That the Chinese people have much to complain of from the aggressive attitude of many native Christians, and particularly the Roman Catholic Christians, no sane man will deny. For years it has been the practice of the priests and of many of the Protestant missionaries to assist their converts in lawsuits against the heathens, and to exert an unjust influence in their behalf. To “get even” with an enemy it is only necessary for a convert to tell his priest or pastor that he has been persecuted in some way for his religious belief, to induce the missionary to take up the cudgel in his defense. I have heard heathen Chinese often assert that these men (converts) appear good enough to their priests, who see very little of their ordinary behavior, but behind the father’s back they are overbearing and malicious to all their neighbors, who hate them because they fear them.
After years of residence in China, I have come to the conclusion that it has been a mistake of the Powers to insert in their treaties provisions making the preaching of Christianity a treaty-right, in spite of Chinese objection. Nearly all of the riots in China have come from attempts to force the Chinese officials to stamp deeds conveying property to missionaries for residences or chapels. The animosity incurred in forcing a missionary establishment upon an interior city, town, or village is not obliterated in a lifetime. It may be barely tolerated in time of peace, only to be demolished when the country is disturbed. This applies to the China that has been—barbarian, uncivilized China.
Should the reformers come into power, and religious toleration be granted as the result of civilization, then there would be no reason why the missionaries should not work in the more remote parts of the empire; but China, as it has been and is, would be much more peaceful for all concerned if the proselyting work was carried on only in the treaty ports. I don’t expect any of the missionary body to agree to this statement, but doubtless many of their supporters, thinking people, who will take the trouble to reason it out, will believe it, supported as it is by the testimony of all the residents of China acquainted with the problem. There are many reasons for the Chinaman’s hatred of the foreigners, but his religion is the chief one.
In the late riots the railways have been attacked and destroyed, but that came only after a half-year’s successful campaign against the converts had led them to want to root out the people who brought both the religion and the railways. While I am a Christian myself, and would gladly see China a Christian nation, I cannot help seeing that the policy which has been pursued in forcing Christianity upon the Chinese, in the aggressive manner we have, practically at the point of the sword, has not been a success, and has given to such men as Tung Fu Hsiang a powerful argument with which to persuade his ignorant followers to exterminate alike the foreigner and his converts.
INDIVIDUAL EXAMINATION ROOMS FOR CIVIL SERVICE DEGREES
A remarkable feature of Chinese social and political customs is the method of selection for public office. The candidates for examination are installed in the little rooms or houses shown in this picture; a supply of water is placed in the large jars at the entrance, and the candidate is expected, regardless of the pangs of hunger, to remain constantly in this little room until he shall have passed this examination, which sometimes lasts two or three days.
The Boxers are principally of two sorts: the ignorant villager and the city loafer or vagabond. The first easily becomes a fanatical enthusiast; the latter has joined simply to obtain loot. When it became an assured fact that the Empress sanctioned the movement the ranks were rapidly filled, because rewards and preferment were held out as inducements to serve, and the majority of China’s population, being poverty-stricken in the extreme, would join any movement that promised an increased income. The Boxer headquarters was the palace of Prince Tuan in Peking. From this place emissaries were sent with instructions, first into Shantung and afterward throughout Chihli, to coöperate with the already-existing secret societies, as well as to organize new companies. Every city, town, and village was visited, the head men consulted, and the young men and boys enrolled.
Their gymnastic exercises, from which they derive their name, were taught them, and they were promised that when they had attained perfection they would be given service under the Empress with good pay and rapid promotion. They were told that if they would go regularly through the ceremonies prescribed every day, in from three to six months they would acquire indomitable courage, and would be invulnerable to bullets and sword-cuts, and that the youngest child would be a match for a grown man of the uninitiated. That thousands believed this nonsense there is no doubt; and thousands of little boys from ten years of age upward eagerly enrolled. The exercise consisted of bowing low to the ground, striking the forehead into the earth three times each toward the east, then south, then throwing themselves upon their backs and lying motionless for several minutes, after which they would throw themselves from side to side a number of times, and, finally rising, go through a number of posturings, as though warding off blows and making passes at an enemy. As a uniform they were given a red turban, a red sash to cross the chest, and red “tae tzio,” or wide tape, to tie in the trousers at the ankle.