I.
THE AGENCY OF MISSIONARIES IN THE DIFFUSION OF SECULAR KNOWLEDGE IN CHINA[*]
[Footnote *: This paper was originally written for Dr. Dennis's well-known work on The Secular Benefits of Christian Missions. As it now appears it is not a mere reprint, it having been much enlarged and brought down to date.]
While the primary motive of missionaries in going to China is, as in going to other countries, the hope of bringing the people to Christ, the incidental results of their labours in the diffusion of secular knowledge have been such as to confer inestimable benefit on the world at large and on the Chinese people in particular. This is admitted by the recent High Commission.[**]
[Footnote **: See [page 263].]
It was in the character of apostles of science that Roman Catholic missionaries obtained a footing in Peking three centuries ago, and were enabled to plant their faith throughout the provinces. Armed with telescope and sextant they effected the reform of the Chinese calendar, and secured for their religion the respect and adherence of some of the highest minds in the Empire. So firmly was it rooted that churches of their planting were able to survive a century and a half of persecution. Their achievements, recorded in detail by Abbé Huc and others, fill some of the brightest pages in the history of missions. I shall not enlarge on them in this place, as my present task is to draw attention to the work of Protestant missions.
A CENTURY OF PROTESTANT MISSIONS.
It is not too much to claim for these last that for a century past they have been active intermediaries, especially between the English-speaking nations and the Far East. On one hand, they have supplied such information in regard to China as was indispensable for commercial and national intercourse, while on the other they have brought the growing science of the Western world to bear on the mind of China. Not only did Dr. Morrison, who led the way in 1807, give the Chinese the first translation of our Holy Scriptures; he was the very first to compile a Chinese dictionary in the English language.
THE PIONEER OF AMERICAN MISSIONS
It was not until 1838 that America sent her pioneer missionary in the person of Dr. Bridgman. Besides coöperating with others in the revision of Morrison's Bible, or, more properly, in making a new version, Bridgman won immortality by originating and conducting the Chinese Repository, a monthly magazine which became a thesaurus of information in regard to the Chinese Empire.
THE PRESS—A MISSIONARY FRANKLIN
The American Board showed their enlightened policy by establishing a printing-press at Canton, and in sending S. Wells Williams to take charge of it, in 1833. John R. Morrison, son of the missionary, had, indeed, made a similar attempt; but from various causes he had felt compelled to relinquish the enterprise. From the arrival of Williams to the present day the printing-press has shown itself a growing power—a lever which, planted on a narrow fulcrum in the suburb of a single port, has succeeded in moving the Eastern world.
The art of printing was not new to the Chinese. They had discovered it before it was dreamed of in Europe; but with their hereditary tendency to run in ruts, they had continued to engrave their characters on wooden blocks in the form of stereotype plates. With divisible types (mostly on wood) they had indeed made some experiments; but that improved method never obtained currency among the people. It was reserved for Christian missions to confer on them the priceless boon of the power press and metallic types. What Williams began at Canton was perfected at Shanghai by Gamble of the Presbyterian Board, who multiplied the fonts and introduced the process of electrotyping.
Shut up in the purlieus of Canton, it is astonishing how much Dr. Williams was able to effect in the way of making China known to the Western world. His book on "The Middle Kingdom," first published in 1848, continues to be, after the lapse of half a century, the highest of a long list of authorities on the Chinese Empire. Beginning like Benjamin Franklin as a printer, like Franklin he came to perform a brilliant part in the diplomacy of our country, aiding in the negotiation of a new treaty and filling more than once the post of chargé d'affaires.
EXPANSION OF THE WORK
The next period of missionary activity dates from the treaty of Nanking, which put an end to the Opium War, in 1842. The opening of five great seaports to foreign residence was a vast enlargement in comparison with a small suburb of Canton; and the withdrawal of prohibitory interdicts, first obtained by the French minister Lagrené, invited the efforts of missionary societies in all lands. In this connection it is only fair to say that, in 1860, when the Peking expedition removed the remaining barriers, it was again to the French that our missionaries were indebted for access to the interior.
MEDICAL WORK
From the earliest dawn of our mission work it may be affirmed that no sooner did a chapel open its doors than a hospital was opened by its side for the relief of bodily ailments with which the rude quackery of the Chinese was incompetent to deal. Nor is there at this day a mission station in any part of China that does not in this way set forth the practical charity of the Good Samaritan. This glorious crusade against disease and death began, so far as Protestants are concerned, with the Ophthalmic Hospital opened by Dr. Peter Parker at Canton in 1834.
MEDICAL TEACHING
The training of native physicians began at the same date; and those who have gone forth to bless their people by their newly acquired medical skill may now be counted by hundreds. In strong contrast with the occult methods of native practitioners, neither they nor their foreign teachers have hidden their light under a bushel. Witness the Union Medical College, a noble institution recently opened in Peking under the sanction and patronage of the Imperial Government. A formal despatch of the Board of Education (in July, 1906) grants the power of conferring degrees, and guarantees their recognition by the state. For many years to come this great school is likely to be the leading source of a new faculty.
THE SEEDS OF A NEW EDUCATION
Not less imperative, though not so early, was the establishment of Christian schools. Those for girls have the merit of being the first to shed light on the shaded hemisphere of Chinese society. Those for boys were intended to reach all grades of life; but their prime object was to raise up a native ministry, not merely to coöperate with foreign missions, but eventually to take the place of the foreign missionary.
THE EARLIEST UNION COLLEGE
One of the earliest and most successful of these lighthouses was the Tengchow College founded by Dr. C. W. Mateer. It was there that young Chinese were most thoroughly instructed in mathematics, physics, and chemistry. So conspicuous was the success of that institution that when the Government opened a university in Peking, and more recently in Shantung, it was in each case to Tengchow that they had recourse for native teachers of science. From that school they obtained text-books, and from the same place they secured (in Dr. Hayes) a president for the first provincial university organised in China.
METHODIST EPISCOPAL UNIVERSITY IN PEKING
The missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church have of late taken up the cause of education and carried it forward with great vigour. Not to speak of high schools for both sexes in Fukien, they have a flourishing college in Shanghai, and a university in the imperial capital under the presidency of H. H. Lowry. Destroyed by the Boxers in 1900, that institution has now risen phœnix-like from its ashes with every prospect of a more brilliant future than its most sanguine friends ever ventured to anticipate.
AMERICAN BOARD COLLEGE AT TUNGCHOW
A fine college of the American Board at Tungchow, near the capital, met the same fate and rose again with similar expansion. Dr. Sheffield, its president, has made valuable contributions to the list of educational text-books.
These great schools, together with the Medical College of the London Mission, above referred to, and a high school of the United States Presbyterians, have formed a system of cöoperation which greatly augments the efficiency of each. Of this educational union the chief cornerstone is the Medical College.
A similar coöperative union between the English Baptists and American Presbyterians is doing a great work at Weihien, in Shantung. I speak of these because of that most notable feature—union international and interdenominational. Space would fail to enumerate a tithe of the flourishing schools that are aiding in the educational movement; but St. John's College, at Shanghai (U. S. Episcopal), though already mentioned, claims further notice because, as we now learn, it has been given by the Chinese Government the status of a university.
PREPARATION OF TEXT-BOOKS
Schools require text-books; and the utter absence of anything of the kind, except in the department of classical Chinese, gave rise to early and persistent efforts to supply the want. Manuals in geography and history were among the first produced. Those in mathematics and physics followed; and almanacs were sent forth yearly containing scientific information in a shape adapted to the taste of Chinese readers—alongside of religious truths. Such an annual issued by the late Dr. McCartee, was much sought for. A complete series of text-books in mathematics was translated by Mr. Wylie, of the London Mission; and text-books on other subjects, including geology, were prepared by Messrs. Muirhead, Edkins, and Williamson. At length the task of providing text-books was taken in hand by a special committee, and later on by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, now under the direction of the Rev. Dr. Richard.
So deeply was the want of text-books felt by some of the more progressive mandarins that a corps of translators was early formed in connection with one of the government arsenals—a work in which Dr. John Fryer has gained merited renown. Those translators naturally gave prominence to books on the art of war, and on the politics of Western nations, the one-sided tendency of their publications serving to emphasise the demand for such books as were prepared by missionaries.
Text-books on international law and political economy were made accessible to Chinese literature by Dr. W. A. P. Martin, who, having acted as interpreter to two of the American embassies, was deeply impressed by the ignorance of those vital subjects among Chinese mandarins.
