for 1901. Silk and tea are the
principal items in this trade, the figures for the former being $10,220,543 and
for the latter $7,294,570, though of goatskins we took $2,556,541, wool
$2,325,445, and matting $1,615,838. The United States is now the third nation
in trade relations with China. This is the more remarkable when we consider the
statement of the late Mr. Everett Frazar of the American Asiatic Association
that in January, 1901, there were only four American business firms in all
China. When our business men establish their own houses in China instead of
dealing as now through European and Chinese firms, it is not unreasonable to
expect that the United States will outstrip its larger rivals Great Britain and
France, though, as I have already intimated, it is one thing to ship foreign
goods to China and quite another thing to control them after their arrival, for
the Chinese are disposed to manage that trade themselves and they know how to
do it.
Unfortunately the
stream of foreign trade with China has been contaminated by many of the vices
which disgrace our civilization. The pioneer traders were, as a rule, pirates
and adventurers, who cheated and abused the Chinese most flagrantly. Gorst says
that "rapine, murder and a constant appeal to force chiefly characterized
the commencement of Europe's commercial intercourse with China." There are
many men of high character engaged in business in the great cities of China. I
would not speak any disparaging word of those who are worthy of all respect.
But it is all too evident that "many Americans and Europeans doing
business in Asia are living the life of the prodigal son who has not yet come
to himself." Profane, intemperate, immoral, not living among the Chinese,
but segregating themselves in foreign communities in the treaty ports, not
speaking the Chinese language, frequently beating and cursing those who are in
their employ, regarding the Chinese with hatred and contempt,--it is no wonder
that they are hated in return and that their conduct has done much to justify
the Chinese distrust of the foreigner. The foreign settlements in the port
cities of China are notorious for their profligacy. Intemperance and
immorality, gambling and Sabbath desecration run riot. When after his return
from a long journey in Asia, the Rev. Dr. George Pentecost was asked--
"What are the darkest spots in the missionary outlook?" he replied:--
"In lands of spiritual darkness, it is difficult to speak of
`darkest spots.' I should say, however, that if there is a darkness more dark
than other darkness, it is that which is cast into heathen darkness by the
ungodliness of the American and European communities that have invaded the East
for the sake of trade and empire. The corruption of Western godliness is the
worst evil in the East. Of course there are noble exceptions among western
commercial men and their families, but as a rule the European and American
resident in the East is a constant contradiction to all and everything which
the missionary stands for." Most
of the criticisms of missionaries which find their way into the daily papers
emanate from such men. The missionaries do not gamble or drink whiskey, nor
will their wives and daughters attend or reciprocate entertainments at which
wine, cards and dancing are the chief features. So, of course, the missionaries
are "canting hypocrites," and are believed to be doing no good,
because the foreigner who has never visited a Chinese Christian Church, school
or hospital in his life, does not see the evidences of missionary work in his
immediate neighbourhood. The editor of the Japan Daily Mail justly says:--[29]
"We do not suggest that these newspapers which denounce the
missionaries so vehemently desire to be unjust or have any suspicion that they
are unjust. But we do assert that they have manifestly taken on the colour of
that section of every far eastern community whose units, for some strange
reason, entertain an inveterate prejudice against the missionary and his works.
Were it possible for these persons to give an intelligent explanation of the
dislike with which the missionary inspires them, their opinions would command
more respect. But they have never succeeded in making any logical presentment of
their case, and no choice offers except to regard them as the victims of an
antipathy which has no basis in reason or reflection, That a man should be
anti-Christian and should de- vote his pen to propagating his views is strictly
within his right, and we must not be understood as suggesting that the smallest
reproach attaches to such a person. But on the other hand, it is within the
right of the missionary to protest against being arraigned before judges
habitually hostile to him, and it is within the right of the public to
scrutinize the pronouncements of such judges with much suspicion." Charles Darwin did not hesitate to put the
matter more bluntly still. He will surely not be deemed a prejudiced witness,
but he plainly said of the traders and travellers who attack missionaries:--
"It is useless to argue against such reasoners. I believe that,
disappointed in not finding the field of licentiousness quite so open as
formerly, they will not give credit to a morality which they do not wish to
practice, or to a religion which they undervalue or despise." These facts are a suggestive commentary on the
popular notion that civilization should precede Christianity. The Rev. Dr.
James Stewart, the veteran missionary of South Africa, says that it is an
"unpleasant and startling statement, unfortunately true, that contact with
European nations seems always to have resulted in further deterioration of the
African races. . . . Trade and commerce have been on the West Coast of Africa
for more than three centuries. What have they made of that region? Some of its
tribes are more hopeless, more sunken morally and socially, and rapidly
becoming more commercially valueless, than any tribes that may be found
throughout the whole of the continent. Mere commercial influence by its example
or its teaching during all that time has had little effect on the cruelty and
reckless shedding of blood and the human sacrifices of the besotted paganism
which still exists near that coast." Of his experience in New Guinea,
James Chalmers declared:--"I have had twenty-one years' experience among
natives. I have lived with the Christian native, and I have lived, and dined,
and slept with cannibals. But I have never yet met with a single man or woman,
or with a single people, that civilization without Christianity has
civilized."
Substantially similar
statements might be made regarding other lands.
"The more we open the world to what we call civilization, and the
more education we give it of the kind we call scientific, the greater are the
dangers to modern society, unless in some way we contrive to make all the world
better. Brigands armed with repeating rifles and supplied with smokeless
gunpowder are brigands still, but ten times more dangerous than before. The
vaste hordes of human beings in Asia and Africa, so long as they are left in
seclusion, are dangerous to their immediate neighbours; but, when they have
railroads, steamboats, tariffs, and machine guns, while they retain their
savage ideals and barbarous customs, they become dangerous to all the rest of
the world."[30] A
Christless civilization is always and everywhere a curse rather than a
blessing. From the Garden of Eden down, the fall of man has resulted from
"the increase of knowledge and of power unaccompanied by reverence.... No
evolution is stable which neglects the moral factor or seeks to shake itself
free from the eternal duties of obedience and of faith. . . . The Song of
Lamech echoes from a remote antiquity the savage truth that `the first results
of civilization are to equip hatred and render revenge more deadly, . . . a
savage exultation in the fresh power of vengeance which all the novel
instruments have placed in their inventor's hands.'"[31]
What is civilization
without the gospel? The essential elements of our civilization are the fruits
of Christianity, and the tree cannot be transplanted without its roots. Can a
railroad or a plow convert a man? They can add to his material comfort; they can
enlarge the opportunities of the gospel, but are they the gospel itself? What
does civilization without Christianity mean? It means the lust of the European
and American soldiers which is rotting the native Hawaiians, the European and
American liquor which is debauching the Africans, the opium which is enervating
the Chinese, 6,000 tons a year coming from India at a profit of $32,000,000 to
the English Government.[32]
How can such a
civilization prepare the way for Christianity? As a matter of fact, the Chinese
already have a civilization, and if our civilization is considered apart from
its distinctively Christian elements, it is not so much superior to the Chinese
as we are apt to imagine. The differences are chiefly matters of taste and
education. The truth is that always and everywhere,--
"civilization, so far from obliterating iniquity, imports into the world
iniquities of its own. It changes to some degree the aspects of iniquity, but
does not make them less. Further than that its effect is rather regularly to
dress iniquity in a less repulsive and more attractive form, and in that way
makes it more difficult to get rid of than before. There is no sin so
insinuating as refined and elegant sin, and of that civilization is the expert
patron and champion. The sin that is the devil's chief stock in trade is not
what is going on in Hester Street, but on the polite avenues. . . .
Evangelization conducts to civilization, but civilization has no necessary
bearing on evangelization; that is to say, there is in civilization no energy
inherently calculated to yield gospel facts. By carrying schools and arts,
trade and manufacture, among people that are now savages you may be able to
refine the quality of their deviltry, but that is not even the first step towards
making angels, or even saints of them."[33]
Lowell is said to have
administered the following stinging rebuke to the skeptical critics who sneered
about missionaries and declared the adequacy of civilization without them:--
"When the microscopic search of skepticism, which has hunted the
heavens and sounded the seas to disprove the existence of a Creator, has turned
its attention to human society and has found a place on this planet ten miles
square where a decent man can live in decency, comfort and security, supporting
and educating his children unspoiled and unpolluted; a place where age is
reverenced, manhood respected, womanhood honoured, and human life held in due
regard; when skeptics can find such a place ten miles square on this globe
where the gospel of Christ has not gone and cleared the way, and laid the
foundation and made decency and security possible, it will then be in order for
the skeptical literati to move thither and there ventilate their views." But we may add Darwin's conjecture that "should
a voyager chance to be at the point of shipwreck on some unknown coast, he will
devoutly pray that the lesson of the missionary may have extended thus
far." Bishop Thoburn says that no nation without Christianity has ever
advanced a step, and that while in Washington there are 6,000 models of plows
invented by Americans, India is using the same plow as in the days of David and
Solomon. But wherever Christ's gospel goes, true civilization appears. "A
better soul will soon make better circumstances; but better circumstances will
not necessarily make a better soul."[34]
THE extension of trade
has naturally been accompanied not only by the increase of foreign steamship
lines to the numerous port cities of China, but by the development of almost
innumerable coastwise and river vessels. Many of these are owned and operated
by the Chinese themselves, but as steamers came with the foreigners and as they
drive out the native junks and bring beggary to their owners, the masses of the
Chinese cannot be expected to feel kindly towards such competition, however
desirable the steamer may appear to be from the view-point of a more
disinterested observer. But this interference with native customs has been far
less revolutionary than that of the railways.
The pressure of foreign
commerce upon China has naturally resulted in demands for concessions to build
railways, in order that the country might be opened up for traffic and the
products of the interior be more easily and quickly brought to the coast. The
first railroad in China was built by British promoters in 1876. It ran from
Shanghai to Woosung, only fourteen miles. Great was the excitement of the
populace, and no sooner was it completed than the Government bought it, tore up
the road- bed, and dumped the engines into the river. That ended
railway-building till 1881, when, largely through the influence of Wu
Ting-fang, late Chinese Minister to the United States, the Chinese themselves,
under the guidance of an English engineer, built a little line from the
Kai-ping coal mines to Taku, at the mouth of the Pei-ho River and the ocean
gate way to the capital. Seeing the benefit of this road, the Chinese raised
further funds, borrowed more from the English, and gradually extended it 144
miles to Shan-hai Kwan on the north, while they ran another line to Tien-tsin,
twenty-seven miles from Tong-ku, and thence onward seventy-nine miles direct to
Peking. This system forms the Imperial Railway and belongs to the Chinese
Government, though bonds are held by the English, who loaned money for
construction, and though English and American engineers built and superintended
the system. The local staff, however, is Chinese.
No more concessions
were granted to foreigners till 1895, but then they were given so rapidly that,
in 1899 when the Boxer Society first began to attract attention, there were,
including the Imperial Railway, not only 566 miles in operation, but 6,000
miles were projected, and engineers were surveying rights of way through whole
provinces. Much of the completed work was undone during the destructive madness
of the Boxer uprising, but reconstruction began as soon as the tumult was
quelled. According to the Archiv für Eisenbahnwesen of Germany, the total
length of the railways in use in 1903 in China was 1,236 kilometers or about
742 miles.
Several foreign nations
have taken an aggressive part in this movement. In the north, Russia, not
satisfied with a terminus at cold Vladivostok where ice closes the harbour
nearly half the year, steadily demanded concessions which would enable her
Trans-Siberian Railway to reach an ice-free winter port, and thus give her a
commanding position in the Pacific and a channel through which the trade of
northern Asia might reach and enrich Russia's vast possessions in Siberia and
Europe. So Russian diplomacy rested not till it had secured the right to extend
the Trans-Siberian Railway southward from Sungari through Manchuria to
Tachi-chao near Mukden. From there one branch runs southward to Port Arthur and
Dalny and another southwestward to Shan-hai Kwan, where the great Wall of China
touches the sea. As connection is made at that point with the Imperial Railway
to Taku, Tien-tsin and Peking, Moscow 5,746 miles away, is brought within
seventeen days of Peking. Thus, Russian influence had an almost unrestricted
entrance to China on the North, while a third branch from Mukden to Wiju, on
the Korean frontier, will connect with a projected line running from that point
southward to Seoul, the capital of Korea. A St. Petersburg dispatch, dated
November 26, 1903, states that a survey has just been completed from Kiakhta,
Siberia, to Peking by way of Gugon, a distance of about a thousand miles. This
road, if built, will give the Russians a short cut direct to the capital.
In the populous
province of Shantung, a German railroad, opened April 8, 1901, runs from
Tsing-tau on Kiao-chou Bay into the heart of the populous Shantung Province via
Weihsien. The line already reaches the capital, Chinan-fu, while ulterior plans
include a line from Tsing-tau via Ichou-fu to Chinan-fu, so that German lines
will ere long completely encircle this mighty Province. At Chinan-fu, this road
will meet another great trunk line, partly German and partly English, which is
being pushed southward from Tien-tsin to Chin-kiang. An English sydicate, known
as the British-Chinese Corporation, is to control a route from Shanghai via
Soochow and Chin-kiang to Nanking and Soochow via Hangchow to Ningpo, while the
Anglo-Chinese Railway Syndicate of London is said to be planning a railway from
Canton to Cheng-tu-fu, the provincial capital of Sze-chuen. Meanwhile, the original
line from Shanghai to Wu-sung has been reconstructed by the English.
One of the most
valuable concessions in China has been obtained by the Anglo-Italian Syndicate
in the Provinces of Shan-si and Shen-si for it gives the right to construct
railways and to operate coal mines in a region where some of the most extensive
anthracite deposits in the world are located. A beginning has already been
made, and when the lines are completed, the industrial revolution in China will
be mightily advanced.
An alleged Belgian
syndicate, to which was formed with then wholly disinterested assistance of the
French and Russian legations, obtained in 1896 a concession to construct the Lu
Han Railway from Peking 750 miles southward to Hankow, the commercial metropolis
on the middle Yang-tze River. It is significant, however, that while the
Belgian syndicate was temporarily embarrassed, the Russo-Chinese Bank of Peking
aided the Chinese Director-General of Railways to begin the section running
from Peking to Paoting-fu. The road is open to Shunte-fu, 300 miles south of
Peking and to Hsu-chou, 434 kilometers north of Hankow. The Russo-Chinese Bank
is building a branch line from Ching-ting via Tai-yuen-fu to Singan-fu in
Shen-si, where it will be well started on the beaten caravan route between
north China and Russian Central Asia. On November 13, 1903, the Belgian
International Eastern Company signed a contract to construct a railway from
Kai- feng-fu, the capital of the Province of Honan, 110 miles west to Honan-fu.
I found the line
running south from Peking well-built with solid road-bed, massive stone
culverts, iron bridges, and heavy steel rails. The first and second class
coaches are not attractive in appearance, and though the fare for the former is
double that of the latter, the chief discernible difference is that in the
first class compartment, which is usually in one end of a second- class car,
the seats are curved and the passengers fewer in number, while in the
second-class the seats are straight boards and are apt to be crowded with
Chinese coolies. Neither class is upholstered and neither would be considered
comfortable in America, but after the weeks I had spent in a mule-litter,
anything on rails seemed luxurious. Our train was a mixed one,-- the first-class
compartments containing a few French officers, the second-class filled with
Chinese coolies and French soldiers, while a half-dozen flat cars were loaded
with horses and mules. A large Roger's locomotive from Paterson, New Jersey,
drew our long train smoothly and easily, though the schedule was so slow and
the stops so long that we were seven hours and a half in making a run of a
hundred miles.
Railway-building in
South China, outside of French territory, began with a line from Canton to
Hankow which was projected in 1895 by Senator Calvin S. Brice, William Barclay
Parsons being the engineer. The usual governmental difficulties were
encountered, but in 1902 an imperial decree gave the concession to the
American-China Development Company. American capital was to finance the road,
though with some European aid. The company had the power, under its concession,
to issue fifty-year five per cent. gold bonds to the amount of $42,500,000, the
interest being guaranteed by the Chinese Government. The main line will be 700
miles long, and branches will increase the total mileage to 900. On November
15, 1903, a section ten miles long from Canton to Fat-shan was formally opened
for traffic in the presence of the Hon. Francis May, colonial secretary and
registrar-general of the Hongkong Government, a large number of Europeans and
Americans, and immense crowds of Chinese who manifested their excitement by an
almost incessant rattle of fire-crackers. By October, 1904, trains were running
regularly to Sam-shui, about twenty-five miles beyond Fat-shan. This is a
branch line. The main line will run on the other side of the West River. In
1905, the government decided to complete the line itself and cancelled the
concession, paying the company as indemnity $6,750,000. A line from Kowloon to
Canton has been planned for some time and it is likely to be hastened by the
announcement in the South China Morning Post, May 12, 1904, that an American-
Chinese syndicate had obtained a concession, granted to the authorities of
Macao by China through a special Portuguese Minister, to construct a railway
from Macao to Canton. The syndicate hopes to secure American capital and the
British merchants of Hongkong are a little nervous as they think of the
possibility of an independent outlet for the Canton-Hankow Railway at Macao.
It will thus be seen
that if these vast schemes can be realized there will not only be numerous
lines running from the coast into the interior, but a great trunk line from
Canton through the very heart of the Empire to Peking, where other roads can be
taken not only to Manchuria and Korea but to any part of Europe.
In the farther south,
the French are equally busy. By the Franco-Chinese Convention of June 20, 1895,
a French company secured the right to construct a railroad from Lao- kai to
Yun-nan-fu. The French had a road from Hai-fong in Tong-king to Sang-chou at
the Chinese frontier, and in 1896 they obtained from China a concession to
extend it to Nanning- fu, on the West River. This privilege has since been
enlarged so that the line will be continued to the treaty port of Pak-hoi on
the Gulf of Tong-king. The French fondly dream of the time when they can extend
their Yun-nan Railway northward till it taps and makes tributary to French
Indo-China the vast and fertile valley of the upper Yang-tze River. Meanwhile,
the English talk of a line from Kowloon, opposite Hongkong, to Canton, and of
connecting their Burma Railroad, which already runs from Rangoon to Kun-long
ferry, with the Yang-tze valley, so that the enormous trade of southern
interior China may not flow into a French port, as the French so ardently
desire, but into an English city.
It would be impossible
to describe adequately the far- reaching effect upon China and the Chinese of
this extension of modern railways. We have had an illustration of its meaning
in America, where the transcontinental railroads resulted in the amazing
development of our western plains and of the Pacific Coast. The effect of such
a development in China can hardly be overestimated, for China has more than ten
times the population of the trans-Mississippi region while its territory is
vaster and equally rich in natural resources. As I travelled through the land,
it seemed to me that almost the whole northern part of the Empire was composed
of illimitable fields of wheat and millet, and that in the south the millions
of paddy plots formed a rice-field of continental proportions. Hidden away in
China's mountains and underlying her boundless plateaus are immense deposits of
coal and iron; while above any other country on the globe, China has the labour
for the development of agriculture and manufacture. Think of the influence not
only upon the Chinese but the whole world, when railroads not only carry the
corn of Hunan to the famine sufferers in Shantung, but when they bring the
coal, iron and other products of Chinese soil and industry within reach of
steamship lines running to Europe and America. To make all these resources
available to the rest of the world, and in turn to introduce among the
426,000,000 of the Chinese the products and inventions of Europe and America,
is to bring about an economic transformation of stupendous proportions.
Imagine, too, what
changes are involved in the substitution of the locomotive for the coolie as a motive
power, the freight car for the wheelbarrow in the shipment of produce, and the
passenger coach for the cart and the mule-litter in the transportation of
people. Railways will inevitably inaugurate in China a new era, and when a new
era is inaugurated for one-third of the human race the other two-thirds are
certain to be affected in many ways.
That the transformation
is attended by outbreaks of violence is natural enough. Even such a people as
the English and the Scotch were at first inimical to railroads, and it is
notorious that the great Stephenson had to meet not only ridicule but strenuous
opposition. Everybody knows, too, that in the United States stage companies and
stage drivers did all they could to prevent the building of railroads, and that
learned gentlemen made eloquent speeches which proved to the entire
satisfaction of their authors that railways would disarrange all the conditions
of society and business and bring untold evils in their train. If the alert and
progressive Anglo-Saxon took this initial position, is it surprising that it
should be taken with far greater intensity by Orientals who for uncounted
centuries have plodded along in perfect contentment, and who now find that the
whole order of living to which they and their fathers have become adapted is
being shaken to its foundation by the iron horse of the foreigner? Millions of
coolies earn a living by carrying merchandise in baskets or wheeling it in
barrows at five cents a day. A single railroad train does the work of a thousand
coolies, and thus deprives them of their means of support. Myriads of farmers
grew the beans and peanuts out of which illuminating oil was made. But since
American kerosene was introduced in 1864, its use has become well-nigh
universal, and the families who depended upon the bean-oil and peanut-oil
market are starving. Cotton clothing is generally worn in China, except by the
better classes, and China formerly made her own cotton cloth. Now American
manufacturers can sell cotton in China cheaper than the Chinese can make it
themselves.
All this is, of course,
inevitable. It is indeed for the best interests of the people of China
themselves, but it enables us to understand why so many of the Chinese resent
the introduction of foreign goods. That much of this business is passing into
the hands of the Chinese themselves does not help the matter, for the people
know that the goods are foreign, and that the foreigners are responsible for
their introduction.
Nor are racial
prejudices and vested interests the only foes which the railway has to
encounter in China. As we have seen, the Chinese, while not very religious, are
very superstitious. They people the earth and air with spirits, who, in their
judgment, have baleful power over man. Before these spirits they tremble in
terror, and no inconsiderable part of their time and labour is devoted to
outwitting them, for the Chinese do not worship the spirits, except to
propitiate and deceive them. They believe that the spirits cannot turn a
corner, but must move in a straight line. Accordingly, in China you do not
often find one window opposite another window, lest the spirits may pass
through. You will seldom find a straight road from one village to another
village, but only a distractingly circuitous path, while the roads are not only
crooked, but so atrociously bad that it is difficult for the foreign traveller
to keep his temper. The Chinese do not count their own inconvenience if they
can only baffle their demoniac foes. It is the custom of the Chinese to bury their
dead wherever a geomancer indicates a "lucky" place. So particular
are they about this that the bodies of the wealthy are often kept for a
considerable period while a suitable place of interment is being found. In
Canton there is a spacious enclosure where the coffins sometimes lie for years,
each in a room more or less elaborate according to the taste or ability of the
family. The place once chosen immediately becomes sacred. In a land which has
been so densely populated for thousands of years, graves are therefore not only
innumerable but omnipresent. In my travels in China, I was hardly ever out of
sight of these conical mounds of the dead, and as a rule I could count hundreds
of them from my shendza.
Every visitor to Canton
and Chefoo will recall the hilly regions just outside of the old city walls
that are literally covered with graves, those of the richer classes being
marked by small stone or brick amphitheatres. Yet these are cemeteries not
because they have been set apart for that purpose, but because graves have
gradually filled all available spaces.
The Chinese reverence
their dead and venerate the spots in which they lie. From a Chinese view-point
it is an awful thing to desecrate them. Not only property and those sacred
feelings with which all peoples regard their dead are involved but also the
vital religious question of ancestral worship. Accordingly Chinese law protects
all graves by heavy sanctions, imposing the death penalty by strangling on the
malefactor who opens a grave without the permission of the owner, and by
decapitation if in doing so the coffin is opened or broken so as to expose the
body to view. Imagine then their feelings when they see haughty foreigners run
a railroad straight as an arrow from city to city, opening a highway over which
the dreaded spirits may run, and ruthlessly tearing through the tombs hallowed
by the most sacred associations.
No degree of care can
avoid the irritations caused by railway construction. In building the line from
Tsing-tau to Kiao-chou, a distance of forty-six miles, the Germans, as far as
practicable, ran around the places most thickly covered with graves. But in
spite of this, no less than 3,000 graves had to be removed. It was impossible
to settle with the individual owners, as it was difficult in many cases to
ascertain who they were, most of the graves being unmarked, and some of the
families concerned having died out or moved away. Moreover, the Oriental has no
idea of time, and dearly loves to haggle, especially with a foreigner whom he
feels no compunction in swindling. So the railway company made its negotiations
with the local magistrates, showing them the routes, indicating the graves that
were in the way, and paying them an average of $3 (Mexican) for removing each
grave, they to find and settle with the owners. This was believed to be fair,
for $3 is a large sum where the coin in common circulation is the copper
"cash," so small in value that 1,600 of them equal a gold dollar, and
where a few dozen cash will buy a day's food for an adult. But while some of
the Chinese were glad to accept this arrangement, others were not. They wanted
more, or they had special affection for the dead, or that particular spot had
been carefully selected because it was favoured by the spirits. Besides, the
magistrates doubtless kept a part of the price as their share. Chinese
officials are underpaid, are expected to "squeeze" commissions, and
no funds can pass through their hands without a percentage of loss. Then, as
the Asiatic is very deliberate, the company was obliged to specify a date by
which all designated graves must be removed. As many of the bodies were not
taken up within that time, the company had to remove them.
In these circumstances,
we should not be surprised that some of the most furiously anti-foreign feeling
in China was in the villages along the line of that railroad. Why should the
hated foreigner force his line through their country when the people did not
want it? Of course, it would save time, but, as an official naively said,
"We are not in a hurry." So the villagers watched the construction
with ill-concealed anger, and to-day that railroad, as well as most other
railroads in North China, can only be kept open by detachments of foreign
soldiers at all the important stations. I saw them at almost every
stop,--German soldiers from Tsing-tau to Kiao-chou, British from Tong-ku to
Peking, French from Peking to Paoting-fu, etc.
Nevertheless, railways
in China are usually profitable. It is true that the opposition to the building
of a railroad is apt to be bitter, that mobs are occasionally destructive, and
that locomotives and other rolling stock rapidly deteriorate under native
handling unless closely watched by foreign superintendents. But, on the other
hand, the Government is usually forced to pay indemnities for losses resulting
from violence. The road, too, once built, is in time appreciated by the thrifty
Chinese, who swallow their prejudices and patronize it in such enormous
numbers, and ship by it such quantities of their produce, that the business
speedily becomes remunerative, while the population and the resources of the
country are so great as to afford almost unlimited opportunity for the
development of traffic.
As a rule, on all the
roads, the first-class compartments, when there are any, have comparatively few
passengers, chiefly officials and foreigners. The second-class cars are well
filled with respectable-looking people, who are apparently small merchants,
students, minor officials, etc. The third-class cars, which are usually more
numerous, are packed with chattering peasants. The first-class fares are about
the same as ordinary rates in the United States. The second-class are about
half the first-class rates, and the third-class are often less than the equivalent
of a cent a mile. This is a wise adjustment in a land where the average man is
so thrifty and so poor that he would not and could not pay a price which would
be deemed moderate in America, and where his scale of living makes him content
with the rudest accommodations. Very little baggage is carried free, twenty
pounds only on the German lines, so that excess baggage charges amount to more
than in America.
The freight cars,
during my visit, were, for the most part, loaded with the materials and
supplies necessitated by the work of railway-construction and by the extensive
rebuilding of the native and foreign property which had been destroyed by the
Boxers. But in normal conditions the railways carry inland a large number of
foreign manufactured articles, and in turn bring to the ports the wheat, rice,
peanuts, ore, coal, pelts, silk, wool, cotton, matting, paper, straw-braid,
earthenware, sugar, tea, tobacco, fireworks, fruit, vegetables, and other
products of the interior. Short hauls are the rule, thus far, both for
passengers and freight. This is partly because the long-distance lines within
the Empire are not yet completed, and partly because the typical Chinese of the
lower classes in the interior provinces has never been a score of miles away
from his native village in his life, and has been so accustomed to regard a
wheelbarrow trip of a dozen miles as a long journey that he is a little
cautious, at first, in lengthening his radius of movement. But he soon learns,
especially as the struggle for existence in an overcrowded country begets a
desire to take advantage of an opportunity to better his condition elsewhere.
Once fairly started, he is apt to go far, as the numbers of Chinese in Siam,
the Philippines, and America clearly show. The literary and official classes
are less apt to go abroad, but they are more accustomed to moving about within
the limits of the Empire, as they must go to the central cities for their
examinations, and as offices are held for such short terms that magistrates are
frequently shifted from province to province. When this vast population of
naturally industrious and commer- cial people becomes accustomed to railways
and gets to moving freely upon them, stupendous things are likely to happen,
both for China and for the world.
And so the foreign
syndicates relentlessly continue the work of railway-construction. Trade cannot
be checked. It advances by an inherent energy which it is futile to ignore. And
it ought to advance for the result will inevitably be to the advantage of
China. A locomotive brings intellectual and physical benefits, the appliances
which mitigate the poverty and barrenness of existence and increase the ability
to provide for the necessities and the comforts of life. In one of our great
locomotive works in America I once saw twelve engines in construction for
China, and my imagination kindled as I thought what a locomotive means amid
that stagnant swarm of humanity, how impossible it is that any village through
which it has once run should continue to be what it was before, how its whistle
puts to flight a whole brood of hoary superstitions and summons a
long-slumbering people to new life. We need regret only that these benefits are
so often accompanied by the evils which disgrace our civilization.
THE political force was
set in motion partly by the ambitions of European powers to extend their
influence in Asia, and partly by the necessity for protecting the commercial
interests referred to in the preceding chapters. The conservatism and
exclusiveness of the Chinese, the disturbance of economic conditions caused by
the introduction of foreign goods, and the greed and brutality of foreign
traders combined to arouse a fierce opposition to the lodgment of the
foreigner. The early trading ships were usually armed, and exasperated by the
haughtiness and duplicity of the Chinese officials and their greedy disposition
to mulct the white trader, they did not hesitate to use force in effecting
their purpose.
But the nations of
Europe, becoming more and more convinced of the magnitude of the Chinese
market, pressed resolutely on; and with the hope of creating a better
understanding and of opening the ports to trade, they sent envoys to China. The
arrival of these envoys precipitated a new controversy, for the Chinese
Government from time immemorial considered itself the supreme government of the
world, and, not being accustomed to receive the agents of other nations except
as inferiors, was not disposed to accord the white man any different treatment.
The result was a series of collisions followed by territorial aggressions that
were numerous enough to infuriate a more peaceably disposed people than the
Chinese.
The Portuguese were the
first to come, a ship of those ven- turesome traders appearing near Canton in
1516. Its reception was kindly, but when the next year brought eight armed
vessels and an envoy, the friendliness of the Chinese changed to suspicion
which ripened into hostility when the Portuguese became overbearing and
threatening. Violence met with violence. It is said that armed parties of
Portuguese went into villages and carried off Chinese women. Feuds multiplied
and became more bloody. At Ningpo, the Chinese made awful reprisal by
destroying thirty-five Portuguese ships and killing 800 of their crews. The
execution of one or more of the members of a delegation to Peking brought
matters to a crisis, and in 1534, the Portuguese transferred their factories to
Macao, which they have ever since held, though it was not till 1887 that their
position there was officially recognized. Portuguese power has waned and Macao
to-day is an unimportant place politically, but it is significant that this
early foreign settlement in China has been and still is such a moral plague
spot that the Chinese may be pardoned if their first impressions of the white
man were unfavourable.
The Spaniards were the
next Europeans with whom the Chinese came into contact. In this case, however,
the contact was due not so much to the coming of the Spaniards to China as to
their occupation in 1543 of the Philippine Islands, with which the Chinese had
long traded and where they had already settled in considerable numbers. Mutual
jealousies resulted and Castilian arrogance and brutality ere long engendered
such bitterness that massacre after massacre of the Chinese occurred, that of
1603 almost exterminating the Chinese population of Manila.
The growing demand for
coffee, which Europeans had first received in 1580 from Arabia, brought Dutch
ships into Asiatic waters in 1598. After hostile experiences with the
Portuguese at Macao, they seized the Pescadores Islands in 1622. But the
opposition of the Chinese led the Dutch to withdraw to Formosa, where their
stormy relations with natives, Chinese from the mainland and Japanese finally
resulted in their expulsion in 1662. Since then the Dutch have contented
themselves with a few trading factories chiefly at Canton and with their
possessions in Malaysia, so that they have been less aggressive in China than
several other European nations.
A more formidable power
appeared on the scene in 1635, when four ships[36] of the English East India
Company sailed up the Pearl River. The temper of the newcomers was quickly
shown when the Chinese, incited by the jealous Portuguese, sought to prevent
their lodgment, for the English, so the record quaintly runs, "did on a
sudden display their bloody ensigns, and . . . each ship began to play
furiously upon the forts with their broadsides . . . put on board all their
ordnance, fired the council-house, and demolished all they could." Then
they sailed on to Canton, and when their peremptory demand for trading
privileges was met with evasion and excuses, they "pillaged and burned
many vessels and villages . . . spreading destruction with fire and
sword." Describing this incident, Sir George Staunton, Secretary of the
first British embassy to China, naively remarked--"The unfortunate
circumstances under which the English first got footing in China must have
operated to their disadvantage and rendered their situation for some time
peculiarly unpleasant."[37] But as early as 1684, they had established
themselves in Canton.
June 15, 1834, a
British Commission headed by Lord Napier arrived at Macao, and the 25th of the
same month proceeded to Canton empowered by an act of Parliament to negotiate
with the Chinese regarding trade "to and from the dominions of the Emperor
of China, and for the purpose of protecting and promoting such trade."[38]
The government of Canton, however, refused to receive Lord Napier's letter for
the character- istic reason that it did not purport to be a petition from an
inferior to a superior. In explaining the matter to the Hong merchants with a
view to their bringing the explanation to the attention of Lord Napier, the haughty
Governor reminded them that foreigners were allowed in China only as trading
agents, and that no functionary of any political rank could be allowed to enter
the Empire unless special permission were given by the Imperial Government in
response to a respectful petition. He added:--
"To sum up the whole matter, the nation has its laws. Even England
has its laws. How much more the Celestial Empire! How flaming bright are its
great laws and ordinances. More terrible than the awful thunderbolts! Under
this whole bright heaven, none dares to disobey them. Under its shelter are the
four seas. Subject to its soothing care are ten thousand kingdoms. The said
barbarian eye (Lord Napier), having come over a sea of several myriads of miles
in extent to examine and have superintendence of affairs, must be a man
thoroughly acquainted with the principles of high dignity."[39] As might be expected, the equally
haughty British representative indignantly protested; but without avail. He was
asked to return to Macao, and was informed that the Governor could not have any
further communication with him except through the Hong merchants, and in the
form of a respectful petition. The Governor indignantly declared:-- "There
has never been such a thing as outside barbarians sending a letter. . . . It is
contrary to everything of dignity and decorum. The thing is most decidedly
impossible. . . . The barbarians of this nation (Great Britain) coming to or
leaving Canton have beyond their trade not any public business; and the commissioned
officers of the Celestial Empire never take cognizance of the trivial affairs
of trade. . . . The some hundreds of thousands of commercial duties yearly
coming from the said nation concern not the Celestial Empire to the extent of a
hair or a feather's down. The possession or absence of them is utterly unworthy
of one careful thought."[40] Whereupon the proud Briton published and
distributed a review of the case, as he saw it, which closed as follows:--
"Governor Loo has the assurance to state in the edict of the 2d
instant that `the King (my master) has hitherto been reverently obedient.' I
must now request you to declare to them (the Hong merchants) that His Majesty,
the King of England, is a great and powerful monarch, that he rules over an extent
of territory in the four quarters of the world more comprehensive in space and
infinitely more so in power than the whole empire of China; that he commands
armies of bold and fierce soldiers, who have conquered wherever they went; and
that he is possessed of great ships, where no native of China has ever yet
dared to show his face. Let the Governor then judge if such a monarch will be
`reverently obedient' to any one."[41] The
result of the increasing irritation was a decree by the Governor of Canton peremptorily
forbidding all further trade with the English, and in retaliation the landing
of a British force, the sailing of British war-ships up the river and a battle
at the Bogue Forts which guarded the entrance of Canton. A truce was finally
arranged and Lord Napier's commission left for Macao, August 21st, where he
died September 11th of an illness which his physician declared was directly due
to the nervous strain and the many humiliations which he had suffered in his
intercourse with the Chinese authorities. The Governor meantime complacently
reported to Peking that he had driven off the barbarians!
The strain was
intensified by the determination of the British to bring opium into China. The
Chinese authorities protested and in 1839 the Chinese destroyed 22,299 chests
of opium valued at $9,000,000, from motives about as laudable as those which
led our revolutionary sires to empty English tea into Boston Harbor. England
responded by making war, the result of which was to force the drug upon an
unwilling people, so that the vice which is to-day doing more to ruin the
Chinese than all other vices combined is directly traceable to the conduct of a
Christian nation, though the England of to-day is presumably ashamed of this
crime of the England of two generations ago.
It would, however, be
inaccurate to represent Chinese objection to British opium as the sole cause of
the "Opium War" of 1840, for the indignities to which foreign traders
and foreign diplomats were continually subjected in their efforts to establish
commercial and political relations with the Chinese were rapidly drifting the
two nations into war. Still, it was peculiarly unfortunate and it put
foreigners grievously in the wrong before the Chinese that the overt act which
developed the long- gathering bitterness into open rupture was the righteous if
irregular seizure by the Chinese of a poison that the English from motives of
unscrupulous greed were determined to force upon an unwilling people. The
probability that war would have broken out in time even if there had been no
dispute about opium does not mitigate the fact that from the beginning, foreign
intercourse with China was so identified with an iniquitous traffic that the
Chinese had ample cause to distrust and dislike the white man.
This hostility was
intensified when the war resulted in the defeat of the Chinese and the treaty
of Nanking in 1842 with its repudiation of all their demands, the compulsory
cession of the island of Hongkong, the opening of not only Canton but Amoy,
Foochow, Shanghai, and Ningpo as treaty ports, the location of a British Consul
in each port, and, most necessary but most humiliating of all, the recognition
of the extra-territorial rights of all foreigners so that no matter what their
crime, they could not be tried by Chinese courts but only by their own consuls.
This treaty contributed so much to the opening of China that Dr. S. Wells
Williams characterized it as "one of the turning points in the history of
mankind, involving the welfare of all nations in its wide-reaching
consequences." It was therefore a lasting benefit to China and to the
world. But the Chinese did not then and do not yet appreciate the benefit,
especially as they saw clearly enough that the motive of the conqueror was his
own aggrandizement.
Unhappily, too, the
next war between England and China, though fundamentally due to the same
conditions as the "Opium War," was again precipitated by a quarrel
over opium, the lorcha Arrow loaded with the obnoxious drug and flying the
British flag being seized by the Chinese. Once more they suffered sore defeat
and humiliating terms of peace in the treaty of 1858. The effort of the Peking
Government to close the Pei-ho River against an armed force caused a third war
in 1860 in which the British and French captured Peking, and by their excesses
and cruelties still further added to the already long list of reasons why the
Chinese should hate their European foes.
Nor did foreign
aggression stop with this war. In 1861, England, in order to protect her interests
at Hongkong, wrested from China the adjacent peninsula of Kowloon. In 1886, she
took Upper Burma, which China regarded as one of her dependencies. In 1898,
finding that Hongkong was still within the range of modern cannon in Chinese
waters seven miles away, England calmly took 400 square miles of additional
territory, including Mirs and Deep Bays.
The visitor does not
wonder that the British coveted Hongkong, for it is one of the best harbours in
the world. Certainly no other is more impressive. Noble hills, almost
mountains, for many are over 1,000 feet and the highest is 3,200, rise on every
side. Crafts of all kinds, from sampans and slipper- boats to ocean liners and
war-ships, crowd the waters, for this is the third greatest port in the world, being
exceeded in the amount of its tonnage only by Liverpool and New York. The city
is very attractive from the water as it lies at the foot and on the slopes of
the famous Peak. The Chinese are said to number, as in Shanghai, over 300,000,
while the foreign population is only 5,000. But to the superficial observer the
proportions appear reversed as the foreign buildings are so spa- cious and
handsome that they almost fill the foreground. The business section of the city
is hot and steaming, but an inclined tramway makes the Peak accessible and many
of the British merchants have built handsome villas on that cooler, breezier
summit, 1,800 feet above the sea. The view is superb, a majestic panorama of
mountains, harbour, shipping, islands, ocean and city. By its possession and
fortification of this island of Hongkong, England to-day so completely controls
the gateway to South China that the Chinese cannot get access to Canton, the
largest city in the Empire, without running the gauntlet of British guns and mines
which could easily sink any ships that the Peking Government could send against
it, and the whole of the vast and populous basin of the Pearl or West River is
at the mercy of the British whenever they care to take it. When we add to these
invaluable holdings, the rights that England has acquired in the Yang-tze
Valley and at Wei-hai Wei in Shantung, we do not wonder that Mr. E. H. Parker,
formerly British Consul at Kiung-Chou, rather naively remarks:--
"In view of all this, no one will say, however much in matters of
detail we may have erred in judgment, that Great Britain has failed to secure
for herself, on the whole, a considerable number of miscellaneous commercial
and political advantages from the fâcheuse situation arising out of an attitude
on the part of the Chinese so hostile to progress."[42] France, as far back as 1787, obtained
the Peninsula of Tourane and the Island of Pulu Condore by "treaty"
with the King of Cochin-China. The French soon began to regard Annam as within
their sphere of influence. In 1858, they seized Saigon and from it as a base
extended French power throughout Cochin-China and Cambodia, the treaty of 1862
giving an enforced legal sanction to these extensive claims. Not content with
this, France steadily pushed her conquests northward, compelling one concession
after another until in 1882, she coolly decided to annex Tong-king. The Chinese
objected, but the war ended in a treaty, signed June 9, 1885, which gave France
the coveted region. These vast regions, which China had for centuries regarded
as tributary provinces, are now virtually French territory and are openly
governed as such.
The beginnings of
Russia's designs upon China are lost in the haze of mediæval antiquity. Russian
imperial guards are frequently mentioned at the Mongol Court of Peking in the
thirteenth century.[43] In 1652, the Russians definitely began their struggle
with the Manchus for the Valley of the Amur, a struggle which in spite of
temporary defeats and innumerable disputes Russia steadily and relentlessly
continued until she obtained the Lower Amur in 1855, the Ussuri district in
1860 and finally, by the Cassini Convention of September, 1896, the right to
extend the Siberian Railway from Nerchinsk through Manchuria. How Russia
pressed her aggressions in this region we shall have occasion to note in a
later chapter.
THE relations of the
United States with China have, as a rule, been more sympathetic than those of
European nations. Americans have not sought territorial advantage in China and
on more than one occasion, our Government has exerted its influence in favour
of peace and justice for the sorely beset Celestials.
The flag of the United
States first appeared in Chinese waters on a trading ship in 1785. From the
beginning, Americans had less trouble with the Chinese than Europeans had
experienced, partly because they had recently been at war with the English whom
the Chinese hated and feared, and partly because they were less violently
aggressive in dealing with the Chinese. By the treaties of July and October,
1844, the United States peacefully reaped the advantages which England had
obtained at the cost of war. November 17, 1856, two American ships were fired
upon by the Bogue Forts, but in spite of the hostilities which resulted, the
representatives of the United States appeared to find more favour with the
Chinese than those of any other power in the negotiations at Tien-tsin in 1858,
and their treaty was signed a week before those of the French and the British.
Article X provided that the "United States shall have the right to appoint
consuls and other commercial agents, to reside at such places in the dominions
of China as shall be agreed to be opened"; and Article XXX that,
"should at any time the Ta-Tsing Empire grant to any nation or the
merchants or citizens of any nation any right, privileges or favour connected
with either navigation, commerce, political or other intercourse which is not
conferred by this treaty, such right, privilege and favour shall at once freely
inure to the benefit of the United States, its public officers, merchants and
citizens." In the settlement
of damages, the Chinese agreed to pay to the United States half a million
taels, then worth $735,288. When the adjustments with individual claimants left
a balance of $453,400 in the treasury, Congress, to the unbounded and grateful
surprise of the Chinese, gave it back to them. Mr. Burlingame, the celebrated
United States Minister to China, became the most popular foreign minister in
Peking within a short time after his arrival in 1862, and so highly did the
Chinese Government appreciate his efforts in its behalf that during the
American Civil War it promptly complied with his request to issue an edict forbidding
all Confederate ships of war from entering Chinese ports. Mr. Foster declares
that "such an order enforced by the governments of Europe would have saved
the American commercial marine from destruction and shortened the Civil
War."[44]
The treaty of
Washington in 1868 gave great satisfaction to the Chinese Government as it
contained pacific and, appreciative references to China, an express disclaimer
of any designs upon the Empire and a willingness to admit Chinese to the United
States. The treaty of 1880, however, considerably modified this willingness and
the treaty of 1894 rather sharply restricted further immigration. But in the
commercial treaty of 1880, the United States, at the request of the Chinese
Government, agreed to a clause peremptorily forbidding any citizen of the
United States from engaging in the opium traffic with the Chinese or in any
Chinese port.
Our national policy was
admirably expressed in the note sent by the Hon. Frederick F. Low, United
States Minister at Peking, to the Tsung-li Yamen, March 20, 1871:--
"To assure peace in the future, the people must be better informed
of the purposes of foreigners. They must be taught that merchants are engaged
in trade which cannot but be beneficial to both native and foreigner, and that
missionaries seek only the welfare of the people, and are engaged in no
political plots or intrigues against the Government. Whenever cases occur in
which the missionaries overstep the bounds of decorum, or interfere in matters
with which they have no proper concern, let each case be reported promptly to
the Minister of the country to which it belongs. Such isolated instances should
not produce prejudice or engender hatred against those who observe their
obligations, nor should sweeping complaints be made against all on this
account. Those from the United States sincerely desire the reformation of those
whom they teach, and to do this they urge the examination of the Holy
Scriptures, wherein the great doctrines of the present and a future state, and
also the resurrection of the soul, are set forth, with the obligation of
repentance, belief in the Saviour, and the duties of man to himself and others.
