Changing China

by William Gascoyne-Cecil; Lady Florence Mary Cecil

I believe the battle of Mukden will prove one of the turning points in the history of the world. Few of us have any conception of the bitterness of the humiliation of China. People speak of Russia as having been humiliated, but my experience is that the Russians looked at the whole question as a colonial war in which a bungling Government embroiled their country—a war which, if it demonstrated the incapacity of their officers, proved the courage of their soldiers. But the humiliation of China was intense. When one remembers the position that the Emperor occupies in China; when one also remembers the reverential feeling that exists towards ancestors, one realises what it must have meant to the Chinaman that the site of the tombs of their Emperors should have been the scene of that titanic struggle between the East and the West. But the result of that humiliation was to burn in the lesson that Japan had taken the right course, and that, however hateful were Western ways, they were a necessity, and that every lover of China must do his best to introduce them into the Empire.

Of course there are many Chinamen—nay, I should think a vast majority—who intend to preserve to China the essential points of the Confucian civilisation; they mean to accept Western ideas only in so far as they are necessary to struggle against the West. Some, no doubt, definitely admire the West, but most are anxious for a compromise; they want to preserve China with its customs, with its essential thought, but to strengthen it by foreign knowledge and a foreign military system. The exact degree of what should be preserved in China and what should be destroyed and replaced by Western innovations, differs according to the age and the temperament of the thinkers, but the principle is most generally accepted—Western thought must be grafted on to Eastern civilisation. When we remember the size of China, we may well ask ourselves what effect this policy will have on the rest of the world. We have at present a period of reflection, for how long we cannot tell. The task of welding East and West into one whole is in practice proving difficult, and at present failure is very often the result; but with Japan as a successful example, and with the threat of national extinction and foreign domination before them, the Chinese can never give up the effort; and whatever the exact result may be, I think one may assert without rashness that not only will it fundamentally alter the whole of China, but through China affect the whole world.

While detailing the causes which have created the national movement which is now inducing China to make every effort to perfect her defences against foreign aggressions, we must not forget that the awakening of China has a higher side, and one which we can attribute directly and indirectly to Christianity. The influence of Christianity can be traced back to the seventh century when missions of Nestorian Christians came to Thibet and China; they left behind them, it is true, no converts, but their influence was probably felt through the power that Lamaism had had over a great part of the Eastern world. A learned Japanese, discussing this subject, said that no one could study Lamaism and Buddhism without realising how intimately it had been in touch with some form of Christianity. Later on the great Roman Catholic missions, initiated by St. Francis Xavier in the thirteenth century, began to work in China, and have slowly but surely raised up a large population who have been Christians for many generations. Their missions were interrupted by persecutions, but with varying and lately increasing success they have maintained themselves ever since. In 1807 the pioneer of Protestant missions, Dr. Morrison, began his work and the translation of the Bible into Chinese. The work increased, his mission was followed by other missions, which pursued a policy even more influential in altering the opinion of China; not only did they with great heroism preach the Gospel in every province of China, but they took two actions which have affected China in a very special degree.

First the American missions made the very greatest effort to get hold of intelligent Chinese men, both Christian and non-Christian, to teach them Western knowledge, so that they might understand how intimately Christianity was connected with Christian thought. The result of their efforts has been that there are a considerable number of enlightened Chinese gentry who are either Christians or who have a great sympathy with the Christian side of Western civilisation. Sometimes they educated these men in China, sometimes they induced them to go to America for their education; and there they were brought into contact with the intense, yet rather narrow, New England Christianity. I had the honour of meeting many of these men in China, and I was convinced that they have no small part in her awakening.

The English and American missionaries, under the leadership of Dr. Williamson, inaugurated a second policy, which has had far-reaching results in causing the changes in China. The Christian Literature Society was started to supply the Chinese with translations of the best Western literature. They were followed by Chinese imitators who were also Christians, and who founded a Chinese Commercial Press. These two bodies have given to China a vast amount of Western literature, the first on philanthropic lines with the definite intention of spreading Christianity, the second on a commercial basis but with the intention of presenting to their fellow-countrymen the purer and more beautiful side of Western thought. The publications of these two bodies reach, I am told, to every educated man in China. If the humiliations of public events made the Chinese willing to study Western civilisation, it was these men who afforded them the means of studying and understanding the best side of that civilisation.

But perhaps those who have done most to give the Chinese a proper conception of Christianity are the Bible Societies, especially the British and Foreign Bible Society. Ever since, with the optimism of faith, the translation of the Scriptures by Dr. Morrison was published in 1814, they have been scattering the Christian Scriptures throughout the whole of China, from Mongolia to Tonkin, and I am told that those Scriptures are read by men in the highest positions and with the most conservative antecedents in the whole empire. It cannot be doubted that the indirect fruit of their work has been very great indeed. China has, through the agencies of these bodies, been brought into close contact with Christian thought, and has at last realised the true nature of our religion.

Lastly, there has been the influence of those who died for the Christian faith during the many persecutions to which Christianity has been exposed, and which culminated in the Boxer persecution. If Germany, by her action in Shantung, put before China a false and most repellent view of Christianity, the heroic sufferings of the martyred missionaries, both yellow and white, presented Christianity to a wondering world in its purest aspect. After those thousands of Christians had suffered in Shan-si, the Home bodies, especially the China Inland Mission, refused to take any compensation for the blood that had been shed in the cause of the Gospel. The Chinese were then convinced that the German presentation of Christianity was not the only one; if Germany could look on Christianity only as a stalking horse behind which she could creep up to her prey, the English-speaking races had a holier ideal to teach and one which was more consonant with the words of the Founder of our religion. The sufferings of the Christians were intense, their heroism was great, but the result has been commensurate with their efforts, and an awakening China looks to our countries, not solely to teach her the art of war and of killing men, but also to teach her the great thoughts and the great religion which has before her very eyes proved capable of producing such noble men and women.

The awakening of China has two aspects. From one aspect China is awakening to the value of the science and the arts of the West; from the other China is awakening to the fact that there is in the West a power which comes from goodness, and that goodness has its root in Christian faith. It is this twofold aspect of the awakening of China which is so important to bear in mind, for if she is to share in our civilisation in the future, it is both our duty and our interest to see that this great world-movement is encouraged to develop on its higher side.