On going to reside in Peking, in 1863, Dr. Martin carried with him a translation of Wheaton, and it was welcomed by the Chinese Foreign Office as a timely guide in their new situation. He followed this up by versions of Woolsey, Bluntschli and Hall. He also gave them a popular work on natural philosophy—not a translation—together with a more extended work on mathematical physics. Not only has the former appeared in many editions from the Chinese press, but it has been often reprinted in Japan; and to this day maintains its place in the favour of both empires. To this he has lately added a text-book on mental philosophy.
A book on the evidences of Christianity, by the same author, has been widely circulated both in China and in Japan. Though distinctly religious in aim, it appeals to the reader's taste for scientific knowledge, seeking to win the heathen from idolatry by exhibiting the unity and beauty of nature, while it attempts to show the reasonableness of our revealed religion.
THREE PRESIDENTS OF GOVERNMENT COLLEGES
It is not without significance that the Chinese have sought presidents for their highest schools among the ranks of Protestant missionaries. Dr. Ferguson of the Methodist Episcopal Mission was called to the presidency of the Nanyang College at Shanghai; Dr. Hayes, to be head of a new university in Shantung; and Dr. Martin, after serving for twenty-five years as head of the Diplomatic College in Peking, was, in 1898, made president of the new Imperial University. His appointment was by decree from the Throne, published in the Government Gazette; and mandarin rank next to the highest was conferred on him. On terminating his connection with that institution, after it was broken up by Boxers, he was recalled to China to take charge of a university for the two provinces of Hupeh and Hunan.
CREATORS OF CHINESE JOURNALISM
In the movement of modern society, no force is more conspicuous than journalism. In this our missionaries have from the first taken a leading part, as it was they who introduced it to China. At every central station for the last half-century periodicals have been issued by them in the Chinese language. The man who has done most in this line is Dr. Y. J. Allen, of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. He has devoted a lifetime to it, besides translating numerous books.
Formerly the Chinese had only one newspaper in the empire—the Peking Gazette, the oldest journal in the world. They now have, in imitation of foreigners, some scores of dailies, in which they give foreign news, and which they print in foreign type. The highest mandarins wince under their stinging criticisms.
THEY LEAD A VERNACULAR REVOLUTION
It is one of the triumphs of Christianity to have given a written form to the language of modern Europe. It is doing the same for heathen nations in all parts of the earth. Nor does China offer an exception. The culture for which her learned classes are noted is wholly confined to a classic language that is read everywhere, and spoken nowhere, somewhat as Latin was in the West in the Middle Ages, save that Latin was really a tongue capable of being employed in speech, whereas the classical language of China is not addressed to the ear but to the eye, being, as Dr. Medhurst said, "an occulage, not a language."
The mandarin or spoken language of the north was, indeed, reduced to writing by the Chinese themselves; and a similar beginning was made with some of the southern dialects. In all these efforts the Chinese ideographs have been employed; but so numerous and disjointed are they that the labour of years is required to get a command of them even for reading in a vernacular dialect. In all parts of China our missionaries have rendered the Scriptures into the local dialects. so that they may be understood when read aloud, and that every man "may hear in his own tongue the wonderful works of God." In some places they have printed them in the vernacular by the use of Chinese characters. Yet those characters are clumsy instruments for the expression of sounds; and in several provinces our missionaries have tried to write Chinese with Roman letters.
The experiment has proved successful beyond a doubt. Old women and young children have in this way come to read the Scriptures and other books in a few days. This revolution must go forward with the spread of Christianity; nor is it too much to expect that in the lapse of ages, the hieroglyphs of the learned language will for popular use be superseded by the use of the Roman alphabet, or by a new alphabet recently invented and propagated by officials in Peking.
In conclusion: Our missionaries have made our merchants acquainted with China; and they have made foreign nations known to the Chinese. They have aided our envoys in their negotiations; and they have conferred on the Chinese the priceless boon of scientific text-books. Also along with schools for modern education, they have introduced hospitals for the relief of bodily suffering.
W. A. P. M.
PEKING,
Aug. 4. 1906.
II.
UNMENTIONED REFORMS[*]
[Footnote *: Written by the author for the North-China Daily News.]
The return of the Mission of Inquiry has quickened our curiosity as to its results in proposition and in enactment. All well-wishers of China are delighted to learn that the creation of a parliament and the substitution of constitutional for autocratic government are to have the first place in the making of a New China. The reports of the High Commissioners are not yet before the public, but it is understood that they made good use of their time in studying the institutions of the West, and that they have shown a wise discrimination in the selection of those which they recommend for adoption. There are, however, three reforms of vital importance, which have scarcely been mentioned at all, which China requires for full admission to the comity of nations.
1. A CHANGE OF COSTUME
During their tour no one suggested that the Chinese costume should be changed nor would it have been polite or politic to do so. But I do not admire either the taste or the wisdom of those orators who, in welcoming the distinguished visitors; applauded them for their graceful dress and stately carriage. If that indiscreet flattery had any effect it merely tended to postpone a change which is now in progress. All the soldiers of the Empire will ere long wear a Western uniform, and all the school children are rapidly adopting a similar uniform. To me few spectacles that I have witnessed are so full of hope for China as the display on an imperial birthday, when the military exhibit their skilful evolutions and their Occidental uniform, and when thousands of school children appear in a new costume, which is both becoming and convenient. But the Court and the mandarins cling to their antiquated attire. If the peacock wishes to soar with the eagle, he must first get rid of his cumbersome tail.
This subject, though it savours of the tailor shop, is not unworthy the attention of the grand council of China's statesmen. Has not Carlyle shown in his "Sartor Resartus" how the Philosophy of Clothes is fundamental to the history of civilisation? The Japanese with wonderful foresight settled that question at the very time when they adopted their new form of government.
When Mr. Low was U. S. Minister in Peking some thirty years ago, he said to the writer "Just look at this tomfoolery!" holding up the fashion plates representing the new dress for the diplomatic service of Japan. Time has proved that he was wrong, and that the Japanese were right in adopting a new uniform, when they wished to fall in line with nations of the West. With their old shuffling habiliments and the cringing manners inseparable from them, they never could have been admitted to intercourse on easy terms with Western society.
The mandarin costume of China, though more imposing, is not less barbaric than that of Japan; and the etiquette that accompanies it is wholly irreconcilable with the usages of the Western world. Imagine a mandarin doffing his gaudy cap, gay with tassels, feathers, and ruby button, on meeting a friend, or pushing back his long sleeves to shake hands! Such frippery we have learned to leave to the ladies; and etiquette does not require them to lay aside their hats.
Quakers, like the mandarins, keep their hats on in public meetings; and the oddity of their manners has kept them out of society and made their following very exiguous. Do our Chinese friends wish to be looked on as Quakers, or do they desire to fraternise freely with the people of the great West?
Their cap of ceremony hides a shaven pate and dangling cue, and here lies the chief obstacle in the way of the proposed reform in style and manners. Those badges of subjection will have to be dispensed with either formally or tacitly before the cap that conceals them can give way to the dress hat of European society. Neither graceful nor convenient, that dress hat is not to be recommended on its own merits, but as part of a costume common to all nations which conform to the usages of our modern civilisation.
It must have struck the High Commissioners that, wherever they went, they encountered in good society only one general type of costume. Nor would it be possible for them to advise the adoption of the costume of this or that nationality—a general conformity is all that seems feasible or desirable. Will the Chinese cling to their cap and robes with a death grip like that of the Korean who jumped from a railway train to save his high hat and lost his life? As they are taking passage on the great railway of the world's progress, will they not take pains to adapt themselves in every way to the requirements of a new era?
2. POLYGAMY
We have as yet no intimation what the Reform Government intends to do with this superannuated institution. Will they persist in burning incense before it to disguise its ill-odour, or will they bury it out of sight at once and for ever?
The Travelling Commissioners, whose breadth and acumen are equally conspicuous, surely did not fail to inquire for it in the countries which they visited. Of course, they did not find it there; but, as with the question of costume, the good breeding of their hosts would restrain them from offering any suggestion touching the domestic life of the Chinese.
The Commissioners had the honour of presentation to the Queen-Empress Alexandra. Fancy them asking how many subordinate wives she has to aid her in sustaining the dignity of the King-Emperor! They would learn with surprise that no European sovereign, however lax in morals, has ever had a palace full of concubines as a regular appendage to his regal menage; that for prince and people the ideal is monogamy; and that, although the conduct of the rich and great is often such as to make us blush for our Christian civilisation, it is true this day that the crowned heads of Europe are in general setting a worthy example of domestic morals. "Admirable!" respond the Commissioners; "our ancient sovereigns were like that, and our sages taught that there should be 'Ne Wu Yuen Nu, Wai wu Kwang-tu' (in the harem no pining beauty, outside no man without a mate). It is the luxury of later ages that keeps a multitude of women in seclusion for the pleasure of a few men, and leaves the common man without a wife. We heartily approve the practice of Europe, but what of Africa?"