It is owing, in a great degree, to the prevalence of a belief in the truth of
the Scnptures that Western nations have attained their power and prosperity. To
enlighten the people is a duty which the officials owe to the people, to
foreigners, and themselves; for if, in consequence of ignorance, the people
grow discontented, and insurrection and riots occur, and the lives and property
of foreigners are destroyed or imperilled, the Government cannot escape its
responsibility for these unlawful acts." Referring
to this note, the Hon. J. C. B. Davis, acting Secretary of State, wrote to Mr.
Low, October 19, 1871:--
"The President regards it (your note to the Tsung-li Yamen) as wise
and judicious. . . . Your prompt and able answer to these propositions leaves
little to be said by the Department. . . . We stand upon our treaty rights; we
ask no more, we expect no less. If other nations demand more, if they advance
pretensions inconsistent with the dignity of China as an independent Power, we
are no parties to such acts. Our influence, so far as it may be legitimately
and peacefully exerted, will be used to prevent such demands or pretensions,
should there be serious reason to apprehend that they will be put forth. We
feel that the Government of the Emperor is actuated by friendly feelings
towards the United States." But
while the Government of the United States has been thus considerate and just in
its dealings with the Chinese in China, it has, singularly enough, been most
inconsiderate and unjust in its treatment of Chinese in its own territory, and
its policy in this respect has done not a little to exasperate the Chinese. The
Chinese began to come to America in 1848, when two men and one woman arrived in
San Francisco on the brig Eagle. The discovery of gold soon brought multitudes,
the year 1852 alone seeing 2,026 arrivals. There are now about 45,000 Chinese
in California and 14,000 in Oregon and Washington. New York has about 6,300
Chinese, Philadelphia 1,150, Boston 1,250, and many other cities have little
groups, while individual Chinese are scattered all over the country, though the
total for the United States, excluding Alaska and Hawaii, is only 89,863.
The attitude of the
people of the Pacific coast towards the the Chinese is an interesting study. At
first, they welcomed their Oriental visitors. In January, 1853, the Hon. H. H.
Haight, afterwards Governor of California, offered at a representative meeting
of San Francisco citizens this resolution-- "Resolved that we regard with
pleasure the presence of greater numbers of these people (Chinese) among us as
affording the best opportunity of doing them good and through them of exerting
our influence in their native land." And this resolution was unanimously
adopted. Moreover in a new country, where there was much manual labour to be
done in developing resources and constructing railways, and where there were
comparatively few white labourers, the Chinese speedily proved to be a valuable
factor. They were frugal, patient, willing, industrious and cheap, and so the
corporations in particular encouraged them to come.
But as the number of
immigrants increased, first dislike, then irritation and finally alarm
developed, particularly among the working classes who found their means of
livelihood threatened by the competition of cheaper labour. The newspapers
began to give sensational accounts of the "yellow deluge" that might
"swamp our institutions" and to enlarge upon the danger that white
labourers would not come to California on account of the presence of Chinese.
The "sand lot orator" appeared with his frenized harangues and the
political demagogue sought favour with the multitudes by pandering to their
passions. Race prejudice, moreover, must always be taken into account,
especially when two races attempt to live together. The terms Jew and Gentile,
Greek and barbarian, Roman and enemy are suggestive of the distrust with which
one race usually regards another. Christianity has done much to moderate it,
but it still exists, and let the resident of the North and East who remembers
the recent race riots in Illinois and Ohio and New York think charitably of his
brethren who are confronted by the Chinese problem in California. So May 6,
1882, Congress passed the Restriction Act, which, as amended July 5, 1884, and
reenacted in 1903, is now in force.
There are thousands of
high-minded Christian people who are unselfishly and lovingly toiling for the
temporal and spiritual welfare of this Asiatic population in America. They
rightly feel that the people of the United States have a special duty towards
these Orientals, that the purifying power of Christianity can remove the dangers
incident to their presence in our communities, and that if we treat them aright
they will, on their return to China, mightily influence their countrymen. But
the kindly efforts of these Christian people are unfortunately insufficient to
offset the general policy of the American people as a whole, especially as that
policy is embodied in a stern law that is most harshly enforced.
Americans are apt to
think of themselves as China's best friends and the facts stated show that
there is some ground for the claim. But before we exalt ourselves overmuch, we
might profitably read the correspondence between the Chinese Ministers at
Washington and our Secretaries of State regarding the outrages upon Chinese in
the United States. Many Chinese have suffered from mob violence in San
Francisco and Tacoma and other Pacific Coast cities almost as sorely as
Americans have suffered in China. Some years ago, they were wantonly butchered
in Rock Springs, Wyoming, and it was as difficult for the Chinese to get
indemnity out of our Government as it was for the Powers to get indemnity out
of China for the Boxer outrages.
President Cleveland, in
a message to Congress in 1885, felt obliged to make an allusion to this that
was doubtless as humiliating to him as it was to decent Americans everywhere.
The Chinese Minister to the United States, in his presentation of the case to
Secretary of State Bayard, "massed the evidence going to show that the
massacre of the subjects of a friendly Power, residing in this country, was as
unprovoked as it was brutal; that the Governor and Prosecuting Attorney of the
Territory openly declared that no man could be punished for the crime, though
the murderers attempted no concealment; and that all the pretended judicial
proceedings were a burlesque." All this Mr. Bayard was forced to admit.
Indeed he did not hesitate to characterize the proceedings as "the
wretched travesty of the forms of justice," nor did he conceal his
"indignation at the bloody outrages and shocking wrongs inflicted upon a
body of your countrymen," and his mortification that "such a blot
should have been cast upon the record of our Government." There was
sarcastic significance in the cartoon of the Chicago Inter-Ocean representing a
Chinese reading a daily paper one of whose columns was headed "Massacre of
Americans in China," while the other column bore the heading,
"Massacre of Chinese in America." Uncle Sam stands at his elbow and
ejaculates, "Horrible, isn't it?" To which the Celestial blandly
inquires, "Which?"
In the North American
Review for March, 1904, Mr. Wong Kai Kah, an educated Chinese gentleman,
plainly but courteously discusses this subject under the caption of "A
Menace to America's Oriental Trade." He justly complains that though the
exclusion law expressly exempts Chinese merchants, students and travellers, yet
as a matter of fact a Chinese gentleman is treated on his arrival as if he were
a criminal and is "detained in the pen on the steamship wharf or
imprisoned like a felon until the customs officials are satisfied."
The Hon. Chester
Holcombe, formerly Secretary of the American Legation at Peking and a member of
the Chinese Immigration Commission of 1880, cites some illlustrations of the
harshness and unreasonableness of the exclusion law.[45] A Chinese merchant of
San Francisco visited his native land and brought back a bride, only to find
that she was forbidden to land on American soil. Another Chinese merchant and
wife, of unquestioned standing in San Francisco, made a trip to China, and
while there a child was born. On returning to their home in America, the
sapient officials could interpose no objection to the readmission of the
parents, but peremptorily refused to admit the three-months old baby, as, never
having been in this country, it had no right to enter it! Neither of these
preposterous decisions could be charged to the stupidity or malice of the local
officials, for both were appealed to the Secretary of the Treasury in
Washington and were officially sustained by him as in accordance with the law,
though in the latter case, the Secretary, then the Hon. Daniel Manning, in
approving the action, had the courageous good sense to write: "Burn all
this correspondence, let the poor little baby go ashore, and don't make a fool
of yourself."
Still more irritating
and insulting, if that were possible, was the treatment of the Chinese
exhibitors at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis in 1904. Our
Government formally invited China to participate, sending a special commission
to Peking to urge acceptance. China accepted in good faith, and then the
Treasury Department in Washington drew up a series of regulations requiring
"that each exhibitor, upon arrival at any seaport in this country,
should be photographed three times for purposes of identification, and should
file a bond in the penal sum of $5,000, the conditions of which were that he
would proceed directly and by the shortest route to St. Louis, would not leave
the Exposition grounds at any time after his arrival there, and would depart
for China by the first steamer sailing after the close of the Exposition. Thus
a sort of Chinese rogues' gallery was to be established at each port, and the
Fair grounds were to be made a prison pen for those who had come here as
invited guests of the nation, whose presence and aid were needed to make the
display a success. It is only just to add that, upon a most vigorous protest
made against these courteous(?) regulations by the Chinese Government and a
threat to cancel their acceptance or our invitation, the rules were withdrawn
and others more decent substituted. But the fact that they were prepared and
seriously presented to China shows to what an extent of injustice and
discourtesy our mistaken attitude and action in regard to Chinese immigration
has carried us." No
right-minded American can read without poignant shame, Luella Miner's recent
account[46] of the experiences of Fay Chi Ho and Kung Hsiang Hsi, two Chinese
students who, after showing magnificent devotion to American missionaries
during the horrors of the Boxer massacres, sought to enter the United States.
They were young men of education and Christian character who wished to complete
their education at Oberlin College, but they were treated by the United States
officials at San Francisco and other cities with a suspicion and brutality that
were "more worthy of Turkey than of free Christian America." Arriving
at the Golden Gate, September 12, 1901, it was not until January 10, 1903, that
they succeeded in reaching Oberlin, and those sixteen months were filled with
indignities from which all the efforts of influential friends and of the
Chinese Minister to the United States were unable to protect them. Whatever
reasons there may be for excluding coolie labourers, there can be none for
excluding the bright young men who come here to study. "An open door for
our merchants, our railway projectors, our missionaries, we cry, and at the
same time we slam the door in the faces of Chinese merchants and travellers and
students--the best classes who seek our shores."
The fear that the
Chinese would inundate the United States if they were permitted to come under
the same conditions as Europeans is not justified by the numbers that came
before the exclusion laws became so stringent, the total Chinese population of the
United States up to 1880, when there was no obstacle to their coming except the
general immigration law, being only 105,465--the merest handful among our
scores of millions of people. The objections that they are addicted to gambling
and immorality, that they come only for temporary mercenary purposes and that
they do not become members of the body politic but segregate themselves in
special communities, might be urged with equal justice by the Chinese against
the foreign communities in the port cities of China. Segregating themselves,
indeed! How can the Chinese help themselves, when they are not allowed to
become naturalized and are treated with a dislike and contempt which force them
back upon one another?
As for the charge that
they teach the opium habit to white boys and girls, it may be safely affirmed
that all the Americans who have acquired that dread habit from the Chinese are
not equal to a tenth of the number of Chinese women and girls who have been
given foul diseases by white men in China. Mr. Holcombe declares:--
"Our unfair treatment of China in this business will some day
return to plague us. Entirely aside from the cavalier and insulting manner with
which we have dealt with China, and the inevitably injurious effect upon our
relations and interests there, it must be said that our action has been
undignified, unworthy of any great nation, a sad criticism upon our sense of
power and ability to rule our affairs with wisdom and moderation, and
unbecoming our high position among the leading governments of the world. . . .
We have treated Chinese immigrants--never more than a handful when compared
with our population--as though we were in a frenzy of fear of them. We have
forsaken our wits in this question, abandoned all self-control, and belittled
our manhood by treating each incoming Chinaman as though he were the embodiment
of some huge and hideous power which, once landed upon our shores, could not be
dealt with or kept within bounds. Yet in point of fact he is far more easily
kept in bounds and held obedient to law than some immigrants from Europe. . . .
It must be admitted as beyond question that the coming of the Chinese to these
shores should be held under constant supervision and strict limitations. And so
should immigration from all other countries. The time has come when we ought to
pick and choose with far greater care than is exercised, and to exclude large
numbers who are now admitted.... It is this discrimination alone which is
unjust to China, which she naturally resents, and which does us serious harm in
our relations with her people." Commenting
on the regulations promulgated by the Secretary of Commerce and Labour, July
27, 1903, regarding the admission of Chinese, the Hon. David J. Brewer,
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, declared:--
"Can anything be
more harsh and arbitrary? Coming into a port of the United States, as these
petitioners did into the port of Malone, placed as they were in a house of
detention, shut off from communication with friends and counsel, examined
before an inspector with no one to advise or counsel, only such witnesses
present as the inspector may designate, and upon an adverse decision compelled
to give notice of appeal within two days, within three days the transcript forwarded
to the Commissioner- General, and nothing to be considered by him except the
testimony obtained in this star chamber proceeding. This is called due process
of law to protect the rights of an American citizen, and sufficient to prevent
inquiry in the courts....
"Must an American
citizen, seeking to return to this his native land, be compelled to bring with
him two witnesses to prove the place of his birth or else be denied his right
to return, and all opportunity of establishing his citizenship in the courts of
his country? No such rule is enforced against an American citizen of
Anglo-Saxon descent, and if this be, as claimed, a government of laws and not
of men, I do not think it should be enforced against American citizens of
Chinese descent....
"Finally, let me
say that the time has been when many young men from China came to our
educational institutions to pursue their studies when her commerce sought our
shores and her people came to build our railroads, and when China looked upon
this country as her best friend. If all this be reversed and the most populous
nation on earth becomes the great antagonist of this Republic, the careful
student of history will recall the words of Scripture, `they have sown the
wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind,' and for cause of such antagonism need
look no further than the treatment accorded during the last twenty years by
this country to the people of that nation."[47]
It is not surprising
that while Chinese students are turning in large numbers to other lands, there
are only 146 in the United States. It is a serious matter and it may have a far
reaching effect upon the future of China and of mankind when the coming men of
the Far East, desiring to place themselves in touch with modern conditions, are
compelled to avoid the one Christian nation in all the world which boasts the
most enlightened institutions and the highest development of liberty.
Meanwhile, Mr. E. H.
Parker rather sarcastically remarks:--
"The United States have always been somewhat prone to pose as the
good and disinterested friend of China, who does not sell opium or exercise any
undue political influence. These claims to the exceptional status of all honest
broker have been a little shaken by the sharp treatment of Chinese in the
United States, Honolulu and Manila."[48] The
Chinese Government long expostulated against the barbarity and injustice of the
exclusion laws and finally, finding expostulations of no avail, the scholars
and merchants of China organized in 1905 a boycott against American trade. This
quickly brought public feeling in the United States to its senses. President
Roosevelt sternly ordered all local officials to be humane and sensible in
their enforcement of the law under pain of instant dismissal, and the press
began to demand a new treaty. It is gratifying to know that in the future
Chinese immigrants are likely to be more justly treated, but it is not pleasant
to reflect that the American people apparently cared little about the iniquity
of their anti-Chinese laws until Chinese resentment touched their pockets.
IN view of some of the
facts presented in the two preceding chapters, it is not surprising that the
efforts of foreign powers to establish diplomatic relations with the Chinese
Government were rather tempestuous. A full account of the negotiations would
require a separate volume. For two generations, nation after nation sought to
protect its growing interests in China and to secure recognition from the
Chinese Government, only to be met by opposition that was sometimes courteous
and sometimes sullen, but always inflexible until it was broken down by force.
Each envoy on presenting his letters was politely told in substance that the
Chinese official concerned was extremely busy, that to his deep regret it would
not be possible to grant an immediate conference, but that as soon as possible
he would have pleasure in selecting a "felicitous day" on which they
could hold a "pleasant interview";[49]and when the envoys, worn out
by the never-ending procrastination, finally gave up in disgust and announced
their intention of returning home, the typical Chinese official blandly
replied, as the notorious Yeh did to United States Minister Marshall in January,
1854,--"I avail myself of the occasion to present my compliments, and
trust that, of late, your blessings have been increasingly tranquil."[50]
Scores of European and
American diplomatic agents had substantially the same experience. United States
Minister Reed, in 1858, truly said that the replies of the Chinese to the
memorials and letters of the foreign envoys were characterized by "the
same unmeaning profession, the same dexterous sophistry; and, what is more
material, the same passive resistance; the same stolid refusal to yield any
point of substance."[51]
Nor can it be denied
that the Chinese had some ground for holding foreign nations at arms' length as
long as they could, for with a few exceptions, prominent among whom were some
American ministers, notably Mr. Burlingame, the foreign envoys were far from
being tactful and conciliatory in their methods of approach to a proud and
ancient people. Mr. Foster reminds us that in the negotiations which terminated
in the treaty of 1858,
"The British were pushing demands not insisted upon by the other
Powers, and they could only be obtained by coercive measures. The reports in
the Blue Books and the London newspapers show that Mr. Lay, who personally
conducted the negotiations for Lord Elgin, when he found the Chinese
commissioners obdurate, was accustomed to raise his voice, charge them with
having `violated their pledged word,' and threaten them with Lord Elgin's
displeasure and the march of the British troops to Peking. And when this failed
to bring them to terms, a strong detachment of the British army was marched
through Tien-tsin to strike terror into its officials and inhabitants. Lord
Elgin in his diary records the climax of these demonstrations: `I have not
written for some days, but they have been busy ones. We went on fighting and
bullying, and getting the poor commissioners to concede one point after
another, till Friday the 25th.' The next day the treaty was signed, and he
closes the record as follows: `Though I have been forced to act almost
brutally, I am China's friend in all this.' There can be no doubt that
notwithstanding the seeming paradox, Lord Elgin was thoroughly sincere in this
declaration, and that his entire conduct was influenced by a high sense of duty
and by what he regarded as the best interests of China."[52] But can we wonder that the Chinese were
irritated and humiliated by the method adopted?
That treaty of 1858
gave some notable advantages to foreigners, for it conceded the rights of
foreign nations to send diplomatic representatives to Peking, the rights of
foreigners to travel, trade, buy, sell and reside in an increasing number of
places, and on the persistent initiative of the French envoy, powerfully
supported by the famous Dr. S. Wells Williams, Christianity was especially
recognized, and the protection, not only of missionaries but all Chinese
converts to Christianity, was specifically guaranteed. Of course, by the
convenient "most favoured nation clause" any concession obtained by
one country, was immediately claimed by all other countries.
It was this treaty
which included the famous Toleration Clause regarding Christian missions as
follows:
"The principles of the Christian religion, as professed by the
Protestant and Roman Catholic Churches, are recognized as teaching men to do
good, and to do to others as they would have others do to them. Hereafter those
who quietly profess and teach these doctrines shall not be harassed or
persecuted on account of their faith. Any person, whether citizen of the United
States or Chinese convert, who, according to these tenets, shall peaceably
teach and practice the principles of Christianity shall in no case be
interfered with or molested." The
charge has been made that the toleration clauses were smuggled into the
treaties without the knowledge of the Chinese, so that the claims to
recognition and protection which were subsequently based upon it rest upon an
unfair foundation. It is indeed possible, as Dr. S. Wells Williams, the author,
frankly admits[53]"that if the Chinese had at all comprehended what was
involved in these four toleration articles, they would never have signed one of
them." But perhaps the same thing might be said of most treaties that have
been signed in Asia. The fact remains, however, that the articles referred to
were not placed in them without the knowledge of the Chinese. Dr. Williams
explicitly states that he and the Rev. Dr. W. A. P. Martin, called upon the
Chinese Commissioners and that "some of the articles of our draft were
passed without objection, those relating to toleration (of Christianity in
China) and the payment of claims were copied off to show the Commissioner,
those permitting and regulating visits to Peking were rejected, and others were
amended, the colloquy being conducted with considerable animation and constant
good humour on his part."[54]
In a letter written
many years afterwards and dated New Haven, September 12, 1878, Dr. Williams
states that the first draft of the Toleration Clauses was rejected by the
Chinese Commissioners, as he believes at the instigation of the French
Legation, because the clause recognized Protestant missions. Dr. Williams then
states that as soon as he could, he drew up another form of the same article
and laid it before the Chinese Imperial Commissioners. He writes:--
"It was quite the same article as before, but they accepted it
without any further discussion or alteration; however, the word `whoever' in my
English version was altered by Mr. Reed to `any person, whether citizen of the
United States, or Chinese convert, who'--because he wished every part of the
treaty to refer to United States citizens, and cared not very much whether it
had a toleration article or not. I did care, and was thankful to God that it
was inserted. It is the only treaty in existence which contains the royal
law." In Dr. Williams' Journal for
June 18, 1858, the following record appears:
"I went to sleep last night with the impression that after such a
reply from the Minister it would be vain to urge a new draft, but after a
restless sleep I awoke to the idea of trying once more, this time saying
nothing about foreign missionaries. The article was sketched as soon as I could
write it and sent off by a messenger before breakfast; it was a last chance,
and every hope went with it for success. At half-past nine an answer came.
Permission for Christians meeting for worship and the distribution of books was
erased, while the words open ports were inserted in such a connection that it
was rendered illegal for any one, native or otherwise, to profess Christianity
anywhere else. The design was merely to restrict missionaries to the ports, but
the effect would be detrimental in the highest degree to natives. I decided at
once to go to see the Viscount and try to settle the question with him
personally. Chairs were called, whose bearers seemed to Martin and me an
eternity in coming, but at last we reached the house where Captain Du Pont and
his marines so unexpectedly turned up last Saturday. Our amendment was handed
to Chang, who began to cavil at it, but he was promptly told that he must take
it to the Commissioners for approval as it stood, since this was the form we
were decided on. Our labour and anxiety were all repaid, and ended by his
return in a few minutes announcing Kweilang's assent to the article as it now
stands in the treaty." In
order to settle this point beyond all possible doubt, I recently wrote to the
Rev. Dr. W. A. P. Martin, now in China, asking him to give me his recollection
of the incident. He replied as follows:--
"The charge that the toleration article was `smuggled into the
treaty of 1858' is so far from the truth that those who make it can be shown to
be either superficial or uncandid. If it means that `the Chinese did not know
what they were agreeing to, I answer that they could have no excuse for
ignorance. An edict granting toleration had been issued as early as 1845. This
had been followed by more than ten years of missionary work at the newly opened
ports--quite sufficient to make them acquainted with the character of
Protestant missions. Of Roman Catholic missions prior to the edict, they had
centuries of experience. Moreover, during our negotiations at Tien-tsin, they
had ample time for a fresh study of the subject, the draft of our treaty being under
daily discussion for more than a week before it was signed. Nor was our draft
the first to bring up the question of toleration. The Russian Treaty signed on
June 13th (five days in advance of ours) contained one explicit provision for
the toleration of Christianity under the form of the Greek Church; but it made
no reference to Protestant or Roman Catholic. Not only was the American Treaty
the first to give these a legal status, it gives the Chinese a sample of
Christian teaching in the Golden Rule, which Dr. Williams inserted in the
article expressly to show them what they were agreeing to. Never were
negotiations more open and above board. In their earlier stages I gave a copy
of my book on the Evidences of Christianity to Jushon, one of the deputies, who
was so much pleased with it, that he became my friend and greeted me warmly on
my removal to Peking. That the Chinese Ministers had any conception of the new
force they were admitting into their country, I do not assert; but I hold
strongly that this spiritual force is the only thing that can raise the Chinese
people out of their present state of semi-barbarism.
"W.A.P. MARTIN.
"Wuchang, China, February 18, 1904." It
was not until 1861, that legations were established in Peking. But while this
gave foreign nations a solid foothold at the capital, it did not by any means
give them the recognition that they demanded, for their intercourse with the
court was still hedged about with innumerable exactions and indignities. The
Hon. Thomas Francis Wade, British Minister at Peking, in a long note to the
Chinese Minister Wen Hsiang, dated June 18, 1871, discussing the troubles that
had arisen between the Chinese and foreigners, justly said:
"It is quite impossible that China should ever attain to a just
appreciation of what foreign Powers expect of her, or that she should insure
from foreign Powers what she conceives due to her, until she have honestly
accepted the conditions of official intercourse which are the sole guarantees
against international differences. The chief of these is an interchange of
representatives. I do not say that it is a panacea for all evil; but it is
incontestable that without it wars would be of far more frequent recurrence,
and till China is represented in the West, I see no hope of our ever having
done with the incessant recriminations and bickerings between the Yamen and
foreign legations, by which the lives of diplomatic agents in Peking are made
weary. If China is wronged, she must make herself heard; and, on the other
hand, if she would abstain from giving offense, she must learn what is passing
in the world beyond her." The
Chinese Government was slow in coming to this view, but western nations
steadily persisted. One by one new concessions were wrung from the reluctant
Chinese. Mr. E. H. Parker[55] has tabulated as follows the treaties of foreign
powers with China from 1689 to 1898:--
NOT content with
innumerable aggressions and extorted treaty concessions, Western nations boldly
discussed the dismemberment of China as certain to come, and authors and
journalists disputed as to which country should possess the richest parts of
the Empire whose impotence to defend itself was taken for granted. Chinese
ministers in Europe and America reported these discussions to their superiors
in Peking. The English papers in China republished some of the articles and
added many effective ones of their own, so that speedily all the
better-informed Chinese came to know that foreigners regarded China as
"the carcass of the East."
Nor was all this talk
empty boasting. China saw that France was absorbing Siam and had designs on
Syria; that Britain was already lord of India and Egypt and the Straits
Settlements; that Germany was pressing her claims in Asiatic Turkey; that
Russia had absorbed Siberia and was striving to obtain control of Palestine,
Persia and Korea; and that Italy was trying to take Abyssinia. Moreover the
Chinese perceived that of the numerous islands of the world, France had the
Loyalty, Society, Marquesas, New Hebrides and New Caledonia groups, and claimed
the Taumotu or Low Archipelago; that Great Britain had the Fiji, Cook, Gilbert,
Ellice, Phœnix, Tokelan and New Zealand groups, with northern Borneo, Tasmania,
and the whole of continental Australia, besides a large assortment of
miscellaneous islands scattered over the world wherever they would do the most
good; that Germany possessed the Marshall group and Northeast New Guinea, and
divided with England the Solomons; that Spain had the Ladrones, the 652 islands
of the Carolines, the 1,725 more or less of the Philippines, beside some
enormously valuable holdings in the West Indies; that the Dutch absolutely
ruled Java, Sumatra, the greater part of Borneo, all of Celebes and the
hundreds of islands eastward to New Guinea, half of which was under the Dutch
flag; that the new world power on the American continent took the Hawaiian
Islands and in two swift campaigns drove Spain out of the West Indies and the
Philippines, not to return them to their inhabitants but to keep them herself;
and that in the Samoan and Friendly Islands, resident foreigners owned about
everything worth having and left to the native chiefs only what the foreigners
did not want or could not agree upon. As for mighty Africa, the Berlin
Conference of 1884 was the signal for a game of grab on so colossal a scale
that to-day out of Africa's 11,980,000 square miles, France owns 3,074,000,
Great Britain 2,818,000, Turkey 1,672,000, Belgium 900,000, Portugal 834,000,
Germany 864,000, Italy 596,000, and Spain 263,000,--a total of 10,980,000, or
ten-elevenths of the whole continent, and doubtless the Powers will take the
remaining eleventh whenever they feel like it. Well does the Rev. Dr. James
Stewart call this "the most stupendous and unparalleled partition of the
earth's surface ever known in the world's history. . . . The vast area was
partitioned, annexed, appropriated, or converted into `spheres of influence,'
or `spheres of interest'; whatever may be the exact words we may use, the
result is the same. Coast lands and hinterlands all went in this great
appropriation, and mild is the term for the deed."[56]
"Gobbling the
globe," this process has been forcefully if inelegantly termed. No wonder
that the white race has been bitterly described as "the most arrogant and
rapacious, the most exclusive and intolerant race in history."
We can understand,
therefore, the alarm of the Chinese as they saw the greedy foreigners descend
upon their own shores in such ways as to justify the fear that what remained of
the Celestial Empire, too, would be speedily reduced to vassalage. Germany,
which was among the last of the European powers to obtain a foothold in China,
but which had been growing more and more uneasy as she saw the acquisitions of
her rivals, suddenly found her opportunity in the murder of two German Roman
Catholic priests in the province of Shantung, December 1897, and on the 14th of
that month Admiral Diedrich landed marines at Kiao-chou Bay. At that time
nothing but a few straggling, poverty-stricken Chinese villages were to be seen
at the foot of the barren hills bordering the bay. But the keen eye of Germany
had detected the possibilities of the place and early in the following year,
under the forms of an enforced ninety-nine year lease, Germany took this
splendid harbour and the territory bordering it, and at Tsing-tau began to push
her interests so aggressively that the whole province of Shantung was thrown
into the most intense excitement and alarm.
Knowing how recently
the city had been founded, I looked upon it with wonder. It was only three
years and a half since the Germans had taken possession, but no boom city in
the United States ever made more rapid progress in so short a period. Not a
Chinese house could be seen, except a village in the distance. But along the
shores rose a city of modern buildings with banks, department stores, public
buildings, comfortable residences, a large church and imposing marine barracks.
Landing, I found broad streets, some of them already well paved and others
being paved by removing the dirt to a depth of twelve inches and then filling
the excavation solid with broken rock. The gutters were wide and of stone, the
sewers deep and, in some cases, cut through the solid rock.
The city was under
naval control, the German Governor being a naval officer. Several war-ships
were lying in the harbour. A large force of marines was on shore, and the hills
commanding the city and harbour were bristling with cannon. The Germans were
spending money without stint. No less than 11,000,000 marks were being expended
that year for streets, sewers, water and electric light works, barracks,
fortifications, wharves, a handsome hotel and public buildings, while the Government
had appropriated 50,000,000 Mex. (5,000,000 a year for ten years) for deepening
and enlarging the inner harbour. But in addition to these Government
expenditures, many enterprising business men were undertaking large enterprises
on their own account. It was apparent to the most casual observer that Germany
had entered Shantung to stay and that she considered the whole vast province of
Shantung as her sphere of influence. The railway, already referred to in a
former chapter, was being constructed into the interior with solid road-bed,
steel ties and substantial stone stations. German mining engineers were
prospecting for minerals and everything indicated large plans for a permanent
occupation.
The site of Tsing-tau
is beautiful and exceptionally healthful. While the ports of Teng-chou and
Chefoo are also in Shantung, the first is now of little importance, for it is
on the northeastern part of the promontory with a mountain range behind it so
that it is difficult of access from the interior. Chefoo, which was not opened
as a port until later, rapidly superseded Teng-chou in importance and continues
to grow with great rapidity. But it is plain that the Germans intend to make
Tsing-tau, only twenty hours distant by steamer, the chief port of Shantung, and
as they have the railroad, they will doubtless succeed.
From hundreds of
outlying villages, the Chinese are flocking into Tsing-tau, attracted by the
remunerative employment which the Germans offer, for of course, tens of
thousands of labourers are necessary to carry out the extensive improvements
that are planned. The thrifty Chinese are quite willing to take the foreigner's
money, however much they may dislike him. Since the white man is here, we might
as well get what we can out of him, the Celestials philosophically argue. And
so the Germans, who had ruthlessly destroyed the old, unsani- tary Chinese
villages which they had found on their arrival, laid out model Chinese villages
on the outskirts of the city. The new Chinese city is about two and a half
miles from the foreign city and is connected with it by a splendid macadamized
road for which the Germans filled ravines, cut through the solid rock of the
hillsides and made retaining walls and culverts of solid masonry. Some of the
old stone houses were allowed to remain, but many of the poorer houses were
demolished, streets were straightened and the whole city placed under strict
sanitary supervision. The Chinese as they came in were told where and how their
houses must be erected on the regularly laid out streets. The houses are
numbered and many of the stores have signs in both German and Chinese. At the
time of my visit, the Chinese city had a population of 8,000, the streets were
crowded, and marketing, picture and theatrical exhibitions and all the forms of
life, so common in Chinese cities, were to be seen on every side. Since then,
the population has greatly increased, while another Chinese city has been laid
out on the open ground on the other side of the foreign city. There is every
indication that Tsing-tau is to become one of the great port cities of China,
and the opportunities for trade, the coming of steamships and the construction
of the railway are making it an attractive place to multitudes of ambitious
Chinese.
The German Government
owns all the land in and about Tsing-tau, and will not sell save on condition
that approved buildings are erected within three years. The single tax plan has
been adopted, that is, there is no tax on buildings but there is a six per
cent. tax on all land that is sold. This shuts out the land speculator who has
injured so many American cities. No man can buy cheap land and let it lie idle
while it rises in value as the result of his neighbour's improvements and the
growth of the community. The German Government will do its own speculating and
reap for itself the increment of its costly and elaborate improvements. It is
making a noble city. Streets, sewers, buildings, docks, sea walls,
harbour-dredging, tree planting--all point to great and far-reaching plans,
while under pretext of guarding the railroad, troops are being gradually pushed
into the interior. The Kaomi garrison, in the hinterland eighteen miles beyond
the Kiao-chou city line and sixty- four from Tsing-tau, consisted of 100 men
when I was there in the spring of 1901. A few months later it was 1,000.
Plainly the Germans are moving in.
The ease and dispatch
with which Germany succeeded in obtaining an enormously valuable strategic
point in the rich province of Shangtung aroused the cupidity of rival nations,
and they threw off all pretense to decency in their scramble for further
territories. Russian statesmen had long ago seen that the Pacific Ocean was to
be the arena of world events of colossal significance to the race. We have
noted in a former chapter how she had already extended her territory till she
touched the Pacific Ocean on the far north and how, partly that she might
develop it, but primarily that she might have a highway through it to the great
ocean which lies beyond, she had begun the construction of the Trans-Siberian
Railway, the late Czar, Alexander III, guaranteeing out of his own private
funds 350,000,000 rubles towards the necessary expense. The most southern port
of Russia on the Pacific Ocean was Vladivostok, which was therefore made the
terminus of the line and rapidly and strongly fortified. But Russia was not
content with a harbour which is closed by ice six months in the year. She
therefore began to press her way southward through Manchuria. In November,
1894, Japan had wrested from China the peninsula terminating in Port Arthur,
and the treaty of Shimonoseki, at the close of the war, had given Japan the
Liao-tung peninsula, opened four Manchurian ports to foreign trade, and
conceded to Japan valuable commercial rights in Manchuria, rights which gave
the Japanese virtual ascendancy. Ostensibly in the interests of China, but
really of her own ambition, Russia gravely said that it would never do to
permit Japan to remain in Manchuria, virtuously declaring that "the integrity
of China must be preserved at all costs." She persuaded France and Germany
to join her in notifying the Japanese Government that "it would not be
permitted to retain permanent possession of any portion of the mainland of
Asia." Japan, feeling at that time unprepared to fight three European
powers, was forced to relinquish the prize of victory. The solicitude of Russia
for the integrity of helpless China was quite touching, but it did not prevent
her from making one encroachment after another upon the coveted territory until
March 8, 1898, to the rage and chagrin of Japan, she peremptorily demanded for
herself and March 27th of the same year obtained Port Arthur including
Ta-lien-wan and 800 square miles of adjoining territory. She speciously
declared that "her occupation of Port Arthur was merely temporary and only
to secure a harbour for wintering the Russian fleet." But grim
significance was given to her action by the prompt appearance at Port Arthur of
20,000 Russian soldiers and 90,000 coolies who were set to work developing a
great modern fortification almost under the eyes of the Chinese capital.
As it was expedient,
however, to have a commercial city on the peninsula as well as a fortification,
as the harbour of Port Arthur was not large enough for both naval and
commercial purposes, and as the Russians did not wish anyway to make their
fortified base accessible to the rest of the world, they decided to build a
city forty-five miles north of Port Arthur and call it Dalny, which quite
appropriately means "far away." Most cities grow, but this was too
slow a method for the purpose of the Slav, and therefore, a metropolis was
forthwith made to order as a result of an edict issued by the Czar, July 30,
1899.
The harbour of Dalny is
an exceptionally fine one with over thirty feet of water at low tide so that
the largest vessels can lie alongside the docks and transfer their cargoes
directly to trains for Europe. Great piers were constructed; enormous
warehouses and elevators erected; gas, electric light, water and street-car
plants installed; wide and well-sewered streets laid out; and a thoroughly
modern and handsome city planned in four sections, the first of which was
administrative, the second mercantile, the third residence, and the fourth
Chinese. The Russians were sparing neither labour nor expense in the
construction of this ambitious city which, by January, 1904, already had a
population of over 50,000, and represented a reported expenditure of about
$150,000,000. April 9, 1902, Russia solemnly promised to evacuate Manchuria
October 8, 1903. But when that day came, she remained, as every one knew that
she would, under the unblushing pretext that Manchuria was not yet sufficiently
pacified to justify her withdrawal from a region where her interests were so
great. As Manchuria was at the time as quiet as some of Russia's European
provinces, the reason alleged reminds one of the Arab's reply to a man who
wished to borrow his rope--"I need it myself to tie up some sand
with." "But," expostulated the would-be borrower, "that is
a poor excuse for you cannot tie up sand with a rope." "I know
that," was the calm rejoinder, "but any excuse will serve when I
don't want to do a thing." So to the concern of China, the envy of Europe
and the wrath of Japan, Manchuria practically became a Russian province until
Japan, unable to restrain her exasperation longer and feeling that Russia's
plans were a menace to her own safety, had developed her army and navy and
begun the war which not only arrested the advance of the Slav but expelled him
from most of the territory he had seized.
Not to be outdone by
Germany and Russia, other nations made haste to seize what they could find.
April 2, 1898, England secured the lease of Lin-kung, with all the islands and
a strip ten miles wide on the mainland, thus giving the British a strong post
at Wei-hai Wei. April 22d, France peremptorily demanded, and May 2d obtained,
the bay of Kwangchou-wan, while Japan found her share in a concession for
Foochow, Woosung, Fan-ning, Yo-chou and Chung-wan-tao. By 1899, in all China's
3,000 miles of coast line, there was not a harbour in which she could mobilize
her own ships without the consent of the hated foreigner.
A clever Chinese artist
in Hongkong grimly drew a cartoon of the situation of his country as he and his
countrymen saw it. The Russian Bear, coming down from the north, his feet
planted in Manchuria and northern Korea, sees the British Bulldog seated in
southern China, while "The Sun Elf" ( Japan), sitting upon its Island
Kingdom, proclaims that "John Bull and I will watch the Bear." The
German Sausage around Kiau-chou makes no sign of life, but the French Frog,
jumping about in Tonquin and Annam and branded "Fashoda and Colonial
Expansion," tries to stretch a friendly hand to the Bear over the
Bulldog's head. Then, to offset this proffered assistance to the Bear, the
Chinese artist, with characteristic cunning, brings in the New World power. He
places the American Eagle over the Philippines, its beak extended towards the
Bulldog, and writes upon it the phrase, "Blood is thicker than
water."[57]
As far as Americans
have any sympathy at all with European schemes for conquest in China, they
naturally look with more favour on England and Germany than on France and
Russia. The reason is apparent. England establishes honest and beneficent
government wherever she goes and makes its advantages freely accessible to the
citizens of other nations, so that an American is not only as safe but as
unrestricted in all his legitimate activities as he would be in his own land.
Germany, too, while not so hospitable as England, is nevertheless a Teutonic,
Protestant power under whose ascendancy in Shantung our missionaries find ample
freedom. But France and Russia are more narrowly and jealously national in
their aims. Their possessions are openly regarded as assets to be managed for
their own interests rather than for those of the na- tives or of the world. The
colonial attitude of the former towards all Protestant missionary work is
dictated by the Roman Catholic Church and is therefore hostile to Protestants,
while the Russian Greek Church tolerates no other form of religion that it can
repress. A recent traveller reports that Russia has put every possible
obstruction in the way of reopening the mission stations that were abandoned
during the Boxer outbreak. She has already put Manchuria under the Greek
archimandrite of Peking, and has sought to limit all Christian teaching to the
members of the Orthodox Greek Church. It is significant that Russia is
strenuously opposing, under a variety of pretexts, the "open door" which
Secretary Hay obtained from China in Manchuria, while there is ground for
suspecting that Russian influence in Constantinople is preventing, or at least
delaying as long as possible, that legal recognition of American rights in
Turkey which the Sultan has already granted to several other nations. As for
Russian ascendancy in Manchuria, everybody knows that it is inimical to the
interests of other countries and that there will be little freedom of trade if
Russia can prevent it.
THE effect of the
operation of these commercial and political forces upon a conservative and
exclusive people was of course to exasperate to a high degree. A proud people
were wounded in their most sensitive place by the ruthless and arrogant way in
which foreigners broke down their cherished wall of separation from the rest of
the world and trampled upon their highly-prized customs and institutions.
It must be admitted
that the history of the dealings of the Christian powers with China is not
altogether pleasant reading. The provocation was indeed great, but the
retaliation was heavy. And all the time foreign nations refused to grant to the
Chinese the privileges which they forced them to grant to others. We sometimes
imagine that the Golden Rule is peculiar to Christianity. It is indeed in its
highest form, but its spirit was recognized by Confucius five centuries before
Christ. His expression of it was negative, but it gave the Chinese some idea of
the principle. They were not, therefore, pleasantly impressed when they found
the alleged Christian nations violating that principle. Even Christian America
has not been an exception. We have Chinese exclusion laws, but we will not
allow China to exclude Americans. We sail our gunboats up her rivers, but we
would not allow China to sail gunboats into ours. If a Chinese commits a crime
in America, he is amenable to American law as interpreted by an American court.
But if an American commits a crime in China, he can be tried only by his
consul; not a Chinese court in the Empire has jurisdiction over him, and the
people naturally infer from this that we have no confidence in their sense of
justice or in their administration of it.
This law of
extra-territoriality is one of the chief sources of irritation against
foreigners, for it not only implies contempt, but it makes foreigners a
privileged class. Said Minister Wen Hsiang in 1868:--"Take away your
extra-territorial clause, and merchant and missionary may settle anywhere and
everywhere. But retain it, and we must do our best to confine you and our
trouble to the treaty ports." But unfortunately this is a cause of
resentment that Western nations cannot prudently remove in the near future.
While we can understand the resentment of the Chinese magistrates as they see
their methods discredited by the foreigner, it would not do to subject
Europeans and Americans to Chinese legal procedure. The language of Mr. Wade,
the British Minister, to Minister Wen Hsiang in June, 1, is still applicable:--
"Experience has shown that, in many cases, the latter (law of
China) will condemn a prisoner to death, where the law of England would be satisfied
by a penalty far less severe, if indeed, it were possible to punish the man at
all. It is to be deplored that misunderstandings should arise from a difference
in our codes; but I see no remedy for this until China shall see fit to revise
the process of investigation now common in her courts. So long as evidence is
wrung from witnesses by torture, it is scarcely possible for the authorities of
a foreign power to associate themselves with those of China in the trial of a
criminal case; and unless the authorities of both nationalities are present,
there will always be a suspicion of unfairness on one side or the other. This
difficulty surmounted, there would be none in the way of providing a code of
laws to affect mixed cases; none, certainly, on the part of England; none, in
my belief, either, on the part of any other Power."[58] Meantime, as the Hon. Frederick F. Low,
United States Minister at Peking, wrote to the State Department at Wash-
ington, March 20, 1871:--"The dictates of humanity will not permit the
renunciation of the right for all foreigners that they shall be governed and
punished by their own laws."
But the Chinese do not
see the question in that light. Their methods of legal procedure are sanctioned
in their eyes by immemorial custom and they fail to understand why forms that,
in their judgment, are good enough for Chinese are not also good enough for
despised foreigners. When we take into consideration the further fact that the
typical white man, the world over, acts as if he were a lord of creation, and
treats Asiatics with more or less condescension as if they were his inferiors,
we can understand the very natural resentment of the Chinese, who have just as
much pride of race as we have, and who indeed consider themselves the most highly
civilized people in the world. The fact that foreign nations are able to thrash
them does not convince them that those nations are superior, any more than a
gentleman's physical defeat by a pugilist would satisfy him that the pugilist
is a better man. It is not without significance that the white man is generally
designated in China as "the foreign devil."
The natural resentment
of the Chinese in such circumstances was intensified by the conduct of the
foreign soldiery. Army life is not a school of virtue anywhere, particularly in
Asia where a comparatively defenseless people open wide opportunities for evil
practices and where Asiatic methods of opposition infuriate men. In almost
every place where the soldiers of Europe landed, they pillaged and burned and
raped and slaughtered like incarnate fiends. Chefoo to-day is an illustration
of the effect. It is a city where foreigners have resided for forty years,
where there are consuls of all nations and extensive business relations with
other ports, where foreign steamers regularly touch and where war-ships
frequently lie. There were five formidable cruisers there during my visit.
Surely the Chinese of Chefoo should understand the situation. But during the
troubles of 1860, French troops were quartered there and their conduct was so
atrociously brutal and lustful that Chefoo has ever since been bitterly
anti-foreign. The Presbyterian missionaries have repeatedly tried to do
Christian work in the old walled city, but have never succeeded in gaining a
foothold, and all their local missionary work is confined to the numerous
population which has come from other parts of the province and settled around
Chefoo proper. Nothing but battleships in the harbour kept that old city from
attacking foreigners during the Boxer outbreak. Even to-day the cry "kill,
kill" is sometimes raised as a foreigner walks through the streets, and
inflammatory placards are often posted on the walls.
With the record of
foreign aggressions in China before us, can we wonder that the Chinese became
restive? The New York Sun truly says: "It was while Chinese territory was
thus virtually being given away that the people became uneasy and riots were
started; the people felt that their land had been despoiled." The Hon.
