A new, enlightened and progressive government must be substituted in place of the old one; in such a case China would not only be able to support herself but would also relieve the other countries of the trouble of maintaining her independence and integrity. There are many highly educated and able men among the people who would be competent to take up the task of forming a new government, and carefully thought-out plans have long been drawn up for the transformation of this ... Tartar monarchy into a Republic of China. The ... masses of the people are also ready to accept the new order of things and are longing for a change for better to uplift them from their ... deplorable condition of life. China is now on the eve of a great national movement, for just a spark of light would set the whole political forest on fire to drive out the Tartar from our land. Our task is indeed great but it will not be an impossible one....[26]
Sun's diagnosis of the situation was remarkably correct; he clearly sensed the coming Republic whose first president he was to become seven years later. The ideological revolution was already under way, and the Empire about to dissolve into the past. What neither Sun nor anyone else realized was that ahead of China there lay government problems more serious than misrule. The ideological shift had terminated the reality of the old regime, and the military conditions were favorable; but would men be ready to invest their faith durably in a new order?
Notes
[1.] See above, p. [17 ff.], 83 ff.
[2.] Herrlee G. Creel, The Birth of China, p. 138, London, 1936.
[3.] Leon Wieger, S. J., La Chine à travers les âges: hommes et choses, pp. 22-25, Hsien-hsien, 1920. This is among the most useful handbooks of Chinese history and bibliography. It is written on a popular level and designed for the rapid and easy information of Catholic missionaries in China. H. F. MacNair, Modern Chinese History, Selected Readings, Shanghai, 1923, will be found entertaining as well as highly informative.
[4.] See John K. Shryock, The Origin and Development of the State Cult of Confucius, New York, 1932, for a description of the rise of Confucianism.
[5.] For a list of the Chinese dynasties see below, [197].
[6.] T'ang government is outlined on the basis of Baron Robert des Rotours, Le Traité des examens, Paris, 1932, a lucid and detailed translation of a section of the T'ang dynastic history dealing with the civil service. The book includes a valuable account of the organization of T'ang government and may well be cited as a model of Sinological achievement. The rendering Department of Ministerial Coordination was suggested by the usage of Professor C. S. Gardner, Harvard-Yenching Institute.