"There the royal courts consider a multitude of wives essential to their grandeur, and the nobles reckon their wealth by the number of their wives and cows. The glory of a prince is that of a cock in a barn-yard or of a bull at the head of a herd. Such is their ideal from the King of Dahomey with his bodyguard of Amazons to the Sultan of Morocco and the Khedive of Egypt. Not only do the Mahommedans of Asia continue the practice—they have tried to transplant their ideal paradise into Europe. Turkey, decayed and rotten, with its black eunuchs and its Circassian slave girls, stands as an object-lesson to the whole world."
"We beg your pardon, we know enough about Asia; but what of America—does polygamy flourish there?"
"It did exist among the Peruvians and Aztecs before the Spanish conquest, but it is now under ban in every country from pole to pole. Witness the Mormons of Utah! They were refused admission into the American Union as long as they adhered to the Oriental type of plural marriage."
"Ah! We perceive you are pointing to the Mormons as a warning to us. You mean that we shall not be admitted into the society of the more civilised nations as long as we hold to polygamy. Well! Our own sages have condemned it. It has a long and shameful record; but its days are numbered. It will do doubt be suppressed by our new code of laws."
This imaginary conversation is so nearly a transcript of what must have taken place, that I feel tempted to throw the following paragraphs into the form of a dialogue. The dialogue, however, is unavoidably prolix, and I hasten to wind up the discussion.
With reference to the Mormons I may add that at the conference on International Arbitration held at Lake Mohonk last July, there were present Jews, Quakers, Protestants and Roman Catholics, but no Mormons and no Turks. Creeds were not required as credentials, but Turk and Mormon did not think it worth while to knock at the door. Both are objects of contempt, and no nation whose family life is formed on the same model can hope to be admitted to full fraternity with Western peoples.
The abominations associated with such a type of society are inconsistent with any but a low grade of civilisation—they are eunuchs, slavery, unnatural vice, and, more than all, a general debasement of the female sex. In Chinese society, woman occupies a shaded hemisphere—not inaptly represented by the dark portion in their national symbol the Yinyang-tse or Diagram of the Dual principles. So completely has she hitherto been excluded from the benefits of education that a young man in a native high school recently began an essay with the exclamation—"I am glad I am not a Chinese woman. Scarcely one in a thousand is able to read!"
If "Knowledge is power," as Bacon said, and Confucius before him, what a source of weakness has this neglect of woman been to China. Happily she is not excluded from the new system of national education, and there is reason to believe that with the reign of ignorance polygamy will also disappear as a state of things repugnant to the right feeling of an intelligent woman. But would it not hasten the enfranchisement of the sex, and rouse the fair daughters of the East to a nobler conception of human life if the rulers would issue a decree placing concubinage under the ban of law? Nothing would do more to secure for China the respect of the Western world.
3. DOMESTIC SLAVERY
Since writing the first part of this paper, I have learned that some of the Commissioners have expressed themselves in favour of a change of costume. I have also learned that the regulation of slavery is to have a place in the revised statutes, though not referred to by the Commissioners. Had this information reached me earlier, it might have led me to omit the word "unmentioned" from my general title, but it would not have altered a syllable in my treatment of the subject.
Cheering it is to the well-wishers of China to see that she has a government strong enough and bold enough to deal with social questions of this class. How urgent is the slave question may be seen from the daily items in your own columns. What, for example, was the lady from Szechuen doing but carrying on a customary form of the slave traffic? What was the case of those singing girls under the age of fifteen, of whom you spoke last week, but a form of slavery? Again, by way of climax, what will the Western world think of a country that permits a mistress to beat a slave girl to death for eating a piece of watermelon—as reported by your correspondent from Hankow? The triviality of the provocation reminds us of the divorce of a wife for offering her mother-in-law a dish of half-cooked pears. The latter, which is a classic instance, is excused on the ground of filial duty, but I have too much respect for the author of the "Hiaoking," to accept a tradition which does a grievous wrong to one of the best men of ancient times. The tradition, however unfounded, may serve as a guide to public opinion. It suggests another subject, which we might (but will not) reserve for another section, viz., the regulation of divorce and the limitation of marital power. It is indeed intimately connected with my present topic, for what is wife or concubine but a slave, as long as a husband has power to divorce or sell her at will—with or without provocation?
Last week an atrocious instance, not of divorce, but of wife-murder, occurred within bow-shot of my house. A man engaged in a coal-shop had left his wife with an aunt in the country. The aunt complained of her as being too stupid and clumsy to earn a living. Her brutal husband thereon took the poor girl to a lonely spot, where he killed her, and left her unburied. Returning to the coal-shop, he sent word to his aunt that he was ready to answer for what he had done, if called to account. "Has he been called to account?" I enquired this morning of one of his neighbours. "Oh no! was the reply; it's all settled; the woman is buried, and no inquiry is called for." Is not woman a slave, though called a wife, in a society where such things are allowed to go with impunity? Will not the new laws, from which so much is expected, limit the marriage relation to one woman, and make the man, to whom she is bound, a husband, not a master?
Confucius, we are told, resigned office in his native state when the prince accepted a bevy of singing girls sent from a neighbouring principality. The girls were slaves bought and trained for their shameful profession, and the traffic in girls for the same service constitutes the leading form of domestic slavery at this day—so little has been the progress in morals, so little advance toward a legislation that protects the life and virtue of the helpless!
But the slave traffic is not confined to women; any man may sell his son; and classes of both sexes are found in all the houses of the rich. Prædial servitude was practised in ancient times, as it was in Europe in the Middle Ages, and in Russia till a recent day. We read of lands and labourers being conferred on court favourites. How the system came to disappear we need not pause to inquire. It is certain, however, that no grand act of emancipation ever took place in China like that which cost Lincoln his life, or that for which the good Czar Alexander II. had to pay the same forfeit. Russia is to-day eating the bitter fruits of ages of serfdom; and the greatest peril ever encountered by the United States was a war brought on by negro slavery.
The form of slavery prevailing in China is not one that threatens war or revolutions; but in its social aspects it is worse than negro slavery. It depraves morals and corrupts the family, and as long as it exists, it carries the brand of barbarism. China has great men, who for the honour of their country would not be afraid to take the matter in hand. They would, if necessary, imitate Lincoln and the Czar Alexander to effect the removal of such a blot.
It is proposed, we are told, to limit slavery to minors—freedom ensuing on the attainment of majority. This would greatly ameliorate the evil, but the evil is so crying that it demands not amelioration, but extinction. Let the legislators of China take for their model the provisions of British law, which make it possible to boast that "as soon as a slave touches British soil his fetters fall." Let them also follow that lofty legislation which defines the rights and provides for the well-being of the humblest subject. Let the old system be uprooted before a new one is inaugurated, otherwise there is danger that the limiting of slavery to minors will leave those helpless creatures exposed to most of the wrongs that accompany a lifelong servitude.
The number and extent of the reforms decreed or effected are such as to make the present reign the most illustrious in the history of the Empire. May we not hope that in dealing with polygamy and domestic slavery, the action of China will be such as to lift her out of the class of Turkey and Morocco into full companionship with the most enlightened nations of Europe and America.
III.
A NEW OPIUM WAR
The fiat has gone forth—war is declared against an insidious enemy that has long been exhausting the resources of China and sapping the strength of her people. She has resolved to rid herself at once and forever of the curse of opium. The home production of the drug, and all the ramifications of the vice stand condemned by a decree from the throne, followed by a code of regulations designed not to limit, but to extirpate the monster evil.
In this bold stroke for social reform there can be no doubt that the Government is supported by the best sentiment of the whole country. Most Chinese look upon opium as the beginning of their national sorrows. In 1839 it involved them in their first war with the West; and that opened the way for a series of wars which issued in their capital being twice occupied by foreign forces.
Their first effort to shake off the incubus was accompanied by such displays of pride, ignorance and unlawful violence that Great Britain was forced to make war—not to protect an illegal traffic, but to redress an outrage and to humble a haughty empire. In this renewed onslaught the Chinese have exhibited so much good sense and moderation as to show that they have learned much from foreign intercourse during the sixty-seven years that have intervened.
Without making any appeal to the foreigner, they courageously resolved to deal with the evil in its domestic aspects. Most of the mandarins are infected by it; and the licensed culture of the poppy has made the drug so cheap that even the poor are tempted to indulge.
The prohibitory edict asserts that of the adult population 30 or 40 per cent. are under the influence of the seductive poison. This, by the way, gives an enormous total, far beyond any of the estimates of foreign writers.