Chester Holcombe truly remarks:--
"Those who desire to know more particularly what the Chinese think
about it, how they regard the proposed dismemberment of the Empire and the
extinction of their national life, are referred to the Boxer movement as
furnishing a practical exposition of their views. It contained the concentrated
wrath and hate of sixty years' slow growth. And it had the hearty sympathy of
many, many millions of Chinese, who took no active part in it. For, beyond a
doubt, it represented to them a patriotic effort to save their country from
foreign aggression and ultimate destruction.... The European Powers have only
themselves to thank for the bitter hatred of the Chinese and the crash in which
it culminated. Governmental policies outrageous and beyond excuse, scandalous
diplomacy, and unprovoked attacks upon the rights and possessions of China,
have been at the root of all the trouble."[59a] And shall we pretend innocent surprise that the
irritation of the Chinese rapidly grew? Suppose that after the murder of the Chinese
in Rock Springs, Wyoming, a Chinese fleet had been able to seize New York and
Boston Harbours, and suppose our Government had been weak enough to acquiesce.
Would the American people have made any protest? Would the lives of Chinese
have been safe on our streets? And was it an entirely base impulse that led the
men of China violently to oppose the forcible seizure of their country by
aliens? The Empress Dowager declared in her now famous edict:-- "The
various Powers cast upon us looks of tiger-like voracity, hustling each other
in their endeavours to be first to seize upon our innermost territories. They
think that China, having neither money nor troops, would never venture to go to
war with them. They fail to understand, however, that there are certain things
which this Empire can never consent to, and that, if hard pressed, we have no
alternative but to rely upon the justice of our cause, the knowledge of which
in our breasts strengthens our resolves and steels us to present a united front
against our aggressors." That would probably be called patriotic if it had
emanated from the ruler of any other people.
When with Russia in
Manchuria, Germany in Shantung, England in the valleys of the Yang-tze and the
Pearl, France in Tonquin and Japan in Formosa, the whole Empire appeared to be
in imminent danger of absorption, the United States again showed itself the
friend of China by trying to stem the tide. Our great Secretary of State, John
Hay, sent to the European capitals that famous note of September, 1899, which
none of them wanted to answer but which none of them dared to refuse, inviting
them to join the United States in assuring the apprehensive Chinese that the
Governments of Europe and America had no designs upon China's territorial
integrity, but simply desired an "open door" for commerce, and that
any claims by one nation of "sphere of influence" would "in no
way interfere with any treaty port or any vested interest" within that
sphere, but that all nations should continue to enjoy equality of treatment. In
response, the Russian Government, December 30, 1899, through Count Mouravieff,
suavely declared:--
"The Imperial Government has already demonstrated its firm
intention to follow the policy of the `open door.' . . . As to the ports now
opened or hereafter to be opened to foreign commerce by the Chinese Government,
. . . the Imperial Government has no intention whatever of claiming any
privileges for its own subjects to the exclusion of other foreigners." The other Powers also assented. But
it was all in vain. Matters had already gone too far, and, beside, the Chinese
knew well enough that the Powers were not to be trusted beyond the limits of
self-interest.
Some of the Chinese, it
is true, had the intelligence to see that changes were inevitable, and the
result was the development of a Reform Party among the Chinese themselves. It
was not large, but it included some influential men, though, unfortunately,
their zeal was not always tempered by discretion. The war with Japan powerfully
aided them. True, many of the Chinese do not yet know that there was such a
war, for news travels slowly in a land whose railway and telegraph lines,
newspapers and post-offices are yet few, and whose average inhabitant has never
been twenty miles from the village in which he was born. But some who did know
realized that Japan had won by the aid of Western methods. An eagerness to
acquire those methods resulted. Missionaries were besieged by Chinese who
wished to learn English. Modern books were given a wide circulation. Several of
the influential advisers of the Emperor became students of Occidental science
and political economy. In five years, 1893-1898, the book sales of one
society--that for the Diffusion of Christian and General Knowledge Among the
Chinese--leaped from $817 to $18,457, while every mission press was run to its
utmost capacity to supply the new demands.
A powerful exponent of
the new ideas appeared in the great Viceroy, Chang Chih-tung. He wrote a book,
entitled "China's Only Hope," exposing the causes of China's weakness
and advocating radical reforms. The book was printed by the Tsung-li Yamen, and
by royal command copies were sent to the high officials of the Empire. Big
yellow posters advertised it from the walls of leading cities, and in a short
time a million copies were sold. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that
"this book made more history in a shorter time than any other modern piece
of literature, that it astonished a kingdom, convulsed an Empire and brought on
a war."
The Reform Party urged
the young Emperor to use the imperial power for the advancement of his people.
He yielded to the pressure and became an eager and diligent student of the
Western learning and methods. In the opening months of the year 1898, he bought
no less than 129 foreign books, including a Bible and several scientific works,
besides maps, globes, and wind and current charts. Nor did he stop with this,
but with the ardour of a new convert issued the now famous reform edicts,
which, if they could have been carried into effect, would have revolutionized
China and started her on the high road to national greatness. These memorable
decrees have been summarized as follows:
1. Establishing a
university at Peking.
2. Sending imperial
clansmen to study European and American Governments.
3. Encouraging art,
science and modern agriculture.
4. Expressing the
willingness of the Emperor to hear the objections of the conservatives to
progress and reform.
5. Abolishing the
literary essay as a prominent part of the Government examinations.
6. Censuring those who
attempted to delay the establishment of the Peking Imperial University.
7. Directing that the
construction of the Lu Han railway be carried on with more vigour.
8. Advising the
adoption of Western arms and drill for all the Tartar troops.
9. Ordering the
establishment of agricultural schools in the provinces to teach improved
methods of agriculture.
10. Ordering the
introduction of patent and copyright laws.
11. Ordering the Board
of War and the Foreign Office to report on the reform of the military
examinations.
12. Offering special
rewards to inventors and authors.
13. Ordering officials
to encourage trade and assist merchants.
14. Ordering the
foundation of school boards in every city in the Empire.
15. Establishing a
Bureau of Mines and Railroads.
16. Encouraging
journalists to write on all political subjects.
17. Establishing naval
academies and training ships.
18. Summoning the
ministers and provincial authorities to assist the Emperor in his work of
reform.
19. Directing that
schools be founded in connection with all the Chinese legations in foreign
countries for the benefit of the children of Chinese in those countries.
20. Establishing
commercial bureaus in Shanghai for the encouragement of trade.
21. Abolishing six
useless Boards in Peking.
22. Granting the right
to memorialize the Throne by sealed memorials.
23. Dismissing two
presidents and four vice-presidents of the Board of Rites for disobeying the
Emperor's orders that memorials should be presented to him unopened.
24. Abolishing the
governorships of Hupeh, Kwang-tung and Yun-nan as a useless expense to the
country.
25. Establishing
schools for instruction in the preparation of tea and silk.
26. Abolishing the slow
courier posts in favour of the Imperial Customs' Post.
27. Approving a system
of budgets as in Western countries.
But, alas, it is
disastrous to try to "hustle the East." The Chinese are phlegmatic
and will endure much, but this was a little too much. Myriads of scholars and
officials, who saw their hopes and positions jeopardized by the new tests,
protested with all the virulence of the silversmiths of Ephesus, and all the
conservatism of China rallied to their support.
Meantime, the Yellow
River, aptly named "China's Sorrow," again overflowed its banks,
devastating a region 100 miles long and varying from twenty-five to fifty miles
wide. Three hundred villages were swept away and 1,000,000 people made
homeless. Famine and pestilence speedily followed, so that the whole
catastrophe assumed appalling proportions. Even American communities are apt to
become reckless and riotous in time of calamity, and in China this tendency of
human nature was intensified by a superstition which led the people to believe
that the disaster was due to the baleful influence of the foreigners, or that
it was a punishment for their failure to resist them, while in the farther
north a drought led to equally superstitious fury against "the foreign
devils."
The virile and resolute
Empress-Dowager headed the reaction against the headlong progressiveness of the
young Emporer. September 22, 1898, the world was startled by an Imperial Decree
which read in part as follows:--
"Her Imperial Majesty the Empress-Dowager, Tze Hsi, since the first
years of the reign of the late Emporer Tung Chih down to our present reign, has
twice ably filled the regency of the Empire, and never did her Majesty fail in
happily bringing to a successful issue even the most difficult problems of
government. In all things we have ever placed the interests of our Empire
before those of others, and, looking back at her Majesty's successful
handiwork, we are now led to beseech, for a third time, for this assistance
from her Imperial majesty, so that we may benefit from her wise and kindly
advice in all matters of State. Having now obtained her Majesty's gracious
consent, we truly consider this to be a great boon both to ourselves as well as
to the people of our Empire. Hence we now command that from henceforth,
commencing with this morning, the affairs of State shall be transacted in the
ordinary Throne Hall, and that to-morrow (23rd) we shall, at the head of the
Princess and Nobles and Ministers of our Court, attend in full dress in the
Ching-cheng Throne Hall, to pay ceremonial obeisance to her Imperial Majesty
the Empress-Dowager. Let the Board of Rites draw up for our perusal the
ceremonies to be observed on the above occasion."[59b] The youthful son of Toanwong was
appointed heir to the throne and the ambitious father immediately proceeded to
use his enhanced prestige to set the Empire in a blaze.
THE now famous Boxers
were members of two of the secret societies which have long flourished in
China. To the Chinese they are known as League of United Patriots, Great Sword
Society, Righteous Harmony Fists' Association and kindred names. Originally,
they were hostile to the foreign Manchu dynasty. When Germany made the murder
of two Roman Catholic missionaries a pretext for pushing her political
ambitions, the Boxers naturally arrayed themselves against them. As the
champions of the national spirit against the foreigners, the membership rapidly
increased. Supernatural power was claimed. Temples were converted into
meeting-places, and soon excited men were drilling in every village.
The real ruler of China
at this time, as all the world knows, was the Empress Dowager, who has been
characterized as "the only man in China." At any rate, she is a woman
of extraordinary force of character. She was astute enough to encourage the
Boxers, and thus turn one of the most troublesome foes of the Manchu throne
against the common enemy, the foreigner. Under her influence, the depredations
of the Boxers, which were at first confined to the Shantung Province, spread
with the swiftness of a prairie fire, until in the spring of 1900 the most
important provinces of the Empire were ablaze and the legations in Peking were
closely besieged. In the heat of the conflict and under the agonizing strain of
anxiety for imperilled loved ones, many hard things were said and written about
the officials who allied themselves with the Boxers. But Sir Robert Hart, who
personally knew them and who suffered as much as any one from their fury,
candidly wrote after the siege: "These men were eminent in their own
country for their learning and services, were animated by patriotism, were
enraged by foreign dictation, and had the courage of their convictions. We must
do them the justice of allowing that they were actuated by high motives and
love of country," though he adds, "that does not always or
necessarily mean political ability or highest wisdom."
And so the
irrepressible conflict broke out. It had to come, a conflict between
conservatism and progress, between race prejudice and brotherhood, between
superstition and Christianity, the tremendous conflict of ages which every
nation has had to fight, and which in China was not different in kind, but only
on a more colossal scale because there it involved half the human race at once.
Of course it was impossible for so vast a nation permanently to segregate
itself. The river of progress cannot be permanently stayed. It will gather
force behind an obstacle until it is able to sweep it away. The Boxer uprising
was the breaking up of this fossilized conservatism. It was such a tumultuous
upheaval as the crusades caused in breaking up the stagnation of mediæval
Europe. As France opposed the new ideas, which in England were quietly
accepted, only to have them surge over her in the frightful flood of the
revolution, so China entered with the violence always inseparable from
resistance the transition which Japan welcomed with a more open mind.
Though missionaries
were not the real cause of the Boxer uprising, its horrors fell most heavily
upon them. This was partly because many of them were living at exposed points
in the interior while most other foreigners were assembled in the treaty ports
where they were better protected; partly because the movement developed such
hysterical frenzy that it attacked with blind, unreasoning fury every available
foreigner, and partly because in most places the actual killing and pillaging
were not done by the people who best knew the missionaries but by mobs from the
slums, ruffians from other villages, or, as in Paoting-fu and Shan-si, in
obedience to the direct orders of bigoted officials.
And so it came to pass
that the innocent suffered more than the guilty. Dr. A. H. Smith [60] concluded
after careful inquiry that "the devastating Boxer cyclone cost the lives
of 135 adult Protestant missionaries and fifty-three children and of thirty-
five Roman Catholic Fathers and nine Sisters. The Protestants were in
connection with ten different missions, one being unconnected. They were
murdered in four provinces and in Mongolia, and belonged to Great Britain, the
United States and Sweden. No such outbreak against Christianity has been seen
in modern times. The destruction of property was on the same continental scale.
Generally speaking, all mission stations north of the Yellow River, with all
their dwelling-houses, chapels, hospitals, dispensaries, schools, and buildings
of every description were totally destroyed, though there were occasional
exceptions, of which the village where these pages are written was one. The
central and southern portions of the Empire were only partially affected by the
anti-foreign madness, not because they were under different conditions, but
mainly through the strong repressive measures of four men, Liu Kun Yi and Chang
Chih-tung, Governors-General of the four great provinces in the Yang-tse
Valley; Yuan Shih Kai in Shantung, and a Manchu, Tuan Fang, in Shen-si. The
jurisdiction of this quartette made an impassable barrier across which the
movement was unable to project itself in force, but much mischief in an
isolated way was wrought in nearly every part of China not rigorously
controlled."
So many volumes have
been written about the Boxer Uprising that it is not necessary to double the
size of this book in order to recount the details. For the full narrative, the
reader is referred to the books mentioned below.[61] But I cannot for- bear
some description of the scenes of massacre that I personally visited. I was
unable to go to the remoter province of Shan-si where so many devoted men and
women laid down their lives and where many who escaped death endured
indescribable hardships. But in the province of Shantung, where the Boxer
Uprising originated, I was witness to the ruin that was wrought in many places,
though the iron hand of the great Governor, Yuan Shih Kai, prevented much
bloodshed. Then I turned to the northern province of Chih-li where official
hands, instead of restraining, actually guided and goaded the maddened rioters.
After a delightful
voyage of eighteen hours from Chefoo over a smooth sea, we anchored outside the
bar, nine miles from shore, the tide not permitting our steamer to cross with
its heavy load. A tug took us off and entering the Pei-ho River, we passed the
famous Taku forts to the railway wharf at Tong-ku. It was significant to find
foreign flags flying over the Taku forts and also over the mud-walled villages
near by. Scores of merchant steamers, transports and war vessels were lying off
Taku as well as hundreds of junks. The river was full of smaller craft among
which were several Japanese and American gunboats. The railroad station
presented a motley appearance. A regiment of Japanese had just arrived and
while we were waiting, three train-loads of British Sikhs and several cars of
Austrian marines and British "Tommy Atkins" came in. The platform was
thronged with officers and soldiers of various nationalities, including a few
Russians.
Nothing could be more
dreary than the mud flats that the traveller to the imperial city first sees.
The greater part of the way from Taku to Peking, the soil is poor and little
cultivated. But as we advanced, kao-liang fields were more frequent, though the
growth was far behind that in Shantung at the same season. Small trees were
numerous during the latter half of the trip. The soil being too thin for good
crops, the people grow more fuel and fruit.
Evidences of the great
catastrophe were seen long before reaching the capital. Burned villages and
battered buildings lined the route. At Tien-tsin several of the foreign
buildings had shell holes. One corrugated iron building near the railway
station was pierced like a sieve and thousands of native houses were in ruins.
The city wall had been razed to the ground and a highway made where it had
stood--an unspeakable humiliation to the proud commercial metropolis. The
Japanese soldiers teased the citizens by telling them that "a city without
a wall is like a woman without clothes," and the people keenly felt the
shame implied in the taunt.
In Peking, the very
fact that the railroad train on which we travelled rushed noisily through a
ragged chasm in the wall of the Chinese city, and stopped at the entrance of the
Temple of Heaven, was suggestive of the consequences of war. The city, as a
whole, was not as badly injured as I had expected to find it, but the ravages
of war were evident enough. Wrecked shops, crumbled houses, shot-torn walls
were on every side, while the most sacred places to a Chinese and a Manchu had
been profaned. At other times the Purple Forbidden City, the Winter and Summer
Palaces, the Temple of Heaven and kindred imperial enclosures are inaccessible
to the foreigner. But a pass from the military authorities opened to us every
door. We walked freely through the extensive grounds and into all the famous
buildings--including the throne rooms which the highest Chinese official can
approach only upon his knees and with his face abjectly on the stone
pavement--and the private apartments of the Emperor and the Empress Dowager. I
was impressed by the vastness of the Palace buildings and grounds, the carvings
of stone and wood, and the number of articles of foreign manufacture. But
thousands of Americans in moderate circumstances have more spacious and
comfortable bedrooms than those of the Emperor and Empress Dowager of China.
All the living apartments looked cheerless. The floors were of artificial stone
or brick in squares of about 20 x 20 inches and of course everything was
covered with dust. The far-famed Temple of Heaven is the most artistic building
in China, a dream of beauty, colour and grace. For a generation before the
siege of Peking, no foreigner except General Grant had entered that sacred enclosure,
and the Chinese raised a furore because Li Hung Chang admitted even the
distinguished American. As I freely walked about the place, photographed the
Temple and stood on the circular altar that is supposed to be the centre of the
earth and where the Emperor worships alone at the winter solstice, British
Sikhs lounged under the trees, army mules munched the luxuriant grass and
quartermasters' wagons stood in long rows near the sacred spot where a Chinese
would prostrate himself in reverence and fear.
We rode past
innumerable ruined buildings and through motley throngs of Manchus, Chinese,
German, French, Italian, British and Japanese soldiers to the Presbyterian
compound at Duck Lane, which, though narrow, is not so unimportant a street as
its name implies. But where devoted missionaries had so long lived and toiled,
we saw only shapeless heaps of broken bricks and a few tottering fragments of
walls. At the Second Street compound there was even greater ruin, if that were
possible. Silently we stood beside the great hole which had once been the
hospital cistern and from which the Japanese soldiers, after the siege, had
taken the bodies of a hundred murdered Chinese. Not all had been Christians,
for in that carnival of blood, many who were merely suspected of being friendly
to foreigners were killed, while foes took advantage of the tumult to pay off
old scores of hate.
The first reports that
had come to New York were that four- fifths of the Chinese Christians and
three-fourths of the boys and girls in the boarding-schools had been killed or
had died under the awful hardships of that fatal summer. But as the months
passed, first one and then another and another were found. Husbands searched
for wives, parents for children, brothers for sisters, until a considerable
number of the missing ones had been found, though the number of the lost was
still great.
About two hundred of
these surviving Christians and their families were living together in native
buildings adjoining the residence in which we were entertained. Their history
was one of agony and bereavement. Including those who fell at Paoting-fu, 191
of their fellow Christians had received the crown of martyrdom, so that almost
every survivor had lost father or mother, brother or sister or friend. The
Chinese are supposed to be a phlegmatic people and not given to emotion. But
never have I met a congregation more swiftly responsive than this one in Peking
as I bore to them kindly messages from many friends in other lands.
The Roman Catholic
Cathedral was immortalized by Bishop Favier's defense during the memorable
siege. The mission buildings occupy a spacious and strongly-walled compound in
the Manchu city. Hundreds of bullet and shell holes in the roofs and walls were
suggestive evidences of the fury of the Boxer attack, while great pits marked
the spots where mines had been exploded.
I called on the famous
Bishop. He was, for he has since died, a burly, heavily-bearded Frenchman of
about sixty-five apparently. He received us most cordially and readily talked
of the siege. He said that of the eighty Europeans and 3,400 Christians with
him in the siege, 2,700 were women and children. Four hundred were buried, of
whom forty were killed by bullets, twenty-five by one explosion, eighty-one by
another and one by another. Of the rest, some died of disease but the greater
part of starvation. Twenty-one children were buried at one time in one grave.
Beside these 400 who were killed or who died, many more were blown to pieces in
explosions so that nothing could be found to bury. Fifty-one children
disappeared in this way and not a fragment remained.
The first month of the
siege, the food allowance was half a pound a day. The first half of the second
month, it was reduced to four ounces, but for the second half only two ounces
could be served and the people had to eat roots, bark and the leaves of trees
and shrubs. Eighteen mules were eaten during the siege. The Bishop said that in
the diocese outside of Peking, 6,000 Chinese Catholics, including three native
priests, were killed by the Boxers. Only four European priests were killed, one
in Peking and three outside. "Not one foreign priest left the diocese
during the troubles," a statement that is equally true of the Presbyterian
missionaries and, so far as I know, of those of other churches.
Clouds lowered as we
left Peking, July 6th, on the Peking and Hankow Railway for Paoting-fu, that
city of sacred and painful interest to every American Christian. Soon rain
began to vfall, and it steadily continued while we rode over the vast level
plain, through unending fields of kao-liang, interspersed with plots of beans,
peanuts, melons and cucumbers, and mud and brick-walled villages whose squalid
wretchedness was hidden by the abundant foliage of the trees, which are the
only beauty of Chinese cities. At almost every railway station, roofless
buildings, crumbling walls and broken water tanks bore painful witness to the
rage of the Boxers. At Liang-hsiang-hsien the first foreign property was
destroyed, and all along the line outrages were perpetrated on the inoffensive
native Christians. Nowhere else in China was the hatred of the foreigner more
violent, for here hereditary pride and bigoted conservatism, unusually intense
even for China, were reinforced by Boxer chiefs from the neighbouring province
of Shantung, and were particularly irritated by the aggressiveness of Roman
Catholic priests and by the construction of the railroad. It is only 110 miles
from Peking to Paoting-fu. But the schedule was slow and the stops long, so
that we were six hours in making the journey. Arriving at the large, well-built
brick station, we bumped and splashed in a Chinese cart through narrow, muddy
streets to the residence of a wealthy Chinese family that had deemed a hasty
departure expedient when the French and British forces entered the city, and
whose house had been assigned by the magistrate as temporary quarters for the
Presbyterian missionaries.
Protestant mission work
at Paoting-fu was begun only about thirty years ago by the American Board. The
station was never a large one, the total nominal force of missionaries up to
the Boxer outbreak being two ordained married men, Ewing and Pitkin, one
physician, Dr. Noble, and two single women, the Misses Morrill and Gould. In
the whole station field including the out-stations, there were not more than
300 Christians and those were south of a line drawn through the centre of the
city of Paoting-fu. There were two boarding-schools, one for boys and one for
girls, both small, and a general hospital.
The China Inland
Mission had no mission work at Paoting-fu, but as the city is at the head of
navigation of the Paoting-fu River from Tien-tsin and was also at that time the
terminus of the Peking and Hankow Railway, the Mission made it a point of
trans-shipment and of formation of cart and shendza trains for its extensive
work in the Shan-si and Shen-si provinces, and kept a forwarding agent there,
Mr. Benjamin Bagnall.
The Presbyterian
station was not opened till 1893, and the force at the time of the outbreak
consisted of three ordained men, the Revs. J. Walter Lowrie, J. A. Miller, and
F. E. Simcox, two medical men, George Yardley Taylor and C. V. R. Hodge, and
one single woman, Dr. Maud A. Mackay. All of the men except Lowrie and Taylor were
married, and the former had his mother, Mrs. Amelia P. Lowrie, with him. With
the exception of a dispensary and street chapel in rented quarters in the city,
the station plant was at the compound where, on a level tract 660 feet in
length by 210 feet in width, there were four residences and a hospital and
chapel combined, with, of course, the usual smaller outbuildings. The only
educational work, beside one out-station day-school, was a small
boarding-school for girls recently started and occupying a little building
originally intended for a stable.
This was the situation
up to the fateful month of June, 1900. Rumours of impending trouble were
numerous, but missionaries in China become accustomed to threatening placards
and slanderous reports. Though it was evident that the opposition was becoming
more bitter, the missionaries did not feel that they would be justified in
abandoning their work. Several, however, were temporarily absent for other
reasons. Of the Congregational missionaries, Dr. and Mrs. Noble and Mrs. Pitkin
were on furlough in America and Mr. and Mrs. Ewing were spending a few weeks at
the seaside resort, Pei-tai-ho, so that Mr. Pitkin, Miss Morrill and Miss Gould
were the only ones left at the station. Of the Presbyterian missionaries Mr.
and Mrs. Miller were also at Pei-tai-ho, Mrs. Lowrie had sailed for America the
26th of May, and Mr. Lowrie, who had accompanied her to Shanghai, was at
Tien-tsin on his way back to Paoting-fu. The missionaries remaining at the
station were thus five,--Dr. Taylor, Mr. and Mrs. Simcox and their three
children, and Dr. and Mrs. Hodge. The China Inland forwarding agent, Mr.
Bagnall, with his wife and little girl, was in his house south of the city wall
near the American Board compound, and with him was the Rev. William Cooper, who
was on his way to Shanghai after a visit to the Shan-si Mission and whose
family was then at Chefoo.
It is impossible to
ascertain all the details of the massacre. None of the foreigners live to tell
the painful story. No other foreigners reached Paoting-fu until the arrival of
the military expedition in October, three and a half months later. The Chinese
who had participated in the massacre were then in hiding. Spectators were
afraid to talk lest they, too, might be held guilty. Most of the Chinese
Christians who had been with the missionaries were killed, while others were so
panic- stricken that they could remember only the particular scenes with which
they were directly connected. Moreover, in those three and a half months such
battles and national commotions had occurred, including the capture of Peking
and the flight of the Emperor, that the people of Paoting-fu had half forgotten
the murder of a few missionaries in June.
In these circumstances,
full information will probably never be obtained, though additional facts may
yet turn up from time to time. But from all that can be learned, and from the
piecing together of the scattered fragments of information carefully collected
by Mr. Lowrie, who accompanied the expedition, it appears that Thursday, June
28th, several Chinese young men who had been studying medicine under Dr. Taylor
came to him at the city dispensary, warned him of the impending danger and
urged him to leave. When he refused they besought him to yield, and though
several of them were not Christians, so strong was their attachment to their
teacher that they shed tears.
Dr. Taylor placed the
dispensary and its contents, together with the adjacent street chapel, in
charge of the district magistrate and returned to the mission compound outside
the city. That very afternoon startling proof was given that foreboding was not
ill-founded, for the Rev. Meng Chi Hsien, the native pastor of the
Congregational Church, was seized while in the city, his hands cut off, and the
next morning he was beheaded.
The missionaries then
decided to leave, drew their silver from the local bank and hired carts. But an
official assured them that there would be no further trouble, and they
concluded to remain. It is doubtful whether they could have escaped anyway, for
the very next afternoon, Saturday, June 30th, a mob left the west gate of the
city, and marching northward parallel to the railroad, turned eastward through
a small village near the mission compound, which has always been the resort of
bad characters, and attacked the mission between five and six o'clock.
The first report that
all the missionaries were together in the house of Mr. Simcox is now believed
to have been erroneous. The Hodges were there, but Dr. Taylor was in his own
room in the second story of Mr. Lowrie's house. Seizing a magazine rifle
belonging to Mr. Lowrie, he showed it to the mob and warned them not to come
nearer. But the Boxers pressed furiously on, in the superstitious belief that
the foreigner's bullet could not harm them. Then, being alone, and with the
traditions of a Quaker ancestry strong within him, he chose rather to die
himself than to inflict death upon the people he had come to save. The Boxers
set fire to the house, and the beloved physician, throwing the rifle to the
floor, disappeared amid the flame and smoke. But the body was not consumed, for
a Chinese living in a neighbouring village said afterwards that he saw it lying
in the ruins of the house several days later, and that he gave it decent burial
in a field near by. But there are hundreds of unmarked mounds in that region,
and when the foreign expedition arrived in October, he was unable to indicate
the particular one which he had made for Dr. Taylor's remains. Mr. Lowrie made
diligent search and opened a number of graves, but found nothing that could be
identified.
In the Simcox house,
however, the two men were charged with the defense of women and children, and
to protect them if possible from unspeakable outrage, when they realized that
persuasion was vain, they felt justified as a last desperate resort in using
force. The testimony of natives is to the effect that at least two Boxers were
killed in the attack, one of them the Boxer chief, Chu Tu Tze, who that very
day had received the rank of the gilt button from the Provincial Judge as a
recognition of his anti-foreign zeal and an encouragement to continue it. He
was shot through the head while vociferously urging the assault from the top of
a large grave mound near the compound wall.
The story that little
Paul and Francis Simcox, frightened by the heat and smoke, ran out of the house
and were despatched by the crowd and their bodies thrown into a well now
appears to be unfounded. All died together, Mr. and Mrs. Simcox and their three
children, and Dr. and Mrs. Hodge; Mr. Simcox being last seen walking up and
down holding the hand of one of his children.
It is at least some
comfort that they were spared the outrages and mutilations inflicted on so many
of the martyrs of that awful summer, for unless some were struck by bullets,
death came by suffocation in burning houses--swiftly and mercifully. No Boxer
hand touched them, living or dead, but within less than an hour from the
beginning of the attack, the end came, and the flames did their work so
completely that, save in the case of Dr. Taylor, nothing remained upon which
fiendish hate could wreak itself. Husbands and wives died as they could have
wished to die--together, and at the post of duty.
The next morning the
Boxers, jubilant over their success of the night before, trooped out to the
American Board compound in the south suburb. The two ladies took refuge in the
chapel, while Mr. Pitkin remained outside to do what he could to keep back the
mob. But he was speedily shot and then decapitated. His body, together with the
bodies of several of the members of the Meng family, was thrown into a
hastily-dug pit just outside the wall of the compound, but his head was borne
in triumph to the Provincial Judge, who was the prime mover in the outbreak. He
caused it to be fixed on the inside of the city wall, not far from the
southeast corner and nearly opposite the temple in which the remaining
missionaries were imprisoned. There, the Chinese say, it remained for two or
three weeks, a ghastly evidence of the callous cruelty of a people many of whom
must have known Mr. Pitkin and the good work done at the mission compound not
far distant. When sorrowing friends arrived in October, the head could not be
found, but it has since been recovered and buried with the bodies of the other
martyrs.
The fate of the young
women, Miss Morrill and Miss Gould, thus deprived of their only protector, was
not long deferred. After the fall of Mr. Pitkin, they were seized, stripped of
all their clothing except one upper and one lower garment, and led by the
howling crowd along a path leading diagonally from the entrance of the compound
to the road just east of it. Miss Gould did not die of fright as she was taken
from the chapel, as was at first reported, but at the point where the path
enters the road, a few hundred yards from the chapel, she fainted. Her ankles
were then tied together, and another cord lashed her wrists in front of her
body. A pole was thrust between legs and arms, and she was carried the rest of the
way, while Miss Morrill walked, characteristically giving to a beggar the
little money at her waist, talking to the people, and with extraordinary self-
possession endeavouring to convince her persecutors of their folly. And so the
procession of bloodthirsty men, exulting in the possession of two defenseless
women one of them unconscious, wended its way northward to the river bank,
westward to the stone bridge, over it and to a temple within the city, not far
from the southeast corner of the wall.
Meantime, Mr. Cooper,
Mr. and Mrs. Bagnall and their little daughter had begun the day in Mr.
Bagnall's house, which was a short distance east of the American Board
compound, and on the same road. Seeing the flames of the hospital, which was
the first building fired by the Boxers, they fled eastward along the road to a
Chinese military camp, about a quarter of a mile distant, whose commanding
officer had been on friendly terms with Mr. Bagnall. But in the hour of need he
arrested them, ruthlessly despoiled them of their valuables, and sent them
under a guard to the arch conspirator, the Provincial Judge. It is pitiful to
hear of the innocent child cling- ing in terror to her mother's dress. But
there was no pity in the heart of the brutal judge, and the little party was
sent to the temple where the Misses Morrill and Gould were already imprisoned.
All this was in the
morning. A pretended trial was held, and about four in the afternoon of the
same day, all were taken to a spot outside the southeast corner of the city
wall, and there, before the graves of two Boxers, they were beheaded and their
bodies thrown into a pit.
Months passed before
any effort was made by the foreign armies in Peking to reach Paoting-fu.
Shortly after the occupation of the capital, I wrote to the Secretary of State
in Washington reminding him again of the American citizens who at last accounts
were at Paoting-fu, and urging that the United States commander in Peking be
instructed to send an expedition there, not to punish for I did not deem it my
duty to discuss that phase of the question, but to ascertain whether any
Americans were yet living and to make an investigation as to what had happened.
Secretary Hay promptly
cabled Minister Conger, who soon wired back that all the Americans at
Paoting-fu had been killed. The United States forces took no part in the
punitive expeditions sent out by the European commanders, partly, no doubt,
because our Government preferred to act on the theory that it would be wiser to
give the Chinese Government an opportunity to punish the guilty, and partly
because the Administration did not desire the United States to be identified
with the expeditions which were reputed to equal the Boxers in the merciless
barbarity of burning, pillaging, ravishing and killing.
Still, it is not
pleasing to reflect that though there was an ample American force in Peking
only 110 miles away, we were indebted to a British general for the opportunity
to acquire any accurate information as to the fate of eleven Americans. An expedition
of inquiry, at least, might have been sent. But as it was, it was not till
October that three columns of Europeans (still no Americans) left for
Paoting-fu. One column was French, under General Baillard. The second was
British and German under Generals Campbell and Von Ketteler, both of these
columns starting from Tien-tsin. The third column left Peking and was composed
of British and Italians led by General Gaselee. The plan was for the three
columns to unite as they approached the city. But General Baillard made forced
marches and reached Paoting-fu October 15th, so that when General Gaselee
arrived on the 17th, he found, to his surprise and chagrin, that the French had
already taken bloodless possession of the city. The British and German columns
from Tien-tsin did not arrive till the 20th and 21st. With them came the Rev.
J. Walter Lowrie, who had obtained permission to accompany it as an interpreter
for the British.
The allied Generals
immediately made stern inquisitions into the outrages that had been committed,
which, of course, included those upon Roman Catholics as well as upon
Protestants. Mr. Lowrie, as the only man who could speak Chinese, and the only
one, too, who personally knew the Chinese, at once came into prominence. To the
people, he appeared to have the power of life and death. All examinations had
to be conducted through him. All accusations and evidence had to be sifted by
him. The guilty tried to shift the blame upon the innocent, and enemies sought
to pay off old scores of hatred upon their foes by charging them with
complicity in the massacres. It would have accorded with Chinese custom if Mr.
Lowrie had availed himself to the utmost of his opportunity to punish the
antagonists of the missionaries, especially as his dearest friends had been
remorselessly murdered and all of his personal property destroyed. It was not
in human nature to be lenient in such circumstances, and the Chinese fully
expected awful vengeance.
Great was their
amazement when they saw the man whom they had so grievously wronged acting not
only with modera- tion and strict justice, but in a kind and forgiving spirit.
Every scrap of testimony was carefully analyzed in order that no innocent man
might suffer. Instead of securing the execution of hundreds of smaller
officials and common people, as is customary in China in such circumstances,
Mr. Lowrie counselled the Generals to try Ting Jung, who at the time of the
massacre was Provincial Judge but who had since been promoted to the post of
Provincial Treasurer and acting Viceroy; Kwei Heng the commander of the Manchu
garrison, and Weng Chan Kwei the colonel in command of the Chinese Imperial
forces who had seized the escaping Bagnall party and sent them back to their
doom. The evidence plainly showed that these high officials were the direct and
responsible instigators of the uprising, that they had ordered every movement,
and that the crowd of smaller officials, Boxers and common people had simply
obeyed their orders. The three dignitaries were found guilty and condemned to
death.
Was ever retributive
justice more signally illustrated than in the place in which they were
imprisoned pending Count von Waldersee's approval of the sentence? The military
authorities selected the place, not with reference to its former uses, of which
indeed they were ignorant, but simply because it was convenient, empty and
clean. But it was the Presbyterian chapel and dispensary in which Mr. Lowrie
had so often preached the gospel of peace and good will and the martyred Dr.
Taylor had so often healed the sick in the name of Christ.
Not long afterwards,
the three officials were led to a level, open space, just east of a little
clump of trees not far from the southwest corner of the city wall, and as near
as practicable to the place where the missionaries had been beheaded, and
there, in the presence of all the foreign soldiers, they were themselves
beheaded.
Nor was this all, for
Chinese officials are never natives of the cities they govern, but are sent to
them from other provinces. Moreover, they usually remain in one place only a
few years. The people fear and obey them as long as they are officials, but
often care little what becomes of them afterwards. They had not befriended them
during their trial and they did not attend their execution. The Generals
therefore felt that some punishment must be inflicted upon the city. A Chinese
city is proud of the stately and ponderous towers which ornament the gates and
corners of its massive wall and protect the inhabitants from foes, human and
demoniac. All of these, but two comparatively small ones, were blown up by
order of the foreign generals. The temples which the Boxers had used for their
meetings, including the one in which the American Board and China Inland
missionaries had been imprisoned, were also destroyed, while the splendid
official temple of the city, dedicated to its patron deity, was utterly wrecked
by dynamite.
Not till March 23d
could memorial services be held. Then a party of missionaries and friends came
down from Peking. The surviving Christians assembled. The new city officials
erected a temporary pavilion on the site of the Presbyterian compound, writing
over the entrance arch: "They held the truth unto death." Within,
potted flowers and decorated banners adorned the tables and walls. The scene
was solemnly impressive. Mr. Lowrie, Dr. Wherry and Mr. Killie and others made
appropriate addresses to an audience in which there were, besides themselves,
fifteen missionaries representing four denominations, German and French army
officers, Chinese officials and Chinese Christians. A German military band
furnished appropriate music and two Roman Catholic priests of the city sent
flowers and kind letters. The following day a similar service was held on the
site of the American Board compound.
We sadly visted{sic}
all these places. It was about the hour of the attack that we approached the
Presbyterian compound. Of the once pleasant homes and mission buildings, not
even ruins were left. A few hundred yards away, the site could not have been
distinguished from the rest of the open fields if my companions had not pointed
out marks mournfully intelligible to them but hardy recognizable by a stranger.
The very foundations had been dug up by Chinese hunting for silver, and every
scrap of material had been carried away. Even the trees and bushes had been
removed by the roots and used for firewood. In front of the site of the Simcox
house are a few unmarked mounds. All but one contain the fragments of the
bodies of the Chinese helpers and Christians, and that one, the largest, holds
the few pieces of bones which were all that could be found in the ruins of the
house in which the missionaries perished. A few more may yet be found. We
ourselves discovered five small pieces which Dr. Charles Lewis afterwards
identified as human bones. But their charred and broken condition showed how
completely the merciful fire had done its work of keeping the sacred remains from
the hands of those who would have shamefully misused them. The American Board
and China Inland Mission compounds were also in ruins, a chaos of desolation.
But as the martyred missionaries and native Christians were beheaded and not
burned, their bodies have been recovered and interred in a long row of
twenty-three graves.
The negotiations of
foreign Powers with the Chinese regarding the payment of indemnity were, as
might be expected, protracted and full of difficulties. Some of the Powers
favoured extreme demands which, if acceded to, would have ruined the Empire or
resulted in its immediate partition, even if they did not cause a new and more
bitter outbreak of hostilities. Other Powers, notably the United States,
favoured moderate terms, holding that China should not be asked to pay sums
that were clearly beyond her ability. After almost interminable disputes, the
total sum to be paid by China was, by the final protocol signed September 7,
1901, fixed at 450,000,000 taels to be paid in thirty-nine annual installments
with interest at four per cent. on the deferred payments and to be distributed
as follows:
CountryTaelsGermany90,070,515Austria-Hungary4,003,920Belgium8,484,345Spain135,315United
States32,939,055[62]France70,878,240Portugal92,250Great Britain50,712,795Italy26,617,005Japan34,793,100Netherlands782,100Russia130,371,120International
(Sweden and Norway, $62,820)212,490------------450,000,000 The treaty was not calculated to make the
Chinese think more kindly of their conquerors. Besides the payment of the heavy
indemnity, the Powers exacted apologies to Germany for the murder of its
minister and to Japan for the assassination of the chancellor of its legation,
the erection of monuments in foreign cemeteries and the making of new
commercial treaties. The Chinese were cut to the quick by being told, among
other things, that they must not import firearms for two years; that no
official examinations would be held for five years in the cities where
foreigners had been attacked; that an important part of the imperial capital
would be added to the already spacious grounds of the foreign legations and
that the whole would be fortified and garrisoned by foreign guards; that the
Taku forts which defended the entrance to Peking would be razed and the railway
from the sea to the capital occupied by foreign troops; that members of
anti-foreign societies were to be executed; that magistrates even though they
were viceroys were to be summarily dismissed and disgraced if they did not
prevent anti-foreign outbreaks and sternly punish their ring- leaders; that
court ceremonies in relation to foreign ministers must be conformed to Western
ideas; that the Tsung-li Yamen (Foreign Office) must be abolished and a new
ministry of foreign affairs erected, the Wai-wu Pu, which must be regarded as
the highest of the departments instead of the lowest. China's cup of
humiliation was indeed full.
THE first definite
knowledge of the true God appears to have come to China with some Jews who are
said to have entered the Empire in the third century. Conjecture has long been
busy with the circumstances of that ancient migration. That the colony became
fairly numerous may be inferred from the fact that in 1329 and again in 1354,
the Jews are mentioned in the Chinese records of the Mongol dynasty, while
early in the seventeenth century Father Ricci claimed to have discovered a
synagogue built in 1183. In 1866, the Rev. Dr. W. A. P. Martin, then President
of the Tung-wen College at Peking, visited Kai-fung-fu, the centre of this
Jewish colony, and on a monument he found an inscription which included the
following passage:--
"With respect to the religion of Israel, we find that our first
ancestor was Adam. The founder of the religion was Abraham; then came Moses who
established the law, and handed down the sacred writings. During the dynasty of
Han (B. C. 200-A, D. 226) this religion entered China. In the second year of
Hiao-tsung, of the Sung dynasty (A. D. 1164), a synagogue was erected in
Kai-fung fu. Those who attempt to represent God by images or pictures do but
vainly occupy themselves with empty forms. Those who honour and obey the sacred
writings know the origin of all things. Eternal reason and the sacred writings
mutually sustain each other in testifying whence men derived their being. All
those who profess this religion aim at the practice of goodness and avoid the
commission of vice."[63] Dr.
Martin writes that he inquired in the market-place:--
"Are there among you any of the family of Israel?" "I am
one," responded a young man, whose face corroborated his assertion; and
then another and another stepped forth until I saw before me representatives of
six out of the seven families into which the colony is divided. They confessed
with shame and grief that their holy and beautiful house had been demolished by
their own hands. It had for a long time, they said, been in a ruinous
condition; they had no money to make repairs; they had, moreover, lost all
knowledge of the sacred tongue; the traditions of the fathers were no longer
handed down and their ritual worship had ceased to be observed. In this state
of things they had yielded to the pressure of necessity and disposed of the
timbers and stones of that venerable edifice to obtain relief for their bodily
wants. . . . Their number they estimated, though not very exactly, at from
three to four hundred. . . . No bond of union remains, and they are in danger
of being speedily absorbed by Mohammedanism or heathenism."[64] There is something pathetic about
that forlorn remnant of the Hebrew race. "A rock rent from the side of
Mount Zion by some great national catastrophe and projected into the central
plain of China, it has stood there while the centuries rolled by, sublime in
its antiquity and solitude."[65]
In his Life of
Morrison, Townsend reminds us that the Christian Church early realized that it
could not ignore so vast a nation, while its very exclusiveness attracted bold
spirits. As far back as the first decade of the sixth century (505 A. D.),
Nestorian monks appear to have begun a mission in China. Romance and tragedy
are suggested by the few known facts regarding that early movement. Partly
impelled by conviction, partly driven by persecution, those faithful souls
travelled beyond the bounds of the Roman Empire, and rested not till they had
made the formidable journey across burning deserts and savage mountains to the
land of Sinim. That some measure of success attended their effort is probable.
Indeed there are hints in the ancient records of numerous churches and of the
favour of the great Emperor Tai Tsung in 635. But however zealous the
Nestorians may have been for a time, it is evident that they were finally
submerged in the sea of Chinese superstition. A quaint monument, discovered in
1625 at Hsi-an-fu, the capital of Shen-si, on which is inscribed an outline of
the Nestorian effort from the year 630 to 781, is the only trace that remains
of what must have been an interesting and perhaps a thrilling missionary
enterprise.
The Roman Catholic
effort began in 1293, when John de Corvino succeeded in reaching Peking. Though
he was elevated to an Archbishopric and reinforced by several priests, this
effort, too, proved a failure and was abandoned.
Two and a-half
centuries of silence followed, and then in 1552, the heroic Francis Xavier set
his face towards China, only to be prostrated by fever on the Island of
Sancian. As he despairingly realized that he would never be able to set his
foot on that still impenetrable land, he moaned: "Oh, Rock, Rock, when
wilt thou open!" and passed away.
But in 1581, another
Jesuit, the learned and astute Matteo Ricci, entered Canton in the guise of a
Buddhist priest. He managed to remain, and twenty years later he went to Peking
in the dress of a literary gentleman. In him Roman Catholicism gained a
permanent foothold in China, and although it was often fiercely persecuted and
at times reduced to feebleness, it never became wholly extinct. Gradually it
extended its influence until in 1672 the priests reported 300,000 baptized
Chinese, including children. In the nineteenth century, the growth of the Roman
Church was rapid. It is now strongly entrenched in all the provinces, and in
most of the leading cities its power is great. There are twenty-seven bishops
and about six hundred foreign priests. The number of communicants is variously
estimated, but in 1897 the Vicar Apostolic of Che-kiang, though admitting that
he could not secure accurate statistics, estimated the Roman Catholic
population at 750,000.
