Changing China

by William Gascoyne-Cecil; Lady Florence Mary Cecil

CHAPTER XXVII

CONCLUSION

One word in conclusion. I have tried to show the greatness of the crisis that is before us. The civilisation which has long been worn by the white man alone is now being donned by the yellow man, not as the result only of missionary effort, but as the result of those great world causes over which puny mankind has no control; and I have tried to show that all that we can do is to recognise and frankly accept this great fact, namely, that the members of the human race who are subject to and governed by our civilisation are to be nearly doubled, and that the second half will import into that civilisation not only new traditions, but a new racial personality, which must cause a fundamental alteration in many of its traditions and customs. We must not say that the movement will be shortly completed, for it has scarcely yet begun; but we have seen enough in the success that has attended the movement both in Japan and in China, to convince us that it will ultimately dominate the Far East. This movement may be for good or for evil; it may be for the downfall of the world, for the perpetual misery of mankind, if that which is evil in both civilisations is to be perpetuated and that which is good is to be destroyed; or it may be for the benefit of mankind if, when the Christian civilisation welcomes the great yellow races, it accepts from them, as it has accepted from many other races, their characteristic virtues. Hitherto our civilisation has grown richer; every race it has conquered has added beauty to its traditions and nobility to its ideals. We may look forward with hope, if not with confidence, to its future. But if this momentous change in the history of the world is to be well directed, it can only be done by men of sincere Christian faith; and if the civilisation is to augment these benefits to mankind, it can only be by being more fully endued with the Christian ethics on which its whole greatness depends.

For the perpetuation of this ethic, for the education of the future thinkers of China, we suggest a University is needed; that University should not be founded by one race alone. Some may differ from us, and hold that other action is advisable. They may be right, but it behoves them to formulate their policy, because one thing seems certain—that a policy of inaction at the present moment is one which is fraught with risk, if not with disaster. If no one makes any effort to direct the thought of this vast unit of mankind into the right paths, it is improbable that good will naturally result. The fitting of Western thought to an Oriental race, while it must be chiefly left to the race itself, needs clearly the help of those who are conversant with the best aspects of that Western thought and of its history. The missionary has done much, but he himself is the first to say, "I cannot do all; I must be supported by those who will teach my converts the fulness of Western knowledge." And so the missionaries have inaugurated a policy of education which is most successful as far as it has gone. The question before all well-wishers of China is, shall it go further; shall we show China the intellectual light by which we are walking, or shall we leave China to stumble in the darkness till she falls into deeper error.

Those who look forward to progress in this world must also look forward to breaking up the old evil traditions and to founding new ones; the old tradition, which limited love to citizens of the same State, which put bounds on charity, so that man did not love man unless he spoke the same language, or at least had the same coloured skin, is dying fast though it is dying hard. A new tradition is being founded, and must be further developed, in which, as in the parable of the Good Samaritan, the word love is taught as passing and transcending all bounds of race and language. The cultivation of this new tradition is vital to the existence of our civilisation. If love cannot bind races together, the improved arts of war will in time extinguish the civilisation that gave them birth. If we are to encourage international love, we can best do it by sharing together in international acts of mercy and generosity. The great Chinese race has need of the wealth of Western knowledge. Let Western races join together to give them what they need, and in so doing they will not merely benefit China, though as China counts for a quarter of the population of this world, and is nearly equal to the number of men who have a right to call themselves civilised, that were no small merit; but they will do more, for they will by common acts of mercy and love bind each to each so that the horrid curse of racial hatred shall not be again able to divide them. The elements of good in one race will be brought in contact with the similar elements in another race; men will learn to trust men; and that which the thundering cannon can never compel, or the keenest wit of statesmen ever compass, will be accomplished by the obedience and simple faith of the Christian men and women of all races, and the world will be welded into one solid piece, where men can work without wasting their efforts in making machines to torture and kill their fellow-men, and where at last the prophecy shall be fulfilled: "They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks."

APPENDIX

WILL RUSSIA BE REPRESENTED ON THE MISSION FIELD?

When it was settled that we should go to China to see what opportunities there were there for an educational mission emanating from our English Universities, we decided to go viâ Siberia, and stop at St. Petersburg and also at Irkutsk on the way. I had previously found the journey of fifteen days without a break exhausting to myself and still more so to my wife who accompanied me. The plan had also the advantage that it gave me an opportunity of trying to find out why the great Russian Church had never attempted any serious mission work in China. From a mere inspection of the map one would naturally have expected that the Christian power which had a frontier with China of thousands and thousands of miles would have been the most forward in that country in fulfilling the command of the founder of Christianity to give His message of happiness to every living man. In our previous tour we had been surprised to find that the missionary efforts of Russia were insignificant in China, though, strange to say, they were fairly vigorous in Japan. When we arrived at St. Petersburg I was fortunate enough to obtain letters of introduction to the courteous gentleman who then represented the imperial power in the councils of the Russian Church, M. Iwolsky, Procurator of the Holy Synod. One thing became evident; for the time being Russia is so much absorbed in politics as to be oblivious of other duties. Living in England, we can little realise the excitement and anxiety that filled the minds of many who dwelt in the far off villages of Russia, while they waited to hear whether or not they were to be engulfed in a revolution as dangerous and as far-reaching as that which more than a hundred years ago overwhelmed France.