Appalled by the signs of social decadence the more patriotic of China's statesmen were not slow to perceive that all attempts at reform in education, army, and laws must prove abortive if opium were allowed to sap the vigour of the nation. "You can't carve a piece of rotten wood," says Confucius. Every scheme for national renovation must have for its basis a sound and energetic people. It was this depraved taste that first made a market for the drug; if that taste can be eradicated the trade and the vice must disappear together, with or without the concurrence of Great Britain.
Great Britain was not, however, to be ignored. Besides her overshadowing influence and her commercial interests vast and varied, is she not mistress of India, whose poppy-fields formerly supplied China and are still sending to the Chinese market fifty thousand chests per annum? No longer an illegal traffic, this importation is regulated by treaty. Concerted action might prevent complications and tend to insure success. The new British Government was approached on the subject. Fortunately, the Liberals being in power, it was not bound by old traditions.
A general resolution passed the House of Commons without a dissentient voice, expressing sympathy with China and a willingness to adopt similar measures in India. "When asked in the House what steps had been taken to carry out the resolution for the abolition of the opium traffic between India and China, Mr. Morley replied, that he understood that China was contemplating the issue of regulations restricting the importation, cultivation, and consumption of opium. He had received no communication from China; but as soon as proposals were submitted he was prepared to consider them in a sympathetic spirit. H. B. M.'s minister in Peking had been instructed to communicate with the Chinese Government to that effect."
The telegram containing these words is dated London, October 30. The imperial edict, which initiated what many call "the new crusade," was issued barely forty days before that date (viz., on September 20). Let it also be noted that near the end of August a memorial of the Anti-Opium League, suggesting action on the part of the Government, was sent up through the Nanking viceroy. It was signed by 1,200 missionaries of different nations and churches. Is it not probable that their representations, backed by the viceroy, moved the hand that sways the sceptre?
The decree runs as follows:
"Since the first prohibition of opium, almost the whole of China has been flooded with the poison. Smokers of opium have wasted their time, neglected their employment, ruined their constitutions, and impoverished their households. Thus for several decades China has presented a spectacle of increasing poverty and weakness. It rouses our indignation to speak of the matter. The Court is now determined to make China powerful; and it is our duty to urge our people to reformation in this respect.
"We decree, therefore, that within a limit of ten years this harmful muck be fully and entirely wiped away. We further command the Council of State to consider means for the strict prohibition both of opium-smoking and of poppy-growing."
Among the regulations drawn up by the Council of State are these:
That all smokers of opium be required to report themselves and to take out licenses.
Smokers holding office are divided into two classes. Those of the junior class are to cleanse themselves in six months. For the seniors no limit of time is fixed. Both classes while under medical treatment are to pay for approved deputies, by whom their duties shall be discharged.
All opium dens are to be closed after six months. These are places where smokers dream away the night in company with the idle and the vicious.
No opium lamps or pipes are to be made or sold after six months. Shops for the sale of the drug are not to be closed until the tenth year.
The Government provides medicines for the cure of the habit.
The formation of anti-opium societies is encouraged; but the members are cautioned not to discuss political questions.
The question no doubt arises in the mind of the reader, Will China succeed in freeing herself from bondage to this hateful vice? It is easy for an autocrat to issue a decree, but not easy to secure obedience. It is encouraging to know that this decisive action is favoured by all the viceroys—Yuan, the youngest and most powerful, has already taken steps to put the new law in force in the metropolitan province. A flutter of excitement has also shown itself in the ranks of Indian traders—Parsees, Jews, and Mohammedans—who have presented a claim for damages to their respectable traffic.
On the whole we are inclined to believe in the good faith of the Chinese Government in adopting this measure, and to augur well for its success. Next after the change of basis in education, this brave effort to suppress a national vice ranks as the most brilliant in a long series of reformatory movements.
W. A. P. M.
PEKING, January, 1907.
INDEX
Adams, John Quincy, on the Opium War, [153]
Albazin, Cossack garrison captured at, [57]
Alphabet, a new, invented by Wang Chao, [217]
Amherst, Lord, declines to kneel to Emperor, [168]
Amoy, seaport in Fukien province, [14]
its grass cloth and peculiar sort of black tea, [15]
Anhwei, province of, home of Li Hung Chang, [49]
Anti-foot-binding Society, supported by Dowager Empress in an edict, [217]
Anti-foreign Agitation, [244-266]
American influence in the Far East and, [245]-[251]
"Appeal from the Lion's Den," [176]
Army, the Chinese, [200-202]
Arrow War, the, [162-169]
allied troops at Peking, [168]
Canton occupied by British troops, [164]
China abandons her long seclusion, [169]
crew of the Arrow executed without trial, [163]
negotiations of the four powers with China, [165]
seizure of the lorcha Arrow, [162]
Bamboo tablets, writings of Confucius engraved on, [106]
Battle of the Sea of Japan, [191-192]
Bell-tower, boy's soul supposed to be hovering in, [21]
Black-haired race, Chinese style themselves the, [151]
Bowring, Sir John, Governor of Hong Kong, and the Arrow case,
[162-163]
Boxer War, the, [172-180]
a Boxer manifesto, [175]
Boycott, the, [247], [252], [253], [259]
Bridgman, Dr., pioneer missionary to China, [282]
founds the Chinese Repository, [282] Buddhism, introduction of, into China, [95]
"Apotheosis of Mercy," a legend of Northern Buddhism, [108]
number of Buddhist monasteries, [108]
rooted in the minds of the illiterate, [108]
Burden, Bishop, of the English Church Mission. Hang-chow, [23]
Burlingame, Hon. Anson, U. S. Minister to China, [212]
Cambalu, Mongol name for Peking, [59]
Camöens, tomb of, at Macao, [9]
Canton, the most populous city of the Empire, [9-12]
American trade suffers most in Canton from boycott of 1905, [13]
averts bombardment by payment of $6,000,000 ransom, [154]
Christian college, [10]
cock-fighting the popular amusement, [10]
crowds of beggars, [12]
excellence of tea and silk produced in the vicinity, [13]
"flower-boats," [9]
historical enigma contests, [11]
narrowness of streets, [12]
passion for gambling, [11]
Canton (Kwangtung), province of, [7-13]
Viceroy of, has also Kwangsi under his jurisdiction, [13]
Caravan Song, [61]
Chang Chien, legend of, [63]
Chang-fi, rescues son of Liu Pi from burning palace, [114]
Chang Tien-shi, arch-magician of Taoism, [109]
Chang Chi-tung, Viceroy of Hukwang, his life and public career, [219-241]
first to start the Emperor on the path of reform [213]
case of Chunghau, [223-224]
his commercial developments at Wuchang, [231]
official interviews with, [238-241]
Chang Yee, an able diplomatist of the Chou period, [99]
Chao, Prince of, is offered fifteen cities for a Kohinoor belonging to him, [98]
Chau-siang subjugates Tung-chou-Kiun, last monarch of the Chou dynasty, [99]
Chefoo (Chifu), port in Shantung province, [32]
Chéhkiang, province of, smallest of the eighteen provinces, [17-24]
Cheng-wang, "the completer," a ruler of the Chou dynasty, [86-87]
his successors, [87-88]
Chentung, Liang, Sir, interview with Dr. Martin with reference to the
Exclusion Laws and the boycott, [252]
Chin, one of the Nan-peh Chao, [117]
China, probable derivation of name, [101]
agency of missionaries in diffusing secular knowledge in, [281-291]