It is not to the credit
of Protestantism that it was centuries behind the Roman Church in the attempt
to Christianize China. It was not till 1807, that the first Protestant
missionary arrived. January 31st, of that year, Robert Morrison, then a youth
of twenty-five, sailed alone from London under appointment of the London
Missionary Society (Congregational). As the hostile East India Company would
not allow a missionary on any of its ships, Morrison had to go to New York in
order to secure passage on an American vessel. As he paid his fare in the New
York ship owner's office, the merchant said with a sneer: "And so, Mr.
Morrison, you really expect that you will make an impression on the idolatry of
the great Chinese Empire?" "No, sir," was the ringing reply,
"I expect God will."
The ship Trident left
New York about May 15th and did not reach Canton till September 8th. For two
years Morrison had to live and study in Canton and the Portuguese settlement of
Macao with the utmost secrecy, dreading constantly that he might be forced to
leave. For a time, he never walked the streets by daylight for fear of
attracting attention, but exercised by night. His own countrymen were hostile
to his purpose and his Chinese language teachers were impatient and insolent.
It was not till February 20, 1809, the date of his marriage to Miss Morton,
that his employment as translator by the East India Company gave him a secure
residence. Still, however, he could not do open missionary work, but was
obliged to present Christianity behind locked doors to the few Chinese whom he
dared to approach. In these circumstances, he naturally gave his energies
largely to language study and translation, and in 1810 he had the joy of
issuing a thousand copies of a Chinese version of the Book of Acts.
Seven weary,
discouraging years passed before Morrison baptized his first convert, July 16,
1814, and even then he had to administer the sacrament at a lonely spot where
unfriendly eyes could not look. At his death in 1834, there were only three
Chinese Christians in the whole Empire. Successors carried on the effort, but
the door was not yet open, and the work was done against many obstacles and
chiefly in secret till the treaty of Nanking, in 1842, opened the five ports of
Amoy, Canton, Foochow, Ningpo and Shanghai. Missionaries who had been waiting
and watching in the neighbouring islands promptly entered these cities. Eagerly
they looked to the great populations in the interior, but they were practically
confined to the ports named till 1858, when the treaty of Tien-tsin opened
other cities and officially conceded the rights of missionary residence and
labour.
The work now spread
more rapidly, not only because it was conducted in more centres and by a larger
force of missionaries, but because it was carried into the interior regions by
Chinese who had heard the gospel in the ports.
The Tai-ping Rebellion
soon gave startling illustration of the perversion of the new force. Begun in
1850 by an alleged Christian convert who claimed to have a special revelation
from heaven as a younger brother of Christ, it spread with amazing rapidity
until in 1853 it had overrun almost all that part of China south of the
Yang-tze-kiang, had occupied Nanking and Shanghai, and had made such rapid
progress northward that it threatened the capital itself. It was the most
stupendous revolution in history, shaking to its foundations a vast and ancient
empire, involving the destruction of an almost inconceivable amount of property
and, it is said, of the lives of twenty millions of human beings.
If this great rebellion
had been wisely guided, it would undoubtedly have changed the history of China
and perhaps, by this time, of the greater part of Asia, for it proposed to
overthrow idolatry, to unseat the Manchu dynasty, and to found an empire on the
principles of the Christian religion. So nearly indeed did it attain success
that if it had not been opposed by European nations, it would probably have
attained its object. But the weight of their influence was thrown in favour of
the Government. The American Frederick T. Ward and the English Charles George
Gordon organized and led the "Ever Victorious Army" of Chinese troops
against the revolutionists. Most significant of all, the leaders of the
rebellion itself, freed from the restraint which foreigners might perhaps have
exerted, quickly discarded whatever Christian principles they had started with
and rapidly demoralized the movement at its centre by giving themselves up to
an arrogance, vice, and cruelty which were worse than those of the government
they sought to overturn. Mr. McLane, then United States Minister, truly
reported to Washington:--
"Whatever may have been the hopes of the enlightened and civilized
nations of the earth, in regard to this movement, it is now apparent that they
neither profess nor apprehend Christianity, and whatever may be the true
judgment to form of their political power, it can no longer be doubted that
intercourse cannot be established or maintained on terms of equality." The recapture of Nanking in 1864 marked the
final turning of the tide, and in an incredibly short time the whole
insurrection collapsed. The rebellion, vast as it was, is now after all but an
episode in the history of the great Empire. But the fact that any man on such a
platform could so quickly develop an insurrection of such appalling proportions
significantly suggests the possibilities of change in China when new movements
are rightly directed.
Freed from this
gigantic travesty of its true character, the growth of Christianity in China
became more rapid. The following table is eloquent:
18070 communicants18141 "18343 "18426 "1853350
"18571,000 "18652,000 "187613,515 "
188628,000 communicants188937,287 "189355,093 "188780,682
"1903112,808 " The
number of Protestant missionaries is 2,950, of whom 1,233 are men, 868 are
wives and 849 are single women. Of the whole number, 1,483 are from Great
Britain, 1,117 from America and 350 from continental Europe. Other interesting
statistics are 5,000,000 adherents, 2,500 stations and out- stations, 6,388
Chinese pastors and helpers, 1,819 day-schools and 170 higher institutions of
learning, twenty-three mission presses with an annual Output Of 107,149,738
pages, thirty-two periodicals, 124 hospitals and dispensaries treating in a
single year 1,700,452 patients; while the asylums for the orphaned and blind
and deaf number thirty-two.
It will thus be seen
that Christian missions in China are being conducted upon a large scale. It
would be difficult to overestimate the silent and yet mighty energy represented
by such work, steadily continued through a long series of years, and
representing the life labours of thousands of devoted men and women and an
annual expenditure of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
True, the number of
Christians is small in comparison with the population of the Empire, but the
gospel has been aptly compared to a seed. It is indeed small, but seeds
generally are. Lodged in a crevice of a rock, a seed will thrust its thread-like
roots into fissures so tiny that they are hardly noticeable. Yet in time they
will rend the rock asunder and firmly hold a stately tree. Now the seed of the
gospel has been fairly lodged in the Chinese Empire. It is a seed of
indestructible vitality and irresistible transforming power. It has taken root,
and it is destined to produce mighty changes. It was not without reason that
Christianity was spoken of as a force that "turned the world upside
down," though it only does this where the world was wrong side up. It is
significant that the word translated "power" in Romans 1:16,
"The gospel is the power of God," is in the Greek the word that we
have anglicized in common speech as "dynamite." We might, therefore,
literally translate Paul's statement: "The gospel is the dynamite of
God." That dynamite has been placed under the crust of China's
conservatism, and the extraordinary transformations that are taking place in
China are, in part at least, the results of its tremendous explosive force.
The scope of this book
does not permit an extended account of the missionary movement in China. It has
been given in many volumes that are easily accessible."[66] Nearly all of
the Protestant churches, European and American, are represented and their missionaries
are teaching the young, healing the sick, translating the Word of God, creating
a wholesome literature, and preaching everywhere and with a fidelity beyond all
praise the truths of the Christian religion. Self-sacrificing devotion and
patient persistence in well-doing are written on every page of the history of
missions in China, while emergencies have developed deeds of magnificent
heroism. Men and women have repeatedly endured persecution of the most virulent
kindrather{sic} than forsake their converts, and a number "of whom the
world was not worthy" have laid down their lives for conscience' sake.
There are few places in all the world that are more depressing to a white man
than a Chinese city. The dreary monotony and squalor of its life are simply indescribable.
Chefoo is usually considered one of the most attractive cities in China, and
the missionaries who reside there are regarded as fortunate above their
brethren. But even a brief stay will convince the most sceptical that nothing
but the strongest considerations of duty could induce one who has freedom of
choice to remain any longer than is absolutely necessary. Yet for forty-two
years, missionaries have lived and toiled amid these unattractive surroundings,
their houses on Temple Hill in the midst of the innumerable graves which occupy
almost every possible space not actually covered by the mission buildings and
grounds. But steadily the missionaries have toiled on, with faith and courage
and love, and they are slowly but surely effecting marked changes. One by one,
the Chinese are being led to loftier views of life and while the old city still
continues to live in the ancient way, hundreds of Chinese families, amid the
numerous population outside of the walls and in the outlying villages, have begun
to conform themselves to the new and higher conditions of life represented by
the Christian missionaries.
Several schools, a
handsome church, a hospital, the only institution for deaf mutes in China and a
wide-reaching itinerating work, are features of the mission enterprise in
Chefoo. The visitor will be particularly interested in Dr. Hunter Corbett's
street chapel and museum. The building is situated opposite the Chinese theatre
and is well adapted to its purpose. Dr. Corbett and a helper stand at the door
and invite passers-by, while a blind boy plays on a baby organ and sings. The
chapel, which holds about sixty or seventy, is soon filled. Dr. Corbett
preaches to the people for half an hour and then ad- mits them to the museum
which occupies several rooms in the rear. It is a wonderful place to the
Chinese who never weary of watching the stuffed tiger, the model railway and
the scores of interesting objects and specimens that Dr. Corbett has collected
from various lands. Then the people leave by a door opening on the back street,
another service being held with them in the last room. Several audiences a day
are thus handled. It is hard work, for the men as a rule are from many outlying
villages, unaccustomed to listening and knowing nothing of Christianity. But
Dr. Corbett speaks with such animation and eloquence that not an eye is taken
from him. Few are converted in the chapel, but friendships are gained, doors of
opportunity opened, tracts distributed, men led to think, and on country tours
Dr. Corbett invariably meets people who have been to the museum and who
cordially welcome him to their homes. He declares that after thirty years'
experience, he thoroughly believes in such work when followed up by faithful
itineration. Seventy-two thousand attended the chapel and museum in the year
1900 in spite of the Boxer troubles. The chapel is open every day, except that
the museum is closed on Sundays, and the attendance is now larger than ever.
After dinner, we
strolled down to Dr. Nevius' famous orchard. It is a beautiful spot. Here the
great missionary found his recreation after his arduous labours. Yet even in
his hours of rest, he was eminently practical. Seeing that the Chinese had very
little good fruit and believing that he might show them how to secure it, he
brought from America seeds and cuttings, carefully cultivated them and, when
they were grown, freely distributed the new seeds and cuttings to the Chinese,
explaining to them the methods of cultivation. Today, as the result of his
forethought and generosity, several foreign fruits have become common
throughout North China. But the orchard is deteriorating as the Chinese will
not prune the trees. They are so greedy for returns that they do not like to
diminish the number of apples or plums in the interest of quality.
At sunset, I made a
pilgrimage with Mrs. Nevius to the cemetery, where, after forty years of
herculean toil, the mighty missionary sleeps. We sat for a long time beside the
grave, and the aged widow, speaking of her own end, which she appeared to feel
could not be far distant, said that she wished to be buried beside her husband
and that for this reason she did not want to go to the United States,
preferring to remain in Chefoo until her summons came.
The scene was very
beautiful as the sun set and the moon rose above the quiet sea. Standing beside
the grave of the honoured dead and under the solemn pines, the traveller gains
a new sense of the beneficence and dignity of the missionary force that is
operating through such consecrated lives of the living and the dead.
IN considering the
effects of the operation of this missionary force, we are at once confronted by
the complaint of many Chinese that missionaries interfere on behalf of their
converts in lawsuits. This complaint has been taken up and circulated by
foreign critics until it has become one of the most formidable of the
objections to missionary work. The difficulty will be understood when we
remember that, though the Chinese are not a warlike people, they are litigious
to an extraordinary degree. The struggle for existence in such a densely
populated country often results in real or fancied entanglements of rights. So
the Chinese are forever disputing about something, and the magistrates and
village headmen are beset by clamorous hordes who demand a settlement of their
alleged grievances. Naturally the Chinese Christians do not at once outgrow
this national disposition. Whether they do or not, their profession of
Christianity makes them an easy mark for the greedy and envious. Jealousy and
dislike of the native who abandons the faith of his fathers and espouses
"the foreigner's religion" frequently hale him into court on
trumped-up charges and the notorious prejudice and corruption of the average
magistrate often result in grievous persecution. The terrified Christian
naturally implores the missionary to save him. It is hard to resist such an
appeal. But the defendant is not always so innocent as he appears to be, and
whether innocent or guilty, the interference of the foreigner irritates both
magistrate and prosecutor, while it not infrequently arouses the resentment of
the whole community by giving the idea that the Christians are a privileged
class who are not amenable to the ordinary laws of the land. When, as sometimes
happens, the Christians themselves get that idea and presume upon it, the
difficulty becomes acute. Speaking of the Chinese talent for indirection, the
Rev. Dr. Arthur H. Smith says:--
"It is this which makes it so difficult for the most conscientious
and discreet missionary to be quite sure that he is in possession of all the
needed data in any given case. The difficulty in getting at the botton{sic}
facts frequently is that there are no facts available, and, as the pilots say,
`no bottom.' Every Protestant missionary is anxious to have his flock of
Christians such as fear God and work righteousness, but in the effort to
compass this end he not infrequently finds that when endeavouring to
investigate the `facts' in any case he is chasing a school of cuttlefish
through seas of ink."[67] An
illustration of this occurred during my visit in Ichou-fu. A magistrate who
needed some wheelbarrows sent out his men to impress them. The rule in such
cases is that only empty barrows can be seized. But the yamen underlings found
the father of a mission helper with loaded barrows at an inn, stole his goods and
forced him to pay them a sum of money for the privilege of keeping his barrows.
The helper complained and Dr. C. F. Johnson yielded only so far as to write a
guarded letter to the magistrate simply stating his confidence that if the
magistrate found that injustice had been done, he would remedy it. But that
letter brought the missionary into the case and he found himself forced to see
it through or "lose face" with the Chinese Christians and especially
the helper who was the son of the man robbed. He soon discovered, moreover,
that the wronged man was telling contradictory stories about the value of goods
stolen and the amount of money he had to pay to save his barrows. The situation
speedily became embarrassing and the sorely-tried missionary, though he had
acted from the best of motives and in the most conservative way, vowed that he
would never interfere again in such disputes, as irritation and harm were
almost certain to result.
I asked Sir Robert Hart
whether in his opinion a missionary should seek to obtain justice for a
persecuted man or should remain silent? He replied:--
"Intervention in matters litigated ought to be absolutely eschewed.
Let the missionary content himself with making his disciples good men and good
citizens, and let him leave it to the duly authorized officials to interpret
and apply the law and administer their affairs in their own way. Individual
Christianity has as many shades and degrees as men's faces. There are converts
and converts, but even the most godly of them may give his neighbour just
reason to take offense, and the most saintly among them may get involved in the
meshes of the law. In such cases let the missionary stand aloof. There is, too,
such a thing as hypocrisy, much better let the schemer get his deserts than hurt
the church's character by following sentiment into interference. You ask what
is to be done when there is persecution to be dealt with? First of all, I would
advise the individual or the community to live it down, and, as a last resort,
report the fact with appropriate detail and proof to the Legation in Peking for
the assistance and advice of the minister. `Watch thou in all things, endure
afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy
ministry.'" It is customary for
the friends of Protestant missionaries to answer the critic's charge of
interference in native lawsuits by stating that it does not justly lie against
them, but only against the Roman Catholics, the rule of the Protestant
missionaries being to avoid such interference save in rare and extreme cases.
Mr. Alexander Michie, however, declares that Protestant missionaries are not
entitled to such exemption, and that, while they may not interfere so
frequently as the Catholics, they nevertheless interfere often enough to bring them
under the same condemnation.[68]
There are undoubtedly
cases of imprudence, but after diligent inquiry, I am persuaded that the
Protestant missionaries as a class are keenly alive to the risks of
interference in native lawsuits and that they are increasingly careful in this
respect. They feel with the Rev. J. C. Garritt of Hangchow that "the most
important form which prejudice has taken of late is the belief that foreigners
aid or at least countenance their converts in the carrying of lawsuits through
the yamens, or in the business of private settlement of disputes, and that if
we can only practically demonstrate to the public that we are not in that
business, we shall have overcome one very serious obstacle to our work."
"The policy of the
Chinese Government during the past few years has been to avoid trouble by
letting the foreigner have his own way whenever possible. More than once the
Chinese official has said in substance to non-Christian litigants: `You are
right and your Christian accusers are wrong; but if I decide in your favour the
foreigner will appeal the case to the Governor or to the Peking foreign office
and I shall suffer.' Such things are charged, justly or unjustly, to the
account of both Protestant and Romanist."[69]
A broad induction as to
the facts has been made by the Rev. Dr. Paul D. Bergen, President of Shantung
Protestant University. He wrote to a large number of missionaries representing
all Protestant denominations as to their practice and convictions regarding
this subject. Seventy-three answered and Dr. Bergen tabulated their replies. As
to the results of the concrete cases of intervention cited, fifty-three are
reported to have been beneficial, twenty-six are characterized as doubtful,
four as mixed and sixty-seven as bad. This leaves the remaining cases
"suspended in the air," and Dr. Bergen conjectures that "perhaps
the missionary felt in such a confused mental state at their conclusion, that
he was quite unable to work out the complicated equation of their
results."
"But surely the
result that only fifty-three cases are reported to have been of unmistakable
benefit, while sixty-seven are set down as resulting in evil, ought to give us
thought. In short, in the yamen intercession in behalf of prosecuted
Christians, it is the deliberate opinion of seventy-three missionaries that, as
a matter of personal experience, sixty-seven cases have wrought only evil,
while only fifty-three have been productive of good. The balance is on the
wrong side. We must decide, in view of these replies, that there exists in
general rather a pessimistic opinion as to the advantages of applying to the
yamen in behalf of Christians."
Summing up briefly the
results of this inquiry, we note the following points, which will embody the
views of a very large majority of the Protestant missionaries of experience in
the Empire:--
"First,--That it
is highly desirable to keep church troubles out of the yamen, but that there
are times when we cannot do so without violating our sense of justice and our sense
of duty towards an injured brother.
"Second,--Official
assistance is to be sought in such troubles only when all other means of relief
have been tried in vain. Always seek to settle these difficulties out of court.
"Third,--When
official assistance is requested, our bearing should be friendly and courteous
in the spirit, at least in the first instance, of asking a favour of the
official, rather than demanding a right.... We should be extremely careful
about trying to bring pressure to bear on an official.
"Fourth,--In the
presence of the native Christian, and especially of those chiefly concerned, as
well as in our own closets, we should cherish a deep sense of our absolute
dependence on heavenly rather than on earthly protection, and remind the Christians
that, as Dr. Taylor has so tersely put it, their duty is `to do good, suffer
for it and take it patiently.'
"Fifth,--Only in
grave cases should matters be pushed to the point of controversy or formal
appeal.
"Sixth,--Christians
and evangelists should be solemnly warned against betraying an arrogant spirit
upon the successful termination of any trouble.
"Seventh,--Previous
to the carrying of a case before the official, let the missionary be sure of
his facts. Each case should be patiently, thoroughly and firmly examined.
Receive individual testimony with judicious reserve. Be not easily blinded by
appeals to the emotions. Be especially ready to receive any one from the
opposition, and give his words due weight. Do not be too exclusively influenced
by the judgment of any one man, however trusted.
"Eighth,--In the
course of negotiation beware of insisting on monetary compensation for the
injured Christian. In greatly aggravated cases this may occasionally be unavoidable.
But should it be made a condition of settlement, see to it that the damages are
under, rather than over, what might have been demanded. It is almost sure to
cause subsequent trouble, both within and without, if a Christian receives
money under such circumstances.
"Ninth,--When
unhappily involved in a persecution case with the official, we should remember
that we are not lawyers, and therefore make no stand on legal technicalities,
nor allow ourselves to take a threatening attitude, although we may be
subjected to provocation; we should be patient, dignified and strong in the
truth, making it clear to the official that this is all that we seek in order
that the ends of justice may be satisfied.
"Tenth,--It would
be well on every fitting occasion to exhort those under our care to avoid
frequenting yamens or cultivating intimacy with their inhabitants, unless,
indeed, we feel assured that their motive is the same as that animating our
Lord when He mingled with publicans and sinners."
A widely representative
conference of Protestant missionaries issued in 1903 the following manifesto
and sent copies in Chinese to all officials throughout the Empire:
"Chinese
Christians, though church-members, remain in every respect Chinese citizens,
and are subject to the properly constituted Chinese authorities. The sacred
Scriptures and the doctrines of the church teach obedience to all lawful
authority and exhort to good citizenship; and these doctrines are preached in
all Protestant churches. The relation of a missionary to his converts is thus
that of a teacher to his disciples, and he does not desire to arrogate to
himself the position or power of a magistrate.
"Unfortunately, it
sometimes happens that unworthy men, by making insincere professions, enter the
church and seek to use this connection to interfere with the ordinary course of
law in China. We all agree that such conduct is entirely reprehensible, and we
desire it to be known that we give no support to this unwarrantable practice.
"On this account we
desire to state that for the information of all that: (a) The Protestant Church
does not wish to interfere in law cases. All cases between Christians and
non-Christians must be settled in the courts in the ordinary way. Officials are
called upon to administer fearlessly and impartially justice to all within
their jurisdiction. (b) Native Christians are strictly forbidden to use the
name of the church or its officers in the hope of strengthening their positions
when they appear before magistrates. The native pastors and preachers are
appointed for teaching and exhortation, and are chosen because of their worthy
character to carry on this work. To prevent abuses in the future, all officials
are respectfully requested to report to the missionary every case in which
letters or cards using the name of the church or any of its officers are
brought into court. Then proper inquiry will be made and the truth become
clear."
The policy of the
British Government on this subject was clearly expressed by Earl Granville in
his note of August 21, 1871, to the British Minister at Peking:
"The policy and practice of the Government of Great Britain have
been unmistakable. They have uniformly declared, and now repeat, that they do
not claim to afford any species of protection to Chinese Christians which may
be construed as withdrawing them from their native allegiance, nor do they
desire to secure to British missionaries any privileges or immunities beyond
those granted by treaty to other British subjects. The Bishop of Victoria was
requested to intimate this to the Protestant missionary societies in the letter
addressed to him by Mr. Hammond by the Earl of Clarendon's direction on the
13th of November, 1869, and to point out that they would `do well to warn
converts that although the Chinese Government may be bound by treaty not to
persecute, on account of their conversion, Chinese subjects who may embrace
Christianity, there is no provision in the treaty by which a claim can be made
on behalf of converts for exemption from the obligations of their natural
allegiance, and from the jurisdiction of the local authorities. Under the creed
of their adoption, as under that of their birth, Chinese converts to
Christianity still owe obedience to the law of China, and if they assume to set
themselves above those laws, in reliance upon foreign protection, they must
take the consequence of their own indiscretion, for no British authority, at
all events, can interfere to save them.'" The
policy of the United States Government was stated with equal clearness in a
note of the Hon. Frederick F. Low, United States Minister at Peking, to the
Tsung-li Yamen, dated March 20, 1871:
"The Government of the United States, while it claims to exercise,
under and by virtue of the stipulations of treaty, the exclusive right of
judging of the wrongful acts of its citizens resident in China, and of
punishing them when found guilty according to its own laws, does not assume to
claim or exercise any authority or control over the natives of China. This rule
applies equally to merchants and missionaries, and, so far as I know, all
foreign Governments having treaties with China adhere strictly to this rule. In
case, however, missionaries see that native Christians are being persecuted by
the local officials on account of their religious opinions, in violation of the
letter and spirit of the twenty-ninth article of the treaty between the United
States and China, it would be proper, and entirely in accordance with the
principles of humanity and the teachings of their religion, to make respectful
representation of the facts in such cases to the local authorities direct, or
through their diplomatic representative to the foreign office; for it cannot be
presumed that the Imperial Government would sanction any violation of treaty
engagement, or that the local officials would allow persecutions for opinion's
sake, when once the facts are made known to them. In doing this the
missionaries should conform to Chinese custom and etiquette, so far as it can
be done without assuming an attitude that would be humiliating and degrading to
themselves." The question is one
of the most difficult and delicate of all the questions with which the
missionary must deal. On the one hand, every impulse of justice and humanity
prompts him to befriend a good man who is being persecuted for righteousness'
sake. But on the other hand, sore experience has taught him the necessity of
caution. The pressure upon him is so frequent and trying that it becomes the bête
noire of his life. The outsider may wisely hesitate before he adds to that
pressure. The citations that have been given show that the missionaries
themselves understand the question quite as well as any one else and that they
are competent to deal with it.
THE relation of the
missionary to the consular and diplomatic representatives of his own government
is another topic of perennial criticism. Some European Governments have
persistently and notoriously sought to advance their national interest through
their missionaries. France and Russia have been particularly active in this
way, the former claiming large rights by virtue of its position as "the
protector of Catholic missions." The result is that the average Chinese
official regards all missionaries as political agents who are to be watched and
feared. Dr. L. J. Davies, a Presbyterian missionary, says that he has been
repeatedly asked his rank as "an American official," whether he
"reported in person" to his "emperor" on his return to his
native land, how much salary his government allowed him, and many other
questions the import of which was manifest.
The typical consul and
minister, moreover, find that no small part of their business relates to
matters that are brought to their attention by missionaries. Sometimes they
manifest impatience on this account. One consul profanely complained to me that
three-fourths of his business related to the missionary question. He forgot,
however, that nine-tenths of the nationals under his jurisdiction were
missionaries, so that in proportion to their numbers, the missionaries gave him
less trouble than the non-missionary Americans. In answer to an inquiry by the
Rev. Dr. Paul D. Bergen, of the Presbyterian Mission, seventy- three
missionaries, of from five to thirty years' experience, and representing most
of the Protestant boards, reported a total of only fifty-two applications
through consul or minister. The Hon. John Barrett, formerly Minister of the
United States to Siam, writes: "Let us be fair in judging the
missionaries. Let the complaining merchant, traveller or clubman take the beam
from his own eye before he demands that the mote be taken from the missionary's
eye. In my diplomatic experience in Siam, 150 missionaries gave me less trouble
in five years than fifteen merchants gave me in five months."
Doubtless some
diplomats would be glad to have the missionaries expatriate themselves. In the
United States Senate the Hon. John Sherman is reported to have said that
"if our citizens go to a far-distant country, semi-civilized and bitterly
opposed to their movements, we cannot follow them there and protect them. They
ought to come home." Is, then, the missionary's business less legitimate
than the trader's? Is a man entitled to the protection of his country if he
goes to the Orient to sell whiskey and rifles, but does he forfeit that
protection if he goes there to preach the gospel of temperance and peace?
Critics may be reminded
that missionaries are American citizens; that when gamblers and drunkards and
adventurers and distillery agents in China claim the rights of citizenship, the
missionary does not forfeit his rights by a residence in China for the purpose
of teaching the young, healing the sick, distributing the Bible and preaching
the gospel of Christ, particularly when treaties expressly guarantee him
protection in the exercise of these very privileges. It is odd to find some
people insisting that a dissolute trader should be allowed to go wherever he
pleases and raising a tremendous hubbub if a hair of his head is injured, while
at the same time they appear to deem it an unwarranted thing for a decent man
to go to China on a mission of peace and good-will.
While the individual
missionary is, of course, free to renounce his claim to the protection of home
citizenship, such renunciation is neither necessary nor expedient. There is not
the slightest probability that our Government will require it, and if it
should, the public sentiment of the United States would not tolerate such an
order for a week. No self-respecting nation can expatriate its citizens who go
abroad to do good. The policy of the United States was indicated in the note of
the Hon. J. C. B. Davis, acting Secretary of State, to the United States
Minister at Peking, October 19, 1871.
"The rights of citizens of the United States in China are well
defined by treaty. So long as they attend peaceably to their affairs they are
to be placed on a common footing of amity and good-will with subjects of China,
and are to receive and enjoy for themselves, and everything appertaining to
them, protection and defense from all insults and injuries. They have the right
to reside at any of the ports open to foreign commerce, to rent houses and
places of business, or to build such upon sites which they have the right to
hire. They have secured to them the right to build churches and cemeteries, and
they may teach or worship in those churches without being harassed, persecuted,
interfered with, or molested. These are some of the rights which are expressly
and in terms granted to the United States, for their citizens, by the Treaty of
1858. If I rightly apprehend the spirit of the note of the Foreign Office, and
of the regulations which accompany it, there is, to state it in the least
objectionable form, an apprehension in the yamen that it may become necessary
to curtail some of these rights, in consequence of the alleged conduct of
French missionaries. This idea cannot be entertained for one moment by the
United States." This
position was given new emphasis by the note sent by Secretary of State John Hay
to the Hon. Horace Porter, United States Ambassador to France, in response to a
communication from the American Chamber of Commerce in Paris in 1903. In this
note Mr. Hay said:
"The Government holds that every citizen sojourning or travelling
abroad in pursuit of his lawful affairs is entitled to a passport, and the
duration of such sojourn the department does not arrogate to itself the right
to limit or prescribe." The
governments of continental Europe have repeatedly shown themselves quick to
resent an infringement upon the treaty rights of their subjects who are in
China as missionaries. The Hon. Thomas Francis Wade, British Minister at
Peking, wrote to Minister Wen Hsiang in June, 1871:--"The British
Government draws no distinction between the missionaries and any other of its
non-official subjects." This sentiment was emphatically reiterated by Earl
Granville in a note from the foreign office in London to Mr. Wade dated August
21, 1871:
"Her Majesty's Government cannot allow the claim that the
missionaries residing in China must conform to the laws and customs of China to
pass unchallenged. It is the duty of a missionary, as of every other British
subject, to avoid giving offense as far as possible to the Chinese authorities
or people, but he does not forfeit the rights to which he is entitled under the
treaty as a British subject because of his missionary character." But while this is the only possible policy
for a government, it is surely reasonable to expect that the persons concerned
will exercise moderation and prudence in their demands. The China Island
Mission does not permit its missionaries to appeal to their Government
officials without special permission from headquarters. Many missionaries of
other societies would probably resent such a limitation of their liberty as
citizens. But as the act of the individual often involves others, it might be well
to make the approval of the station necessary, and, wherever practicable, of
the mission. Nine-tenths of the missionaries do not and will not unnecessarily
write or telegraph for the intervention of minister or consul. But the tenth
man may be benefited by the counsel of his colleagues who know or who may be
easily acquainted with the facts. The American Presbyterian Board in a formal
action has expressed the wise judgment that "appeals to the secular arm
should always and everywhere be as few as possible." It is not in the
civil or military power of a country to give the missionary success. In the
crude condition of heathen society, the temptation is sometimes strong to
appeal for aid to "the secular arm" of the home government. Occasions
may possibly arise in which it will be necessary to insist upon rights.
Nevertheless, as a rule, it will be well to remember that "the weapons of
our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God," and that "the
servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men." The
argument of the sword is Mohammedan, not Christian. The veteran Rev. J. Hudson
Taylor holds that in the long run appeals to home governments do nothing but
harm. He says he has known of many riots that have never been reported and of
much suffering endured in silence which have "fallen out rather to the
furtherance of the gospel," and that "if we leave God to vindicate
our cause, the issue is sure to prove marvellous in spirituality."
The critics have
vociferously charged that after the suppression of the Boxer uprising, the
missionaries greatly embarrassed their goverments{sic} by demanding bloody
vengeance upon the Chinese. It may indeed be true that among the thousands of
Roman Catholic and Protestant missionaries in China, some temporarily lost
their self-control and gave way to anger under the awful provocation of ruined
work, burned homes, outraged women and butchered Chinese Christians. How many
at home would or could have remained calm in such circumstances? But it is
grossly unjust to treat such excited utterances as representative of the great
body of missionary opinion. The missionaries went to China and they propose to
stay there because they love and believe in the Chinese, and it is very far
from their thought to demand undue punishment for those who oppose them. They
sensibly expected a certain amount of opposition from tradition, heathenism,
superstition and corruption, and they are not disposed to call for unmanly or
unchristian measures when that trouble falls upon them which fell in even
greater measure on the Master Himself.
It is true that some of
the missionaries felt that the ring- leaders of the Boxers, including those in
high official position who more or less secretly incited them to violence,
should be punished. But they were not thinking of revenge, so much as of the
welfare of China, the restoration to power of the best element among the
Chinese, and the reasonable security of Chinese Christians and of foreigners
who have treaty rights. Many missionaries feel that there is no hope for China
save in the predominance of the Reform Party, and that if the reactionaries are
to remain in control, the outlook is dark indeed, not so much for the foreigner
as for China itself. The men who were guilty of the atrocities perpetrated in
the summer of 1900 violated every law, human and divine, and some of the
missionaries demanded their punishment only in the same spirit as the ministers
and Christian people of the United States who with united voice demanded the
punishment of the four young men in Paterson, New Jersey, who had been
systematically outraging young girls.
Nevertheless, as to the
whole subject of the policy which should be adopted by our Government in China,
I believe that it would be wise for both the missionaries and the mission
boards to be cautious in proffering advice, and to leave the responsibility for
action with the lawfully constituted civil authorities upon whom the people
have placed it. Governments have better facilities for acquiring accurate
information as to political questions than missionaries have. They can see the
bearings of movements more clearly than those who are not in political life and
can discern elements in the situation that are not so apparent to others.
Moreover, they must bear the blame or praise for consequences. They can ask for
missionary opinion if they want it. Generations of protest against priestly
domination, chiefly by Protestant ministers themselves, have developed in both
Europe and America a disposition to resent clerical interference in political
questions. This is particularly true of matters in Asia, where the political
situation is so delicate. The opinions publicly expressed by the missionaries
as to the policy, which, in their judgment, should be adopted by our Government
and by the European Powers have included not only many articles of individual
missionaries in newspapers and magazines, but formal communications of bodies
or committees of missionaries. Conspicuous examples are the protests of
missionaries assembled in Chefoo and Shanghai in 1900 against the decision of
the American Government to withdraw its troops from Peking, to recognize the
Empress Dowager and to omit certain officials from the list of those who were
to be executed or banished, and, in particular, the letter addressed by
"the undersigned British and American missionaries representative of
societies and organizations that have wide interests in China to their
Excellencies the Plenipotentiaries of Great Britain and the United States
accredited to the Chinese Government."
These actions were
taken by men whose character, ability and knowledge of the Chinese entitle them
to great weight, and who were personally affected in the security of their
lives and property and in the interests of their life-work by the policy
adopted by their respective Governments. All were citizens who did not abdicate
their citizenship by becoming missionaries, and whose status and rights in
China, as such, have been specifically recognized by treaty. All, moreover,
expressed their views with clearness, dignity and force. From the viewpoint of
right and privilege, and, indeed, political duty as citizens, they were
abundantly justified in expressing their opinions.
On the other hand,
there are many friends of missions who doubt whether formal declarations of
judgment "as missionaries," on political and military questions, were
accorded much influence by diplomats; whether they did not increase the popular
criticism of missionaries to an extent which more than counterbalanced any good
that they accomplished; whether they did not identify the missionary cause with
"the consul and gunboat" policy which Lord Salisbury charged upon it;
and whether they did not prejudice their own future influence over the Chinese
and strengthen the impression that the mis- sionaries are "political
emissaries." In reply to my inquiry as to his opinion, Sir Robert Hart
expressed himself as follows:--
"As for punitive measures, etc., I have really no personal
knowledge of the action taken by American missionaries, and hearsay is not a
good foundation for opinion. It is said that vindictive feeling rather than
tender mercy has been noticed. But even if so, it cannot be wondered at, so
cruel were the Chinese assailants when they had the upper hand. The occasion has
been altogether anomalous, and it is only at the parting of the ways the
difference of view comes in. That what was done merited almost wholesale
punishment is a view most will agree in--eyes turned to the past--but when
discussion tries to argue out what will be best for the future, some will vote
for striking terror, and others for trusting more to the more slowly working
but longer lasting effect of mercy. I do not believe any missionary has brought
anybody to punishment who did not richly deserve it. But some people seem to
feel it would have been wiser for ministers of the gospel to have left to
`governors' the `punishment of evil-doers.' For my part, I cannot blame them,
for without their assistance much that is known would not have been known, and,
although numbers of possibly innocent, inoffensive and non-hostile people may
have been overwhelmed in this last year's avalanche of disaster, there are
still at large a lot of men whose punishment would probably have been a good
thing for the future. One can only hope that their good luck in escaping may
lead them to take a new departure, and with their heads in the right
direction."[70] Wisely or
unwisely--the former, I venture to think--the interdenominational conference of
American mission boards having work in China, held in 1900, declined to make
representations to our Government on questions of policy during the Boxer
uprising. They necessarily had much correspondence with Washington regarding
the safety of missionaries during the siege, but when I inquired of Secretary
of State Hay as to the accuracy of the later newspaper charges that mission
boards were urging the Government to retaliatory measures, he promptly replied:
"No communications of this nature have been received from the great mission
boards or from their authorized representatives."
But let us hear the
missionaries themselves on this subject. An interdenominational committee,
headed by the Rev. Dr. Calvin W. Mateer, prepared a reply to this criticism,
which has been circulated throughout China and has received the assent of so
large a number of missionaries of all churches and nationalities that it may be
taken as representing the views of fully nine-tenths of the whole body of
Protestant missionaries in the Empire. This letter should be given the widest
possible currency, as expressing the views of men who are the peers of any
equal number of Christian workers in the world. It is dated May 24, 1901, and,
after discussing the question of the responsibility for the Boxer uprising, the
letter continues:
"With reference to the second point--that we have manifested an
unchristian spirit in suggesting the punishment of those who were guilty of the
massacre of foreigners and native Christians--we understand that the criticism
applies chiefly to the message sent by the public meeting held in Shanghai in
September last. "1. It
should, in the first place, be borne in mind that the resolutions passed at
that meeting were called for by the proposal of the Allies to evacuate Peking
immediately after the relief of the Legations. It was felt, not only by
missionaries but by the whole of the foreign residents in China, that such a
course would be fraught with the greatest disaster, inasmuch as it would give
sanction to further lawlessness.
"2. Further it
must be remembered that, while suggesting that a satisfactory settlement
`should include the adequate punishment of all who were guilty of the recent
murders of foreigners and native Christians,' it was left to the Powers to
decide what that `adequate punishment' should be. Moreover, when taking such measures
as were necessary, they were urged to `make every effort to avoid all needless
and indiscriminate slaughter of Chinese and destruction of their property.'
"3. By a strange
misunderstanding we find that this suggestion has been interpreted as though it
were animated by an unchristian spirit of revenge. With the loss of scores of
friends and colleagues still fresh upon us, and with stories of cruel massacres
reaching us day by day, it would not have been surprising had we been betrayed
into intemperate expressions; but we entirely repudiate the idea which has been
read into our words. If governments are the ministers of God's righteousness,
then surely it is the duty of every Christian Government not only to uphold the
right but to put down the wrong, and equally the duty of all Christian subjects
to support them in so doing. For China, as for Western nations, anarchy is the
only alternative to law. Both justice and mercy require the judicial punishment
of the wrong-doers in the recent outrages. For the good of the people
themselves, for the upholding of that standard of righteousness which they
acknowledge and respect, for the strengthening and encouragement of those
officials whose sympathies have been throughout on the side of law and order,
and for the protection of our own helpless women and children and the equally
helpless sons and daughters of the Church, we think that such violations of
treaty obligations, and such heartless and unprovoked massacres as have been
carried out by official authority or sanction, should not be allowed to pass
unpunished. It is not of our personal wrongs that we think, but of the
maintenance of law and order, and of the future safety of all foreigners
residing in the interior of China, who, it must be remembered, are not under
the jurisdiction of Chinese law, but, according to the treaties, are
immediately responsible to, and under the protection of, their respective
Governments."
The reply rather
pathetically concludes:
"It is unhappily the lot of missionaries to be misunderstood and
spoken against, and we are aware that in any explanation we now offer we add to
the risk of further misunderstanding; but we cast ourselves on the forbearance
of our friends, and beg them to refrain from hasty and ill-formed judgments. If,
on our part, there have been extreme statements, if individual missionaries
have used intemperate words or have made demands out of harmony with the spirit
of our Divine Lord, is it too much to ask that the anguish and peril through
which so many of our number have gone during the last six months should be
remembered, and that the whole body should not be made responsible for the
hasty utterances of the few?" A
perplexing phase of the relation of missionaries to their own governments
develops in times of disturbance. Should missionaries remain at their stations
when their minister or consul think that they ought to withdraw to the port
where they can be more easily protected? Should they make journeys that the
consul deems imprudent or return to an abandoned station before he regards the
trouble as ended? This question became acute in connection with the Boxer
outbreak when mis- sionaries sometimes differed with ministers or consuls as to
whether they should go or stay. On the one hand it may be urged that missionaries
are under strong obligations to attach great weight to the judgment of their
minister or consul. If they receive the benefits and protection of citizenship,
and if by their acts they may involve their governments, they should recognize
the right of the authorized representatives of those governments to counsel
them. The presumption should be in favour of obedience to that counsel, and it
should not be disregarded without clear and strong reasons.
But the fact cannot be
ignored that, whatever may be the personal sympathies of individual ministers
or consuls, diplomacy as such considers only the secondary results of missions,
and not the primary ones. Government officials, speaking on missionary work,
almost invariably dwell on its material and civilizing rather than its
spiritual aspects. They do not, as officials, feel that the salvation of men
from sin and the command of Christ to evangelize all nations are within their
sphere. Moreover, diplomacy is proverbially and necessarily cautious. Its business
is to avoid risks, and, of course, to advise others to avoid them. The
political situation, too, was undeniably uncertain and delicate. The future was
big with possibility of peril. In such circumstances, we should expect
diplomacy to be anxious and to look at the whole question from the prudential
viewpoint.
But the missionary,
like the soldier, must take some risks. From Paul down, missionaries have not
hesitated to face them. Christ did not condition His great command upon the
approval of Cæsar. It was not safe for Morrison to enter China, and for many
years missionaries in the interior were in grave jeopardy. But devoted men and
women accepted the risk in the past, and they will accept it in the future.
They must exercise common sense. And yet this enterprise is unworldly as well
as worldly, and when the soldier boldly faces every physical peril, when the
trader unflinchingly jeopardizes life and limb in the pursuit of gold--I found
a German mining engineer and his wife living alone in a remote village soon
after the Boxer excitement-- should the missionary be held back?
If, however, after full
and careful deliberation, missionaries feel that it is their duty to disregard
the advice of their minister or consul, they should consult their respective
boards and if the boards sustain them, all concerned should accept
responsibility for the risks involved.
But if missionaries do
not permit governments to control their movements, they should not be too
exacting in their demands on them when trouble comes. The Rev. Dr. Henry M.
Field once said:--
"A foreign missionary is one who goes to a strange country to
preach the gospel of our salvation. That is his errand and his defense. The
civil authorities are not presumed to be on his side. If he offends the
sensibilities of the people to whom he preaches, he is supposed to face the
consequences. If he cannot win men by the Word and his own love for their
souls, he cannot call on the civil or military powers to convert them. Nor is
the missionary a merchant, in the sense that he must have ready recourse to the
courts for a recouping of losses or the recovery of damages. Commercial
treaties cannot cover all our missionary enterprises. Confusion of ideas here
has confounded a good many fine plans and zealous men. It is a tremendous
begging of the whole question to insist on the nation's protection of the men
who are to subvert the national faith. Property rights and preaching rights get
closely entwined, and it is difficult to untangle them at times, but the distinction
is definite and the difference often fundamental. By confusing them we weaken
the claims of both. And when our Christian preachers get behind a mere property
right in order to defend their right to preach a new religion, they dishonour
themselves and defame the faith they profess. To get behind diplomatic
guaranties in order to evangelize the nations is to mistake the sword for the
Spirit, to rely on the arm of flesh and put aside the help of the
Almighty." That is, in my
judgment, stating the case rather strongly. Doubtless Dr. Field did not mean
that governments would be justified in discriminating against missionaries and
he would probably have been one of the first to protest if they had done so. He
was addressing missionaries, reminding them that they could do in liberty what
the governments could not do in law, and exhorting against any disposition to
depend unduly upon the sword of the secular arm. At any rate, he was a devoted
friend of missions and as such his words are deserving of thoughtful
consideration.
CRITICS vociferously
assert that the missionaries were chiefly responsible for the Boxer uprising
and for most of the prejudice of the Chinese against foreigners. As to the
general accuracy of this charge, the reader has doubtless formed some
impression from what has been said in the preceding chapters regarding the
objects and methods of foreign trade and foreign politics. Still, it is but
fair to remember that there are 3,854 missionaries in China, representing
almost every European and American nationality and no less than nine Roman
Catholic and sixty-seven Protestant boards.[71] As might be expected, the
standard of appointment varies. A few boards, while insisting upon high
spiritual qualifications, do not insist upon equal qualifications of some other
kinds, while in all societies an occasional missionary proves to be visionary
and ill-balanced. But in the great majority of the boards, the standard of
appointment is very high, and while occasional mistakes are made, yet as a rule
the missionaries represent the best type of Protestant Christianity. They are,
as a class, men and women of education, refinement and ability--in every
respect the equals and as a rule the superiors of the best class of
non-missionary Europeans and Americans in China.
Now it is manifest that
criticisms which may be true of some missionaries may not be true of the
missionary body as a whole. As a matter of fact, the average critic has in mind
either the Roman Catholic priests or the members of some independent society.
This is notably true of Michie. Many of the charges are not true even of them,
but of the charges that I have seen that have any foundation at all,
nine-tenths do not apply to the missionaries of church boards. It is always
fair, therefore, to ask a critic, "To which class of missionaries do you
refer?"
