There arrived in Peking in the fall of 1915 the members of a commission sent by the Rockefeller Foundation, to formulate definite plans for a great scientific and educational enterprise in China. They were Dr. Simon Flexner, of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, of New York; Dr. George A. Welch, of Johns Hopkins University; and Doctor Buttrick, the secretary of the Foundation. By early September, 1919, the cornerstone of the Rockefeller Hospital and Medical School in Peking had been laid.
The China Medical Board had acquired the palace of a Manchu prince. When their plans were first being formulated, the owner had just died, and this magnificent property could have been bought for $75,000 Mex. I cabled to New York at the time, advising quick action, but the organization had not been sufficiently completed to make the purchase. When, four months later, they were ready to buy, the price had risen to $250,000. The fact that a rich institution desired to acquire the property had undoubtedly helped to enhance the price; but real property was then so rapidly rising in value all over Peking, especially in central locations, that the price asked, as a matter of fact, was not excessive, and a similar site could not have been secured for less. A still further increase of values throughout the central portion of the city was soon recorded; in fact, in many localities of China land values have risen after the manner of an American boom town.
The stately halls of the palace had been dismantled and torn down because they did not suit the uses of the hospital. The materials recovered, however, were in themselves of great value. The Board had decided, in consonance with the judgment of the architects, that the Chinese style of architecture should be used, modified only sufficiently to answer the modern purpose of the buildings.
We gathered on a sunny day of early September, when the air of Peking has the fresh balminess of spring, to dedicate the cornerstone of the first building to be erected. Admiral Knight, who was visiting us at the time, accompanied me. Mr. Alston, the British chargé; Dr. Frank Billings, who had just returned from Russia where he had been chairman of the American Red Cross; and other representatives of the American and British community were present, together with many Chinese. Mr. Fan Yuen-lin, Minister of Education, represented the Chinese Government, and Bishop Norris, of the Anglican Church, offered prayer. I made a brief address in which I paid tribute to the achievements of American and British medical missionaries, and expressed my high idea of the value and significance, for science and human welfare, of the great institution here to be established.
Incidentally, it had seemed to me—and I so expressed to Doctors Welch and Flexner during their visit—that much of value might be found in the Chinese materia medica. In my own experience there had been so many instances where relief had been afforded in apparently hopeless cases that I thought it worthy of special study. For example, a new chauffeur whom I had engaged accompanied my old chauffeur in the machine one day; as he jumped out, his arm was caught between the door and a telegraph pole and crushed. We immediately had him taken to the hospital, where the doctors decided that only an immediate operation afforded any prospect of saving his arm, and that even a successful operation was doubtful. I was told that evening that his mother had taken the young man away, notwithstanding the entreaties of our Chinese legation personnel. We gave him up for lost. But within six weeks he reported for his position, only admitting: "My arm is still a little weak." A Chinese doctor had cured him with poultices.
Similar cases often came to my attention. Mr. Chow Tzu-chi had frequently suffered severely from rheumatism. He had tried every scientific remedy without avail. One day I was glad to find him chipper and in fine spirits. He said, "I am cured"; and he told me that a Chinese doctor had fixed golden needles in different parts of his body. Within a day his pains had disappeared. The empirical knowledge accumulated by Chinese doctors through thousands of years may be worth something.
In their hours of leisure from the scientific tasks of their mission, the members of the Rockefeller board saw much of Chinese life on the lighter as well as its more serious side. One evening we went together to a Chinese restaurant where we met some native friends and had an excellent dinner, of the best that Peking cooking affords. The American guests were delighted with the turmoil in the courts of a Peking restaurant. We were entertained after dinner by a well-known prestidigitator. This man often performs in Peking, where he is known among foreigners by the name of Ega Lang Tang. These words mean nothing, being only an arbitrary formula which he uses in his incantations. His tricks, many and astounding, culminate when, after turning a somersault, he suddenly produces out of nothing a glass bowl as large as a washtub two feet in diameter filled with water in which shoals of fish are gaily swimming about.
In another way American initiative of an educational nature was welcomed in Peking. Among officials and literary men were many who were interested in the scientific study of economic and political subjects. With them and with American and European friends I had often discussed the desirability of establishing an association devoted to such work. The old literary learning which had up to a very recent time organized and given cohesion to Chinese intellectual life had largely lost its power to satisfy men, whereas the scientific learning of the West had not yet become sufficiently strong to act as the chief bond of intellectual fellowship.
As all political and social action, and all systematic effort in industry and commerce, depend on intellectual forces, it is evident that disorganization and confusion would soon threaten Chinese life unless centres were formed in which the old could be brought into harmonious and organic relationship with the new, so as to focus intellectual effort. Such centres would wield great influence.
With the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Lu Tsen-tsiang, and a number of other friends who were equally impressed with the need for such a centre of thought and discussion, we decided in November, 1917, to take steps toward forming a Chinese Social and Political Science Association.