American exclusion laws, [253]
anti-opium edict, [304-305]
boycott, [247], [252], [253], [259]
condition after five wars, [181]
displays of barbarity during the Boxer War, [180]
effect of her defeat by Japan, [171]
effects of Russo-Japanese War, [193]
eighteen provinces, [6]
five grand divisions, [3]
Grand Canal, [31]
Great Wall, [4], [31], [32], [101]
interference in Tongking, [62]
interference in Korea, [62]
physiographical features, [4]
reforms in, [196-218]
rivers, [19], [15], [18], [25], [41], [52]
sincerity of reformatory movements, [306]
China Merchants' Steam Navigation Company, [200]
Chingtu-fu, capital of the state of Shuh, [113]
Chinhai, city at the mouth of the Ningpo, [18]
Chosin, Prince of, [196]
Chou dynasty, founded by Wen-wang, [84]
annals of, [84-88], [96], [99]
form of government praised by Confucius, [96]
term Chung Kwoh, "Middle Kingdom," originates in, [85]
Chou-sin, brings ruin on the house of Shang, sets fire to his own palace,
and perishes in the flames, [81]
Christians, attitude of Chinese Government towards, [261]
newspapers and the Christian faith, [263]
Chu Fu-tse, the philosopher, [128]
Chu Hi, the Coryphæus of Mediæval China, [128]
Chu-koh Liang, a peasant who became minister to Liu Pi, [114-115]
Chuang Yuen, Chinese term for senior wrangler; his importance
and privileges [123]
Chungchen, last of the Mings, hangs himself after stabbing his daughter,
[139]
Chunghau and the restoration of Ili, [223]
accused by Chang Chi-tung, [224]
Chunking, city on the Yangtse, [51]
Chusan, Archipelago and Island, [17]
Chu Yuen Chang, Father of the Mings, [135]
Chwan-siang, exterminates the house of Chou, [99]
Confucius, birth and parentage of [89], [90]
account of his education, [90]
describes himself as "editor, not author," [91]
edits the Five Classics, [92]
Golden Rule the essence of his teaching, [92]
number of his disciples, [90]
passion for music, [91]
search for lost books by Liu-Pang, [106]
tomb of, [30-31]
worshipped by his people, [92-93]
writings burned and disciples persecuted by Shi-hwang-ti, [102-103]
Control of Chinese over foreigners throughout Empire, [258]
Corvée, myriads of labourers drafted by, for construction of the Grand Canal, [32]
Corvino, missionary, [133]
his church at Peking perishes in the overthrow of the Mongols, [137]
Cotton produced in all the provinces, [3]
Cue, abolition of, requisite to confirm loyalty to Manchus, [278]
Degrees, literary, [122]-[123]
Diaz and da Gama, voyage to India, [136]
Diplomacy, becomes an art under the Chou dynasty, [97]
Diplomatic College, [209]
Dr. Martin president of, [209]
"Drinking Alone by Moonlight," poem by Lipai, [120]
Eclectic Commission, the, [197-198]
Educational reforms, [210]
the Imperial University, [210]
Elgin, Lord, and the Tai-pings, [161], [166]
Elliott, Captain Charles, and the Opium War, [154]
Empress Dowager, and the Boxer War, [172-174], [179-180]
celebrates her seventieth birthday with great pomp, [274]
convert to the policy of progress, [197]
coup d'état, [272]
full name, [276]
parentage, [271]
personal description of, [275]
reactionary clique and, [174]
type of the Manchu woman, [276]
England takes lease of Wei-hai-wei, [174]
Examinations, system of civil service, instituted by the Hans, [109]
continued for twelve centuries, [121]
details of, [122-124]
developed under the T'angs, [121]
reforms in, [213]
Exclusion laws, the, Chinese resentment of, [253]
most feasible way to deal with, [255]
President Roosevelt on, [251]
Factories, the, at Canton, [150], [152]
Favier, Bishop, defends his people in the French Cathedral, Peking, [176]
Fishing, queer methods of, [19]
Five dynasties, the, factions contending for the succession on the fall of the house of T'ang, [126]
the later Liang, T'ang, Ts'in, Han, and Chou are united after fifty-three years in the Sung dynasty, [126-127]
Foochow (Fuchau), on the River Min, [15]
fine wall and "bridge of ten thousand years," [16]
Kushan, its sacred mountain, [15]
Manchu colony, [16]
Formosa, Island of, colonised by people of Fukien, [14]
France takes lease of Kwang-chou-wan, [174]
France, war with, [169]
allowed to retain Tong-king, [170]
French seize Formosa, [170]
Fraser, Consul, and Viceroy Chang in the Boxer War, [227]
Fuchau (Foochow), province of Fukien, [15]
large and prosperous missions in, [16]
Fuhi, mythical ruler, teaches his people to rear domestic animals, [72]
Fukien (Fuhkien), province of, [14-16]
derivation of name, [15]
dialect, [14]
inhabitants bold navigators, [14]
Fungshui, a false science, [202]
Fungtao, inventor of printing, [116]
Gabet and Huc, French missionaries, reach Lhasa in Tibet, [63]
Gama, da, voyage to India, [136]
Gaselee, General, and his contingent relieve the British Legation, Peking, [177]
Genghis Khan, splendour of his court eclipsed by that of his grandson, Kublai Khan, [131]
Gods, the numerous, of the Chinese, [82]
worship of many of them referred to the Shang dynasty, [82]
Gordon, General, victorious over the Tai-pings, [161]
Grand Canal, journey down from Tsi-ning, [31]
as useful to-day as six hundred years ago, [31]
constructed by Kublai Khan, [31-32]
its object, [32]
Grand Lama, the Buddhist pope, [62], [109]
Great Wall, the, origin of, [4]
an effete relic, [31]
built by Ts'in, [101]
its construction overthrows house of its builder, [32]
Gunpowder, early known to the Chinese, but not used with cannon, [115]
spoken of by Arabs as "Chinese snow," [115]
Han dynasty, founded by Liu-pang, [105]
annals, [105-111]
civil service examinations inaugurated, [109]
marked advance in belles-lettres, [109]
Hangchow, capital of Chéh-kiang province, its streets first trodden by white men in 1855, [22]
its "bore", [24]
its magnificent West Lake, [22]
"The Japanese are coming," [23]
Hanlin Academy, contest before the Emperor for seats in, [123]
Han Yu, eminent writer of the eighth century, ridicules the relics of Buddha, [107]
Hart, Sir Robert, his opportune services in the war with France, [170]
development of the maritime customs, [206-208]
father of the postal system, [206]
many honours of, [207]
Hayes, Dr., president of first provincial university in China, [286]
Helungkiang, province of Manchuria, [56]
Hia dynasty, founded by Ta-Yü, [78]
together with the Shang and Chou dynasties, known as the San Tai or San Wang, [78]
Hien-feng, Emperor, escapes to Tartary and dies there, [168]
Himalayas, a bulwark to China, [4]
Hiao Lien, literary degree, now Chu-jin, equivalent to A. M., [122]
Hiunghu, supposed ancestors of the Huns, [111]
Honan province of, [41]-[44]
agricultural resources, [42]
bridge over the Hwang Ho,[41]
Hong Kong, "the Gibraltar of the Orient," ceded to Great Britain, [7]
British make it chief emporium of Eastern seas, [8]
rapid development of, [8]
Huc and Gabet, French missionaries, make their way to Lhasa, [63]
Hung Siu-tsuen, leader of the Tai-pings, [157]
his aid Yang, [158]
invites his first instructor, Rev. Issachar Roberts, to visit his court, [160]
new method of baptism [160]
raises the flag of rebellion in Kwangsi, [157]
Huns, supposed ancestors were the Hiunghu, [111]
Hupeh, province of, [45]-[49]
Hankow, Hupeh province, a Shanghai on a smaller scale, [45]
Hanyang, Hupeh province, a busy industrial centre, [46]
Wuchang, capital of Hupeh, [45]
Hwai, Prince, regent during minority of Shunchi, [141]
called Amawang by the Manchus, [141]
effects the subjugation of the eighteen provinces, and imposes the tonsure and "pigtail," [141]
Hwan, Duke, of western Shan-tung, convokes the States-General nine times, [96]
Hwang-ti, term for "Emperor," first used by the builder of the Great Wall, [78]
Hwei-ti, a ruler of the Han dynasty, [106]
Ichang, city on the Yang-tse, [15]
Ili, Chunghau and the restoration of, [223-224]
Ito, Marquis, [196]
I-yin, a wise minister who had charge of the young ruler T'ai-kia, [80-81]
Japan, war with, provoked by China's interference in Korea, [170]
Japanese expel Chinese from Korea, and take part of Manchuria, [171]
Japan left in possession of Port Arthur and Liao-tung, [171]
Russia is envious and compels her to withdraw, [171]
having defeated Russia unreservedly restores Manchuria to China, [195]
Jews, of K'ai-fung-fu, [43]
ancestors of, reach China by way of India, [43]
Shanghai, help their K'ai-fung-fu brethren, [44]