The clearest line of
distinction is between the Protestants and the Roman Catholics. The latter
number 904. They have been in China the longest. They have the largest
following,[72] and their methods are radically different from those of the
Protestant missionaries. It is not denied that some of the priests are
high-minded, intelligent men and that some of the Protestants lack wisdom. But
comparing the two classes broadly, no one who is at all conversant with the
facts will regard the Protestants as inferior. I do not wish to be unjust to
the Roman Catholic missionaries in China. Many good things might be said
regarding the work which some of them are doing. I personally called at several
Roman Catholic stations in various parts of the Empire and I have vivid
recollections of the kindness with which I was received, while more than once I
was impressed by the unmistakable evidences of devotion and self-sacrifice. It
was pleasant to hear many Protestant missionaries declare that they had never
heard a suspicion as to the moral character of the priests. I did not hear any
in all north China. The lives of the Roman Catholic missionaries are hard and
narrow and they have no relief in the companionships of wife and children, in
furloughs or in medical attendance, for they have no medical missionaries,
while not infrequently the priest lives alone in a village. Dead to the world,
with no families and no expectation of returning to their native land, trained
from boyhood to a monastic life, drilled to unquestioning obedience and to few
personal needs, their ambition is not to get anything for themselves but to
strengthen the Church for which the individual priest unhesitatingly sacrifices
himself, content if by his complete submergence of his own interests he has
helped to make her great. With such men, Rome is a mighty power in Asia. But the
sincere, devoted man may be even more dangerous if his zeal is wrongly
directed, and the question under discussion now is not the personal character
of individuals, but the general policy of the Church. As to the character and
effects of this policy I found a remarkable unanimity of opinion in China, and
I could easily produce from my note-books the names of scores of credible
witnesses to the substantial accuracy of my position.
Whatever may be said in
favour of the Roman Catholics, it is unquestionable that their methods are far
more irritating to the Chinese than the methods of the Protestants. Led by able
and energetic bishops, the priests acquire all possible business property,
demand large rentals, build imposing religious plants, and baptize or enroll as
catechumens all sorts of people. It is notorious that the Roman Catholic
priests quite generally adopt the policy of interference on behalf of their
converts. Through the Minister of France at Peking they obtained an Imperial
Edict, dated March 15, 1899, granting them official status, so that the local
priest is on a footing of equality with the local magistrate, and has the right
of full access to him at any time. Whether or not intended by the Roman
Catholic Church, the impression is almost universal in China among natives and
foreigners alike that, if a Chinese becomes a Catholic, the Church will stand
by him through thick and thin, in time and in eternity. There are, indeed,
exceptions. Dr. Johnson, of Ichou-fu, told me of a Roman Catholic Christian
who, during the Boxer troubles, stealthily moved his goods into Ichou-fu,
burned his house, and then put in a claim for indemnity. The heathen
neighbours, when asked to pay, informed the priest. He summoned the man, who
confusedly said that if he had not burned the house, the Boxers would have done
so, and he thought he had better do it at a convenient time as it was sure to
be burned anyway. The priest promptly decided that he must suffer the loss
himself. So the priests do not always stand by their converts whether right or
wrong.
No one, however, who is
familiar with the general course of the Roman Catholic Church in China, will
deny that, as a rule, the priests boldly champion the cause of their converts.
This is one secret of Rome's great and rapidly growing power in China, and
unquestionably, too, it is one of the chief causes of Chinese hostility to
missions. After many years of observation, Dr. J. Campbell Gibson writes:--
"In the missions of the Church of Rome, they (treaty rights) are
systematically, and I am afraid one must say unscrupulously, used for the
gathering in of large numbers of nominal converts, whose only claim to the
Christian name is their registration in lists kept by native catechists, in
which they are entered on payment of a small fee, without regard to their
possession of any degree of Christian knowledge or character. In the event of
their being involved in any dispute or lawsuit, the native catechists or
priests, and even the foreign Roman Catholic missionaries, take up their cause
and press it upon the native magistrates. Not infrequently a still worse course
is pursued. Intimation is sent round the villages in which there are large
numbers of so-called Catholic converts and these assemble under arms to support
by force the feuds of their co-religionists. The consequence is that the
Catholic missions in southern China, and I believe in the north also, are
bitterly hated by the Chinese people and by their magistrates. By terrorizing
both magistrates and people, they have secured in many places a large amount of
apparent popularity; but they are sowing the seeds of a harvest of hatred and
bitterness which may be reaped in deplorable forms in years to come."[73] In my own interviews with Chinese
officials, it was my custom to lead the conversation towards the motives of
those who had attacked foreigners during the Boxer uprising, and without
exception the officials mentioned, among other causes, the interference of
Roman Catholic priests with the administration of the law in cases affecting
their converts. In several places in the interior, this was the only reason
assigned.
Said an intelligent
Chinese official in Shantung: "The whole trouble is not with the
Protestants but with the Catholics. Protestant Christians do not go to law so
often, and when they do, the Protestant missionary does not, as a rule,
interfere unless he is sure they are right. But the Catholic Christians are
constantly involved in lawsuits, and the priests invariably stand by them right
or wrong. The priests seem to think that their converts cannot be wrong. The
result is that many Chinese join the Roman Catholic Church to get the help of
the priests in the innumerable lawsuits that the Chinese are always waging. And
it is not surprising in such circumstances that Catholic Christians are a bad
lot." When I asked the magistrate of Paoting-fu why the people had killed
such kindly and helpful neighbours as the Congregational and Presbyterian
missionaries, he replied:--"The people were angered by the interference of
the Roman Catholics in their lawsuits. They felt that they could not obtain
justice against them, and in their frenzy they did not distinguish between
Catholics and Protestants." The Roman Catholic Mission in the prefecture
of Paoting-fu, it should be remembered, is about two centuries old, and the
Catholic population is about 12,000, so that the few hundreds of converts who
have been gathered in the recent work of the Protestants are very small in
comparison, while the splendid cathedral of the Roman Church, the spectacular
character of its services and the official status and aggressiveness of its
priests intensify the disproportion. The term Christian, therefore, to the
average man of Paoting-fu naturally means a Roman Catholic rather than a
Protestant.
Perhaps we should make
some allowance for Oriental forms of statement to one who was known to be a
Protestant. The politeness of an Oriental host to a guest is not always limited
by veracity, and it is possible that to Roman Catholics the officials may blame
the Protestants. But such unanimity of testimony among so many independent and
widely separated officials must surely count for something, especially when the
grounds for it are so notorious. Undoubtedly, there are many sincere Christians
among the Roman Catholic Chinese, but judging from the almost universal
testimony that I heard in China, the Roman Church is a veritable cave of
Adullam for unscrupulous and revengeful Chinese.
The evidence does not
rest upon the testimony of Protestants alone. If any one will take the trouble
to look up the diplomatic correspondence on this subject, he will find ample
and convincing testimony. February 9, 1871, the Tsung-li Yamen addressed to the
Foreign Legations at Peking a memorandum together with eight propositions, the
whole embodying the complaints and objections of the Chinese Government to
missionaries and their work in China, and suggesting certain regulations for
the future. This memorandum included the following paragraph:--
"The missionary question affects the whole question of pacific
relations with foreign powers--the whole question of their trade. As the
Minister addressed cannot but be well aware, wherever missionaries of the
Romish profession appear, ill-feeling begins between them and the people, and
for years past, in one case or another, points of all kinds on which they are
at issue have been presenting themselves. In earlier times when the Romish
missionaries first came to China, styled, as they were, `Si Ju,' the Scholars
of the West, their converts no doubt for the most part were persons of good
character; but since the change of ratifications in 1860, the converts have in
general not been of a moral class. The result has been that the religion that
professes to exhort men to virtue has come to be lightly thought of; it is in
consequence, unpopular, and its unpopularity is greatly increased by the
conduct of the converts who, relying on the influence of the missionaries,
oppress and take advantage of the common people (the non-Christians): and yet
more by the conduct of the missionaries themselves, who, when collisions
between Christians and the people occur, and the authorities are engaged in
dealing with them, take part with the Christians, and uphold them in their
opposition to the authorities. This undiscriminating enlistment of proselytes
has gone so far that rebels and criminals of China, pettifoggers and
mischief-makers, and such like, take refuge in the profession of Christianity,
and covered by this position, create disorder. This has deeply dissatisfied the
people, and their dissatisfaction long felt grows into animosity, and their
animosity into deadly hostility. The populations of different localities are
not aware that Protestantism and Romanism are distinct. They include both under
the latter denomination. They do not know that there is any distinction between
the nations of the West. They include them all under one denomination of
foreigners, and thus any serious collision that occurs equally compromises all
foreigners in China. Even in the provinces not concerned, doubt and misgiving
are certain to be largely generated." The
memorandum and its attached propositions are interesting reading as showing the
impression which the Chinese Government had of Roman Catholic missionary work.
The third proposition included the following statement:--
"They (Roman Catholic converts) even go so far as to coerce the
authorities and cheat and oppress the people. And the foreign missionaries,
without inquiring into facts, conceal in every case the Christian evil-doer,
and refuse to surrender him to the authorities for punishment. It has even
occurred that malefactors who have been guilty of the gravest crimes have
thrown themselves into the profession of Christianity, and have been at once
accepted and screened (from justice). In every province do the foreign
missionaries interfere at the offices of the local authorities in lawsuits in
which native Christians are concerned. For example in a case that occurred in
Sze-chuen in which some native Christian women defrauded certain persons
(non-Christians) of the rent owing to them, and actually had these persons
wounded and killed, the French Bishop took on himself to write in official form
(to the authorities) pleading in their favour. None of these women were
sentenced to forfeit life for life taken, and the resentment of the people of
Sze-chuen in consequence remains unabated." Mr. Wade, the British Minister at Peking, in reporting this
memorandum and its appended propositions to Earl Granville, June 8, 1871, said:
"The promiscuous enlistment of evil men as well as good by the
Romish missionaries, and their advocacy of the claims advanced by these
ill-conditioned converts, has made Romanism most unpopular; and the people at
large do not distinguish between Romanist and Protestant, nor between foreigner
and foreigner; not that Government has made no effort to instruct the people,
but China is a large Empire.... Three- fourths of the Romish missionaries in
China, in all, between 400 and 500 persons, are French; and Romanism in the
mouths of non-Christian Chinese is as popularly termed the religion of the
French as the religion of the Lord of Heaven." June 27th of that year, Earl Granville wrote to Lord Lyons
that he had said to the French Chargé d'Affaires:--
"I told M. Gavard that I could not pretend to think that the
conduct of the French missionaries, stimulated by the highest and most laudable
object, had been prudent in the interest of Christianity itself, and that the
support which had been given by the representatives of France to their
pretensions was dangerous to the future relations of Europe with China." The Hon. Frederick F. Low, United States
Minister at Peking, in communicating that memorandum and the attached
propositions to the State Department in Washington, March 20, 1871, said:--
"A careful reading of the Memorandum clearly proves that the great,
if not only, cause of complaint against the missionaries comes from the action
of the Roman Catholic priests and the native Christians of that faith.... Had
they (the Chinese Goverment) stated their complaints in brief, without
circumlocution, and stripped of all useless verbiage, they would have charged
that the Roman Catholic missionaries, when residing away from the open ports,
claim to occupy a semi-official position, which places them on an equality with
the provincial officer; that they deny the authority of the Chinese officials
over native Christians, which practically removes this class from the
jurisdiction of their own rulers; that their action in this regard shields the
native Christians from the penalties of the law, and thus holds out inducements
for the lawless to join the Catholic Church, which is largely taken advantage
of; that orphan asylums are filled with children, by the use of improper means,
against the will of the people; and when parents, guardians, and friends visit
these institutions for the purpose of reclaiming children, their requests for
examination and restitution are denied, and lastly, that the French Government,
while it does not claim for its missionaries any rights of this nature by
virtue of treaty, its agents and representatives wink at these unlawful acts,
and secretly uphold the missionaries. . . . I do not believe, and, therefore I
cannot affirm, that all the complaints made against Catholic missionaries are
founded in truth, reason, or justice; at the same time, I believe that there is
foundation for some of their charges. My opinions, as expressed in former
despatches touching this matter, are confirmed by further investigation. . .
." On the same date, Minister
Low wrote to the Tsung-li Yamen:--
"It is a noticeable fact, that among all the cases cited there does
not appear to be one in which Protestant missionaries are charged with
violating treaty, law or custom. So far as I can ascertain, your complaints are
chiefly against the action and attitude of the missionaries of the Roman
Catholic faith; and, as these are under the exclusive protection and control of
the Government of France, I might with great propriety decline to discuss a
matter with which the Government of the United States has no direct interest or
concern, for the reason that none of its citizens are charged with violating
treaty or local law, and thus causing trouble." This tendency of the Chinese to confuse Roman Catholics and
Protestants is further illustrated by the note addressed by Minister Wen Hsiang
to Sir R. Alcock:--
"Extreme indeed would be the danger if, popular indignation having
been once aroused by this opposition to the authorities, the hatred of the
whole population of China were excited like that of the people of Tientsin
against foreigners, and orders, though issued by the Government, could not be
for all that put in force. . . . Although the creeds of the various foreign
countries differ in their origin and development from each other, the natives
of China are unable to see the distinction between them. In their eyes all
(teachers of religion) are `missionaries from the West,' and directly they hear
a lying story (about any of these missionaries), without making further and
minute inquiry (into its truth), they rise in a body to molest him." As for Protestant missionaries, it would be
useless to assert that every one of the 2,950 has always been blameless in this
matter. Moreover, it must be borne in mind that there is a sense in which the
gospel is a revolutionary force. Christ Himself said that He came not to send
peace on earth but a sword, and to set a man at variance against his father.
There is usually more or less of a protest in a heathen land when a man turns
from the old faith to the new one. The refusal to contribute to the temple
sacrifices and to worship the ancestral tablets is sure to be followed by a
furious outcry. The convert is apt to be assailed as a traitor to the national
custom and as having entered into league with the foreigner.
To the Chinese,
moreover, all white men are "Christians" and "foreign
devils," and all alike stand for the effort to foreignize and despoil
China. Except where personal acquaintance has taught certain communities that
there is a difference between white men, the evil acts of one foreigner or of
one aggressive foreign Government are charged against all the members of the
race, just as in the pioneer days in the American colonies, a settler whose
wife had been killed by an Indian took his revenge by indiscriminately shooting
all the other Indians he could find. Any hatred that the Chinese may have
against Christianity is due, not so much to its religious teachings, as to its
identification with the foreign nations whose religion Christianity is supposed
to be and whose aggressions the Chinese have so much reason to fear and to
hate.
For this reason, the
introduction of Buddhism and Mohammedanism is not parallel, and to base an
argument against Christianity on the alleged fact that the other faiths easily
succeeded in domesticating themselves in China is to confuse facts. Neither
Buddhism nor Mohammedanism entered China as an aggressive propaganda by
foreigners. The Chinese themselves brought in Buddhism, and it spread chiefly
because it grafted into itself many Chinese superstitions and did not oppose
Chinese vices, but rather assimilated them. Why should the people have opposed
a religion which interfered with nothing that they valued and reenforced their
darling prejudices? As for Islam, we have already seen[74] that it is the faith
of early immigrants and their descendants, that its followers do not propagate
it, that they live in separate communities, are disliked by the Chinese and are
often at open war with them. Christianity, on the contrary, comes to China with
foreigners who have no intention of settling down as permanent members of
Chinese society, who are classed as representatives of nations which are
regarded as more or less hostile and unjust, and who preach their religion as a
vital spiritual faith which opposes all wrong, uproots all superstition and aims
at the moral reconstruction of every man. Of course, therefore, Christianity
must expect a reception different in some respects from that which was given to
Buddhism and Mohammedanism.
It is the shallowest of
all objections to missions that Mr. Francis Nichols urged in the North American
Review when he insisted that "the missionary is not engaged to be a
reformer," but that "his mission is to preach the gospel-- nothing
more."
"Is the gospel then simply a patent arrangement by which idolaters
can get to heaven, without disturbing their idolatry or the vices associated
with it? was not Christ a reformer? and Paul also, and his successors, who, by
their preaching, gave the idols of Rome to the moles and the bats, and robbed
the Coliseum of its gladiatorial shows? It is the glory of Christianity that on
questions of truth and righteousness it makes no compromise. Its mission is to
save the world by reforming it.... Who that understands the genius of
Christianity can fail to see that China Christianized must be very different
from China as it now is?"[75] After
making all due allowance for these things, however, the fact still remains that
opposition of this sort in China is usually local and sporadic. It affects a
greater or less number of individuals and families and occasionally a
community, but it does not move a whole population to the frenzy of a national
uprising. The anti-foreign hatred of the Boxers was fierce in thousands of
cities and villages where there were no missionaries or Chinese Christians at
all. In the sphere of religion proper, the Chinese are not an intolerant
people. They are almost wholly devoid of sec- tarian spirit. The coming of
another religion would not of itself excite serious opposition, for having
become accustomed to the presence and intermingling of several religions, it
would not antecedently occur to the Chinese that a fourth faith would involve
the abandonment of the others. They would be more apt to infer that the new
could be accepted in harmony with the old in the established way. So the worst
foe that the Christian missionary has to encounter is not hostility but
indifference.
As a rule, the Chinese
have not strenuously objected to the Protestant missionaries as missionaries.
It is the policy of the mission boards to avoid all unnecessary interference
with native customs. So far from coveting official equality with Chinese
magistrates, an overwhelming majority of the Protestant missionaries throughout
the Empire expressly declined to avail themselves of the offer of the Chinese
Government to give them the same privileges and official status that was
accorded to the Roman Catholic priests and bishops in the Imperial decree of
March 15, 1899.
"The very thing
which missionaries seek to avoid is denationalizing their converts. So far as
mission schools at the ports are concerned, it is not the missionary who is
chiefly responsible for what foreignizing is done. The Chinese who patronize
these schools want their children to learn foreign accomplishments. Such
schools, however, form but a very small part of the extensive educational work
done by American missionaries in China."[76]
Many of the
missionaries, especially in the interior stations, don Chinese clothing, shave
their heads and wear a queue. Everywhere the missionaries learn the Chinese
language, try to get into sympathy with the people, teach the young, heal the
sick, comfort the dying, distribute relief in time of famine, preach the gospel
of peace and good-will, and, in the opinion of unprejudiced judges, are upright,
sensible and useful workers. Not only men but women travel far into the
interior, the former frequently alone and unarmed. They go into the homes of
the people, preach in village streets, sleep unprotected in Chinese houses, and
receive much personal kindness from all classes.
The experience of the
Presbyterian mission at Chining-chou is an illustration of what has occurred in
scores of communities. When Dr. Stephen A. Hunter and the Rev. William Lane
tried to open a station in 1890, they were mobbed and driven out, barely
escaping with their lives. But in June, 1892, the Rev. J. A. Laughlin arrived
and was permitted to buy property and, in September, to bring his family and
begin permanent residence. There are hereditary bands of robbers in the neighbourhood,
and more than once they attacked the mission compound. But gradually the
peaceful purpose and the beneficent life of the missionaries became known and
active opposition ceased. When the Boxer outbreak occurred, there were about
150 baptized adults, besides a considerable number of children and adherents.
During the troubles, only two of the Christians recanted, the rest holding
together and continuing regular services. The mission property was undisturbed
during the whole period. It is true, the officials were friendly; but even
Governor Yuan Shih Kai's influence could not prevent some loss in his own
capital. In Chining-chou not a thing was touched, a striking testimony to the
friendliness of the people towards the missionaries whom they had learned to
love. As I approached the city with the returning missionaries, a group of
thirty met us with beaming faces. For nearly a year, they had been without a
missionary and their joy at seeing Mr. Laughlin was unmistakable. As we passed
through the city to the mission-compound in the southeast suburb, people in
almost every door and window smiled and bowed a welcome. Nor was this
cordiality confined to the Christians; many of all classes being outspoken in
their manifestations of respect and affection.
Nor is it true that the
Chinese sense of propriety is so out- raged, as some critics would have us
believe, by the coming of single-women missionaries. It is true that in a land
where all women are supposed to marry at an early age and where their freedom of
movement is rigidly circumscribed, the position of the unmarried woman, however
discreet she may be, is sometimes embarrassingly misunderstood until the
community becomes better acquainted with her mission and character. But the
opposition of the Chinese on this account has been grossly exaggerated by those
whose prior hostility to all missionary work predisposed them to make as much
capital as possible out of the small gossip on this subject. Even if the
misunderstanding were as general and as bitter as some allege, it would not
follow that single women should be withdrawn, for such misunderstanding grows
out of a false and vicious conception of the female sex and its relation to man
and society, and it is just that conception which Christianity should and does
correct. For that matter, the position of the single man is also misunderstood,
while no other person in all China is more fiercely hated by the Chinese than
the white traders in the treaty ports who are the chief source of the
criticisms upon missionaries. The experience of every mission board operating
in China has shown that a Chinese town soon learns that the single-woman
missionary is a pure-minded, large-hearted and unselfish worker, who from the
loftiest of motives devotes herself to the teaching of women and children and
to self-sacrificing ministries to the sick and suffering. No other foreigners
are more beloved by the people than the single-women missionaries.
It is simply foolish to
say that the missionary is responsible for the prompt appearance of the consul
and the gunboat. The true missionary goes forth without either consul or
gunboat. He devotes his life to ameliorating the sad conditions which prevail
in heathen communities. His reliance is not upon man, but upon God. But as soon
as his work begins to tell, the trader appears to buy and sell in the new
market. The statesman casts covetous eyes on the newly opened territory.
Christianity civilizes, and civilization increases wants, stimulates trade and
breaks down barriers. The conditions of modern civilization are developed. Then
the consul is sent, not because the missionary asks for him, but because his
government chooses to send him. Sooner or later some local trouble occurs, and
the Government takes advantage of the opportunity to further its territorial or
commercial ambitions. "Missionaries responsible, indeed!" writes Dr.
H. H. Jessup. "The diplomats of Europe know better. Had there been no
grabbing of seaports and hinterlands, no forcing modern improvements and European
goods down the throats of the Chinese, the missionaries would have been let
alone now as in the past."
It is the foreign idea
that the Chinese dislikes, the interference with his cherished customs and
traditions. A railroad alarms and angers him more than half a hundred
missionaries. A plowshare cuts through more of his superstitions than a mission
school. He does not want the methods of our western civilization, and he
resents the attempt to push them upon him. If no other force had been at work
than the foreign missionary, the anti-foreign agitation would never have
started. It is significant that those who protest that we ought not to force
our religion upon the Chinese do not appear to think that there is anything
objectionable in forcing our trade upon them. The animosity of the Chinese has
been primarily excited, not by the missionary, but by the trader and the
politician, and the missionary suffers chiefly because he comes from the
country of the trader and the politician and is identified with them as a member
of the hated race of foreigners.
On this whole subject,
I have been at some pains to collect the testimony of men whose positions are a
guarantee not only of knowledge but of impartiality.
The Hon. George F.
Seward, formerly United States Minister to Chipa, declares:--
"The people at large make too much of missionary work as an
occasion for trouble. There are missionaries who are iconoclasts, but this is
not their spirit. In great measure, they are men of education and judgment.
They depend upon spiritual weapons and good works. For every enemy a missionary
makes, he makes fifty friends. The one enemy may arouse an ignorant rabble to
attack him. While I was in China, I always congratulated myself on the fact
that the missionaries were there. There were good men and able men among the
merchants and officials, but it was the missionary who exhibited the foreigner
in benevolent work as having other aims than those which may justly be called
selfish. The good done by missionaries in the way of education, of medical
relief and of other charities cannot be overstated. If in China there were none
other than missionary influences, the upbuilding of that great people would go
forward securely. . . . I am not a church member, but I have the profoundest
admiration for the missionary as I have known him in China. He is a power for
good and for peace, not for evil." President
James B. Angell, also formerly United States Minister to China, replies as
follows to the question, "Are the Chinese averse to the introduction of
the Christian religion":--
"No, not in that broad sense. They do not seem to fear for the
permanency of their own religion. It is not that they object to missionaries
and the Christian religion as much as it is that the missionaries are
foreigners. A more serious cause of the uprising is the wide-spread suspicion
among the natives, since the Japanese war, that the foreigners are going to
partition China. It is not strange that all these conditions cause friction and
excitement. The Chinese want to be left to themselves and the one word
`foreigners' sums up the great cause of the present trouble." The Hon. Charles Denby, after
thirteen years' experience as United States Minister to China, wrote:--
"I unqualifiedly, and in the strongest language that tongue can
utter, give to these men and women who are living and dying in China and the
Far East my full and unadulterated commendation. . . . No one can controvert
the fact that the Chinese are enormously benefited by the labours of the
missionaries. Foreign hospitals are a great boon to the sick. In the matter of
education, the movement is immense. There are schools and colleges all over
China taught by the missionaries. There are also many foreign asylums in
various cities which take care of thousands of waifs. The missionaries
translate into Chinese many scientific and philosophical works. There are
various anti-opium hospitals where the victims of this vice are cured. There
are industrial schools and workshops. There are many native Christian churches.
The converts seem to be as devout as people of any other race. As far as my
knowledge extends, I can and do say that the missionaries in China are
self-sacrificing; that their lives are pure; that they are devoted to their
work; that their influence is beneficial to the natives; that the arts and
sciences and civilization are greatly spread by their efforts; that many useful
western books are translated by them into Chinese; that they are the leaders in
all charitable work, giving largely themselves and personally disbursing the
funds with which they are intrusted; that they do make converts, and such
converts are mentally benefited by conversion." And after the Boxer
outbreak he added:--"I do not believe that the uprising in China was due
to hatred of the missionaries or of the Christian religion. The Chinese are a
philosophic people, and rarely act without reasoning upon the causes and
results of their actions. They have seen their land disappearing and becoming
the property of foreigners, and it was this that awakened hatred of foreigners
and not the actions of the missionaries or the doctrines that they teach."
The present United States
Minister, the Hon. Edwin H. Conger, has repeatedly borne similar testimony,
publicly assuring the missionaries of his "personal respect and profound
gratitude for their noble conduct."
The Hon. John W.
Foster, ex-Secretary of State and counsel for the Chinese Government in the
settlement with Japan, writes:--
"The opinion formed by me after careful inquiry and observation is
that the mass of the population of China, particularly the common people, are
not specially hostile to the missionaries and their work. Occasional riots have
occurred, but they are almost invariably traced to the literati or prospective
office-holders and the ruling classes. These are often bigoted and conceited to
the highest degree, and regard the teachings of the missionaries as tending to
overthrow the existing order of Government and society, which they look upon as
a perfect system, and sanctified by great antiquity. . . . The Chinese, as a
class, are not fanatics in religion and if other causes had not operated to
awaken a national hostility to foreigners, the missionaries would have been
left free to combat Buddhism and Taoism, and carry on their work of
establishing schools and hospitals." Wu
Ting-fang, Chinese Minister to Washington during the Boxer uprising, while
frankly stating that "missionaries are placed in a very delicate
situation," and that "we must not be blind to the fact that some, in
their excessive zeal, have been indiscreet," nevertheless as frankly
added:--
"It has been commonly supposed that missionaries are the sole cause
of anti-foreign feeling in China. This charge is unfair. Missionaries have done
a great deal of good in China. They have translated useful works into the
Chinese language, published scientific and educational journals and established
schools in the country. Medical missionaries especially have been remarkably
successful in their philanthropic work." The
Hon. Benjamin Harrison, late President of the United States, replied to my
inquiry in the terse remark:--"If what Lord Salisbury says were true, the
reflection would not be upon the missionaries, but upon the premiers."
General James H.
Wilson, of the United States Army, the second in command of the American forces
in Peking, adds his testimony:--
"Our missionaries, after the earlier Jesuits, were almost the first
in that wide field (China). They were generally men of great piety and
learning, like Morrison, Brown, Martin and Williams, and did all in their power
as genuine men of God to show the heathen that the stranger was not necessarily
a public enemy, but might be an evangel of a higher and better civilization.
These men and their co-labourers have established hospitals, schools and
colleges in various cities and provinces of the Empire, which are everywhere
recognized by intelligent Chinamen as centres of unmitigated blessing to the
people. Millions of dollars have been spent in this beneficent work, and the result
is slowly but surely spreading the conviction that foreign arts and sciences
are superior to `fung shuy' and native superstition." The Hon. John Goodnow, American
Consul-General at Shanghai, emphatically declares:--"It is absurd to
charge the missionaries with causing the Boxer War. They are simply hated by
the Chinese as one part of a great foreign element that threatened to upset the
national institutions."
Viceroy Yuan Shih Kai
when Governor of Shantung, in the spring of 1901, wrote to the Baptist and
Presbyterian missionaries of the province as follows:
"You, reverend sirs, have been preaching in China for many years,
and, without exception, exhort men concerning righteousness. Your church
customs are strict and correct, and all your converts may well observe them. In
establishing your customs you have been careful to see that Chinese law was
observed. How, then, can it be said that there is disloyalty? To meet this sort
of calumny, I have instructed that proclamations be put out. I purpose, hereafter,
to have lasting peace. Church interests may then prosper and your idea of
preaching righteousness I can promote. The present upheaval is of a most
extraordinary character. It forced you, reverend sirs, by land and water to go
long journeys, and subjected you to alarm and danger, causing me many qualms of
conscience." A charge
which has been so completely demolished by such competent and unprejudiced
witnesses can only be renewed at the expense of either intelligence or candour.
Dr. Arthur H. Smith truly says that "amid the varied action of so many
agents it is vain to deny that Christianity has sometimes been so presented as
to be misrepresented, but on the whole there had for some time been a marked
and a growing friendliness on the part of both people and officials. . . . The
convulsion which shook China to its foundations was due to general causes, slow
in their operations, but inevitable in their results. It was the impact of the
Middle Ages with the developed Christian commercial civilization of the
nineteenth century, albeit accompanied with many incidental elements which were
neither Christian nor in the true sense civilized. If Christianity had never
come to China at all, some such collision must have occurred."[77]
THE real effect of the
operation of the missionary force is to be seen in the Chinese who have
accepted Christianity. As the commercial force is causing an economic
revolution and as the political force resulted in the Boxer uprising, so the
missionary force is developing a great spiritual movement which is
crystallizing into a Chinese Church. Much has been said about the character of
the Chinese Christians and doubts have been cast on the genuineness of their
faith. It is admitted that they sometimes try the patience of the missionary.
But is the home pastor never distressed by the conduct of his members? I am
inclined to believe that the Christians in China would compare favourably with
the same number selected at random in America. A Chinese laundryman posted on
his door this significant notice to his foreign customers:--"Please help
us to remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy by bringing your clothes to the
laundry before ten o'clock on Saturdays," while in another place a Chinese
servant left the morning after a card party at which much money had changed
hands, stating to his mistress in explanation, "Me Clistian; me no stay in
heathen house!" The Chinese Christian does not content himself with church
attendance once a week when the weather is pleasant or an attractive theme is
announced. He does not find himself in vigorous health for an evening
entertainment, and with a bad headache on prayer-meeting night. There are of
course exceptions, but as a rule, the Chinese Christians worship God with
regularity in all kinds of weather. A missionary told me that the attendance at
his mid-week meeting was as large as at his Sunday morning service, that every
member of his church asked a blessing at the table, had family prayers and
tried to bring his unconverted friends to Christ. If there is a pastor in
America who can say that of his people, he has modestly refrained from making
it public.
But such comparisons
are, after all, unfair to the Chinese Christian for he should be compared, not
with Europeans and Americans who have had far greater advantages, but with the
people of his own country. "At home, you have the ripe fruits of a
Christianity which was planted more than a thousand years ago. The Word of God
has been among you all these Christian centuries. You have in every part of the
country a highly trained ministry, a gifted and devoted eldership, and a whole
army of Christian workers of all ranks. You work in the atmosphere of a
Christian society, and under a settled Christian government. You have an
immense and varied Christian literature, and notwithstanding all defects and
drawbacks, you have on your side a weight of Christian tradition and a wealth
of Christian example. Under such circumstances and in such an atmosphere, what
are we not entitled to expect of those who bear the Christian name? What
justice is there, or what reasonableness, in demanding as a test of genuineness
the same degree of attainment on the part of Christian people, many of them
uneducated, who are only just emerging from the deadness and insensibility of
heathenism?"[78]
The real question is
this:--Is the Christian Chinese a better man than the non-Christian
Chinese--more moral, more truthful, more just, more reliable? The answer is so
patent that no one who knows the facts can doubt it for a moment. The best men
and women in China to-day are the Protestant Christians. This is not saying
that all converts are good or that all non- Christian Chinese are bad. But it
is saying that comparing the average Christian with the average heathen, the
superiority of the former in those things which make character and conduct is
immeasurable. "The conscience of those who have been born into a new life
is not suddenly transformed, yet the change does take place and upon a larger
scale. When once it has been accomplished, a new force has been introduced into
the Chinese Empire, a salt to preserve, a leaven to pervade, a seed to bring
forth after its kind in perpetually augmenting abundance and
fertility."[79]
The character of the
Chinese Christian will appear in still more striking relief if we consider the
circumstances in which he hears the gospel and the difficulties which he has to
overcome. On this subject the following remarkable passage from Dr. Gibson is
worth quoting entire:--
"Out there the great issue is tried with all external helps
removed. The gospel goes to China with no subsidiary aids. It is spoken to the
people by the stammering lips of aliens. Those who accept it do so with no
prospect of temporal gain. They go counter to all their own preconceptions, and
to all the prejudices of their people. Try as we may to become all things to
all men, we can but little accommodate our teaching to their thought. . . .
Often and often have I looked into the faces of a crowd of non-Christian
Chinese and felt keenly how many barriers lay between their minds and mine.
Reasoning that seems to me conclusive makes no appeal to them. Even the words
we use to convey religious ideas do not bear to their minds one-hundredth part
of the meaning we wish to put into them. I have often thought that if I were to
expend all my energies to persuade one Chinaman to change the cut of his coat,
or to try some new experiment in agriculture, I should certainly plead in vain.
And yet I stand up to beg him to change the habits of a lifetime, to break away
from the whole accumulated outcome of heredity, to make himself a target for
the scorn of the world in which he lives, to break off from the consolidated
social system which has shaped his being, and on the bare word of an unknown
stranger to plunge into the hazardous experiment of a new and untried life, to
be lived on a moral plane still almost inconceivable to him, whose sanctions
and rewards are higher than his thoughts as heaven is higher than earth. While
I despair of inducing him by my reasonings to make the smallest change in the
least of his habits, I ask him, not with a light heart, but with a hopeful one,
to submit his whole being to a change that is for him the making of his whole
world anew. `Credo quia impossis- ble,' I believe it can be done because I know
I cannot do it, and the smallest success is proof of the working of the divine
power. The missionary must either confess himself helpless, or he must to the
last fibre of his being believe in the Holy Ghost. I choose to believe, nay I
am shut up to believe, by what my eyes have seen. "I do not mean that one
sees the results of preaching directly on the spot. In China at least one
seldom does. But by the power of God the results come. We have seen unclean
lives made pure, the broken-hearted made glad, the false and crooked made
upright and true, the harsh and cruel made kindly and gentle. I have seen old
women, seventy, eighty, eighty-five years of age, throwing away the
superstitions of a lifetime, the accumulated merit of years of toilsome and expensive
worship, and when almost on the brink of the grave, venturing all upon a
new-preached faith and a new-found Saviour. We have seen the abandoned gambler
become a faithful and zealous preacher of the gospel. We have seen the poor
giving out of their poverty help to others, poorer still. We see many Chinese
Christians who were once narrow and avaricious, giving out of their hard-earned
month's wages, or more, yearly, to help the church's work. We see dull and
uneducated people drinking in new ideas, mysteriously growing in their
knowledge of Christian truth, and learning to shape their lives by its
teachings. We have seen proud, passionate men, whose word was formerly law in
their village, submit to injury, loss and insult, because of their Christian
profession, until even their enemies were put to shame by their gentleness, and
were made to be at peace with them. And the men and women and children who are
passing through these experiences are gathering in others, and building up one
by one a Christian community which is becoming a power on the side of all that
is good in the non-Christian communities around them. . . . Everything is
hostile to it. It is striking its roots in an uncongenial soil, and breathes a
polluted air. It may justly claim for itself the beautiful emblem so happily
seized, though so poorly justified, by Buddhism--the emblem of the lotus. It
roots itself in rotten mud, thrusts up the spears of its leaves and blossoms
through the foul and stagnant water, and lifts its spotless petals over all,
holding them up pure, stainless and fragrant, in the face of a burning and
pitiless sun. So it is with the Christian life in China Its existence there is
a continuous miracle of life, of life more abundant."[80] Is it said that these Asiatics have become
Christians for gain? Then how shall we account for the fact that out of their
deep poverty they gave for church work last year $2.50 per capita, which is
more in proportion to ability than Christians at home gave? The impoverished
Tu-kon farmers rented a piece of land and worked it in common for the support
of the Lord's work; the Peking school-girls went without their breakfasts to
save money for their church, and eight graduates of Shantung College refused
high salaries as teachers, and accepted low salaries as pastors of
self-supporting churches. "Rice Christians?" Doubtless in some
instances, just as at home some people join American churches for business or
social ends. But those Chinese Christians are receiving less and less from
abroad and yet their number grows.
And it costs something
to be a Christian in China. All hope of official preferment must be abandoned,
for the duties of every magistrate include temple ceremonies that no Christian
could conduct. For the average Christian, loss of business, social ostracism,
bitter hatred, are the common price. Near Peking, a young man was thrice beaten
and denied the use of the village well, mill and field insurance, because he
became a Christian. A widow was dragged through the streets with a rope about
her neck and beaten with iron rods which cut her body to the bone, while her
fiendish persecutors yelled:-- "You will follow the foreign devils, will
you!" And that Chinese saint replied that she was not following foreigners
but Jesus Christ and that she would not deny Him!
And so on every hand
there are evidences of fidelity in service, of tribulation joyfully borne, of
systematic giving out of scanty resources. While sapient critics are telling us
that the heathen cannot be converted, the heathen are not only being converted
but are manifesting a consecration and self-denial which should shame many in
Christian lands. At a Presbyterial meeting in north China, the native ministers
held a two- hours' prayer-meeting before daylight. Such prayer-meetings are not
common in America. Is it surprising that in that little North China Presbytery
292 baptisms were recorded that year?
Nor is this a solitary
instance. Every Sunday the little congregations gather. Every day the native
helpers tell the Bible-story to their listening countrymen.
The history of missions
in China has shown that it requires more time to convert a Chinese to
Christianity than some other heathen, but that he can be converted and that
when he is converted, he holds to his new faith with a tenacity and fortitude
which the most awful persecution seldom shakes. The behaviour of the Chinese
Christians under the baptism of blood and fire to which they were subjected in
the Boxer uprising eloquently testified to the genuineness of their faith. That
some should have fallen away was to be expected. Not every Christian, even in
the United States, can "endure hardness." Let a hundred men anywhere
be told that if they do not abandon their faith, their homes will be burned,
their business ruined, their wives ravished, their children brained, and they
themselves scourged and beheaded, and a proportion of them will flinch.
It was to be expected,
too, that when, after the uprising, the Christians found their supporters
triumphing over a prostrate foe, some of them should unduly exult and take
advantage of the opportunity to punish their enemies or to collect money from
them as the price of protection. The spirit of retaliation is strong in human
nature in China as well as in America. When the armies of the Allies, led by
educated and experienced officers, and controlled by diplomats from
old-established Christian countries, gave way under the provocation of the time
to unmeasured greed and vindictive cruelty, it is not surprising that some of
the Chinese Christians, only just emerged from heathenism, should betray a
revengeful spirit towards men who had destroyed their property, slaughtered
their wives and children, and hunted the survivors with the ferocity of wild
beasts. In some places, the missionaries had a hard task in restraining this
spirit. It was inevitable, also, that in the confusion which followed the
victory of the foreigners, some "wolves" should put on "sheep's
clothing," and, under the pretense of being Christians, extort money from
the terror- stricken villagers, or try to deceive the foreigner with false
claims for indemnity.
But as I visited the
scenes of disaster, saw the frightful ruin, heard the stories of Christians and
missionaries, faced the little companies of survivors and learned more of the
awful ordeal through which they had passed, I marvelled, not that some yielded,
but that so many stood steadfast. Edicts were issued commanding them to recant
on pain of dire punishment, but promising protection to those who obeyed. The
following proclamation posted on the wall of the yamen at Ching-chou-fu is a
sample of hundreds:--
"The Taku forts
have been retaken by the Chinese. Gen. Tung Fu Shiang has led the Boxers and
the goddesses, and has destroyed twenty foreign men-of-war, killing 6,000
foreign soldiers. The seven devilish countries' consuls came to beg for peace.
General Tung now has killed all the foreign soldiers. The secondary devils (the
native Christians) must die. General Tung has ordered the Boxers to go to the
foreign countries and bring out their devil emperors from their holes. One
foreigner must not be allowed to live. All who are not Chinese must be
destroyed."
It requires no large
knowledge of Chinese character to calculate the effect of such official
utterances on the minds of lawless men.
Word sped from a
Chinese city that on a certain day all Christians who had not recanted could be
pillaged. From every quarter, the lawless streamed in, eager for the shambles.
Ruffians pointed out the women they intended to take. And there was no
foreigner to protect, no regiment or battleship for the Chinese Christian.
Those poor people,
hardly out of their spiritual infancy, stood in that awful emergency absolutely
alone. Could an American congregation have endured such a strain without
flinching? Let those who can safely worship God according to the dictates of
their own consciences be thankful that the genuineness of their faith has never
been subjected to that supreme test.
Those were grievous
days for the Christians of China. Two graduates of Teng-chou College remained
for weary weeks in a filthy dungeon when they might have purchased freedom at
any moment by renouncing Christianity. Pastor Meng of Paoting-fu, a direct
descendant of Mencius, was 120 miles from home when the outbreak occurred. He
was safe where he was, but he hurried back to die with his flock. He was
stabbed, his arm twisted out of joint and his back scorched with burning
candles in the effort to make him recant. But he steadfastly refused to
compromise either himself or his people and was finally beheaded.
The uneducated peasant
was no whit behind his cultivated countrymen in devotion to duty. A poor cook
was seized and beaten, his ears were cut off, his mouth and cheeks gashed with
a sword and other unspeakable mutilations inflicted. Yet he stood as firmly as
any martyr of the early Church.
One of the Chinese
preachers, on refusing to apostatize, received a hundred blows upon his bare
back, and then the bleeding sufferer was told to choose between obedience and
another hundred blows. What would we have answered? Let us, who have never been
called on to suffer for Him, be modest in saying what we would have done. But
that mangled, half- dead Chinese gasped:--"I value Jesus Christ more than
life, and I will never deny Him." Before all of the second hundred blows
could be inflicted, unconsciousness came and he was left for dead. But a friend
took him away by night, bathed his wounds and secretly nursed him to recovery.
I saw him, when I was in China, and I looked reverently upon the back that was
seamed and scarred with "the marks of the Lord Jesus." Of the
hundreds of Christians who were taken inside the legation grounds in Peking,
not one proved false to their benefactors. "In the midday heat, in the
drenching night rains, under storms of shot and shell, they fought, filled
sand-bags, built barricades, dug trenches, sang hymns and offered prayers to
the God whom the foreigner had taught them to love." Even the children
were faithful. During the scream of deadly bullets, and the roar of burning
buildings, the voices of the Junior Christian Endeavour Society were heard
singing:--
"There'll be no dark valley when Jesus comes."
Such instances could be
multiplied almost indefinitely from the experiences of Chinese Christians
during the Boxer uprising. Indeed the fortitude of the persecuted Christians
was so remarkable that in many cases the Boxers cut out the hearts of their
victims to find the secret of such sublime faith, declaring: "They have
eaten the foreigner's medicine." In those humble Chinese the world has
again seen a vital faith, again seen that the age of heroism has not passed,
again seen that men and women are willing to die for Christ. Multitudes
withstood a persecution as frightful as that of the early disciples in the
gardens and arenas of Nero. If they were hypocrites why did they not recant? As
Dr. Maltbie Babcock truly said:-- "One-tenth of the hypocrisy with which
they were charged would have saved them from martyrdom." But thousands of
them died rather than abjure their faith, and thousands more "had trial of
mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment; they were
stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were tempted, they were slain with the
sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins; being destitute, afflicted,
ill-treated; wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and the holes of the
earth."
Col. Charles Denby,
late United States Minister to China, declared:--"Not two per cent. of the
Chinese Christians proved recreant to their faith and many meet death as
martyrs. Let us not call them `Rice Christians' any more. Their conduct at the
British Legation and the Peitang is deserving of all praise."[81] Beyond
question, the Chinese Christians as a body stood the test of fire and blood
quite as well as an equal number of American Christians would have stood it.
One of the most trying
experiences of the missionaries has been the dealing with those who did recant.
Some of the cases were pitiful. Poor, ignorant men, confessed their sin with
streaming eyes, saying that they did not mean to deny their Lord, but that they
could not see their wives outraged and their babies' heads crushed against
stone walls. Others admitted that, though they stood firm while one hundred
blows were rained upon their bare backs, yet after that they became confused
and were only dimly conscious of what they said to escape further agony than
flesh and blood could endure. Still others made a distinction, unfamiliar to
us, but quite in harmony with Oriental hereditary notions, between the
convictions of the heart and the profession of the lips, so that they
externally and temporarily bowed their heads to the storm without feeling that
they were thereby renouncing their faith. One of the best Chinese ministers in
Shantung, after 200 lashes, which pounded his back into a pulp, feebly muttered
an affirmative to the question: "Will you leave the devils' church?"
