From Pole to Pole: A Book for Young People

by Sven Anders Hedin

Shanghai is situated on a small affluent which runs into the Yang-tse-kiang close to its mouth, and large ocean steamers cannot go up to the town. After the Delhi has dropped its anchor we proceed up the river in a steam tender. The low banks soon become more animated, the houses stand closer together, factories appear amongst them, and Chinese vessels lie moored on both sides, including two sorry warships of wood, relics of a time gone by. They are high in the bow and stern, and from the mast floats the blue dragon on its yellow field.[15] At length the stately "bund" of Shanghai comes into sight with a row of fine, tall houses. This is not China, but a bit of Europe, the white town in the yellow land, the great and wealthy Shanghai with its 12,000 Europeans, beside the Chinese town inhabited by 650,000 natives.

Next day, November 3, occurred two noted birthdays, those of the Dowager Empress of China and of the Emperor of Japan. They were both remarkable for their powerful minds and wisdom, and have made their names immortal in the extreme East. The Consul-General of Japan held a reception, and the Governor of Shanghai a brilliant dinner.

We saw much that was curious and interesting, and our time was fully occupied during our short stay in the largest shipping and commercial port of China. From the European streets with electric light and tramways, churches, clubs, merchants' offices, and public buildings, tidal docks and wharves, we reach in a few minutes the Chinese town, pure, unadulterated Asia. It swarms with yellow men in blue coats and black vests with small brass buttons, white stockings, black shoes with thick, flat soles, a small black skull-cap with a red button on the head, and a long pigtail behind. There dealers sit in their open shops, smoking long, small pipes while waiting for customers. The tea-houses are full. A noise and tumult beyond description, a constant going and coming, a continual exchange of coin and goods.

The religion of the Chinese is a mixture of different doctrines and rules of wisdom. China has had more wise men than any other old country in the world. Foremost among them is Confucius, a contemporary of Buddha and Socrates. He wrote a book of three hundred odes, and called it Purity of Thought. Twelve disciples gathered round him, and a larger circle of three thousand. "Do not to others what you would not that they should do to you" was one of his precepts. When Confucius was asked how he had contrived to acquire deep knowledge of so many things, he replied, "Because I was born poor and had to learn." He considered wealth a misfortune and knowledge power. The Chinese reverence his memory, and regard him not as a god but as the wisest man of all ages.

Along with Confucianism, Taoism exists in China. The sublime teaching of the founder has, however, been corrupted and degraded to jugglery and superstition. At the commencement of our era Buddhism was introduced into China, and now is spread over almost all the country. There is, however, no clearness in the religious conceptions of the Chinese. A Taoist may perform his devotions in the morning in a Buddhist temple and in the evening be deeply interested in the writings of Confucius. Many therefore have an equal respect for all three systems.

The basis, however, of Chinese religious thought is ancestor worship. Whether they are Confucians, like most of the mandarins, or Taoists or Buddhists, like the common people, Chinamen always cherish the same reverence for the souls of their forefathers. An altar in their honour is raised in even the simplest house. The graves may not be disturbed, and nothing but respect is cherished for the memory of the departed. In the seventeenth century the Manchu emperor, Kang Hi, ruled China for sixty-one years with a power and wisdom which made him one of the greatest monarchs of any age. His grandson, Kien Lung, inherited all his excellent qualities, and when he had ruled China for nearly sixty-one years he abdicated simply in order that, out of respect to his ancestor, the years of his reign might not exceed his grandfather's.

One consequence of this ancestor worship is that enormous areas of China are covered with graves. The Mongol emperor, Kublai Khan, who reigned at the end of the thirteenth century, roused furious opposition by ordering that all the burial-grounds should be broken up and turned into fields. At the present time, when new railways are spreading mile after mile through China, the sanctity of the graveyards is one of the greatest obstacles to engineers. The Chinese will not disturb the slumbers of their forefathers, and therefore the railway has often to pass round a hallowed place or avoid it by means of a bridge. The Emperor himself travels to Mukden simply to make offerings at the graves of his ancestors. Kang Hi and Kien Lung are buried in Mukden, and their dynasty, the Manchu, still rules over the country.

The Chinese feel this association with a past life more strongly than with the future, and the worship of their ancestors almost takes the place of affection for their fatherland. They certainly love their own homes, but what goes on in other parts of the country is a matter of indifference to them. To the Cantonese it matters not whether the Russians take Manchuria or the Japanese Korea, provided only that Canton is left in peace. Ancestor worship may be said, indeed, to be the true religion of the Chinese. For the rest they are filled with an unreasoning fear of spirits, and have recourse to many different gods who, they believe, can control these influences for good and evil. They are very superstitious. If any one falls sick of fever and becomes delirious, his relations believe that his soul has gone astray. They carry his clothes round the spot where he lost consciousness in order to bring his soul into the right track again; and at night they go up to the roof and wave a lantern to guide the soul home.

"The Middle Kingdom"

The first things a Chinese schoolboy is taught are that the sky is round, the earth quadrangular, and that China is situated in the middle of the earth, and on that account is called the "Middle Kingdom." All other countries lie around China and are its vassals.