Jin-hwang, Tién-hwang, and Ti-hwang, three mythical rulers, [71]
K'ai-fung-fu, formerly the capital under Chou and Sung dynasties, [42]
visit to the Jews of, [43]
Kairin, province of Manchuria, [56]
Kalgan, Mongolia, a caravan terminal, [58], [61]
Kanghi, the greatest monarch in the history of the Empire, [142]
alienated by the pope, [144]
patron of missionaries, [142]
Kanghi, progress of Christianity during his reign, [143]
Kang Yuwei, urges reform on the Emperor, [213]
Kansuh, province of, comparatively barren, and climate unfavourable to agriculture, [55]
Kao-tsung, son of Tai-tsung, raises Wu, one of his father's concubines, to the rank of empress, [121]
Ketteler, Baron von, killed during siege in Peking, [176]
Kiachta, a double town in Manchuria, [58]
Kiak'ing, succeeds on the abdication of his father, Kienlung, [144]
a weak and dissolute monarch, [145]
Kiangsu province, [25]-[29]
derivation of name, [25]
Kiao-Chao (Kiau-Chau), port occupied by Germans, [30], [165]
Kiayi, an exiled statesman, dates a poem from Changsha, [110]
Kié, last king of the Hia dynasty, his excesses, [80]
Kien Lung, emperor poet, lines inscribed by him on rock at Patachu, [35]
abdicates, after a reign of sixty years, for the reason that he did not wish to reign longer than his grandfather, [144]
adds Turkestan to the empire, [144]
dynasty reaches the acme of splendour in his reign, [144]
Kin Tartars, obtain possession of Peking, and push their way to K'ai-fung-fu, the Emperor retiring to Nanking, [129]
Kin Tartars, the, [140]
Kingdoms, the three, Wei, Wu, and Shuh, [112-113]
King Sheng Tau, annotator of popular historical novel, [113]
Kinsha, "River of Golden Sands," [52]
Komura, Baron, and Portsmouth treaty, [193]
Korea, the bone of contention between Japan and Russia, [182], [183], [186], [192]
Kuanyin Pusa, a legend of, "The Apotheosis of Mercy," [108]
Kublai Khan, absorbs China, [131]
Kung, Prince, and the Empress Dowager, [273]
disgraced and confined in his palace, [273]
personal characteristics, [277]
restored to favour but not to joint regency, [273]
Kuropatkin, General, and the Russo-Japanese War, [185-192]
Kwangsi, province of, subordinate to Canton, [13]
in an almost chronic state of rebellion, [13]
Kwangsu, Emperor, and the Empress Dowager, [172], [173]
his desire for reforms, [197]
imprisoned in a secluded palace, [173], [174]
influenced by Kang Yuwei [173]
Kwangtung (Canton), province of, [7-13]
Kweichau, province of, the poorest province of China, [52]
one-half its population aborigines, [52]
Kweilang, secretary to the Empress, [272]
prompts Prince Kung to strike for his life, [273]
Lao-Tse, founder of Taoism, his life and influence, [94]
Lhasa, treaty of, [62]
Li and Yu, two bad kings of the house of Chou, [88]
Liang, one of the Nan-peh Chao, [116]
Liang Ting Fen, letter to Dr. Martin requesting his good offices with
President Roosevelt, [252-253]
Liaoyang, battle of, [187]
Lienchow, attack on Americans at, [248], [255]
Lien P'o, a general of Chao, who threatens to kill the envoy Lin at
sight, [98]
makes friends with his adversary, [99]
Li Hung Chang, a native of Anhwei, [49]
preëminent in the work of reform, [212]
sent to Japan to sue for peace he is shot by an assassin, [171]
wins earldom through Gordon's victory, [161]
Li Ling, a commander for whom Sze-ma Ts'ien stood sponsor, and who surrendered to the enemy, [110]
Lin, Commissioner, and the opium traffic, [152]
Lin Sian Ju, a brave envoy, [98]
Lineivitch, General, and the Russo-Japanese War, [190-192]
Lipai, the Pope of Chinese literature, [119]
Li-Sze, chancellor of Shi-hwang-ti, denounces the works of Confucius to that ruler, and causes them to be burned, [102]
Little, Mrs. Archibald, and the Anti-foot-binding Society, [217]
Liu-pang founds the Han dynasty, [105]
Liu Pi founds the state of Shuh, [113]
Li Yuen, assassinates Yang-ti and sets up the T'ang dynasty, [118]
Lo Kwan-chung, author of a popular historical novel, [113]
Lo-yang, capital of the state of Wei, [112]
Lu, Empress, holds the Empire in absolute subjection for eight years, [106]
Macao, Portuguese town of, [8]
burial place of Camöens and Robert Morrison, [8]
McCartee, Dr., annual issued by, [287]
Manchuria, [3]
consists of three regions or provinces under one governor-general, [56]
home of the Manchus, [56]
ignorance of Manchus in their original habitat, [57]
Japan takes possession of parts of, [171]
population and products, [57]
restored by Japan to China, [195]
Russia occupies the very positions from which she compelled Japan to
withdraw, [171]
sacred city of Mukden, [56]
Manchus, the, ignorance of those remaining in Manchuria, [57]
give to China a better government than any of her native dynasties, [142]
the Normans of China, [267-280]
they settle at Mukden and await an opportunity to descend on China, [140]
Marco Polo. See Polo
Maritime customs, the, [206-208]
Sir Robert Hart's long and valuable services, [206-209]
Martin, Dr. W. A. P., head of the Tung-wen College, [209]
in siege at Peking, [176], [177]
president of the Imperial University, [210]
Mateer, Dr. C. W., founds Teng-chow College, [285]
Meadows, Consul T. T., reports in favour of the Tai-pings, [159]
Medhurst, Dr., his description of the Chinese Classical language, [290]
Mencius, more eloquent but less original than Confucius, [93]
his tribute to Confucius, [94]
owed much to his mother's training, [93]
Merchant marine, the, [200]
Mings, last of, stabs daughter and hangs himself, [139]
Ming-ti, sends embassy to India to import Buddhist books and bonzes, [107]
Mining enterprises, [202]
Min River, [15]
Missions, development of, [264]
Minister Rockhill's address upon, [266]
Missionaries, attacks on, [40], [180], [248], [260], [261], [262]
agency of, in the diffusion of secular knowledge, [263-291]
apostles of science, [263]
creators of Chinese journalism [290]
medical work, [284]
lead a vernacular revolution, [290]
preparation of text-books, [287]
presidents of government colleges, [289]
teaching and preaching, [263]
Mongolia, the largest division of Tartary, [57], [61]
contribution to the luxuries of the metropolis, [50]
inhabitants nomadic, [58]
has only three towns, [58]
Russians "came lean and went away fat," [58]
Russians granted privilege of establishing an ecclesiastical mission, [57]
Mongols, liable to military service, but prohibited from doing garrison duty in China, [59]
dress, [60]
forty-eight Mongolian princes, [59]
Mongol monks at Peking, [60]
nomadic wanderings, [58]
princes visit Cambalu (Peking), in winter, [59]
their camel, [60]
victorious over the Sungs, [130]
Yuen or Mongol dynasty, [131-134]
Morrison, John R., son of Dr. Morrison the missionary, attempts to establish a printing-press, [283]
Morrison, Robert, pioneer of Protestant missions to China, tomb of, at Macao, [9], [282]
Moule, Bishop, makes Hang-chow seat of his diocese, [23]
Mukden, city of, sacred to every Manchu, [56]
battle of, [189]
Mu-wang, a Chou ruler, who seeks relief from ennui in foreign travel, [87]
Nanking, chief city of Kiangsu province, [25], [26]
called Kiangning by the Manchus, [26]
pillaged by Tartars, [129]
Nanking, treaty of, [7]
Nan-peh Chao, "Northern and Southern Kingdoms" four factions arising on
the fall of the Tsin dynasty, [116]
Napier, Lord, appointed superintendent of British trade in China, [153]
arrives at Macao and announces his appointment by letter to the prefect of Canton, who "tosses it back," [153]
dies of chagrin at Macao, [153]
Napoleon, Louis, and Annam, [165]
Navy, the Chinese, [199]-[200]
"Nest-builder, The," [71]
Nevius, Rev. J. L., missionary at Hangchow, [23]
at Chefoo, where he plants a church and a fruit garden, [32]
Nevius, Mrs., at Chefoo, [32]
Newspapers, reforms in, [215]
covertly criticise Government and its agents, [215]
Ningpo, province of Chéhkiang, [19]
its handsome people and their literary and commercial prominence, [20]
residence of the author for ten years, [20]
Ningpo River, [18]
Nogi, General, and the Russo-Japanese War, [188-192]
O'Connor, Mr., British chargé d'affaires, [179]
Omesham Mountains, [51]
Opening of China, the, a drama in five acts, [149]
result of collisions between Oriental conservatism and Occidental progress, [149], [150]
Opium, extent of trade in, [303]
20,000 chests destroyed at request of Captain Charles Elliott, [154]