But he explained afterwards that while he promised to leave "the devils'
church," he did not promise to leave Christ's Church. The deception was
not as apparent to him as it is to us whose moral perceptions have been
sharpened by centuries of Christian nurture which have been denied to the
Chinese.
When the proclamation
ordering the extermination of all foreigners and Christians was posted on the
walls of Ching- chou-fu, a friendly official hinted that if the Chinese pastors
would sign a document to the effect that they would "no longer practice
the foreign religion," he would accept it as sufficient on behalf of all
their flocks, and not enforce the order. Warrants for the arrest of every
Christian had already been written. Scoundrels were hurrying in from distant
villages to join in the riot of plunder and lust. Two women had already been
killed. What were the pastors to do? There was no missionary to guide them, for
long before the consuls had ordered all foreigners out of the interior. The
agonized pastors determined to sacrifice themselves for their innocent people,
to go through the form of giving up the "foreign" religion. That word
"foreign" must be emphasized to understand their temptation, for the
Chinese Christians do not feel that Christianity is foreign, but that it is
theirs as well as ours. Moreover, the pastors were made to understand that it
was simply a legal fiction, not affecting the religion of their hearts, but
only a temporary expedient that the friendly magistrate might have a pretext
for giving his protection to the Christians. They were not asked to engage in
any idolatrous rite or to make any public apostasy, but simply to sign a
statement "no longer to practice the foreign religion." "So far
from recanting," it was urged upon them, "you are preventing
recanting."
Their decision may be
best given in the words of Pastor Wu Chien Cheng: "When I thought of these
people," he said, his emotion being so great that the tears were running
down his face, "in most cases with children and aged parents dependent
upon them, and thought of all that was involved for them if I refused to sign
the paper--well, I couldn't help it. I decided to take on myself the shame and
the sin."
As the Rev. J. P.
Bruce, of the English Baptist Mission, who told me of this incident, truly
says: "Who could listen to such a narrative--so sad and painful and yet
not without much that was noble--without sympathy and tears?" In this
spirit of tenderness, so marked in the Lord's dealings with sinful Peter, the
missionaries dealt with the recanting Christians. With the impostors, indeed,
they had less mercy. The Rev. R. M. Mateer secured the arrest of two
scapegraces who, under pretense of being Christians, had blackmailed innocent
villagers. Very plainly, too, did the missionaries deal with Christians, who,
like some people in the United States after a fire, placed an extravagant
valuation upon what they had lost. But these were exceptional cases.
On the whole,
Christians in Europe and America may well have stronger sympathy and respect
for their fellow-Christians in China who have suffered so much for conscience' sake.
Purified and chastened by the fearful holocaust through which they have passed,
they are stronger spiritually than ever before. Like the apostles after
Pentecost, they are giving "with great power their witness of the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus." "The Chinese Church is not yet
strong enough to stand entirely alone, but it is far stronger and more
self-conscious of the eternal indwelling Spirit than ever before. It has
learned the power of God to keep the soul in times of deadly peril, and to
enable the weakest to give the strongest testimony. It has learned by
humiliation and confession to put away its sins, and to gird itself for new
conflicts and new victories.... Its ablest leaders are more trustworthy men
than before their trials, and the body of believers has a unity and a
cohesiveness which will certainly bear fruit in the not distant
future."[82]
THE economic revolution
in Asia, discussed in a preceding chapter,[83] bears heavily on the Chinese
Christians. So far as the pressure affects the rank and file of the membership,
the mission boards cannot give adequate relief. Abroad as well as at home, it
must remain the inexorable rule that a Christian must live within his income
and buy new things only as he can pay for them. Any other policy would mean
utter ruin. Here also, men must "work out their own salvation"; and
the missionary, while trying to lift men out of barbarous social conditions on
the one hand, should on the other resolutely oppose the improvident eagerness
which leads a blanketed Sioux Indian to buy on credit a rubber-tired surrey.
But what about the
native ministers and teachers, who find it impossible to live on the salaries
of a decade ago? The problem of the ordinary helper is not so difficult.
Springing from the common people, accustomed from childhood to a meagre scale
of living, the small salaries which the people can pay either in full or in
large part are usually equal to the income which they would have had if they
had not become Christians. But some native ministers come from a higher social
grade. They are men of education and refinement. They cannot live in a mud hut,
go barefooted, wear a loin cloth and subsist on a few cents' worth of rice a
day. They must not only have better houses and food and clothing, but they must
have books and periodicals and the other apparatus of educated men. These
things are not only necessary to their own maintenance, but they are essential
to the work, for these men are the main reliance for influencing the upper
classes in favour of Christianity. It is not a question of luxury or
self-indulgence, but of bare respectability, of the simple decencies of life
which are enjoyed by an American mechanic as distinguished from the poverty
which, for a cultivated family, falls below the level of self-respect. But this
requires a salary which, save in a very few places, cannot at present be paid
by the churches. "Our pastors," writes a missionary, "are
supposed to live as the middle-class of their people do, but of late years,
with the great rise in prices, they are living below the middle-class."
The consequences are
not only pinching poverty but sometimes a feeling of wrong, and, in some cases,
a yielding to temptation. One Chinese pastor, for example, who was trying to
support a wife and five children on $10 Mex. ($5) a month, shipwrecked his
influence by trying to supplement his scanty income by helping in lawsuits. Can
we wonder that he felt obliged to do something, almost anything?
But who is to pay the
higher salaries that are now so necessary? The first impulse is to look to the
mission boards in Europe and America, and accordingly missionaries and
Christians are importunately calling for increased appropriations. But whatever
temporary and occasional relief may be given in this way, as a permanent
remedy, it is plainly impossible. If the conditions were simply sporadic and
local, the case might be different. But they are universal, or fast becoming
so, and they will be permanent. It is quite visionary to suppose that the
income of the mission boards will permit them to meet the whole or even the
larger part of the increased cost of living among the myriads of ministers,
teachers and helpers in the growing churches of China. American Christians
cannot be reasonably expected to add such an enormous burden to the already
large responsibilities which they are carrying in their varied forms of home
work and the present scale of foreign missionary expenditure. Even if they
could and would, it would be at the expense of all further enlargement of the
work, and at the same time it would still further weaken an already weak sense
of self-reliance among the native ministers and helpers of Asia.
Moreover, the average
Christian giver in America is feeling the same strain himself. The so-called
"era of prosperity" has given more steady employment to the mechanic,
has given better markets to the producer, and has enormously increased the
wealth of many who were already rich. But the men on fixed salaries find that
"prosperity" has increased the prices of commodities without
proportionately increasing earnings. Millions of American church members find
it harder to give than they did ten years ago, for while their incomes are
about the same, they must pay higher prices for meats, groceries and clothing.
True, many salaries were cut down during the financial stringency of 1896-1897,
but while some of them have been restored to their former figure, few have been
raised above their original level, while others are still below it. Meantime
official statistics show that the average cost of food is 10.9 per cent. higher
than the average for the decade between 1890 and 1899, and that there has been
an increase of 16.1 per cent. as compared with 1896, the year of lowest
prices.[84] It is urged that the wages of workmen have increased in proportion.
But however true this may be of organized labour, it is palpably untrue of the
great middle-class who are neither capitalists nor members of labour unions.
They form the bulk of the church membership and to them "Mr. Wright's
statement will carry no reassurance. It is they who have been hit hardest by
the increased cost of living for their incomes have not kept pace with it.
Indeed, they are actually worse off to-day than they were eight, ten or fifteen
years ago."[85]Dun's Review, an acknowledged authority, declares that not
in twenty years has it cost so much to live as now, and that March 1, 1904, the
average prices of breadstuffs were thirty per cent. higher than they were seven
years ago.
In such circumstances,
it is clearly out of the question for the Christians of the United States to
meet these enlarged demands for the support of their own families and, in
addition, meet them for the churches in China.
If then, the problem of
the increased cost of living in Asia cannot be solved by increased gifts from
America, what other solutions are possible? As an experienced missionary
says:-- "To ask for more from America seems like a step backward; but to
leave matters as they are is to see our churches seriously crippled." Four
possible solutions may be mentioned.
First:--Stop all
expansion of the work and use any increase in receipts to raise salaries. This
is undoubtedly worthy of thoughtful consideration. To what extent is it right
to open new fields and enlarge old ones when the workers now employed are
inadequately paid? Plainly, the mission boards should carefully consider this
aspect of the question. As a matter of fact, many of them have already
considered it. The Presbyterian Board has repeatedly declined urgent requests
to establish new stations on the ground that it could not do so in justice to
its existing work. But as a practicable solution, this method is open to
serious difficulties. A living work must grow, and the living forces which
govern that growth are more or less beyond the control of the boards. The
boards are amenable to their constituencies and those constituencies sometimes
imperatively demand the occupation of a new field, as, for example, they did in
the case of the Philippine Islands, some boards which at first decided not to
enter the Philippines being afterwards forced into them by a pressure of
denominational opinion that they could not ignore. Moreover, the missionaries
themselves are equally insistent in their demands for enlargement. Some boards
are literally deluged with such appeals. The missionaries who have most
strenuously insisted on the policy of no further expansion till the existing
work is better sustained have sometimes been the very ones who have strongly
urged that an exception should be made in their particular fields, without
realizing that the argument from "exceptions" is so often pressed
that it is really the rule and not the exception at all. And the churches and
missionaries are usually right. God is calling His people to go forward. His
voice is frequently very plain, and the boards, with all their care and
conservatism, are then obliged to expand.
Second:--Diminish the
number of native pastors, helpers and teachers and increase their work. In some
places, this might be done by grouping congregations and fields. But the places
where this could be wisely effected are so few that the relief to the situation
as a whole would not be appreciable, especially as the native Christians would
not give so liberally under such an arrangement. Their sense of responsibility
would be weakened if they had only a half or a quarter of a pastor's time
instead of the whole of it. Besides, the native force is far too small now.
Instead of being diminished it should be largely increased. The great work of
the future must be done by native ministers. If China is ever to be
evangelized, it must be to a large degree by Chinese evangelists. To adopt
deliberately the policy of restricting the number of such evangelists and
teachers would be suicidal. As a solution, therefore, this method is quite
impracticable, as it would be a relief at the expense of efficiency.
Third:--Require native
leaders to earn their own living either wholly or in part. There is Pauline
example for this method. Some of the Presbyterian missionaries in Laos have
adopted it by inducing the members of a congregation to secure a ricefield and
a humble house for their minister. The Korea missionaries have very
successfully worked this method by insisting that the leaders of groups shall
continue in their former occupations and give their services to Christian work
without pay, in some such way as Sunday-school superintendents and other unpaid
workers do in America. This method is deserving of wider adoption. It would
give considerable relief in many other fields. It was probably the way that the
early church grew.
"Two opinions," says Dr. J. J. Lucas, "have been held in
regard to the basis on which the salaries of native agents should be fixed. One
is that such a salary should be paid as would remove all excuse for engaging in
secular work, demanding all the time of the pastor for spiritual work; another
is, that acknowledging the salary to be insufficient, the pastors be expected
to supplement it by what they can get from field and vineyard. If self-support
is to be aimed at, at all cost, then the latter plan is the only feasible one,
with the dangers of its abuse. There is no doubt, however, that a man who loves
the gospel ministry and is devoted to it can, without the neglect of spiritual
affairs, do enough outside to lessen materially the burden that would fall on
the church in his support." But
this method of itself would hardly solve the problem. However well adapted to the
beginnings of mission work, it fails to provide a properly qualified native
leadership. To do efficient work, a native pastor must give his whole time to
it, and to that end he must have a salary that will make him "free from
worldly cares and avocations." We insist on this in the United States and
the reasons for such a policy are as strong on the foreign field. The minister
in Asia as well as the minister in America must have a salary. The labourer is
worthy of his hire.
Fourth:--Insist upon a
larger measure of self-support. The native churches must be led to a fuller
responsibility in this matter. Grave as are the temporary embarrassments which
the increased cost of living is forcing upon them and trying as is the
permanent distress of some of them, yet as a whole the economic revolution will
undoubtedly enlarge the earning capacity of the native Christians. Indeed, the
new principles of life which the gospel brings should make them among the first
to profit by the changed conditions, and as their wealth increases, their
spirit of giving should, and under the wise lead- ership of the missionaries
undoubtedly will, increase. For these reasons, the Presbyterian Board of
Foreign Missions took the following action July 2, 1900:--
"As having reference to the question of self-support of the native
churches on the mission field, and in view of the fact that some of its
missions are proposing to increase the salaries of native preachers and helpers
on account of the increased cost of living, the Board is constrained to look
with no little apprehension upon the prospect of continuing and increasing
demands of foreign aid in proportion to the contributions made by the churches
themselves. Increased intercourse of eastern nations with those of the west has
led and will still further lead to a gradual assimilation to western ways and
western prices, and unless the self-reliant spirit of the churches can be
stimulated to a proportionate advance, there is a sure prospect that the drafts
upon mission funds will be larger and larger in proportion to the amount of
work accomplished. In view of these considerations, it was resolved that the
missions in which such increase is proposed be earnestly requested to arouse
the churches to the purpose and the endeavour to meet this increased
expenditure instead of laying still larger burdens upon the resources of
foreign funds. The Board deems this necessary not merely to the interest of its
expanding work but to the self-reliant character, the future stability and
self-propagating power of the churches themselves." There appears to be no alternative.
And yet this policy, while adhered to, should be enforced with reasonable
discretion and due regard to "this present distress." How can
Christians, who can barely live themselves and pay a half or two- thirds of
their pastor's present support, suddenly meet this call for enlarged salaries?
For reasons already given, it is harder for them to make ends meet now than it
was in the old days of primitive simplicity, while in many places a profession
of Christianity is followed by the loss of property and employment so that the
Christian is impoverished by the loss of the income that he already had. In
these circumstances, both boards and missions must simply do the best they can,
and neither allow the emergency to sweep them into a mistaken charity that
would be fatal to the ultimate interests of the cause nor allow a valuable
native worker to suffer for the necessaries of life.
"We need to bear in mind that the low salaries of China are not the
product of Christianity, but of heathenism, and the ability to live on five or
six Mexicans per month is not the result of a laudable economy unknown to
Christian countries, so much as it is the result of a degradation of manhood to
the level of beasts. The church is responsible for the knowledge of a better
way of living. We have created the desire for a clean house, clean clothing,
healthful food, and books, on the part of our educated young men. Shall we
implant this desire for six or eight years and take the rest of the man's life
in trying to squelch it? We have come as apostles of truth to a mighty empire,
to the great and the small, to the rich and the poor, and if we had a native
ministry which could appeal to a different class of men than most of them are
now appealing to, would not the day of self-support be hastened beyond what we
dare to hope? Is there not a feeling out for something better on the part of
the well-to-do, the more intelligent, just as really as there is on the part of
the lowest classes? Do not we have a mission to the man who can pay $100.00 a
year to the church just as really as to the one who pays 100 cash? There is
nothing so costly as cheap men. Let us have a higher grade of men and we shall
have a higher grade of church-membership. Is it not true that nothing more
stands in the way of self-support than some of our native clergy? We must not
turn down better men because they must have a little more to live upon than
poor men."[86] It is idle,
however, to urge as a reason for increasing the salaries of Chinese ministers
that a qualified Asiatic can earn more in commercial life than in the ministry.
Such arguments often come to mission boards. But religious work cannot compete
with business in financial inducements either at home or abroad. It is
notorious that in America, ministers and church workers generally do not
receive the compensation which they could command in secular employments or
professions. The qualities that bring success in the ministry are, as a rule,
far more liberally remunerated in secular life. The preacher who can command
$6,000 or $8,000 in the pulpit could probably command three or four times that
amount in the law or in business. Men who are as eminent in other professions
and in the commercial world as the most eminent clergymen are in the ministry
usually have incomes ranging from $20,000 to $100,000 a year and have no
"dead line" of age either. As for others, the Rev. Dr. B. L. Agnew,
Secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Ministerial Relief, is authority for the
statement that the average salary of Presbyterian ministers is $700 and that
for all denominations it does not equal the wages of the average mechanic. A
missionary writes:--"Practically all our native pastors are
underpaid." The same thing might be said of all the home missionaries and
of most of the pastors of non-missionary churches at home, one-third of whom
receive only $500 or less.
The churches of America
cannot, or at any rate will not, do for the native ministers of Asia what they
are not doing for their own ministers. The world over, the rewards of Christ's
service are not financial. Those who seek that service must be content with
modest support, sometimes even with poverty. This is not a reason for the home
churches to be content with their present scale of missionary giving, nor does
it mean that mission boards are disposed to refuse requests for appropriations.
The boards are straining every nerve to secure a more generous support and they
will gladly send all they can to the missions on the field. But it is a reason
for impressing more strongly upon the young men in the churches of Asia that
they should consecrate themselves to the Master's service from a higher motive
than financial support and that while the boards will continue to give all the
assistance that is in their power, yet that the permanent dependence of the
ministers of China must be in increasing measure upon the Christians of China
and not upon the Christians of America. Hundreds of native pastors are already
realizing this and are manifesting a self-sacrificing courage and devotion that
are beyond all praise. Said Mr. Fitch of Ningpo to a Chinese youth of fine
education and exceptional ability:--"Suppose a business man should offer
you $100.00 a month and at the same time you had the way opened to you to study
for the ministry, and after entering it, to get from $20.00 to $30.00 a month,
which would you take?" And the youth answered--"I would enter the
ministry." "He is now teaching a mission school at $12.00 a month,
though he could easily command $30.00 a month in a business position." The
hope of the churches of China is in such men. Mr. F. S. Brockman declares:--
THE Hon. Charles Denby,
then United States Minister at Peking, wrote in 1900:--
"With all due deference to the great missionary societie, who have
these matters in charge, my judgment is that missionary work in China has been
overdone. Take Peking as an example. There are located at Peking the following
Protestant missions: American Boards American Presbyterian, American Methodist,
Christian and Missionary Alliance, International Y. M. C. A., London Missionary
Society, Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, International Institute,
Mission for Chinese Blind, Scotch Bible Society, and the Society for the
Diffusion of Christian Knowledge. To these must be added the Church of England
Mission, the English Baptist Mission and the Swedish Mission. The above list
shows that of American societies alone there are seven in Peking, not counting
the Peking University, and that all western Powers taken collectively were
represented by about twenty missions. A careful study of the situation would
seem to suggest that no two American societies should occupy the same
district."[87] It may be well to
examine this criticism, partly because it was made by an able man of known
sympathy with mission work, and partly because it relates to the city where, if
anywhere, in China, overcrowding exists. In considering Peking, therefore, we
are really considering the broad question of the practicability of withdrawing
some missionary agencies in the interest of comity and efficiency. The
Presbyterian missionaries themselves opened the way for the discussion of the
question by proposing to the Congregational missionaries, after the Boxer
uprising had been quelled, "an exchange of all work and fields of our
Presbyterian Church in the province of Chih-li in return for the work and
fields of the American Board in the province of Shantung, subject to the
approval of our respective Boards." The Mission added:--
"It means no little sacrifice to sever attachments made in long
years of service in fields and among a people whom God has enabled us to lead
to Christ, but we feel that a high spirit of loyalty to Christ and His cause,
inspiring all concerned, will lead us to set aside personal preferences and
attachments, if thereby the greater interests of His Church in China can be
conserved." The whole question
was thoroughly discussed during my visit in Peking. Much time was spent
traversing the entire ground. Then a meeting was called of the leading
missionaries of all the Protestant agencies represented in Peking.
The result of all these
conferences was the unanimous and emphatic judgment of the missionaries of all
the boards concerned that there is not "a congestion of missionary
societies in Peking," and that no one board could be spared without
serious injury to the cause. In reply to the proposal of the Presbyterian
missionaries, the North China Mission of the American Board wrote--
"After considering the matter in all its bearings we are
constrained to say that we contemplate with regret any plan which looks to the
withdrawal of the Presbyterian Mission from the field which they have so long
occupied in northern Chih-li. We think that instead of illustrating comity this
would appear as if comity was not to be attained without a violent dislocation
from long-established foundations, and that in this particular there would be a
definite loss all around. . . . We further deprecate the proposed step because
there is now an excellent opportunity for the adoption or actual measures of
cooperation between our respective missions. . . . We are ready to readjust
boundaries in such a way as to remedy the waste of effort in the crossing of
one another's territory. . . . We are confident that the ultimate outcome could
not fail to be a greater benefit than the sudden rupture of long-existing
relations for the sake of mere geographical contiguity of the work of missions
like yours and ours, each keeping its own district, careful not to encroach
upon the other. In the higher unity here suggested we should expect to realize
larger results in the promotion of comity not only, but also in the best
interests of that kingdom of God for which we are each labouring.
"ARTHUR H. SMITH,
"D. Z. SHEFFIELD,
"Committee." Moreover, several
of the agencies enumerated by Colonel Denby, such as the Y. M. C. A., the
International Institute, the Mission to the Blind, the various Bible Societies,
and the Society for the Diffusion of Christian Knowledge, are not competing
missionary agencies at all, but are doing a special work along such separate
lines that it is unfair to take them into consideration. As a matter of fact,
with the exception of a comparatively small work by the Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel, the real missionary work in Peking is being done by
only four Boards,--The American, Methodist, London, and Presbyterian. This is
not a disproportionate number, considering the fact that Peking is one of the
great cities of the world and the capital of the Empire. It is of the utmost
importance that a strong Christian influence should be exerted in such a
centre. Indeed, if there is any place in all China where this influence ought
to be intensified, it is Peking. It is granted that Christian work is more
difficult in a great city, that it is harder to convert a man there than in a
country village. But, on the other hand, he is more influential when he is
converted. Peking is the heart of China. Alone of all its cities, it is visited
sooner or later by every ambitious scholar and prominent official. The
examinations for the higher degrees bring to it myriads of the brightest young
men of the country. The moral effect of a strong Christian Church in Peking
will be felt in every province. If Christianity is to be a positive
regenerative force in China it cannot afford to weaken its hold in the very
citadel of China's power.
It should be borne in
mind that the work of the missionaries stationed at Peking is not confined to
the city, but that Peking is a base from which they work out on the east and
south till they reach the boundaries of the Tien-tsin and Paoting-fu station
fields, while on the north and west a vast and populous region for an indefinite
distance is wholly dependent upon them for Christian teaching. Extensive and
densely inhabited areas of the province are not being worked by any board. The
Rev. Dr. John Wherry, who has lived there for a generation, says that there are
a hundred times as many people in the Peking region as are now being reached,
and that there are 20,000,000 in the province who have never yet heard of
Christ. For this enormous field the missionary agencies now at work are really
few. Hundreds of American cities of half a million inhabitants have a greater
number of ordained workers than this entire province of Chih-li with a
population nearly half as large as that of the United States. Indeed there is
room for a great extension of the work without overcrowding.
Each denomination
occupies a large and distinct geographical field in this province. For example,
all that portion of the city and suburbs of Peking north of the line of the
Forbidden City, with a population of about 200,000, is considered Presbyterian
territory. No other missionaries are located in that part of Peking. In the
country, the counties of San-ho, Huai-jou, Pao-ti, to the north and east of
Peking, are also understood to be distinctively Presbyterian ground. San-ho
County alone is said to have 1,200 towns and villages, while the other counties
are also very populous. No other Protestant denomination is working in any of
these counties. At Paoting-fu, the Congregationalists and Presbyterians have
made a division of the field, the former taking everything south of a line
drawn through the centre of the city and the latter everything north of that
line. Each denomination thus has wholly to itself half the city of Paoting-fu
and about a dozen outlying counties.
The missionaries of the
three other boards concerned plainly stated that, in the event of the
withdrawal of the Presbyterians, they would not be able to care for the work
that would be left. They declared that they were not able adequately to sustain
the work they already had and that there was not the slightest reason to hope
that their home boards would find it possible to give them the reinforcements
in men and money which would be required if their present responsibilities were
to be increased. The large district now occupied by any given board would
simply be vacated if its missionaries were transferred to other regions. The
ties formed with the Chinese Christians and people in more than a generation of
continuous missionary work would be broken and the influence acquired by
faithful missionaries in long years of toil would be lost.
In these circumstances,
would it be right for any one of these four boards to withdraw? There will,
indeed, come a time when it will be the duty of the missionary to leave the
Chinese church to itself. But is this the time to go, when the native church,
instead of being strong and able to care for itself, is torn and bleeding after
frightful persecution? These Christians look to the missionaries, who have
hitherto led them, as spiritual fathers who will guide them in the future. They
feel that the time has come for a new consecration to the task of evangelizing
all their people. As directed by the missionaries, they may become a great
influence for the conversion of their countrymen. Should they be left when
other missionaries expressly state that they cannot care for them?
The question of closer
cooperation, however, is worthy of careful consideration. At a conference of
representatives of foreign mission boards of the United States and Canada
having work in China, held in New York, September 21, 1900, the following
resolution was unanimously adopted:
"It is the judgment of this conference that the resumption of
mission work in those parts of China where it has been interrupted would afford
a favourable opportunity for putting into practice some of the principles of
mission comity which have been approved by a general concensus of opinion among
missionaries and boards, especially in regard to the over lapping of fields and
such work as printing and publishing, higher education and hospital work, and
the conference would commend the subject to the favourable consideration and
action of the various boards and their missionaries." Christian America, which ought to
set the example of comity, is distractingly divided. Should it not learn
something from its experience at home and, as far as possible, organize its
work abroad in such a way as to avoid perpetuating unnecessary divisions?
Should it not at least carefully consider whether a limited force cannot be
used to better advantage for China and for Christ? I admire the ingenuity of
those at home who can find good reasons for having half a dozen denominations
in a town of a few thousand inhabitants. But on the foreign field, we should
adopt a different policy. In the large cities--the Londons, and Berlins, and
New Yorks, and Chicagos, of Asia, it is conceded that more than one Board may
properly work. But with such exceptions, it should be the rule not to enter
fields where other evangelical bodies are already established. Indeed it is
already the rule. The Shanghai Conference of 1900 voted that missionary
agencies should not be multiplied in small places, though that cities of
prefectural rank should not be considered the exclusive territory of any one
board. The American Presbyterian Board declared in 1900, and its action was
specifically approved by the General Assembly of that year:--"The time has
come for a larger union and cooperation in mission work, and where church union
cannot be attained, the Board and the missions will seek such divisions of
territory as will leave as large districts as possible to the exclusive care
and development of separate agencies."
In several places,
boards and missions are moving actively in this direction. In 1902, the
American and Presbyterian Boards entered into a union in educational work in
the province of Chih-li by which the Presbyterians conduct a union boarding-
school for girls in Paoting-fu and for boys in Peking, while the
Congregationalists educate the boys of both denominations in Paoting-fu and the
girls in Peking. A medical college in Peking was agreed upon in 1903, to be
supported and taught jointly by the London, American and Presbyterian missions.
In the province of Shantung, a notable union in both educational and medical work
was effected in 1903 between English Baptists and American Presbyterians.
Instead of developing duplicate institutions with all the large expenditure of
men and money that would be involved, the boards and missions concerned are
uniting in the development of the Shantung Protestant University with the Arts
College on the Presbyterian compound at Wei-hsien and the Theological and
Normal School on the Baptist compound at Ching-chou-fu. The medical class will
be taught alternately at the Baptist and Presbyterian stations until funds
warrant the erection of suitable buildings, probably at Chinan-fu, the capital
of the province. In Shanghai, the Northern and Southern Methodists established
a union publishing house in 1902, and in several other parts of China, plans
for union of various kinds are being discussed.
All these enterprises
met with opposition at first. There was, indeed, little objection to union in
medical education, for few questions of a denominational character are involved
in the training of medical students. But it was urged by some that it would not
be expedient to press consolidation in educational work, as the chief object of
such work was held to be the training of a native ministry and each mission
could best educate its own helpers and should do so in the interest of self-
preservation. The example of the Meiji Gakuin in Tokio, Japan, which is
supported by the Presbyterian and Reformed Boards, was not deemed determinative
as in Japan but one native church is involved, so that the cases are not
parallel. Moreover, it was thought that in a large school there would not be as
good an opportunity for that close personal contact between missionary and
pupil which is so desirable.
These difficulties,
however, are believed by many of the mis- sionaries to be more theoretical than
practical, or, at any rate, not sufficiently formidable to prevent a more
effective cooperation. No plan will be free from all objections and a good
effort should not be abandoned because they are found to confront it. The
defects in union are less grave than those that experience has shown to be
inherent in the old method of numerous weak and struggling institutions whose
support requires a ruinous proportion of the mission force and the mission
funds that might otherwise be available, in part at least, for the enlargement
of the evangelistic work. "It certainly seems unnecessary that two
missions should maintain distinct high schools looking towards a college grade
side by side, when the whole number of pupils in both could be instructed more
economically and perhaps more efficiently in one institution."
Nor is this all, for,
wherever practicable, union of allied churches is being sought. I know we are
told that Christ's words do not call for this. But when I hear the laboured
arguments which defend the splitting of American Presbyterianism into more than
a dozen sects, I sympathize with the child who, after a sermon in which the
minister had eloquently urged that the unity for which the Lord prayed was
consistent with separation, said: "Mamma, if Christ didn't mean what He
said, why didn't He say what He meant?"
Premature and
impracticable efforts should indeed be avoided. The deeply rooted differences
of centuries are not to be eradicated in a day. We must feel our way along with
caution and wisdom. To attempt too much at first would be to accomplish nothing.
Work abroad is necessarily a projection of the work at home and it will be more
or less hampered by our American divisions. A prominent clergyman told me that
he doubted the wisdom of a union of the Asiatic churches as he feared that such
a union would weaken the sense of responsibility of the home churches. He
thought that a denomination in America would take a deeper interest in a
comparatively small native church wholly dependent upon it than it would in an
indeterminate part of a larger church. Must the unity of the foreign church be
sacrificed to the divisions of the home church? Perhaps there is some ground
for anticipating such objections from home. But if they are found to exist, we
should not cease seeking union in Asia, but begin preaching juster views in
America.
I must not be
understood as depreciating the historic differences of Christendom. I am aware
that each of the great religious bodies stands for some cardinal principle that
is not emphasized to the same degree by others. The freedom of any given number
of believers to witness to a specific truth should not be and need not be
limited by union. The contention here is that the differences of the West
should not be forced upon the East but that the churches of Asia should be
given a fair chance to develop a unity large enough to comprehend these various
forms. If they must be divided, let them separate later along their own lines
of cleavage, not on lines extended from western nations. In one place, I met a
swarthy Asiatic who knew just enough English to be able to tell me that he was
a Scotch Presbyterian. Are we then to have a Scotch Presbyterian Church in
Asia, and a Canadian Presbyterian Church, and an Australian Presbyterian
Church? Is the American Civil War forever to divide communities of Chinese
believers into American Northern Presbyterians and American Southern
Presbyterians? Why should we force our unhappy quarrel of a generation ago upon
them? The American Presbyterian Board has truly declared that "the object
of the foreign missionary enterprise is not to perpetuate on the mission field
the denominational distinctions of Christendom but to build up on Scriptural
lines and according to Scriptural principles and methods the Kingdom of Our
Lord Jesus Christ." It has advised all its missions that "we
encourage as far as practicable the formation of union churches in which the
results of the mission work of all allied evangelical churches should be
gathered, and that they (the missions) observe everywhere the most generous
principles of missionary comity." The specific approval of this
declaration, by the General Assembly of 1900, makes this the authoritative
policy of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America.
In harmony with this
general position, several significant efforts towards union are being made. The
first movements, naturally, are towards a union of communions that are
substantially alike in polity and doctrine. Already all the Presbyterian and
Reformed Boards operating in Japan, Korea, Mexico and India have joined in the
support of a united native church in those lands, and similar movements are in
progress in other lands and in several churches, notably the Protestant
Episcopal and the Methodist Episcopal. In China, the representatives of the
eight Presbyterian denominations of Europe and America have met in loving
conference and planned to unite all the native Christians connected with their
respective missions into one magnificent and commanding Church.
And now unions of
wholly different denominations are being discussed. The American Board
missionaries intimated to the Presbyterian Mission in 1901 that there might be
"no inherent difficulty in uniting the membership of the Presbyterian and
Congregational churches in Chih-li in one common body." A similar question
is being informally discussed by the American Presbyterian missionaries and
those of the English Baptist Mission in Shantung. The fellowship between the
two bodies there, as between Presbyterians and Congregationalists in Chih-li,
is close.
The local difficulties
do not appear to be serious. An English Baptist missionary frankly stated in an
open conference of missionaries of various boards in Chefoo, that his mission,
with the full knowledge of the home society, took the position that the Chinese
Christians are not yet fit for congregational government, being, as a rule,
comparatively ignorant farmers just out of heathenism; that it had been found
necessary to select the best men in a local church and give them powers which,
for all practical purposes, constituted them a session, and that the native
church as a whole was being more and more directed by a body consisting of
representatives from such sessions. An American Board missionary told me
substantially the same thing regarding the churches of his mission. We should
not infer too much from such admissions. Both Baptists and Congregationalists
are loyally attached to their independent policy. Both referred, of course, to
the temporary adaptions necessary in the present stage of mission work. As for
Presbyterians, their Board's Committee on Policy and Methods declared, March 6,
1899:--
"It is inexpedient to give formal organization to churches and
Presbyteries after American models unless there is manifest need therefor, and
such forms are shown to be best adapted to the people and circumstances. In
general, the ends of the work will be best attained by simple and flexible
organizations adapted to the characteristic and real needs of the people and
designed to develop and utilize spiritual power rather than merely or primarily
to secure proper ecclesiastical procedure." As a matter of fact, neither the representative nor the
independent forms of church government are yet in unmodified operation on any
mission fields, except perhaps in Japan, for the simple reason that the typical
foreign missionary has thus far necessarily exercised the functions of a
superintendent or bishop of the native churches. Undoubtedly, however, the
Asiatic churches are being educated to expect self-government as soon as they are
competent to exercise it.
Doctrinal differences
may present greater difficulties. And yet there is a remarkable unanimity of
teaching among the missionaries of the various denominations in China. However
widely they may differ among themselves, nearly all agree in preaching to the
Chinese the great central truths of Christianity so that most of the native
Christians know little of the sectarian distinctions that are so
well-understood in America. Such differences as are necessary in China might be
provided for by recognizing the liberty of the local church and the individual
believer to hold whichever phase of the truth might be preferred. The China
Inland Mission has shown that this plan is feasible. It is composed of
missionaries of all Protestant denominations, but they work in harmony and
build up a Chinese church by recognizing the right of brethren to differ in the
same organization.
Doubtless isolated
cases of embarrassment would occur, but they would be insignificant in
comparison with the embarrassments inherent in sectarian divisions.
Denominational uniformity is bought at bitter cost when it separates Christians
into rival camps. Unity in essentials and liberty in non-essentials are far
better than a slavery to non-essentials which destroys that oneness of
believers for which our Lord prayed. In the presence of a vast heathen
population, let Christians at least remember that their points of disagreement
are less vital than their points of agreement, that Christianity should, as far
as possible, present a solid front, and let them devoutly join the Conference
of Protestant missionaries in Japan in the ringing proclamation:--"That
all those who are one with Christ by faith are one body, and that all who love
the Lord Jesus and His Church in sincerity and truth should pray and labour for
the full realization of such a corporate oneness as the Master Himself prayed
for in the night in which He was betrayed."
It is true that an
advanced position on comity sometimes operates to the disadvantage of the
denomination that espouses it. But let us be true to our ideals even if some
whom we might have reached do go to heaven by another route. Other churches are
preaching the gospel and those who accept it at their hands will be saved. We
are in Asia to preach Christ, to preach Him as we understand Him, but if any
one else insists on preaching Him in a given place and will do so with equal
fidelity to His divinity and atone- ment, let us cooperate with them, or
federate with them, or combine with them, or give up the field to them, as the
circumstances may require. The problem before us is not simply where we can do
good, but where we can do the most good, how use to the best advantage the
limited resources at our command. Givers at home have a right to demand this.
Many of their gifts involve self-sacrifice, and they should be used where a
real need exists. "There remains yet very much land to be possessed."
I have seen enough of it to burden my heart as long as I live, toiling,
sorrowing, sin-laden multitudes, who might be better Christians than we are if
they had our chance, but who are scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd.
And shall we multiply missionaries in places already occupied and dispute as to
who shall preach in a given fields when these millions are dying without the
gospel?
WILL China ever be able
to menace the nations of the West? This is the startling question that many
sober-minded men are asking. Some writers, indeed, make light of the
"yellow peril," characterizing it "a mere bugaboo of an excited
imagination," because, as they allege, China has neither the organization
nor the valour to fight Europe, and because, if it had, it could not transport
its army and navy so vast a distance.
But surely organization
and valour can be acquired by the Chinese as well as by any other people. Their
present helplessness before the aggressive foreigner is rapidly teaching them the
necessity for the former. As for the latter, it is well known that the most
dangerous fighter is the strong but peaceably- disposed man who has been goaded
to desperation by long- continued insult and injustice. Americans may
discreetly remember that they themselves were once sneeringly described as
"a nation of shopkeepers who wouldn't and couldn't fight."
It is easy to be
deceived by the result of the China-Japan War of 1894. The Japanese were
successful, not because they are abler, but because they had more swiftly
responded to the touch of the modern world and had organized their government,
their army and their navy in accordance with scientific methods. More bulky and
phlegmatic China was caught napping by her enterprising enemy. Despising the profession
of arms, China gave her energies to scholarship and commerce, and filled her
regiments and ships with paupers, criminals and opium fiends, who were as
destitute of courage, intelligence and patriotism as the darky who explained
his flight from the battle-field by saying that he would rather be a live
coward than a dead hero. As for the men above them, a Chinese officer admitted
to a friend of mine that at the outbreak of the war with Japan, the army
contractors bought a lot of old rifles in Germany, which had long before been
discarded as worthless by the German army, paying two ounces of silver for each
gun, and thriftily charging the Government nine ounces. Then they bought a
cargo of cartridges that did not fit the guns and that had been lying in damp
cellars for twenty years, and put the whole equipment into the hands of raw
recruits commanded by opium-smokers.
It is not surprising,
therefore, that the Chinese were worsted before the onset of the wide-awake
Japanese, and that the unorganized mobs with which they blindly tried to drive
out foreigners in 1900 were easily crushed by the armies of the West. But it
would be folly to imagine that this is the end. It takes a nation of
426,000,000 phlegmatic people longer to get under way than a nation of
43,000,000 nervous people, but when they do get started, their momentum is
proportionately greater. China has plenty of men who can fight, and when they
are well commanded, they make as good soldiers as there are in the world, as
"Chinese Gordon" showed. Was not his force called the "Ever
Victorious Army," because it was never defeated? Did not Lord Charles
Beresford, of the English navy, say, after personal inspection of many of the
troops of China:--"I am convinced that properly armed, disciplined and led,
there could be no better material than the Chinese soldiers"? Did not
Admiral Dewey report that the fifty Chinese who served under him in the battle
of Manila Bay fought so magnificently that they proved themselves equal in
courage to American sailors and that they should be made American citizens by
special enactment? During my tour of Asia, I saw the soldiers of England,
France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Belgium, Russia, America and Japan. But the
Chinese cavalrymen of Governor Yuan Shih Kai, whom I have described
elsewhere,[88] were as fine troops as I saw anywhere. They would be a foe not
to be despised. When Bishop Potter returned from his tour of Asia, he declared
that "when Japan has taught China the art of war, neither England nor
Russia nor Germany will decide the fate of the East."
It is odd that any
intelligent person should suppose that distance is an effectual barrier against
an aroused and organized Asia. It is no farther from China to Europe than from
Europe to China, and Europe has not found the distance a barrier to its designs
on China. England, Germany, France, Russia, and even little Holland and
Portugal, have all managed to send ships and troops to the Far East, to seize
territory and to subjugate the inhabitants. Why should it be deemed impossible
for China, which alone is larger than all these nations combined, to do what
they have done?
The absorption of China
by Russia or any other single European power is not possible for the reason
that the attempt would be resisted by all the other Powers, including the
United States and Japan. The world will never permit one of its nations to make
China what Great Britain has made India. A half dozen Powers are determined to
have a share if the break up comes.
The real partition of
the Empire, however, is hardly probable as the case stands to-day. The Powers
dread the task of administering a population that is not only huge but of such
a stubborn character that enormous military expenditures might be required to
prevent constant rebellions. A still more potent reason lies in the fact that
the European nations that covet portions of China could not agree among
themselves as to the division of the spoil. There is, indeed, apparent
acquiescence in Russian influence in Manchuria, German in Shantung, British in
the valleys of the Yang-tze and the Pearl, and French in Tonquin. But no one
nation is quite satisfied with this division. Each has thus far taken what it
could get; but Germany, France and Russia are far from pleased to see Great
Britain take the lion's share that she has marked out for herself. Moreover,
there are important provinces that are now common ground, like the imperial
province of Chih-li, or unappropriated, like several of the interior provinces.
Actual partition would mean a scramble that would precipitate a general war,
and such a war would involve so many uncertainties not only as to the result in
China but as to possible readjustments in Europe itself, that the Powers wisely
shrink from it. So they prefer for the present, at least, the policy of
"spheres of influence" as giving them a commercial foothold and
political influence with less risk of trouble.
Besides, Great Britain,
the United States and Japan are all opposed to partition. England's chief
interest in China is commercial, and it quite naturally prefers to trade with
the whole of China rather than be confined to a particular section of it, for
it knows that there would be little trade with any parts of China that Russia,
France and Germany absolutely controlled. So England insists on the integrity
of China and the open door."
The United States has
the same commercial interest in this respect as Great Britain, with the added
motive that partition would give her nothing at all in China; while Japan feels
the most strongly of all for she has both the reasons that actuate the United
States and also the vital one of self-preservation. The Hon. Chester Holcombe
says that several years ago, in an interview with an influential member of the
Japanese Cabinet in Tokio, the conversation turned upon the aggressions of
European Powers and the weakness of Korea, which had recently declared its
independence.
"The Japanese Minister was greatly disturbed at the prospect for
the future. He insisted that the action taken by Korea, under the guidance of
China, would not save that little kingdom from attack and absorption. Holding
up one hand, and separating the first and second fingers as widely as possible
from the third and fourth, he said:--`Here is the situation. Those four fingers
represent the four great European Powers, Great Britain, Germany, France and
Russia. In the open space between them lie Japan, China and Korea.' Then, with
really dramatic force, he added: `Like the jaws of a huge vise, those fingers
are slowly closing, and unless some supreme effort is made, they will certainly
crush the national life out of all three.'" So Japan must be reckoned with in any plans which the western
nations may make for China, and that Japan is a factor not to be despised, the
Russians have learned to their sorrow. Japan believes that she has found the
way to make her opposition so formidable that all Europe cannot overcome it.
Beyond any other people in the world, the Chinese furnish the raw materials for
a world power. All they need is capable leadership. This is the gigantic task
to which Japan has set herself. The alert and enterprising Islanders have
entered upon a career of national aggrandizement. They realize that with their
limited territory and population, they can hardly hope to become a power of the
first class and make headway against the tremendous forces of western nations
unless they can ally themselves with their larger continental neighbour. They
clearly see their own superiority in organization, discipline and modern spirit,
and they see also the stupendous power of China if it can be aroused and
effectively directed. The Japanese have never been accused of undue modesty and
they firmly believe that they are just the people to do this work. This is not
simply because they are ambitious, but because they see that unless Asia can be
thus solidified against Europe, the whole mighty continent will fall under the
control of the white men who already dominate so large a part of it.
Accordingly the Japanese have entered upon the definite policy of not only
absorbing Korea, but of cultivating the closest possible alliance with their
former foe.
The Hon. Augustin
Heard, formerly United States Minister to Korea, represents Japan as whispering
to the sorely beset Celestials:--
"Why shouldn't we work together? I hate the foreigner as much as
you do, and should be as glad to get rid of him. Together we can do great
things; separate we are feeble. I am too small, and you are, so to speak, too
big. You are unorganized. Let us join hands and I will do what I can to help
you get ready; and when we are ready we will drive these insolent fellows into
the sea. I have a big army and navy and I have learned all the foreigners have
to teach. This knowledge I will pass on to you. We have great advantages over
them. In the first place they are a long way from their supplies, and every
move they make costs a great deal of money. Our men can fight as well as
theirs, if they are shown how, and there are a great many more of them. They
can march as well, will require to carry almost no baggage, and do not cost
half as much to feed. Our wounded men, too, in their own country and climate
will get well, while theirs will die." To
this suggestion China listens and ponders:--
"What are the objections? There is, first, the contempt which our
people feel for them; but that is rapidly dying out. The Japanese showed in our
last war that small men can fight as well as big ones; and a rifle in the hands
of the small man will carry as far and as true as in the hands of a larger one.
Then, when we have once got rid of the foreigner will Japan not try to keep the
leadership and supremacy? Very likely but then we shall be armed and organized;
we have as able men as they and with our overwhelming numbers shall we not be
capable of holding our own--nay, if we wish, of taking possession of
her?"[89] Undoubtedly this
imaginary conversation voices the ambition of the Japanese and the inclination
of an increasing number of Chinese. At any rate, the possibilities which such
an alliance suggests are almost overwhelming. Japan undoubtedly has the
intelligence and the executive ability to organize as no other power could the
vast latent forces of China. If any one doubts her fitness to discipline and
lead, he might obtain some heartfelt information from the Russians. Says Mr.
George Lynch in the Nineteenth Century:--
"I know of no movement more pregnant with possibilities than this
now in progress which makes towards the Japanization of China. There will be
great changes in the government and life of that great Empire just as soon as
the Empress Dowager dies, and she is now an old woman. In the upheaval of
change, if the industrious, persistent, far-sighted efforts of her neighbours
bear fruit, we may witness quite a rapid transformation in the life of the
Empire. That clever conspirator, Sen Yat Sen, said to me that, once the Chinese
made up their minds to change, they would effect in fifteen years as much as it
has taken Japan thirty to accomplish. There are some men in the East who affect
to regard this rapprochement between Japan and China with alarm, as carrying in
its development the menace of a really genuine `yellow peril.'" It certainly needs no argument to
prove that if the 426,000,000 Chinese are once fairly committed to the skillful
leadership of the Japanese, a force will be set in motion which could be withstood
only by the united efforts of all the rest of the world.
The task to which Japan
has set herself, however, will not be easily achieved. To say nothing of other
nations, the Russians are not at all disposed to sit quietly by while their
foes cajole the Chinese. Russia has some designs of her own on China. Half
Asiatic and semi-barbarous herself, past master in all the arts of Oriental
diplomacy, patient, stubborn and untroubled by scruples, she is a formidable
competitor for the leadership of China. In Persia, the Russian political policy
works largely through the missionaries of the Greek Church, whose propaganda is
political as well as religious. The same tactics are now being employed in
China. The Chih-li correspondent of the North China Herald reports that the
Holy Russian branch of the Greek Church is becoming suspiciously active in
North China.
"Their work is spreading, and the methods adopted are such as to
attract all the worst characters of the districts in which they operate. In a
little town near the Great Wall, where in June there were about a dozen
converts to the Greek Church, there are now over eighty. Any and all are
welcome. Their families no less than the men themselves are reck- oned as
belonging to the Church. The priest has made a round of several towns, and,
though he speaks no Chinese, by unhesitatingly giving protection and assistance
in any case of dispute or litigation, he has made it clearly evident that for
any man in any way under a cloud there is nothing better than to join the Greek
Church.... The impression among European onlookers is that Russia is preparing
to extend her arms over Chih-li, and is beginning to smooth her way by gaining
over the people in the eastern marches of the province. It is a significant
fact that the Greek Church is known among the people as a `Kuo Chiao' (National
Church), a charge from which the Protestants are considered to be entirely, and
the Roman Catholics partially, free." China,
moreover, will be slow to respond to the overtures of Japan, partly because her
bulk and phlegmatic disposition and lack of public spirit make it difficult for
her to act quickly and unitedly in anything, partly because Chinese pride and
prejudice will not easily yield to the leadership of the haughty little island whose
people as well as whose territory have long been contemptuously regarded as
dwarfish and inferior.
But the shrewd Japanese
are making more progress than is commonly supposed. Not only have they already
obtained the great island of Formosa, but they have for years been quietly
making their commercial interests paramount in Korea. Their first move in the
war with Russia was to occupy that strategic peninsula with a large military
force and to secure a treaty with the Emperor which gives Japan a virtual
protectorate over the Land of the Morning Calm. The promise to respect the
independence of Korea of course deceives no one. It is probably sincere, as
diplomatic promises go; but he is innocent indeed who imagines that Korea will
be free to do anything that Japan disapproves. The freedom will doubtless be of
the kind that Cuba enjoys--a freedom which gives large liberty in matters of
internal administration, which relieves the protecting country of any trouble
or responsibility that it may deem inconvenient, but which does not permit any
alliance with a third nation, and which, for all important international
purposes, especially of a military character, regards the
"independent" nation as really dependent. It is quite safe to predict
that no European power will be unsophisticated enough to assume that Korea is
"a free and independent nation." The arrangement will be in every way
to the advantage of the Koreans, who have suffered grievously from the pulling
and hauling of contending powers and from many evils from which the abler and
wiser Japanese will, in a measure at least, protect them.
For a long time, too,
the Japanese have been strengthening the ties which bind them to China. The
brainy Japanese can be seen to-day in almost all the leading cities of the
Middle Kingdom. There is a Japanese colony of 200 souls in Chefoo and of 1,400
in Tien-tsin. Already the Japanese are advising China's government,
reorganizing her army, drafting her laws and teaching in her university. Even
more distant countries are not beyond the range of their ambition. The leaders
of India, restive under British rule, are beginning to look with eager sympathy
to Japan as the rising Asiatic power. Even the Grand Vizier of Persia has paid
a state visit to Japan. Any hopes of India and Persia are likely to be vain,
for Britain has a hold upon the former and Russia upon the latter which it
would be Quixotic in the Japanese to attempt to break. The Islanders are not
fools. But the Siamese, helplessly exasperated by the encroachments of the
French, would doubtless be glad enough to enter into an alliance with Japan and
China. In 1902, the Crown Prince of Siam visited Japan, where he was most
graciously welcomed, and increasing numbers of Japanese who know what they are
about are obtaining increasing influence in the Land of the White Elephant.
Nor is it simply by
sending Japanese to neighbouring countries that Japan is extending her power.
She is encouraging Chinese students to come to her shores. Dr. David S. Spencer
of Japan declares that 300 Chinese are studying the art of war in Japanese
barracks. Dr. Sydney L. Gulick says that 5,000 Chinese are being trained in the
schools of Japan for positions of future power in their own country. It is
significant that Viceroy Yuan Shih Kai, the ablest and most far-seeing
statesman in China, is reported in the telegraphic despatches of February 5,
1904, as having memorialized the Throne in favour of an offensive and defensive
alliance with Japan to regain Manchuria from the Russians, while the North
China Daily News represents Prince Su, Prince Ching, Na Tung, President of the
Wai-wu-pu, and Tieh Liang as in favour of the same policy. Mr. Holcombe is of
the opinion that "the brightest spot in the outlook for China is in the
increasing probability of alliance and affiliation with Japan. . . . Together
these two great nations of the Far East may, and it is confidently hoped will,
safely confront those Governments whose schemes are hostile to both, and prove
their right to manage their own affairs and determine their own
destinies."[90]
But whatever the
immediate future may be, it is not probable that so huge and virile a
population as the Chinese will be permanently led by a foreign nation. Even if
partition should come, it would only hasten the development of those teeming
millions of people, for foreign domination would mean more railway, telegraph
and steamship lines. It would mean the opening of mines, the development of the
press, the complete ascendency of Western ideas. Though China as a political
organism might be divided, the Chinese people would remain-- the most virile,
industrious, untiring people of Asia, and perhaps, after due tutelage, a coming
power of the world. China's assimilative power is enormous. The black man may
be dominated by the white and the Hindu by the English, but China is neither
Africa nor India. It is true that the present dynasty is Manchu, but the
Manchus are more akin to the Chinese than either the Russians or the Japanese.
Moreover the Manchus have not tried to rule China from the outside, but have
permanently settled in China, and while they have succeeded as a rule in
maintaining a separate name, they have not made the Chinese Manchus, but
instead they have themselves been prac- tically merged into the engulfing mass
of China. "Those who imagine that the vast population of the Empire will
submit quietly to the partition of their country, or that any military force of
moderate size could force it to acquiesce in such a scheme, know but little of
the Chinese character, of their intense love of country, or of their
unconquerable tenacity of purpose."[91]The foreign nation that gets the
Chinese, or even any considerable portion of them, will probably find that it
has assumed a burden in comparison with which the Egyptian trouble with the
Israelites was insignificant, and it is not improbable that the conqueror will
some day find himself conquered.
At any rate, portentous
possibilities are conjured up by the contemplation of this mighty nation! There
are upheavals compared with which our revolutions are but spasms. There are
religions whose adherents outnumber ours two to one. There is a civilization
which was old before ours was born. Are we to believe that these swarming
legions were created for no purpose? Are their generations to appear and fall
and rot unnoticed, like the leaves of the forest? Degraded, superstitious, many
of them still are. But they need only to be organized and directed to do untold
mischief. More than once already has a similar catastrophe occurred. Some
prodigy of skill and genius has seized such enormous forces, given them
discipline and coherency and hurled them like a thunderbolt upon Christendom.
Sometimes the shock has been frightful, and before it the proudest of empires
and the stateliest of institutions have reeled and fallen. This was the
Titan-like achievement of Alaric, of Genseric, of Attila, and of Mohammed. Yet
Goths and Vandals, Huns and Mohammedans, combined, had not half the numbers
upon which we now look. Give the 426,000,000 Chinese the results of modern
discovery and invention, and imagination falters. They have the territory. They
have the resources. They have the population and they are now acquiring the
knowledge. China will fight no more like the barbarians of old with spears and
bows and arrows, for despite the treaty of 1900 prohibiting the importation of
arms, the Chinese are buying repeating rifles and Maxim guns, while in their
own arsenals they are turning out vast quantities of munitions of war. The
American consul at Leipsic, Germany, reports to the State Department that an
Austrian company has just received an order for so large a number of small arms
for the Chinese Government that it will take several years to fill it, even
with additional forces of men to whom it has given employment. This is only one
of many reports received in Washington within recent months that the factories
of both Germany and Austria are busy supplying the Chinese with modern arms and
ammunition. The armies of China will soon be as well equipped as the armies of
Europe.
Incredible as it may
seem, up to the year 1901, promotion in the army was often determined by trials
of strength with stone weights, dexterity in sword exercises and skill in the
use of the bow and arrow. But in that year, an Imperial Decree declared that
such tests "have no relation to strategy and to that military science
which is indispensable for military officers," commanded that they be
abolished and that military academies should be established in the provincial
capitals in which the science of modern war should be diligently studied. Not
content with this, forty young men were sent to Europe in 1903 for the express
purpose of studying the latest military and naval methods of the white man. And
now Sir Robert Hart proposes not only a reorganization of China's civil service
but the building of a first-class navy of thirty battleships and cruisers, and
he thinks that the enormous sum of $200,000,000 a year can be obtained for this
purpose by an increase in the land tax. Then, he declares, China will be
enabled "not only to make her voice heard, but to take an effective share
in the settlement of questions in the Far East." The London Times rather
contemptuously asserts that "the entire project in its present shape is
visionary from beginning to end." But Sir Robert Hart has spent fifty
years in China, having entered the British consular service in 1854 and become
Inspector-General of Maritime Customs in 1863. During the greater part of this
long period, he has been an adviser of the Chinese Government and the most
influential foreigner in the Empire. The recommendation of such a man is not to
be lightly dismissed as "visionary," especially when it is made to a
people who have been taught by bitter experience that a modern armament is
their only hope of defense against the foreigner. As late as the beginning of
the year 1904, Russia ridiculed the idea that Japan could do anything against a
western power, and all the rest of Europe as well as America, while admiring
the pluck of the Japanese, confidently expected them to be crushed by the Slav.
Wise men will think twice in the future before they sneer at the yellow race.
If Japan in half a century could go from junks and cloisonne to battleships and
magazine rifles, and to the handling of them, too, more scientifically and
effectively than they were ever handled by a white man, why should it be deemed
chimerical that China, with equal ability and greater resources and certainly
no less provocation, should in time achieve even vaster results, particularly
as Japan is not only willing but eager to teach her? "We do not lack
either men of intellect or brilliant talents, capable of learning and doing
anything they please; but their movements have hitherto been hampered by old
prejudices," said the Emperor Kuang Hsii. Precisely, and the stern,
relentless pressure of necessity is now shattering some of those "old
prejudices." "You urge us to move faster," said a Chinese
magistrate to a foreigner. "We are slow to respond for we are a conservative
people; but if you force us to start, we may move faster and farther than you
like."
Some things may yet
occur undreampt of in all our philosophy. We observe the changing march of
world powers, the majestic procession in which the pomp and glitter of thrones
are mingled with the tears and blood of calamity and war. What a pageant!
Yesterday, Chaldea, Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome! To-day,
England, Germany, Russia, Japan, the United States! To-morrow, what? What,
indeed, if not some of these now awakening nations! It is by no means
impossible that some new Jenghiz Khan or Tamerlane may arise, and with the
weapons of modern warfare in his hands, and these uncounted millions at his
command, gaze about on the pygmies that we call the Powers! Christendom has too
long regarded heathen nations with a pity not unmingled with contempt. It is
now beginning to regard them with a respect not unmingled with fear. There is
not a statesman in Europe to-day who is not troubled with dire forebodings regarding
these teeming hordes, that appear to be just awakening from the torpor of ages,
and some thoughtful observers fear that a movement has already begun which will
lead to great wars whose issue no man can foresee, and to stupendous
reconstructions of the map of the world. The Emperor of Germany has painted a
picture which has startled not so much by its art as by its meaning. "On a
projecting rock, illuminated by a shining cross, stand the allegorical figures
of the civilized nations. At the feet of this rocky eminence lies the wide
plain of European culture, from which rise countless cities and the steeples
and spires of churches of every denomination. But ominous clouds are gathering
over this peaceful landscape. A stifling gloom o'erspreads the sky. The glare
of burning cities lights up the road by which the barbaric hordes of Asia are
approaching. The Archangel Michael points to the fearsome foe, waving the
nations on to do battle in a sacred cause. Underneath are the words--`Peoples
of Europe, keep guard over your most sacred treasures!'"
Making all due
allowance for the exuberance of Emperor William's imagination, the fact remains
that his picture represents the thought that is uppermost to-day in the minds
of the world's thinkers. All see that the next few decades are big with
possibilities of peril.
"The rudiments of Empire here
Are plastic yet and warm,
The chaos of a mighty world
Is rounding into form."
One thinks instinctively of
the words of Isaiah: "The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as
of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered
together; the Lord of hosts mustereth the hosts of the battle." Plainly,
the overshadowing problem of the present age is the relation of China to the
world's future. Whether recent events have lessened the danger, we shall see in
the next chapter.
OF course, the
victorious march of the Allies upon Peking, the capture of the city, the flight
of the Emperor and the Empress Dowager and the humiliating terms of peace
taught the Chinese anew their helplessness before the modern equipment of
western nations and the necessity of learning the methods of the white man if
they were ever to hold their own against him. But defeat, while always hard to
bear, does not always embitter the conquered against the conqueror. On the
contrary, there are evidences that the Chinese respect and like the Japanese
far more since they were soundly whipped by them in 1894 and 1895. In
considering, therefore, the effect upon the Chinese of the suppression of the
Boxer uprising, we must bear in mind not so much the fact of victory by the
Allies as the treatment which they accorded their prostrate foe. Was that
treatment dignified and just? Did the soldiers of alleged Christian nations
behave with the sobriety and fairness which so eminently characterized the
Japanese troops after the China-Japan War? Have the Chinese reason to regard
foreigners in the future as men who will sternly punish injustice and
treachery, but who are at the same time as moral and humane and trustworthy as
might be reasonably expected of the representatives of a higher civilization
and a purer religion? For answer, let us turn to the conduct of the allied
armies, led by experienced officers of high rank and working in harmony with
diplomatic officials who were supposed to incarnate the spirit and methods of
the most enlightened nations of the earth. The testimony of witnesses will be
interesting.
Dr. Arthur H. Smith,
who was in Peking at the time, writes:--
"Bating all exaggerations, it remains true that scores of walled
cities have been visited by armed bodies of foreign soldiers, the district
magistrate-- and sometimes the Prefect--held up and bullied to force him to pay
a large sum of money, with no other reason than the imperative demand and the
threat of dire consequences on refusal. In one case the Russians kidnapped the
Prefect of Yung-ping-fu and carried him off to Port Arthur. At Ting-chou the
French did the same to the sub-prefect, the only energetic magistrate in all
that region, bearing him in triumph to Paoting-fu and leaving the district to
Boxers and to chaos. At Tsang-chou the Germans came in force, looted the yamen
of General Mei, the only Chinese officer of rank who had been constantly
fighting and destroying Boxers for nearly a year, drove him away and released
all the Boxer prisoners in the jails of the city, plundering the yamen of the
friendly and efficient sub-prefect who had saved the lives of the foreign
families close by the city. Is it any wonder that General Mei complained that s
on eight sides he had no face left.' . . . The robbery of Chinese on the way
home with the avails of their day's work has been systematically carried on by
some of the soldiers from Christian lands. Even foreigners are `held up' on the
street by drunken soldiers, and it is becoming necessary never to go out
without one's revolver--a weapon generally quite superfluous in almost any part
of China." Bishop D. H. Moore,
of the Methodist Church, who hurried to Peking as soon as the way was open,
wrote:--
"You can hardly form any conception of the exposure and hardships
under any but the American and Japanese flags. The English have scarcely any
but the Sikhs, who are lustful and lootful to a degree. The Russians are brutal
and the Germans deserve their reputation for brutality. With Lowry and Hobart,
I responded to the agonizing appeal of a husband to drive out a German corporal
who, on duty and armed, had run him off and was mistreating his wife. The
instance is but one of hundreds of daily occurrence. The French are very devils
at this sort of outrage. On the advance to Peking, beyond Tung-chou, they found
married families-- men, women and children--cowering in barges on the canal and
volleyed into them. Every man, every cart, every boat must fly a flag. Coolies
are cruelly impressed and often cruelly mistreated. The great Christian nations
of the world are being represented in China by robbing, raping, looting
soldiery. This is part of China's punishment; but what will she think of
Christianity? Of course, our soldiers are the best behaved; but there are
desperate characters in every army." Captain
Frank Brinkley, the editor of the Japan Weekly Mail, penned the following
indignant paragraph:--
"It sends a thrill of horror through every white man's bosom to
learn that forty missionary women and twenty-five little children were
butchered by the Boxers. But in Tung-chou alone, a city where the Chinese made
no resistance and where there was no fighting, 573 Chinese women of the upper
classes committed suicide rather than survive the indignities they had
suffered. Women of the lower classes fared similarly at the hands of the
soldiers, but were not unwilling to survive their shame. With what show of
consistency is the Occident to denounce the barbarity of the Chinese, when
Occidental soldiers go to China and perpetrate the very acts which constitute
the very basis of barbarity?" When I
asked the Rev. Dr. D. Z. Sheffield, for many years a missionary of the American
Board in Tung-chou, whether this statement was accurate, he replied that it was
not only true, but that it was an understatement of the truth.
Fay Chi Ho, an
intelligent and reliable Chinese Christian, gives the following account of what
he personally saw:--
"I travelled with
a British convoy going by boat, occupying quarters on a Major's boat with his
Sikh soldiers and cook. I know that the Major was not a Christian man, for he
smoked and drank all day long and was constantly cursing, striking and kicking
his men, especially his cook. He also gave his orders in loud tones, with
fierce mien and glaring eyes, and we all feared him exceedingly. Every day at
noon the Major would take four Sikhs and go to villages several miles from the
river for loot, always compelling me to accompany him as interpreter. He would
catch the first man whom he saw in a village and compel him to act as guide to
the homes of the rich. So successful was he on these raids that by the time he
reached Tung-chou, he had three new carts, three donkeys, five or six sheep,
and much clothing and bric-à-brac.
"One day about
noon, we reached a village from which most of the people had fled, and entering
a home of wealth found there only a man about fifty or sixty years old who
received us very courteously. Immediately the Major demanded money, and the old
man replied that though he had money it was not at hand. The Major then
commanded his soldiers to bind him, while he himself went into the house to
search for money{.} He found several weapons, among them a revolver and a sword
with a red scarf bound on the handle. So he insisted that the old man must be a
Boxer, and shot him with his own hand as he lay bound. As usual he impressed
ten or more young men in the village to carry his loot, then compelled the
strongest of them to remain and drag his boats.... Later, my brother told me in
detail how some Sikhs had come to the village one day, and, seizing him and
several neighbours, had tied a rope to their queues, then stringing them
together like mules, with men leading in front and driving behind, had taken them
to the river bank to drag boats. My brother had never done such work before.
Wading in mud and water, sometimes up to his waist, with the whip lash to urge
him on, he had dragged until nightfall, and then, not being allowed to sleep on
the boat, had lain down on the wet river bank."[92a]
During my own visit in
north China in the summer of 1901, I visited the hospital of the London Mission
in Tien-tsin, immortalized by John Kenneth Mackenzie. I found that it was being
used as a hospital for British soldiers who were suffering from venereal
diseases. What a spectacle for the Chinese! What a coarse travesty of the
religion of the pure Nazarene that the land from which the great British
missionary came should crowd with foul white men the hospital that he had built
with faith and love and prayer! In the same city, the fine Y. M. C. A. building
was almost deserted by the Chinese because it was so situated that to reach it
they would have to pass through the Taku Road in the Foreign Settlement, a
street which was a cesspool of vice, lined with saloons, dance halls and
gambling hells, and its sidewalks so crowded with fast women--French, German,
American and Japanese--and with drunken, quarrelling foreign soldiers, that no
respectable Chinese, or for that matter no decent foreign woman, could traverse
it without fear of insult or abuse.
In Peking for several
months after the relief of the legations, even respectable American ladies, to
say nothing of Chinese women, could not prudently ride out except in closed carts,
so great was the probability of indignity at the hands of foreign soldiers;
while at the entrance of famous palaces, the "public is politely requested
not to kick the Chinese attendants because they decline to open doors which
they are forbidden to unlock" --a request that the conduct of foreigners
had shown to be far from unnecessary.
In the pillaging of
property, savages could not have been more lawless than the white men from
"the highly civilized nations of the West."
"It is not literally true that every house in Peking was looted.
There were some places in obscure alleys, and in many of the innumerable and
almost impenetrable cul-de-sacs with which the capital abounds, that escaped.
But persistent inquiry appears to leave no doubt of the fact that practically
every yamen in the city has been rummaged, and practically there is nothing
left of the contents of any of them."[92b] Words fail me to describe the beauties of the famous Summer
Palace outside the city. With its gardens, temples, pagodas, bridges,
lotus-ponds, statues, colonnades, walks and drives, it would do credit to the
most highly civilized nation of Europe. A barbarous people could never have
made such a paradise. The British and French in 1860 burned a considerable part
of it, but the enclosure is so vast (twelve square miles) and the buildings are
so numerous that the destroyed section appears almost insignificant. Within the
grounds is a beautiful lake, fed by great springs and bordered by temples and
avenues of trees and the yellow-roofed palaces of the Emperor, while near by
rise the Western Hills.
This Palace is the
favourite residence of the Empress Dowager and she spends long summers there.
Here, too, the Emperor loves to come during the heated term and both have
followed the example of their imperial predecessors in lavishing great sums
upon its adornment.
After the siege the
Russians occupied it at first, and when they left, the British and Italians
took possession. Between the three so little was left that I found devastation
reigning in that once splendidly-furnished Palace. All the rare and costly bric-à-brac
had been carried away, the mirrors had been broken and the permanent ornaments
defaced. A noble bronze statue of Buddha, in the temple crowning the summit of
the hill, was lying ignominiously on the floor among a pile of débris, one dark
hand stiffly pointing into the air. In a stately pavilion, I saw two superb
golden statues of Buddha standing upright and looking unusually dignified, but
on going behind them, I found that great holes had been punched in their backs.
Even the places
dedicated to science and religion were not spared. At the celebrated
Astronomical Observatory not an instrument was left. Every one had been carried
off by the orders of men high in authority at the French and German Legations,
and the whole place was totally wrecked. What possible excuse could there have
been for destroying a place for studying the heavens? At the Examination
Grounds, consecrated for centuries to learning and memorable for the myriads of
China's brightest men who have there demonstrated their fitness, according to
China's methods, for high preferment--at these Examination Grounds, most of the
8,500 cells had been stripped of their woodwork to cook the rations of the
European armies, roofs had been torn off and even stone walls had been injured
in sheer wantonness.
The Temple to the Gods
of Land and Grain and the Temple for Rain are sacred places to the Chinese. To
the latter the Emperor comes in solemn state in time of drought to pray for
rain, or, if he cannot come, he sends the highest official of his realm. It is
in a spacious park and the buildings must have been stately and handsome before
the Boxer outbreak. But when I saw them, they were sadly defaced. The stone
balus- trades and ornaments had been broken off, the walls had been injured and
one of the buildings was in ruins.
It was, of course,
inevitable that much havoc should be wrought in the tumult of war. It was
necessary that supplies for half-naked and famished besieged thousands should
be taken from deserted grain and clothing-shops. It was expedient that certain
public buildings should be destroyed by order of the allied generals as a
warning for the future. But why were soldiers and thieves allowed to steal the
bric-à-brac and furniture and break the mirrors of the Emperor's personal apartments,
wantonly to shatter beautiful columns, deface rare works of art, punch holes in
gilded statues, maliciously smash the heads of thousands of exquisitely-carved
figures and lions, and wreck venerable places associated with learning and art?
The world is poorer for some of this havoc, and it will be a generation before
it can be remedied, if indeed, some of the edifices are ever restored to their
former beauty. Can we wonder that the Chinese continue to hate and fear the
foreigner? The New York Times declared that "every outrage perpetrated on
foreigners in China has been repaid tenfold by the brutalities perpetrated by
the allied armies. It is," added the editor, "simply monstrous that
the armies of Christian nations, sent out to punish barbarism and protect the
rights of foreigners in China, should themselves be guilty of barbarism.
Revenge has been accompanied by mean and cruel and flagrant robbery. The story
is one to fill all rational minds with disgust and shame."
The exasperation of the
Chinese has not been diminished by the virtual fortifications which the foreign
Powers have erected in the imperial capital since the crushing of the Boxer
uprising. Most of the Legations took advantage of the panic and confusion which
followed the raising of the siege, to seize large tracts adjoining their former
compounds. The native buildings upon them were demolished. Massive walls were
erected and cannon mounted upon them. Over the water-gate in the city wall,
through which the allied troops entered the city, the Powers have cut a new
gateway which they hold and guard. In addition, they have taken possession of
all that part of the city wall which commands Legation Street, made barricades
and built a fort upon it opposite the German Legation. Foreign soldiers patrol
that wall night and day. On the other side of the Legations, a wide space has
been cleared by destroying hundreds of Chinese dwellings and shops, and no
buildings or trees or obstructions of any kind are allowed on that space, which
can thus be swept by rifle and Gatling-gun fire in the event of any future
trouble. Within, ample stores of arms, ammunition and food have been stored so
that if another outbreak should occur, the Legations cannot be besieged as they
were in the memorable summer of 1900.
All this, of course, is
perfectly natural and perhaps necessary. The Legations would be deemed lacking
in ordinary prudence if they did not guard against the repetition of their
grievous experiences during the Boxer uprising. But looking at the matter from
the view-point of the Chinese, can we marvel that it is resented? Would not a
European government be stung to the quick if other nations were to fortify
themselves in that fashion at its capital? Would Americans endure it for a day
at Washington?
Altogether, it must be
admitted that the writer of "Letters of a Chinese Official" has all
too much reason to arraign western civilization as sordid, arrogant and cruel
and to assert that Europeans and Americans, while pretending to follow the
teachings of Christ, are really ignoring them. His words are bitter:--
"Yes, it is we who do not accept it that practice the gospel of
peace; it is you who accept it that trample it under foot. And irony of
ironies! --it is the nations of Christendom who have come to us to teach us by
sword and fire that Right in this world is powerless unless it be supported by
Might. Oh, do not doubt that we shall learn the lesson! And woe to Europe when
we have acquired it. You are arming a nation of four hundred millions, a nation
which, until you came, had no better wish than to live at peace with themselves
and all the world. In the name of Christ you have sounded the call to arms! In
the name of Confucius we respond!"[92c] And
he closes the book as follows:--
"Unless you of the West will come to realize the truth, unless you
will understand that the events which have shaken Europe are the Nemesis of a
long course of injustice and oppression; unless you will learn that the
profound opposition between your civilization and ours gives no more ground why
you should regard us as barbarians than we you, unless you will treat us as a
civilized power and respect our customs and our laws; unless you will accord us
the treatment you would accord to any European nation and refrain from exacting
conditions you would never dream of imposing on a Western power--unless you
will do this, there is no hope of any peace between us. You have humiliated the
proudest nation in the world; you have outraged the most upright and just; with
what results is now abundantly manifest." Whether
the author is really a Chinese official as he claims to be, or a European
resident in China writing under a Chinese pseudonym, there can be no doubt that
he fairly represents the opinions of the old, conservative, ferociously irreconcilable
mandarin class regarding the white man. Western nations, in their plans
regarding the future of China, must take into consideration the existence of
that spirit and the acts which, while not creating it, have intensified and
inflamed it till it has come to be something to be reckoned with. Undoubtedly,
one of the lessons that the Chinese have learned from defeat is bitterer hatred
of the alien whose vandalisms and atrocities were so shameful as to nullify, in
part at least, the benefit that might otherwise have resulted.
I am glad to report
that, with the single exception of the Japanese who were universally assigned
the first place from the view-point of good behaviour, I heard fewer complaints
regarding the American troops than any other. One Colonel, indeed, lamented
that his regiment "was thoroughly demoralized," and there were some
instances of intemperance and lawlessness, in one case a Japanese patrol
bringing in several American soldiers who had been found at midnight in a Chinese
house. But as a whole, the conduct of the Americans was much better than that
of most of the Europeans. That the Chinese felt the difference was apparent in
the number of American flags that they raised over their houses and shops. It
was significant, too, that the districts of the city that were occupied by
European regiments were avoided, as far as possible, by the Chinese, while the
district controlled by the Americans was thronged.
Nor need any American
be ashamed of the policy of his Government. It is true that the majority of the
Americans in China believe that our national policy, prior to and during the
Boxer uprising, was weak and short-sighted. They spoke highly of Minister
Conger and several of the American Consuls, particularly of Consul John Fowler,
at Chefoo. But I was repeatedly told that our Government did not appear to
realize that there were any other American citizens or properties in China than
those in the Peking Legation; that it did practically nothing to rescue its
citizens in the prefecture of Paoting-fu and the province of Shan-si; that,
while Americans condemn the policy of the European Powers, they have been for
years sponging benefits secured by them for all foreigners; and that, if it had
not been for their control of the situation, not an American could have lived
in China. The opinion was well-nigh universal that the Washington
Administration was too much influenced by the astute Chinese Minister, Wu Ting-
fang, who was believed to be an adept in "the ways that are dark and the
tricks that are vain," and whose alleged success in "hoodwinking the
Government and people of the United States" provoked the average foreigner
in the Far East to the use of strong language.
Though I confess that I
am not able satisfactorily to explain the course of our Government in some
important particulars, it seems to me that these sweeping criticisms are too
severe. During the dark days of the siege of Peking, I was brought into
frequent correspondence with President McKinley and Secretary of State Hay, and
I vividly and gratefully remember the sympathy and cooperation which they
invariably gave. They were as anxious as any one, and tried to do their best in
circumstances new, strange and of extraordinary difficulty. As for the Chinese
Minister to the United States, of course he did what he could to "save
face" for his country. That was an essential part of his duty. But while
we cannot always agree with him, we should, as friends of China recognize the
fact that by his ability and tact, he largely increased popular interest in and
respect for the Chinese people.
Taking our Government's
policy as a whole, I believe that it has been more in accord with Christian
principles than that of any other nation. If our Government has erred in
trusting the Chinese too much, that is ,at least better than erring by trusting
them too little. If it has failed to do for its own citizens all that it ought
to have done, it has not wronged or humiliated the Chinese Government. There is
no blood of Chinese women and children on the hands of Americans in China. No
record of outrage and iniquity blackens the page on which the American part of
the Boxer outbreak is written. If our nation has been unjust to any, it has
been to its own. Generations will pass before the northern provinces will
forget the bitterness of resentment which they now feel towards the European
Powers. But already the Chinese are beginning to understand that the American
Government is a friend; that it does not seek their territory; that it will not
be a party to extortion; that it does not want to destroy China but to save
her; that its object is not to rule her, but to fit her to rule herself, and
that it desires only freedom for its citizens to trade and to communicate those
ideas of religion which we ourselves originally received from the East, which
have brought to us inestimable blessings, and which will, in China as in
America, result in the noblest character for the individual and the most stable
institutions for the state.
The Chinese keenly
appreciate the fresh evidence of America's spirit of justice in connection with
the payment of the indemnity. When, before the payment of the first installment
in 1902, the fall in the value of the silver tael led the European Powers to
insist that China should pay in gold, thereby virtually increasing the
indemnity, it was the United States again which did everything in its power to
moderate the demands of the European nations. If the legislative branch of the
American Government would only deal as justly with the Chinese in the United
States as the State Department deals with the Chinese in China, the era of good
feeling would be greatly promoted.
But America is not
prominent enough in China to make her example a determinate factor in the
attitude of the Empire towards foreigners, nor are the people as a whole likely
to discriminate in favour of a few Americans among the hosts of aggressive,
grasping, domineering Europeans.
Moreover, the majority
of the Chinese hear only what their scholars and officials tell them, and these
worthies are careful to adjust the account to suit their own purposes, and to
save the national "face." They blandly assure the credulous people
that the foreign armies did not follow the court because they dared not; that
the alien troops left the capital because they were driven out by Chinese
patriots; and that the Boxers inflicted crushing defeat upon their foes. During
my visit in Tsing- tau, the Germans were digging sewers, broad and deep, with
laterals to every house and public building, and many of the Chinese actually
believed that these sewers were intended to be underground passageways, down
which the foreigners could flee to their boats when they were assailed by the
redoubtable Boxers! The best-informed men I met in China, from Sir Robert Hart
down, were fearful that the end was not near, and that an official order might
repeat the whole bloody history. At a conference with forty representative
missionaries of all denominations in Shanghai, August, 1901, a very large
majority agreed with the Rev. Dr. Parker, of the Southern Methodist Church, in
the statement: "We are not out of the trouble yet; the reactonaries are in
the minority, but they are in power. They have learned nothing and they will
try again to drive us out unless the Powers unseat them and reinstate the
Emperor and the Reform Party."
THE future is not
necessarily so doubtful as the facts and opinions cited in the preceding
chapter might in themselves seem to indicate. It is true that the daily press
often contains accounts of tumults and revolutions in China. But an Empire a
third larger than all Europe, with an enormous population, a weak central
Government, corrupt local officials, few railroads and frequent floods, famines
and epidemics, is certain to have uprisings somewhere most of the time. A
European reading in the daily despatches from the United States of strikes, riots,
martial law, the burning of negroes, the mobbing of Chinese and the corruption
of cities, might with equal justice get the impression that our own country is
in continual turmoil. The Imperial Government in China pays little attention to
what is going on in other parts of the country.
"Each province has its own army, navy, and system of taxation. . .
. So long as the provincial government sends its Peking supplies, administers a
reasonable sop to its clamorous provincial duns, quells incipient insurrections,
gives employment to its army of expectants, staves off foreign demands, avoids
rows of all kinds, and, in a word, keeps up a decent external surface of
respectability, no questions are asked; all reports and promotions are passed;
the Viceroy and his colleagues `enjoy happiness,' and every one makes his
`pile.' The Peking Government makes no new laws, does nothing of any kind for
any class of persons, leaves each province to its own devices, and, like the
general staff of an army organization, both absorbs successful men, and gives
out needy or able men to go forth and do likewise."[93] In these circumstances, the governors of
provinces have considerable independent power in internal affairs, and a
rebellion even of formidable proportions is often ignored by the Imperial
Government in Peking as a purely local matter to be dealt with by the
provincial authorities, much as the United States Government leaves riots and
mobs to the State officials.
Moreover, to a greater
extent than any other people, the Chinese are led by their officials, and some
of the highest officials in Peking and the coast provinces have learned that
massacres of foreigners result in the coming of more foreigners, in the capture
and destruction of cities, in humiliating terms of peace, in heavy indemnities,
in large losses of territory and in the degradation and perhaps the execution
of the magistrates within whose jurisdiction the troubles occur.
There are, moreover,
unmistakable indications of a new movement among the Chinese. One reason why
they have been so ignorant of the rest of the world and even of distant parts
of their own country was the lack of any facilities for transmitting mail. The
only way that the missionaries in the interior could get their letters was by
employing private messengers or availing themselves of a chance traveller. But
now a modern post-office system, superintended by Sir Robert Hart, already
includes 500 of the principal cities of the Empire and is being rapidly
extended to others.
Ten years ago, there
were practically no newspapers in China except those published by foreigners in
the ports, all of which were in English save one which was in the German
language. The only periodicals in Chinese were a few issued by the missionaries
with, of course, a very limited circulation, chiefly among the Christians.
There was no such thing as a Chinese press in the proper sense of the term.
Now, besides a French, a Russian and a second German paper, there are nearly a
hundred Chinese newspapers, many of them edited by the Chinese themselves and
others by Japanese, and all, aided by the railway, the telegraph and the
post-office, bringing new ideas to multitudes. On the basis of a joint report
to the Throne by Viceroy Chang Chih-tung and Chang Pei-hsi, chancellor of the
Peking University, an imperial decree has ordered the inauguration of a new
system of education. The plan is to have a university in the capital of each
province, with auxiliary prefectural and district colleges and schools and the
whole system to culminate in the Imperial University in Peking. In all these
institutions western arts and sciences are to be taught side by side with the
old Confucian classics. "The Viceroys and Governors of provinces are
commanded to order their subordinates to hasten the establishment of these
schools. Let this decree be published through the Empire."
Nor have the new
imperial decrees stopped here. A few decades ago, ambitious Chinese youths who
sought an education abroad at their own expense were imprisoned on their return
to their native land. One whom I met in Shantung gave me a vivid account of his
arrest and incarceration in a filthy dungeon as if he had been a common
criminal. But a recent edict of the Emperor directs the provincial Governors to
select young men of ability and send them to Europe for special training with a
view to their occupying high posts on their return.
One of the most firmly
rooted customs of old China was the examination essay for literary degrees on
some purely Chinese subject relating to a remote past. But August 29, 1901, to
the amazement of the literati, an imperial edict abolished that time-honoured
custom and directed that in the future candidates for degrees as well as for
office should submit short essays on such modern topics as Western science,
governments, laws, and kindred subjects. The following extracts from the
examination questions for the Chu Jen (M. A.) degree in 1903 will indicate the
extraordinary character of this change.
Honen-- "What improvements are to be derived from the study of
foreign agriculture, commerce, and postal systems?
Kwang-sg and An-huei--"What are the chief ideas underlying Austrian and
German prosperity? How do foreigners regulate the press, post-office, commerce,
railways, banks, bank-notes, commercial schools, taxation--and how do they get
faithful men? Where is the Caucasus and how does Russia rule it?
Kiang-si--"How many sciences theoretical and practical are there? In what
order should they be studied? Explain free trade and protection. What are the
military services of the world? What is the bearing of the Congress of Vienna,
the Treaty of Berlin and the Monroe Doctrine on the Far East? Wherein lies the
naval supremacy of Great Britain? What is the bearing of the Siberian Railway
and Nicaragua Canal on China?
Shantung--"What is Herbert Spencer's philosophy of sociology? Define the
relations of land, labour and capital. State how best to develop the resources
of China by mines and railway? How best to modify our civil and criminal laws
to regain authority over those now under extra-territoriality privileges? How
best to guard land and sea frontiers from the advance of foreign Powers?
Fukien--"Which Western nations have paid most attention to education and
what is the result? State the leading features of the military systems of Great
Britain, Germany, Russia, and France. Which are the best colonizers? How should
tea and silk be properly cultivated? What is the government, industries and
education of Switzerland which, though small, is independent of surrounding
great powers?
Kwang-tung--(Canton)--"What should be our best coinage, gold, silver and
copper like other Western countries, or what? How could the workhouse system be
started throughout China? How to fortify Kwang-tung province? How to get funds
and professors for the new education? How to pro- mote Chinese international
commerce, new industries and savings-banks, versus the gambling houses of
China?
Hunan--"What is the policy of Japan--only following other nations or what?
How to choose competent diplomatic men? Why does China feel its small national
debt so heavy, while England and France with far greater debts do not feel it?
Hupeh--"State the educational systems of Sparta and Athens. What are the
naval strategic points of Great Britain and which should be those of China?
Which nation has the best system of stamp duty? State briefly the geological
ages of the earth, and the bronze and iron ages. Trace the origin of Egyptian,
Babylonian and Chinese writings."[94]
The result of these edicts is
that the Chinese are buying Western books as never before. Examinations cannot
be passed without them. The mission presses, though run to their full capacity,
cannot keep up with the demand for their publications. Dr. Timothy Richard of
Shanghai reports that a quarter of a million dollars' worth of text-books were
sold in that city in 1902, a single order received by the Presbyterian Press
involving a bill of $328 for postage alone, as the buyer insisted that the
books should be sent by mail. Mission schools that teach the English language
are thronged with students, many of them from the higher classes, and every
foreigner who is willing to teach Western learning finds his services eagerly
sought.
China cannot be
reformed by paper edicts even though they are written by an Emperor. Many
reforms have been solemnly proclaimed in former years that accomplished little
except to "save face" for the Government. We need not therefore
imagine that the millennium is to come in China this year. But it is impossible
to doubt that the reform decrees that have been issued since the Boxer uprising
mean something more and are achieving something more than any other reform
movements that China ever saw before. Dr. Arthur H. Smith, who knows China and
the Chinese as thoroughly as any other living man, writes:--
"We behold the kernel of the reforms ordered by His Majesty, Kuang
Hsum in 1898, and which led to his dethronement and imprisonment, substantially
adopted less than three years later by the Empress Dowager and her advisers. .
. . The bare notation of the tenor of these far-reaching edicts gives to the
Occidental reader but a vague notion of the tremendous intellectual revolution
which they connote. Never before was there such an order from any government
involving the reconstruction of the views of so many millions, by the study of
the methods of government in other nations. . . . It is obvious to one who
knows anything of the Chinese educational system of the past millennium that
the introduction of the new methods will involve its radical reconstruction
from top to bottom. Western geography, mathematics, science, history, and
philosophy will be everywhere studied. The result cannot fail to be an
expansion of the intellectual horizon of the Chinese race comparable to that which
in Europe followed the Crusades. This will be a long process and a slow one,
but it is a certain one. . . . All signs indicate that China is open as never
before." Undoubtedly the
most powerful present factor in the policy of the Empire, and at the same time
one of the best types of the educated Chinese, is Yuan Shih Kai, Viceroy of
Chih-li and Commander-in-Chief of the Chinese army. He is not a Manchu, like
many of the high officials of China, but a pure Chinese like Li Hung Chang.
Born in the Province of Honan, he quickly developed unusual abilities. After a
brilliant record for a young man in his native land, he was sent to Korea as
the representative of the Emperor of China and for nine years he was a
conspicuous member of the diplomatic corps of the Korean capital. Returning to
China in 1895, he was made commander of a division of the "New Imperial
Army"--a post in which he manifested high military and administrative
qualities. He organized and equipped his troops after the best foreign models
and they speedily became so effective that, if they had been more numerous and
if he had been given a free hand in using them in Peking, the history of 1900
might have been different. I have had occasion elsewhere[95] to give some
account of the soldiers who escorted me through the interior. December, 1900,
he was appointed Governor of the great province of Shantung. It was here that I
met him, residing at Chinan-fu, the capital of the province. As soon as
possible after my arrival, I sent my card and letters of introduction to the
famous Governor, and he promptly replied that he would receive me at one
o'clock the following day. At the appointed hour, we called. With true
courtesy, he met us at the entrance of the palace grounds and escorted us into
his private room, which was neatly but very plainly furnished. He impressed me
as a remarkable man. He was then forty-one years of age, of medium height,
rather stout, with a strong face, a clear, frank eye, and a most engaging
manner. He would be considered a man of striking appearance anywhere.
He was very cordial,
and we had a long and interesting conversation. He surprised me by his
familiarity with America, especially as he spoke no English and had never been
out of Asia.
Partly at this
interview and partly from other sources, I heard more of his plan to start a
daily newspaper, a Military Academy and a Literary College. His idea was to
have in each institution two students from each of the 108 counties in the
province, and thus train a body of men who would be able to carry "light
and learning" into their respective districts. He appeared to feel that
the only hope of averting such catastrophes as the Boxer uprising lay in
enlightening the people. In answer to a question as to the teaching of foreign
languages, he said that English, French and German would be taught, but that
German would probably be the most useful of the foreign tongues on account of
the number of Germans in the eastern part of the province.
The Governor had shown
the breadth of his intelligence, and at the same time his appreciation of the
high character of Protestant missionaries, by inviting one of them, the Rev.
Dr. Watson M. Hayes, then President of the Presbyterian Mission College at
Teng-chou, to become the President of the Literary College. I may anticipate so
far as to state that Dr. Hayes accepted the invitation and began his work with
every promise of large success. But unfortunately the rigid requirement of the
Government that each student should worship the tablet of Confucius at stated
intervals and the refusal of Yuan Shih Kai's successor to exempt Christian
students made Dr. Hayes feel that he had no alternative but to resign. Whether
Yuan Shih Kai, if he had remained in Shantung, would have been more lenient, it
is, of course, impossible to say. I cherish the hope that he would have been,
for he is a large-minded man and he discerns the signs of the times more
clearly than many of his countrymen. But he is nevertheless a loyal disciple of
Confucius and he might also have felt that questions of state policy were
involved. It is suggestive, however, that in the spring of 1898 Yuan Shih Kai
had selected a Protestant minister, the Rev. Herbert E. House, D. D., (now of
the Canton Christian College) as the tutor of his own son, Yuen Yen Tai. Dr.
House says, by the way, that he found the youth "wonderfully pure in his
thought, high in his ambition and intense in his passion for knowledge--the
most patient and diligent student I ever knew."
But to return to the
interview with Yuan Shih Kai. The only other Chinese present was Tang
Hsiao-chuan, a man of about thirty-five, who was in charge of the Provincial
Foreign Office with the rank of Tao-tai. He had spent two years at Columbia
University in New York City, spoke English fluently and impressed me as a fine
man. Like the Governor, his manners were courtly and refined. He appeared to be
a man of the diplomatic type and worthy of the promotion that he will doubtless
receive.