Opium traffic, Commissioner Lin directed by Emperor Tao Kwang to abolish it, [152]
attitude of British Government, [304]
decree ordering its total abolition, [304]
regulations of Council of State, [305]
Opium War, the, its causes, precipitation, and effects, [150-162]
Oyama, Field-marshal, in the Russo-Japanese War, [187-192]
P's, the three—pen, paper, and printing, invention of, [116]
Palmerston, Lord, invites cooperation of France, Russia and the United States concerning the Arrow case, [164]
P'an-keng, of the house of Shang, moves his capital five times, [81]
P'anku, the "ancient founder," [71]
Paoting-fu, in Chihli province, scene of martyrdom of missionaries, [40]
Parker, Dr. Peter, missionary at Canton, [284]
Parkes, Consul and the Arrow case, [162], [163], [164]
Patachu, summer resort near Peking, [34-35]
its eight Buddhist temples, [35]
Pearl River, [9]
Peking, northern capital of China, [34]
approaches to new foreign quarter fortified, [37]
Byron's lines on Lisbon applied to Peking, [39]
climate and low death-rate, [38]
Empress Dowager's summer residence, [34]
"Forbidden City," [37]
French Cathedral defended by Bishop Favier and marines, [176]
Legation Street, [36]
Prospect or Palatine Hill, [38]
siege of legations, [175]
summer palaces, [34]
Tai-ping expedition against, [159]
Tartar and Chinese cities, [35]
Temples of Agriculture, Heaven and Earth, [35], [36]
Peking Gazette, the, oldest journal in the world, [290]
Philosophers of the Sung period, Cheo, Cheng, Chang, and Chu, [127-128]
Philosophers:
Chu Hi, [128]
Wang Ngan-shi, economist, [128]
Pirates, attacks of, on Mr. Russell and the author, [18]
Rev. Walter Lowrie is drowned by, [18]
Police, reforms in, [218]
Polo, Marco, Mattei, and Nicolo, [132]
sojourn in China, [132]
Port Arthur and Liao-tung, [171], [174], [182], [184], [186], [187], [188], [190], [191], [192]
Ports, five, opened to great Britain at close of the Opium War, [155]
Portsmouth (N. H.), treaty of, [192]
Portuguese, first ships of the, appear at Canton, [136]
disapprove missions, [137]
obtain a footing at Macao, [137]
secretly oppose Dutch traders, [137]
Postal system, [206]
Pottinger, Sir Henry, moderate conditions imposed by, at close of Opium War, [155], [156]
his action compared with that of Commodore Perry, [156]
Psychology, Chinese, its recognition of three souls, [22]
Punishments, barbarous, abolished, [214]
Putu, the sacred island of, [18]
its monasteries, [18]
prevalence of piracy in adjacent waters, [18]
Railways, King-Ran road completed to Hankow, [39]
first grand trunk road, [39]
good work of Belgian constructors, [39]
influence of, on people and government, [40]
questionable action of American company, [40]
reforms in, [203]
Rankin, Rev. Henry, with the author, the first white man to enter Hang-chow, [22]
Reading-rooms (not libraries, but places for reading) a new institution, [216]
Red-haired, the, a vulgar designation for Europeans, [151]
Reed, Hon, W. B., American Minister to China, and the Arrow case, [165]
Reforms in China, [196]-[218]
Anti-foot-binding Society, [217]
army, [201]
customs, [206]
educational, [213]
Hart, Sir Robert, and, [206]
legal, [204]
merchant marine, [200]
mining enterprises, [202]
newspapers, [215]
post office, [205]
railways, [203]
streets, [218]
telegraph, [214]
Tung-wen College and The Imperial University, [209-210]
writing, [216]
Reforms, unmentioned, [292], [301]
a change of costume, [292]
domestic slavery, [298]
polygamy, [295]
Religions, the three, Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, their characteristic features, [107]
each religion has a hierarchy, [109]
"Hall of the Three Religions," [108]
Ricci, after twenty years of effort, effects an entrance to Peking, [138]
Rice, grown in all the provinces, [3]
Richard, Dr. and the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, [287]
Richthofen, explorer, [58]
River traffic, junks drawn by hundreds of coolies, [50]
Rivers, the Yang-tse Kiang, [25]
Hwang Ho, [41]
Hingpo, [18]
Pearl, [9]
Kinsha, the "river of golden sands," [52]
Min, [15]
Roberts, Rev. Issachar, and the leader of the Tai-pings, [160]
is invited to visit their court, [160]
Rockhill, Mr., the American Minister, and missionary institutions, [266]
Roman Catholic missionaries, dissensions in the ranks of, [143]
Roosevelt, President, his efforts to end Russo-Japanese War, [193]
awarded Nobel peace prize, [193]
interview with Dr. Martin on the subject of the Exclusion Laws and the boycott, [251]
Rozhesvenski, Admiral, and the relief squadron for Port Arthur, [190-192]
Russell, Mr., and the author captured by pirates, [18]
Russia, compels Japan to evacuate Manchuria and occupies the same districts herself, [171]
designs on Korea, [182]
increases her forces in Manchuria during Boxer War, [182]
obtains lease of Port Arthur, [174]
schemes for conquest, [182], [183]
surprised by Japan's commencement of the war, [184]
Russo-Japanese War, the, [181-195]
Sages of China, the, Confucius, [89-93]
Lao-tse, [94]
Mencius, [93]-[94]
Saghalien, Island of, Japan and Russia to divide possession of, [192]
Schaal, Father, is president of Astronomical Board, casts cannon, and builds churches in Peking, [143]
Sea of Japan, Battle of, [191-192]
Seng Ko Lin Sin (nicknamed "Sam Collinson" by British), Lama prince who heads northern armies against Tai-ping rebels, [59], [159]
defeated by British and French before Peking, [59]
Shang dynasty, founded by Shang-tang, [80]
annals of, [80], [82]
"made religion the basis of education," [82]
Shanghai, one of the five treaty ports, [26]
colleges and schools, newspapers and translation bureaux, [28]
foreign Concessions, opulent business houses, and luxurious mansions, [27]
leading commercial emporium, [26]
Shang-ti and Tien, Roman Catholics and the terms, [143]
Shangyang, a statesman of the Chou dynasty, converts the tenure of land into fee simple, [85]
Shansi, province of, [54]
prolific of bankers, [54]
rich in agricultural and mineral resources, [54]
Shantung, province of, [30-32]
apples, pears, and peaches grown, [30]
railway built by Germans from the sea to Tsinan-fu, [30]
Shanyu, a forerunner of the Grand Khan of Tartary, [111]
Shaohing, city, in Chéhkiang province noted for its rice wine and lawyers, [23]
Sheffield, Dr., president of Tung-chow College, [286]
Shengking, province of Manchuria, [56]
Shensi, province of, earliest home of the Chinese, [55]
monument at Si-ngan commemorating the introduction of Christianity by Nestorians, [55]
Shi-hwang-ti, real founder of the Chinese Empire, [102]
devout believer in Taoism, [104]
sends a consignment of lads and lasses to Japan, [103]
though one of the heroes of history he is execrated for burning the writings of Confucius, [102]
Shin-nung, "divine husbandman," mythical ruler, worshipped as the Ceres of China, [72]
Shu-king, the, or "Book of History," one of the Five Classics edited by Confucius, [76]
Shun, successor of Yao, rejects his own son and leaves throne to Ta-yü, [74]
Shunteh-fu, American mission at, [40]
Shun-ti, last monarch of the Yuen dynasty, [133]
Si-ngan, city in Shensi, [55]
capital of the Chous, [55]
capital of the T'angs, [121]
Empress Dowager takes refuge there, [42]
monument commemorating the introduction of Christianity by Nestonans, [121]
Sing Su Hai, "Sea of Stars," cluster of lakes in Tibet, [63]
Siun Kien founds the state of Wu, [112]
Siu-tsai, literary degree equivalent to A. B., [122]
Smith, Dr. Arthur, and thanksgiving service at raising of siege of British Legation, Peking, [178]
Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, [266]
Solatium to encourage honesty in public officials, [208]
Spaniards, the, trade and relations with China, [137]
St. John's College, Shanghai, [287]
Stoessel, General, and his defence of Port Arthur, [188]
"Strange Stories of an Idle Student," a popular work in Chinese depicting conditions prior to Opium War, [150-151]
Streets, improvement in construction and protection of, [218]
Sü of Shanghai, baptised by the name of Paul by Ricci, [138]
his daughter Candida also baptised, [138]
Suchow, in Kiangsu, the Paris of the Far East, [25]
musical dialect, of, [26]
Su Ts'in, the patient diplomat, whose reputation is ruined by his own passions, [99]
Sui dynasty, the, founded by Yan Kien, lasts less than thirty years, [117]