Early the next morning
Captain Wang came on behalf of the Governor to return our visit. He was the
translator of the Foreign Office and the tutor of one of the Governor's sons
whom he was teaching English grammar, arithmetic, geography and history. I was
interested to find that he had spent eight years at Philips Academy,
Massachusetts, and that he spoke English with the grace of a cultured
gentleman.
The policy of Yuan Shih
Kai during the Boxer troubles indicated the wisdom and the courage of the man.
Disturbances had already begun when he assumed office. It was not far southwest
of Chinan-fu that Brooks, the devoted English missionary, was murdered by the
Boxers. Yu Hsien was then Governor of Shantung but about that time was
transferred to Shan-si, Yuan Shih Kai taking his place. If the notorious
foreign-hating Yu Hsien had remained in Shantung, probably he would have
massacred the Shantung missionaries as he did those of Shan-si, where he
invited them all to his yamen, and then began the butchery by killing three
missionaries with his own hand. But Yuan Shih Kai foresaw the inevitable result
of such barbarity and determined to restrain the Boxers and protect foreigners.
He succeeded with the foreigners, not one being killed after he took control,
and all being helped as far as possible to escape. As soon as the storm had
passed, he officially wrote to the missionaries who had taken refuge at the
ports:--
"Everything is now quiet. If you, reverend sirs, wish to return to
the interior, I would beg you first give me word that I may most certainly
order the military everywhere most carefully to protect and escort." This apparently pro-foreign policy brought
upon the Governor, for a time, no small obloquy from the fiercely-fanatical
conservatives who wanted to murder every foreigner within reach. Indeed the
fury of the populace was so great that he was bitterly reviled as "a
secondary devil," and his life was repeatedly threatened. But despite the
clamour of the mob and the opposition of his associates in the government of the
province, he maintained his position with iron inflexibility. Afterwards,
however, the people as well as his official subordinates realized that he had
saved them from the awful punishment that was inflicted upon the neighbouring
province of Chih-li, and his power and prestige became greater than ever.
During my visit in
Chining-chou, in the remote southwestern part of the province, an incident
occurred which illustrated at once the power of Yuan Shih Kai's name and the
heroic devotion of the missionaries. The day after our arrival, a friendly
Chinese official brought word that Governor Yuan Shih Kai's mother had died the
day before. Chinese custom in such circumstances required him to resign his
office and go into retirement for three years. Now Consul Fowler and all the
foreigners whom I had met in the ports had declared that the safety of
foreigners in Shantung depended on the Governor, that as long as he was in
power white men were safe, but that his death or removal might bring another
tumult of anti-foreign fury. On the strength of his known friendship, mission
work was being resumed and the missionaries were returning to the interior.
Now this man, on whose
continuance in office so much depended, was apparently to retire and the future
made all uncertain again. The Empress Dowager might give the post to a
foreign-hater. An indifferent or even a weak pro-foreign Governor would be
little better, for a strong man was needed to hold the population of Shantung
in hand. The Chinese quickly take their cue from a high official and even a
suspicion that he would not interfere might again loose the dogs of war. True,
we had seen no signs of enmity, but appearances are deceptive in Asia. The
smile of the mighty Governor meant a smile from every one. But what fires were smouldering
beneath no one could know. Even in America, there are lawless men who would mob
Chinese in a minute if they knew that the police were weak or indifferent.
I did not fear for
myself, for my plans compelled me to journey on to Ichou-fu anyway. But I did
not like to leave Mr. Laughlin and Dr. Lyon, who had come with the intention of
remaining to reopen the mission work at Chining-chou. But with the true
missionary spirit, they bravely decided to stay. A week later, they learned
that in view of the importance of the province and his confidence in the great
Governor, the Emperor had by a special dispensation shortened the period of
official mourning from three years to one hundred days. During that time, the
Fan-tai (treasurer) would be the nominal head of the province, though it was
quietly understood that even then the Governor would be the "power behind
the throne." But as this was not known when the decision to remain was
made, the heroism of the missionaries was none the less striking.
The attitude of Yuan
Shih Kai is fairly indicated in the regulations which he caused to be widely
published after the Boxer outbreak. Some of these were as follows:--
"In order to
protect foreigners from violence and all mission property from burning and
other destruction, all civil and military officials with all their subordinates
(including literati, constables, village elders, et al.), must use their utmost
endeavours to insure their protection. Persons refusing to submit to officials
in these matters may be instantly executed without further reference to the
Governor, and any one who rescues foreigners from violence will be amply
rewarded.
"Any persons
having been found guilty of destroying mission property or using violence to
foreigners shall be severely dealt with according to the laws which refer to
highway robbers, and in addition to this their goods and property shall be
confiscated for the public use.
"If injury to
missionaries or destruction of property occurs in any district whatever, both
civil and military officials of said district shall be degraded and reported to
the Throne.
"The elders,
constables, et al., of every village shall do their utmost to protect
missionaries and their property. If in the future there occurs in any village
destruction of property or violence to a missionary, the headmen of such
village shall be dealt with according to the edict issued during the
twenty-second year of the present Emperor. And, in addition to this they shall
be required to present themselves to the yamen and make good all losses. The
constables of such villages shall be severely dealt with and expelled from
office forever.
"All civil and
military officials in whose districts none of these offenses named above occur
in one year shall be rewarded with the third degree of merit, and three years
of such freedom shall entitle the same officials to promotion.
"Rewards will also
be given to village elders and constables in whose district no disturbance
occurs."
These are rather
remarkable words from a high Chinese official. Now their author occupies a
position of even greater authority, for after the death of Li Hung Chang, he
was appointed to succeed him as Viceroy of Chih-li in November, 1901. Chih-li
is not only one of the greatest provinces of the Empire with a population of
20,937,000, but it includes the imperial city of Peking and the ports of
Tong-ku and Tien- tsin, the gateways to the capital. The Viceroy thus controls
all avenues of approach to the Throne and is, in a sense, charged with the
protection of the royal family. He has free access at all times to the Emperor
and the Empress Dowager with whom he is a prime favourite. It was this position
of high vantage which enabled Li Hung Chang to become well-nigh omnipotent in
China. Yuan Shih Kai is not such a wily schemer as his distinguished
predecessor and he is not likely to use his position for self-aggrandizement to
the extent that Li Hung Chang did. But he is quite as able a man and more frank
and reliable. He has enemies, as every public man has, especially in Asia. Some
can never forgive him for his supposed part in the virtual dethronement of the
Emperor several years ago. It is alleged that the Emperor counted on the army
of Yuan Shih Kai to support him in his reform policy, but that Yuan consulted
with Jung Lu, who was then the Viceroy of Chih-li, and that that worthy
promptly laid the whole matter before the Empress Dowager; the result being
that the young Emperor awoke one morning to find himself practically stripped
of his imperial power.[96] Yuan has been freely charged with treachery in this
coup d'état. Others hold that he did not intend treachery but only consultation
with his superior officer as to what ought to be done in a grave crisis which
was in itself revolutionary in character. Yuan was far from being a
reactionary, but he was wise enough to see that China could not be suddenly
transformed, and he naturally hesitated to lend himself to an enterprise which
he believed to be premature and to be destined to result in certain failure.
The soundness of his judgment is now generally recognized, and the Emperor
himself is said to be almost as friendly towards him as the Empress Dowager,
who counts him one of her ablest supporters.
In the present critical
condition of far eastern politics, much depends upon the policy of Yuan Shih
Kai. With exalted rank, the ear of the Empress Dowager and the command of the
only real soldiers that China possesses, he can do more than any other man to
influence the course of the Empire. Of course, one official, however powerful,
cannot absolutely control national conditions. The forces at work both within
and without the Empire are too vast and too complicated. Nevertheless, the fact
that such an able and far-seeing man as Yuan Shih Kai is now the most influential
Viceroy in China, the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, and the trusted adviser
of the Empress Dowager may be fairly included among the hopeful signs for the
future.
Most significant of all
is the development of missionary work since the Boxer outbreak. Not only have
all the destroyed churches and chapels been rebuilt, but they are, as a rule,
crowded with worshippers. In the Wei-hsien station field in Shantung, where
every missionary was driven out and all the mission property destroyed, 569
Chinese were baptized last year. In Peking, the large new Presbyterian church,
though erected near that great cistern in which nearly 100 bodies were found
after the siege, is filled at almost every service and the churches of other
denominations are also largely attended. At a single service, Dr. Pentecost
preached to 800 attentive Chinese young men. Even in Paoting-fu, where every
remaining missionary and scores of Chinese Christians were killed, and where
one might suppose that no Chinese would ever dare to confess Christ, even in
bloodstained Paoting-fu, the missionaries are preaching daily to throngs of
attentive Chinese in the city, while at the spacious new compounds outside the
walls the schools and hospitals and churches are taxed to care for the hundreds
who go to them. In the Canton field, long known for its anti-foreign feeling,
1,564 Chinese were baptized last year by the Presbyterians alone and the
missionaries are importunately calling for reinforcements to enable them to
meet the multiplied demands upon them. Even the province of Hunan, which a
decade ago was almost as inhospitable to foreigners as Thibet, now has half a
hundred Protestant and Catholic missionaries developing a prosperous work.
Bishop Graves, of the Protestant Episcopal Church, returned recently from an
episcopal visitation with this inspiring message:--
"The condition and outlook of the Church's work in the province of
Kiang-su are more encouraging than ever before. Hitherto we have had to
persuade people to be taught. Now they come to us themselves, not one by one,
but in numbers. . . . That there is a strong movement towards Christianity
setting in is evident."[97] Not
only has the old work been resumed with vigour but much new work has been
opened. Within a year and a quarter after the relief of the Legations by the
Allies, twenty-five new mission stations had been opened and 373 new
missionaries had entered China, and each succeeding year has seen considerable
additions to the number. The Rev. Dr. George F. Pentecost, who visited China in
1903, writes--
"The outlook seems to me most encouraging. I find the more
thoughtful missionaries enthusiastic in their forecast for the future. My own
judgment is that the cause of missions, so far as foundation work and increased
power for work, has been advanced at least twenty-five years by the massacres
of 1900. I think the common people are thoroughly convinced that missions
cannot be destroyed, and I am equally convinced that the authorities are also
convinced that it is vain for them to rage and set themselves against
Christianity. The one thing which an Asiatic recognizes is power and facts
accomplished, and in the rebuilding of our missions and the awakening already
begun and the reinforcement of the missions in men and material means they see
and recognize power. Their own temples are falling into decay and ruin and our
new buildings are rising in prominence and beauty. Their ignorant priesthood is
sinking deeper and deeper into degradation, while our missionaries are every
where known and recognized as men of `light and learning.' . . . It seems to me
from all I can learn that there is no fear of another anti- foreign
outbreak." And these are but
a few of the many illustrations that could be given. Everywhere, the doors are
open and Chinese are now being baptized by Protestant missionaries at the rate
of about 15,000 a year, while a far larger number are enrolled as inquirers or
catechumens. The interdenominational conference of missionaries at Kuling,
August 7, 1903, declared:--
"It is now a fact that there is not one of the more than nineteen
hundred counties of China and Manchuria from which we are shut out, and before
the hundredth year of our work begins, we can say that if the gospel is not
preached to every creature in China, the reason must be sought outside China.
The opportunities of work are varied in their kind, vast in their extent. Never
before have men crowded to hear the gospel as they are crowding now in the open
air and indoors; in our chapels and in our guest-rooms we have opportunities to
preach Christ such as can scarcely be found outside China. Never before has
there been such an eager desire for education as there is now; our schools,
both of elementary and of higher grades, are full, and everywhere applicants
have to be refused. Never before has there been such a demand for Christian
literature as there is now; our tract societies and all engaged in supplying
converts and inquirers with reading material are doing their utmost, but are
not able to overtake the demand; and the demand is certain to increase, for it
comes from the largest number of people in the world reading one language. The
medical work has from the first found an entrance into hearts that were closed
against other forms of work. Its sphere of influence grows ever wider and is
practically unlimited. Unique opportunities of service are afforded us by the
large number of blind people, by lepers, and those suffering from incurable
diseases; by the deaf and dumb, the insane and other afflicted people. In China
the poor are always with us, and whensoever we will we may do them good." Not least among the hopeful signs for the
future is the new treaty between the United States and China which was signed
at Shanghai, October 8, 1903, and unanimously ratified by the United States
Senate December 18, 1903. It not only secured an "open door" in China
for Americans, but, if the veteran "most favoured nation" clause is
again pressed into service, a priceless benefit to the whole civilized world as
well as to China herself. For this treaty abolished the exasperating
"likin" (the inland tax heretofore exacted by local officials on
goods in transit through their territories); confirmed the right of American
citizens to trade, reside, travel, and own property in China; extended to China
the United States' copyright laws; gained a promise from the Chinese Government
to establish a patent office in which the inventions of United States' citizens
may be protected; and made valuable regulations regarding trade-marks, mining
concessions, judicial tribunals for the hearing of complaints, diplomatic
intercourse, and several other matters which, though sanctioned by custom, were
often abridged or violated.
The treaty, moreover,
called for the opening of two additional treaty ports, one of which is at
Feng-tien-fu, more generally known as Mukden, important not only as a city of
200,000 inhabitants but as the capital of Manchuria and with both rail and
river connection with the Gulf of Pe-chi-li and the imperial province of
Chih-li. The other is at An-tung, which is important because of its situation
on the Yalu River opposite the Korean frontier. Of course, the Russia-Japan War
has post- poned the opening of these ports, but the recognition of China's
right to open them by treaty with the United States is none the less
significant.
Most important of all,
the treaty removes, so far as any such enactment can remove, the last barrier
to the extension of Christianity throughout China. In Article XIII of the
English treaty with China, September 5, 1902, Great Britain agreed to join in a
commission to secure peaceable relationships between converts and non-converts
in China. But the American treaty goes much farther, as the following extract
(Article XIV) will show:--
"The principles of
the Christian religion, as professed by the Protestant and Roman Catholic
Churches, are recognized as teaching men to do good and to do to others as they
would have others do to them. Those who quietly profess and teach these
doctrines shall not be harassed or persecuted on account of their faith. Any
person, whether citizen of the United States or Chinese convert, who, according
to these tenets, peaceably teaches and practices the principles of Christianity
shall in no case be interfered with or molested therefor. No restrictions shall
be placed on Chinese joining Christian churches. Converts and non-converts,
being Chinese subjects, shall alike conform to the laws of China, and shall pay
due respect to those in authority, living together in peace and amity; and the
fact of being converts shall not protect them from the consequences of any
offense they may have committed before or may commit after their admission into
the church, or exempt them from paying legal taxes levied on Chinese subjects
generally, except taxes levied and contributions for the support of religious
customs and practices contrary to their religion. Missionaries shall not
interfere with the exercise by the native authorities of their jurisdiction
over Chinese subjects; nor shall the native authorities make any distinction
between converts and non-converts, but shall administer the laws without
partiality, so that both classes can live together in peace.
"Missionary
societies of the United States shall be permitted to rent and to lease in perpetuity
as the property of such societies, buildings or lands in all parts of the
Empire for missionary purposes and, after the title-deeds have been found in
order and duly stamped by the local authorities, to erect such suitable
buildings as may be required for carrying on their good work."
This gives new prestige
to American missionary effort and legally confirms the opening of the Empire
from end to end to missionary residence, activity and toleration. All that
France harshly obtained for Roman Catholic missions by the Berthemy convention
of 1865 and by the haughty ultimatum of M. Gerard at the close of the war with
Japan, the United States has now peacefully secured with the apparent good-will
of the Chinese Government.
IT would be unwise to
underestimate the gravity of the situation, or to assume that the most numerous
and conservative nation on the globe has been suddenly transformed from foreign
haters to foreign lovers. The world may again have occasion to realize that the
momentum of countless myriads is an awful force even against the resources of a
higher civilization, as the Romans found to their consternation when the
barbarian hordes overran the Empire. We do not know what disturbances may yet
occur or what proportions they may assume. It may be that much blood will yet
be shed. Inflamed passions will certainly be slow in subsiding. Men who are
identified with the old era will not give up without a struggle. It took 300
years to bring England from pagan barbarism to Christian civilization, and
China is vaster far and more conservative than England. The world moves faster now,
and the change-producing forces of the present exceed those of former centuries
as a modern steam hammer exceeds a wooden sledge. But China is ponderous, and a
few decades are short for so gigantic a transformation.
Meantime, much depends
on the future conduct of foreigners. It is hard enough for the proud-spirited
Chinese to see the aliens coming in greater numbers than ever and entrenching
themselves more and more impregnably, and a continuance of the policy of greed
and injustice will deepen an already deep resentment. The almost invincible
prejudice against the foreigner is a serious hindrance to the regeneration of
China. "This fact emphasizes the need for using every means possible for
the breaking down of such a prejudice. Every careless or willful wound to
Chinese susceptibilities, or unnecessary crossing of Chinese superstitions,
retards our own work and increases the dead wall of opposition on the part of
this people."[98]
The proper way to deal
with the Chinese was illustrated by the Rev. J. Walter Lowrie of the
Presbyterian Mission at Paoting-fu when, as a token of appreciation for his
services to the city in connection with the retaliatory measures of the foreign
troops shortly after the Boxer outbreak, the magistrate raised a special fund
among wealthy Chinese, bought a fine tract of sixteen acres and presented it to
the mission as a gift. The tract had been occupied for many years by several
families of tenants who had built their own houses, but who were now to be
evicted. Of course, Mr. Lowrie was not responsible for them. But he insisted
that they should be dealt with fairly, and be paid a reasonable price for their
homes and the improvements that they had made so that they could rent land and
establish themselves elsewhere. In addition, he was at pains to find work for
them until their new crops became available. Their affectionate greeting of Mr.
Lowrie as we walked about the place clearly showed their gratification. There
is not the slightest trouble with the Chinese when they are treated with
ordinary decency as brother men.
At any rate, in the
name of that civilization and Christianity which we profess, as well of common
humanity, let foreign nations abandon the methods of brutality and rapine. If
we expect to convert the Chinese, we must exemplify the principles we teach. It
is not true that the Chinese cannot understand justice and magnanimity. Even if
it were true, it does not follow that we should be unjust and pitiless. Let us
instruct them in the higher things. How are they ever to learn, if we do not
teach them? But as a matter of fact, the Chinese are as amenable to reason as
any people in the world. Their temperament and inertia and long isolation from
the remainder of mankind have made them slow to grasp a new idea. But they will
get it if they are given reasonable time, and when they do once get it, they
will hold it. Whether, therefore, further trouble occurs, depends in part upon
the conduct of foreign nations. Justice and humanity in all dealings with the
Chinese, while not perhaps wholly preventing outbreaks of hostility, will at
least give less occasion for them.
But however trying the
period of transition may be, the issue is not for a moment doubtful. Progress
invariably wins the victory over blind conservatism. The higher idea is sure to
conquer the lower. With all their admixture of selfishness and violence, the
fact remains that the forces operating on China to-day include the vital
regenerative element for human society. It is futile to expect that China could
ever regenerate herself without outside aid. Spontaneous regeneration is an
exploded theory in society as well as in biology. Life always comes from
without.
The spirit of China's
new system of education shows that there is imminent danger of the misuse of
modern methods, even when they have been adopted. All her institutions are
conducted on principles which virtually debar Christians either as students or
professors. Infidelity, however, has free entrance as long as it conforms to
the external forms imposed by the State. "Anti-conservative but
anti-Christian," the educational movement has been characterized by Dr. W.
M. Hayes of Teng-chou. Dr. W. A. P. Martin, so long President of the Imperial
Chinese University, declares that "if Christians at home only knew what a
determined effort is being made to exclude Christian teachers and Christian
text-books from Chinese Government schools, from the Imperial University down,
they would exert themselves to give a Christian education to the youth of
China." A single mission institution, like the Shantung Protestant
University, with its union of the best educational methods and the highest
ideals of Christian character, will do more for the real enlightenment of China
than a dozen provincial colleges where gambling, irreligion and opium smoking
are freely tolerated and a failure to worship the tablet of Confucius is deemed
the only cardinal sin.
In view of all these
things, the regeneration of China becomes a question of transcendent
importance, a question demanding the broadest statesmanship and the supremest
effort; a question involving the future destinies of the race. "On account
of its mass, its homogeneity, its high intellectual and moral qualities, its
past history, its present and prospective relations to the whole world, the
conversion of the Chinese people to Christianity is the most important
aggressive enterprise now laid upon the Church of Christ."[99] It would be
a calamity to the whole world if the dominant powers of Asia should continue to
be heathen. But if they are not to be, immediate and herculean efforts must be
made to regenerate them. Sir Robert Hart declares that the only hope of
averting "the yellow peril" lies either in partition among the great
Powers, which he regards as so difficult as to be impracticable, or in a
miraculous spread of Christianity which will transform the Empire. Beyond
question, Sir Robert Hart is right. It is too late now to avoid the issue. The
impact of new forces is rousing this gigantic nation, and Western nations must
either conquer or convert. Conquering is out of the question for reasons
already given.[100] The only alternative is conversion. In these circumstances
"the yellow peril becomes the golden opportunity of
Christendom."[101]
And by conversion is
not meant "civilization." Here is the fundamental error of the
pseudonymous writer of "Letters From a Chinese Official." He
evidently knows little or nothing of the missionary force or of the motives
which control it. He writes as a man who has lived in a commercial and
political atmosphere, and who feels outraged, and with some justice, by the
policy which European nations have adopted towards China. From this view-point,
it was easy for the quick- witted author to satirize our defects and to laud
the virtues, some of them unquestionably real, of his native land. But it does
not follow that his indictment holds against the Christian people of the West,
who reprobate as strongly as the author the duplicity and brutality of foreign
nations in their dealings with China. The West has something more to offer
China than a civilization. As a matter of fact, the best people of the West are
not trying to give China a civilization at all, but a gospel. With whatever is
good in Chinese civilization, they have no wish to interfere. It is true that
some changes in society invariably follow the acceptance of Christianity, but
these changes relate only to those things that are always and everywhere
inherently wrong, irrespective of the civilization to which they appear to
belong. The gospel transformed "the Five Points" in New York not
because they were uncivilized but because they were evil. It will do in China
only what it does in America--fight vice, cleanse foulness, dispel
superstition. Christianity is the only power which does this. It has
transformed every people among whom it has had free course. It has purified
society. It has promoted intelligence. It has elevated woman. It has fitted for
wise and beneficent use of power. Of those who deny this, Lowell says:
"So long as these very men are dependent for every privilege they
enjoy upon that religion which they discard, they may well hesitate a little
before seeking to rob the Christian of his faith and humanity of its hope in
that Saviour who alone has given to man that hope of eternal life which makes
life tolerable and society possible, and robs death of its terrors and the
grave of its gloom." No degradation
is beyond the reach of its regenerating power. Witness the New Hebrides,
Metlakatla, the Fiji, Georgia and Friendly Islands. Even England, Germany and
America themselves are in evidence. Christianity lifted them out of a barbarism
and superstition as dense as any prevailing among the heathen nations of this
age. It can effect like changes in China if it is given the opportunity.
But it is said that the
Chinese do not want to be converted. A distinguished General of the United
States army declared, after his return from Peking in 1900:--"I must say
that I did not meet a single intelligent Chinaman who expressed a desire to
embrace the Christian religion. The masses are against Christianity."[102]
It is pleasant to know that it is so common for unconverted Americans to go to
that army officer for spiritual guidance that the failure of the Chinese to do
so disappointed him. Most men would hardly have expected a people who were
smarting under defeat to open their hearts to a commander of the conquering
army. But hundreds of other foreigners in China, myself included, can testify
that they have heard intelligent Chinese express a desire to embrace the
Christian religion, and the fact that there are in China to-day over a hundred
thousand Chinese, to say nothing of myriads of enrolled catechumens, who have
publicly confessed their faith in Christ and who have tenaciously adhered to it
under sore persecution is tangible evidence that some Chinese at least are
disposed to accept Christianity.
Do they want Him?
"It would please you," a missionary writes, "to see these poor
people feeling after God, and their eagerness to learn more and more." It
is not uncommon for converts to travel ten, fifteen and even twenty miles to
attend service. The Sunday I was in Ichou-fu, I met a fine-looking young man,
named Yao Chao Feng, who had walked sixteen miles to receive Christian baptism,
and several other Chinese were present who had journeyed on foot from seventeen
to thirty-three miles. In Paoting-fu, I heard of a mother and daughter who had
painfully hobbled on bound feet thirteen miles that they might learn more about
the new faith. In another city, 800 opium-smokers kneeled in a church and asked
God to help them break the chains of that frightful habit. Surely He who puts
His fatherly arms around the prodigal and kissed him was in that humble church
and answered the prayer of those poor, sin-cursed men. It would be easy to fill
a book with such instances.
But suppose the Chinese
do not want Christ. What of it? Did they want the distinguished General? On the
contrary, he had to fight his way into Peking at the mouth of the cannon and
the point of the bayonet, over the dead bodies of Chinese and through the ruins
of Chinese towns. Do "the masses" desire Christ anywhere? Mr. Moody
used to say that the people of the United States did not want Christ and would
probably reject Him if He came to them as He came to the Jews of old.
The question is not at
all whether the Chinese or anybody else desire Christ, but whether they need
Him, and a man's answer to that question largely depends upon his own relations
to Christ. If we need Him, the Chinese do. If He has done anything for us, if
He has brought any dignity and power and peace into our lives, the
probabilities are that He can do as much for the Chinese.
"Be assured that the Christ who cannot save a Chinaman in longitude
117° East is a Christ who cannot save you in longitude 3° west. The question
about missions would not be so lightly put, nor the answer so lightly listened
to, if men realized that what is at stake is not a mere scheme of us
missionaries, but the validity of their own hope of eternal life. Yet I am
bound to say that the questions put to me, on returning from the mission field,
by professedly Christian people often shake my faith, not in missions, but in
their Christian profession. What kind of grasp of the gospel have men got, who
doubt whether it is to-day, under any skies, the power of God unto
salvation?"[103] It passes
comprehension that any one who has even a superficial knowledge of the real
China can doubt for a moment its vital need of the gospel. The wretchedness of
its life appalls an American who goes back into the unmodified conditions of
the interior or even into the old Chinese city of proud Shanghai. As I
journeyed through those vast throngs, climbed many hilltops and looked out upon
the innumerable villages, which thickly dotted the plain as far as the eye
could reach, as I saw the unrelieved pain and the crushing poverty and the
abject fear of evil spirits, I felt that in China is seen in literal truth
"The Man with the Hoe."
"Bowed by the weight of centuries, he leans
Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground,
The emptiness of ages in his face,
And on his back the burden of the world.
"What gulfs between him and the seraphim,
Slave of the wheel of labour, what to him
Are Plato and the swing of Pleiades?
What the long reaches of the peaks of song,
The rift of dawn, the reddening of the rose?
Through this dread shape the suffering ages look;
Time's tragedy is in that aching stoop."
This is the need to which the
churches of Europe and America are addressing themselves through the boards and
societies of foreign missions. These boards are the channels through which the
highest type of Christian civilization is communicated to pagan peoples, the
agencies which gather up all that is best and truest in our modern life and concentrate
it upon the conditions of China. From this view-point, foreign missions is not
only a question of religion, but a problem of statesmanship, and one of
overshadowing magnitude. As such, it merits the sympathy and cooperation of
every intelligent and broad-minded man, irrespective of his religious
affiliations. Its spiritual aims are supreme and sufficient for every true
disciple of Christ, but apart from them its social and educational value and
its relation to the welfare of the race justly claim the interest and support
of all. In this work the Church is saving both individuals and nations, and for
time as well as for eternity. It holds no pessimistic views of the future. It
denies that the development of the race has ended. It frankly concedes the existence
of vice and superstition. But it believes that the gospel of Jesus Christ is
able to subdue that vice, and to dispel that superstition. So it founds schools
and colleges for the education of the young; establishes hospitals and
dispensaries for the care of the sick and suffering; operates printing-presses
for the dissemination of the Bible and a Christian literature; maintains
churches for the worship of the true God, and in and through all it preaches to
lost men the transforming and uplifting gospel of Him who alone can "speak
peace to the heathen."
But some are saying
that the Boxer outbreak has destroyed their confidence in the practicability of
the effort to evangelize the Chinese. They are asking: "Why should we send
any more missionaries to China?"
I reply: "Why send
any more merchants, any more consuls, any more oil, flour, cotton? Shall we
continue our commercial and political relations with China and discontinue our
religious relations; allow the lower influences to flow on unchecked, but
withhold the spiritual forces which would purify trade and politics, which have
made us what we are, and which alone can regenerate the millions of
China?"
Is disaster a reason
for withdrawal? When the American colonists found themselves involved in the
horrors of the Revolution, did they say that it would have been better to
remain the subjects of Great Britain? When, a generation ago, our land was
drenched with the blood of the Civil War, did men think that they ought to have
tolerated secession and slavery? When the Maine was blown up in Havana Harbour
and Lawton was killed in Luzon, did we demand withdrawal from Cuba and the
Philippines? When Liscum fell under the walls of Tien-tsin, did we insist that
the attempt to relieve the Legations should be abandoned? Or did not the
American people, in every one of these instances, find in the very agonies of
struggle and bloodshed a decisive reason for advance? Did they not sternly
resolve that there should be men, that there should be money, and that the war
should be pressed to victory whatever the sacrifice that might be involved?
And shall the Church of
God weakly, timidly yield because the very troubles have occurred which Christ
Himself predicted? He frankly said that there should "be wars and rumors
of wars"; that His disciples should "be hated of all men"; that
He sent them "forth as sheep in the midst of wolves," and that the
brother should "deliver up the brother to death and the father the
child." But in that very discourse He also said: "He that taketh not
his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me." "Go,
preach," He commanded. "Woe is me if I preach not," cried Paul.
Hostile rulers and priests and mobs and the bitter Cross did not swerve Him a
hairbreadth from His purpose; nor did the rending of the early disciples in the
arenas of Nero, the burning of a Huss and a Savonarola, the pyres of
Smithfield, the dungeons of the Tolbooth and the thumb-screws of the
Inquisition quench the zeal of His followers.
And in the like manner,
the ashes of mission buildings and the blood of devoted missionaries and the
tumult of furious men have led multitudes at home to form a high and holy
resolve to send more missionaries, to give more money and to press the whole
majestic enterprise with new faith and power until all China has been
electrified by the vital spiritual force of a nobler faith. God summons
Christendom to a forward movement in the land whose soil has been forever
consecrated by the martyrdom of the beloved dead. Instead of retreating, "we
should," in the immortal words of Lincoln at Gettysburg, "be here
dedicated to the great task remaining before us; that from these honoured dead
we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full
measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have
died in vain."
It may be said that
this is a purely sentimental consideration. But so may love for country, for
liberty, for wife and children, be called a sentiment. God forbid that the time
should ever come when men will not be influenced by sentiment. The intuitions
of the heart are as apt to be correct as the dictates of the head. I candidly
admit that as I stood amid the ruins of the mission buildings in China, as I
faced the surviving Christians and remembered what they had suffered, the
property they had lost and the dear ones they had seen murdered,--as I stood
with bared head on the spot where devoted missionaries had perished, I was
conscious of a deeper consecration to the task of uplifting China. And I am not
willing to admit that such a dedication of the living to the continuance of the
work of the dead is a mere sentiment.
We are not wise above
what is written when we declare that the eternal purpose of God comprehends
China as well as Europe and America. He did not create those hundreds of
millions of human beings simply to fertilize the soil in which their bodies
will decay. He has not preserved China as a nation for nearly half a hundred
centuries for nothing. Out of the apparent wreck, the new dispensation will
come, is already coming. Frightened men thought that the fall of Rome meant the
end of the world, but we can see that it only cleared the way for a better
world. Pessimists feared that the violence and blood of the Crusades would ruin
Europe, but instead they broke up the stagnation of the Middle Ages and made
possible the rise of modern Europe. The faint-hearted said that the India
mutiny of 1857 and the Syria massacres of 1860 ended all hope of regenerating
those countries, but in both they ushered in the most successful era of
missions.
So the barriers which
have separated China from the rest of the world must, like the medieval wall of
Tien-tsin, be cast down and over them a highway for all men be made. No one
sup- posed that the process would be so sudden and violent. But in the Boxer
uprising the hammer of God did in months what would otherwise have taken weary
generations. Some were discouraged because the air was filled with the
deafening tumult and the blinding dust and the flying débris. Many lost heart
and wanted to sound a retreat because some of God's chosen ones were crushed in
the awful rending. But the wiser and more far-seeing heard a new call to
utilize the larger opportunity which resulted. Up to this time we have been playing
with foreign missions. It is now time for Christendom to understand that its
great work in the twentieth century is to plan this movement on a scale
gigantic in comparison with anything it has yet done, and to grapple
intelligently, generously and resolutely, with the stupendous task of
Christianizing China.
But we are sometimes
told that the churches should not be allowed to go on; that one of the
conditions of good feeling will be the exclusion of missionaries from China. On
this point, I venture three suggestions:--
First,--No
administration that can ever be elected in the United States will thus
interfere with the liberty of the churches. It will never say, in effect, that
arms' manufacturing companies can send agents to Peking and distilleries send
drummers to Shanghai, but that the Church of God cannot send devoted,
intelligent men and women to found schools and hospitals and printing-presses
and to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. It will never say that American
gamblers in Tien-tsin and American prostitutes in Hongkong shall be protected
by all the might of the American army and navy, but that the pure, high-minded
missionary, who represents the noblest motives and ideals of our American life,
shall be expatriated, a man without a country.
This is, however, a
problem for the nation, rather than for the boards. The American missionary
went to Asia before his Government did, and until recently he saw very little
of the American flag. European nations have protected their citizens, whether
they were missionaries or traders. In the United States Senate Mr. Frye once
reminded the nation that about twenty years ago England sent an army of 15,000
men down to the African coast, across 700 miles of burning sand, to batter down
iron gates and stone walls, reach down into an Abyssinian dungeon and lift out
of it one British subject who had been unlawfully imprisoned. It cost England
$25,000,000 to do it, but it made a highway over this planet for every common
son of Britain, and the words, "I am an English citizen," more potent
than the sceptre of a king. And because of that reputation American
missionaries have more than once been saved by the intervention of British
ministers and consuls who have not forgotten that "blood is thicker than water."
Shall we vociferously curse England one day and the next supinely depend upon
her representatives to help us out when our citizens are endangered?
This is not a question
of "jingoism," whatever that may be. It is not a question of making
unreasonable complaints to home governments. It is not a question of religion
or of missions. It is a question of treaties, of citizenship, of national
honour and of self-respect. Let the nation settle it from that viewpoint. The
missionary asks no special privileges. He can stand it to go on as before, if
the nation can stand it to have him.
Second,--If China
should ever make such a demand in repudiation of the treaties which she herself
has expressly acknowledged to be valid, and if all the Powers should support
her in that demand, does anybody doubt what the missionary would say? We know at
any rate what he has said in similar circumstances. When Peter and John were
scourged and forbidden to preach any more in the name of Jesus, friendless and
penniless though they were, they ringingly answered: "Whether it be right
in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we
cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard." When Martin
Luther was arraigned before the most powerful tribunal in Europe, he declared:
"Here I stand. God help me. I can do no other." When the Russian
Minister in Constantinople haughtily said to Dr. Schauffler, "My master,
the Czar of all the Russias, will not let you put foot on that
territory,"--the intrepid missionary replied: "My Master, the Lord
Jesus Christ, will never ask the Czar of all the Russias where He shall put His
foot." Scores of missionaries have not hesitated to say to hostile
authorities: "I did not receive my commission from any earthly potentate
but from the King of Kings, and I shall, I must go on."
Some will say that this
is madness. So of old men said of Christ, "He hath a demon"; so they
said of Paul, "Thou art beside thyself." If magnificent moral courage
and unyielding devotion to duty are "madness," then the more the
world has of it the better.
The effort to minimize
the significance of the missionary force in China will be made only by those
who, destitute of any vital religious faith themselves, of course see no reason
for communicating it to others, or by those who are strangely blind and deaf to
the real issues of the age. In the words of Benjamin Kidd, "it is not
improbable that, to a future observer, one of the most curious features of our
time will appear to be the prevailing unconsciousness of the real nature of the
issues in the midst of which we are living."
"No more did the statesmen and the philosophers of Rome understand
the character and issues of that greatest movement of all history, of which
their literature takes so little notice. That the greatest religious change in
the history of mankind should have taken place under the eyes of a brilliant
galaxy of philosophers and historians who were profoundly conscious of
decomposition around them; that all these writers should have utterly failed to
predict the issue of the movement they were then observing; and that during the
space of three centuries they should have treated as simply contemptible an
agency which all men must now admit to have been, for good or evil, the most
powerful moral lever that has ever been applied to the affairs of men, are facts
well worthy of meditation in every period of religious transition."[104] Does any sane man imagine that the Church
could cease to be missionary and remain a Church? It has been well said that
the Christian nations might as well face the utter futility of any hypothesis
based upon the supposition that they can remain away from the Orient. The
occurrences of recent years have made changes in their relation to the world
which they can no more recall than they can alter the course of a planet. It is
idle for doctrinaires to tell us from the quiet comfort of home libraries, that
we should "keep hands off." We can no more keep hands off than our
country could keep hands off slavery in the South, no more than New York could
keep hands off a borough infected with smallpox. The world has passed the point
where one-third of its population can be allowed to breed miasma which the
other two-thirds must breathe. Both for China's sake and for our own, we must
continue this work. If this is true in the political and commercial realms,
much more is it true in the religious. Chalmer's notable sermon on the
"Expulsive Power of a New Affection" enunciates a permanent
principle. When a man's soul is once thrilled with the conviction that he has
found God, he must declare that sublime truth,
"To doubt would be disloyalty,
To falter would be sin."
I confess to a feeling of
impatience when I am told that all missionary plans for China must be
contingent "upon the settlement of political negotiations," "the
overthrow of the Empress Dowager and her reactionary advisers," "the
reestablishment of the Emperor on his rightful throne," "the
continuance in power of Viceroy Yuan Shih Kai," "the mainte- nance of
a strong foreign military and naval force in China," "the thwarting
of Russia's plans for supremacy," and several other events.
All these things have
been said and more. Is the Church then despairingly to resign her commission
from Jesus Christ and humbly ask a new one from Cæsar? Not so did the apostolic
missionaries, and not so, I am persuaded, will their modern successors do. They
cannot, indeed, be indifferent to the course of political events or to their
bearing upon the missionary problem. But, on the other hand, they cannot make
their obedience to Christ and their duty to their fellow men dependent upon
political considerations. For Christian men to wait until China is pacified by
the Powers, or "until she is enlightened by the dissemination of truer
conceptions of the Western world," would be to abdicate their responsibility
as the chief factor in bringing about a better state of affairs. Is the Church
prepared to abandon the field to the diplomat, the soldier, the trader? How
soon is China likely to be pacified by them, judging from their past acts? The
gospel is the primary need of China to-day, not the tertiary. The period of
unrest is not the time for the messenger of Christ to hold his peace, but to
declare with new zeal and fidelity his ministry of reconciliation. To leave the
field to the politician, the soldier and the trader would be to dishonour
Christ, to fail to utilize an unprecedented opportunity, to abandon the Chinese
Christians in their hour of special need and to prejudice missionary influence
at home and abroad for a generation.
But the numbers at work
are painfully inadequate. To say that there are 2,950 Protestant foreign
missionaries in China is apt to give a distorted idea of the real situation
unless one remembers the immensity of the population. A station is considered
well-manned when it has four families and a couple of single women. But what
are they among those swarming myriads? The proportion of Protestant
missionaries to the population, which is commonly quoted, needs revision. There
is one to about every 144,000 souls. But that, too, requires modification, for
it counts the sick, the aged, recruits who are learning the language, wives
whose time is absorbed by household cares, and those who are absent on
furloughs, the last class alone being often about ten per cent. of the total
enrollment. The actual working force, therefore, is far smaller than the
statistics suggest.
Of China as a whole, it
is said that "some of the missionaries and some of the converts are to be
found in every one of the provinces, both of China and Manchuria. But in the
1,900 odd counties into which the provinces are divided, each with one
important town and a large part of them with more than one, there are but some
400 stations. That is to say, at least four-fifths of the counties of China are
almost entirely unprovided with the means of hearing the gospel."[105] Of
all the walled cities in the Empire, less than 300 are occupied by
missionaries. There are literally tens of thousands of communities that have
not yet been touched by the gospel. Plainly, the missionary force must be
largely augmented if the work is to be adequately done. The home churches have
gone too far to stop without going farther. "Those who undertake to carry
on mission work among great peoples undertake great responsibilities. We have
no right to penetrate these nations with a revolutionary gospel of enormous
power, unless we are prepared to make every sacrifice and every effort for the
proper care and the wise training of the organization of the Christian
community itself which, while it must become increasingly a source of
revolutionary thought and movement, is also the only body that can by the help
and grace of God give these far-reaching movements a healthy direction and lead
them to safe and happy issues."[106]
Grant that the work of
evangelization must be chiefly done by Chinese preachers; there is still much
for the missionary to do. Allowing for those who, on account of illness,
furlough or other duties, are temporarily non-effective, 10,000 missionaries
for China would not give a working average of one for every 50,000 of the
population. In these circumstances, the union conference of missionaries at
Kuling, August 7, 1903, was surely within reasonable bounds when, in urging the
Protestant churches to celebrate in 1907 the one hundredth anniversary of the
sending forth of Robert Morrison, it declared:--
". . . In view of the vastness of the field that lies open before
us, and of the immense opportunities for good which China offers the Christian
Church--opportunities so many of which have been quite recently opened to us
and which were won by the blood of the martyrs of 1900-- we appeal to the
boards and committees of our respective societies, and individually to all our
brethren and sisters in the home churches, to say if we are unreasonable in asking
that the last object of the Three Years' Enterprise be to double the number of
missionaries now working in China." The
time has come to "attempt great things for God, expect great things from
God." When in 1806, those five students in Williamstown, Massachusetts,
held that immortal conference in the lee of a haystack, talked of the mighty
task of world evangelization and wondered whether it could be accomplished, it
was given to Samuel J. Mills to cry out: "We can if we will!" And the
little company took up the cry and literally shouted it to the heavens:
"We can if we will!" "A growing church among a strong people
burdened by a decadent Empire--the spirit of life working against the forces of
death and decay in the one great Pagan Empire which the wrecks of millenniums
have left on the earth--surely there is a call to service that might fire the
spirit of the dullest of us."[107] The obstacles are indeed formidable,
but he who can look beneath the eddying flotsam and jetsam of the surface to
the mighty undercurrents which are sweeping majestically onward can exclaim
with Gladstone:--
"Time is on our side. The great social forces which move onward in
their might and majesty, and which the tumults of these strifes do not for a
moment impede or disturb--those forces are marshalled in our support. And the
banner which we now carry in the fight, though perhaps at some moment of the
struggle it may droop over our sinking hearts, yet will float again in the eye
of heaven and will be borne, perhaps not to an easy, but to a certain and to a
not distant victory."[108] In a
famous art gallery, there is a famous painting called "Anno Domini."
It represents an Egyptian temple, from whose spacious courts a brilliant
procession of soldiers, statesmen, philosophers, artists, musicians and priests
is advancing in triumphal march, bearing a huge idol, the challenge and the
boast of heathenism. Across the pathway of the procession is an ass, whose
bridle is held by a reverent looking man and upon whose back is a fair young mother
with her infant child. It is Jesus, entering Egypt in flight from the wrath of
Herod, and thus crossing the path of aggressive heathenism. Then the clock
strikes and the Christian era begins.
It is a noble parable.
Its fulfillment has been long delayed till the Child has become a Man,
crucified, risen, crowned. But now in majesty and power, He stands across the
pathway of advancing heathenism in China. There may be confusion and tumult for
a time. The heathen may rage, "and the rulers take counsel together
against the Lord." But the idol shall be broken "with a rod of
iron," and the King upon his holy hill shall have "the heathen for
`his' inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for `his'
possession."
For a consummation so
majestic in its character and so vital to the welfare not only of China but of
the whole human race we may well make our own the organ-voiced invocation of
Milton:--
"Come, O Thou that hast the seven stars in Thy right hand, appoint
Thy chosen priests according to their order and courses of old, to minister
before Thee, and duly to dress and pour out the consecrated oil into Thy holy
and ever burning lamps. Thou hast sent out the spirit of prayer upon Thy
servants over all the earth to this effect, and stored up their voices as the
sound of many waters about Thy throne. . . . O perfect and accomplish Thy
glorious acts; for men may leave their works unfinished, but Thou art a God;
Thy nature is perfection. . . . The times and seasons pass along under Thy
feet, to go and come at Thy bidding; and as Thou didst dignify our fathers'
days with many revelations, above all their foregoing ages since Thou tookest
the flesh, so Thou canst vouchsafe to us, though unworthy, as large a portion
of Thy Spirit as Thou pleasest; for who shall prejudice Thy all-governing will?
Seeing the power of Thy grace is not passed away with the primitive times, as
fond and faithless men imagine, but Thy kingdom is now at hand, and Thou
standing at the door, come forth out of Thy royal chambers, O Prince of all the
kings of the earth; put on the visible robes of Thy imperial majesty, take up
that unlimited sceptre which Thy Almighty Father hath bequeathed Thee; for now
the voice of Thy bride calls Thee, and all creatures sigh to be
renewed."[109]