Sundius, Mr., British consul at Wuhu, [227]
Sung, one of the Nan-peh Chao, [116]
Sung dynasty, founded by Chao-kwang-yun, [127]
annals, [127]-[128]
encroachment of the Tartars, [127]
rise of a great school of philosophy, [127-129]
Southern Sungs, [127]
Superstitions of the Chinese, concerning wandering spirits, [21]
Sven Hedin, explorer, [58]
Swatow, Canton province, American Baptists' Mission at, [15]
Szechuen, province of, [50-51]
fratricidal wars under Ming dynasty, [51]
great variety of climate, [51]
Szema Ts'ien, the Herodotus of China, [110]
barbarously treated by his people, [110]
T'ai-kia, successor of Shang-tang, [80]
Tai-ping Rebellion, the, a result of the Opium War, [156]
details of, [157]-[162]
Tai-pings, the, try to establish a new empire, the Tai-ping Tien-kwoh, [158]
commonly called "Chang-mao," long-haired rebels, owing to their rejection of the tonsure and cue, [161]
defeated by Gordon, [161]
descend into the plains of Hunan, pillage three cities, and capture Nanking, massacring its garrison of 25,000 Manchus, [158-159]
go into winter quarters, and, dividing their forces, are cut off in detail, [159]
hold Nanking for ten years, [159]
loose morals and travesty of sacred things horrify Christian world, [161]
missionaries attracted by their profession of Christianity, [160]
queer titles adopted by, [161]
sympathy for their cause by Consul Meadows, [159]
unsuccessfully attempt to drive the Manchus from Peking, [159]
Tai-tsung, second emperor of the T'ang dynasty, [120]
Taiyuan-fu, missionaries murdered at by the governor, [180]
Ta-Ki, a wicked woman by whom Chou-sin is said to have been led into his evil courses, [81]
Ta Kiang, "Great River," the Chinese name for the Yang-tse Kiang, [28]
Taku, at the mouth of the Peiho, [33]
capture of forts by British and French, repulse of allied forces in following year, [33]
Tamerlane, Mongolian origin of, [61]
born in Turkestan, [61]
Tanao, a minister of Hwang-ti, author of the cycle of sixty, [77]
T'ang dynasty, founded by Li Yuen, [118]
an Augustan age, [119]
annals, [119]-[125]
Tang Shao-yi, a Chinese, one of two ministers appointed to take charge of the entire customs service, [208]
Tao Kwang, Emperor, resolves to put a stop to opium traffic, [152]
Tartars, encroach on the Flowery Land, [117]
suspicious of other foreigners, [151]
Tartary, Grand Khan of, [111]
Tatnall, Commodore, his kind action at Taku, [167]
Ta-ts'ing dynasty, the, its annals, [140-145]
Ta-yü, or Yu the Great, early emperor, subdues the waters of a deluge, [75]
casts [9] brazen tripods, [79]
departs from practice of his predecessors and leaves throne to his son, [76]
devotes nine years to the dredging and diking of rivers, [75]
his acts and reign, [78]-[79]
monuments commemorating his labours, [75]
Telegraph and telephone, introduction of, [204-205]
Temples of Heaven, Earth and Agriculture, [36]
Teng-chow College, founded by Dr. C. W. Mateer, [285]
Tenney, Dr., and the University of Tientsin, [213]
Text-books, prepared by missionaries—Edkins, Martin, Muirhead, Williamson and Wylie, [287-288]
Theatre, the Chinese, [114]
Three Kingdoms, the, states of Wei, Wu and Shuh, [112]
Lo Kwan-chung, author of a historical novel, [113]
Tibet, the land of the Grand Lama, [62]
called by the Chinese "the roof of the world," [63]
Chinese influence in is nearly nil, [62]
explored by Huc and Gabet, [63]
mother of great rivers, [63]
polyandry prevalent, [63]
Tieliang, a Manchu, one of two ministers appointed to take charge of the entire customs service, [208]
Tien and Shang-ti, question among Catholics concerning the terms, [143]
Tien Chu, substitution of, for Shang-ti repulsive to pious Chinese, [144]
Tien Ho, "River of Heaven," Chinese term for the Milky Way, [63]
Tién-hwang, Ti-hwang, and Jin-hwang, three mythical rulers who reigned eighteen thousand years each, [71]
Tiensheng, Chinese name for province of Yünnan [52]
Tientsin, province of Chihli, rises anew from its half-ruined condition, [33]
ranks as third of treaty ports, [34]
treaties of, [166]
Ti-hwang, Jin-hwang, and Tién-hwang, three mythical rulers, [71]
Togo, Admiral, in Russo-Japanese War, [184], [185], [188], [191], [192]
Tongking, French left in possession of, [170]
Translators, corps of, Dr. John Fryer's prominent connection with, [288]
Tsao Tsao founds the state of Wei, [112]
Tsai Lun, inventor of paper [116]
Ts'ang-Kié, the Cadmus of China, author of its written characters, [77]
Ts'in dynasty, Yin Cheng brings the whole country under his sway and
assumes title of Shi-Hwang-ti "Emperor First," [101]
annals of, [101]-[104]
builds Great Wall, [101]
lasts for a century and a half, [116]
Ts'in, Prince of, offers fifteen cities for a kohinoor, [98]
Tsinan-fu, railway from the sea to, built by the Germans, [30]
Tsin-shi, "Literary Doctor," degree of, [123]
Tsungming, Island of, formed by the waters of the Yang-tse Kiang, [28]
and Tunking coupled in popular proverb, [28]
Tsushima, Battle of, [191]-[192]
Tuan Fang, governor of Hupeh, [242-243]
favourable specimen of a Manchu, [276]
Tuan, Prince, father of the heir apparent, [174]
Tufu, poet of the T'ang dynasty, [119]
Tung-chi, Emperor, death of, [273]
Tung-chou-kiun, last monarch of the Chou dynasty, [99]
Turkestan, [3], [61]
majority of the inhabitants Mohammedans, [61]
most of the khanates absorbed by Russia, [61]
Union Medical College, Peking, [285]
Urga, Mongolia, a shrine for pilgrimage, [58]
Uriu, Admiral, in Russo-Japanese War, [184]
Verbiest, the Jesuit, made president of Board of Astronomy, [143]
Wall, Great, see Great Wall
Wang Chao, invents new alphabet, [217]
Ward, Frederick G., the American, and the Tai-ping rebellion, [160]
Ward, Hon. J. E., American minister, proceeds to Peking by land, [167]
declines to kneel to Emperor, [168]
Wei, one of the Nan-peh Chao, [116]
Weihien, in Shantung, destined to become a railway centre, [30]
Weihwei-fu, city on the border of Chihli and Honan, [41]
Wensiang, success of Prince Kung's administration largely due to him, [277]
contests with Tungsuin in extemporaneous verse, [277]
Wen-ti, "patron of letters," a ruler of the house of Han, [107]
Wen-wang, the real founder of the Chou dynasty, [84]
encourages letters, [84]
known as a commentator in the Yih-king, [84]
Whales, the river near Hang-chow a trap for, [23]
Wheat, produced in all the provinces, [3]
Williams, Dr. S. Wells, takes charge of American Board printing press at Canton, [283]
labours, [283]
"The Middle Kingdom," [283]
Witte, Count, and Portsmouth treaty, [193]
Women in China, considered out of place in attempting to govern, [82]
Writing, reform in, [216]
new alphabet invented, [217]
Wu, Empress, succeeds Kao-tsung and reigns for twenty-one years, [121]
Wu Pa, the five dictators, [96]
Wu San-kwei, a traitorous Chinese general, makes terms with the Manchus, [140]-[141]
Wu Ti, Liang emperor, who became a Buddhist monk, [117]
Wu-ti, "the five rulers," [71]
Wu-ting-fang, Chinese minister at Washington, and legal reforms, [214]
Wu-wang, the martial king, rescues the people from the oppression of the Shangs, [83]
Xavier, St. Francis, arrives at Macao, is not allowed to land, and dies on the Island of St. John, [138]
Yang, chief supporter of the leader of the Tai-pings, [157-158]
Yang Chia Kow, called by foreign sailors "Yankee Cow," at the mouth of the Yellow River, [29]
Yang-tse Kiang, possible Tibetan source of, [63]
new islands made by, [28]
Yan Kien, a Chinese general sets up the Sui dynasty, [117]
Yao, type of an unselfish monarch, [73]
astronomical observations, [76]
passes by son in naming his successor, [73]
Yeh, Viceroy, and the Arrow War, [162]
Yellow River, source of, [63]
forsakes its old bed, [29]
"Yellow ruler, the," reputed inventor of letters and the cycle of sixty
years, [72]
Yellow Sea, why so called, [28]
Yermak, [182]
Yu and Li, two bad kings of the house of Chou, [88]
Yuen or Mongol dynasty [131-134]
Yuen Shi Kai, Viceroy, preeminent in the work of reform, [212]
Yungcheng, succeeds Kanghi and reigns fourteen years, [144]
Yungloh, emperor of the Ming dynasty, [136]
"Thesaurus of," [136]
Yünkwei, viceregal district of, [15], [52]
Yünnan, province of, [52], [53]
coal measures and copper mines, [52]
hundred tribes of aborigines within its borders, [52]
unhealthful climate, [52]