The Awakening of China by W.A.P. Martin

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A missionary who actually penetrated to the rebel headquarters
was the Rev. Issachar Roberts, the first instructor of the rebel
chief. The latter had sent him a message inviting him to court.
His stay was not long. He found that his quondam disciple had
substituted a new mode of baptism, neither sprinkling nor immersion,
but washing the pit of the stomach with a towel dipped in warm
water! Who says the Chinese are not original? It is probable that
Roberts's dispute lay deeper than a mere ceremony. Professing a
New Testament creed, the rebel chief shaped his practice on Old
Testament examples--killing men as ruthlessly as David, and, like
Solomon, filling his harem with women. A remonstrance on either
head was certain to bring danger; it was said indeed that Roberts's
life was threatened.

Some queer titles were adopted by the Tai-pings.
[Page 161]
As stated above, the premier was styled "Father of 9,000 years";
other princes had to content themselves with 7,000, 6,000, etc.--or
seven-tenths and six-tenths of a "Live forever!" Christ was the
"Heavenly Elder Brother"; and the chief called himself "Younger
Brother of Jesus Christ." These designations might excite a smile;
but when he called Yang, his adviser, the "Holy Ghost," one felt
like stopping one's ears, as did the Hebrews of old. The loose morals
of the Tai-pings and their travesty of sacred things horrified the
Christian world; and Gordon no doubt felt that he was doing God
a service in breaking up a horde of blasphemers and blackguards.

Gordon's victory won an earldom for Li Hung Chang; but the Chinese
conferred no posthumous honours on Gordon as they did on Ward,
who has a temple and is reckoned among the gods of the empire.

The Tai-pings were commonly called Changmao, "long-haired" rebels,
because they rejected the tonsure and "pigtail" as marks of subjection.
They printed at Nanking, by what they called "Imperial authority,"
an edition of the Holy Scriptures. At one time Lord Elgin, disgusted
by the conduct of the Peking Government, proposed to make terms with
the court at Nanking. The French minister refused to cooeperate, partly
because the rebels had not been careful to distinguish between the
images in Roman Catholic chapels and those in pagan temples, but
chiefly from an objection to the ascendency of Protestant influence,
coupled with a fear of losing the power that comes from a protectorate
of Roman Catholic missions. How different would have been
[Page 162]
the future of China had the allied powers backed up the Tai-pings
against the Manchus!

* * * * *

ACT 2. THE "ARROW" WAR, 1857-1860

Of the second act in this grand drama on the world's wide stage,
a vessel, named the _Arrow_, was, like opium in the former
conflict, the occasion, not the cause. The cause was, as before,
pride and ignorance on the part of the Chinese, though the British
are not to be altogether exonerated. Their flag was compromised;
and they sought to protect it. Fifteen years of profitable commerce
had passed, during which China had been a double gainer, receiving
light and experience in addition to less valuable commodities,
when Viceroy Yeh seized the lorcha _Arrow_, on a charge of
piracy. Though owned by Chinese, she was registered in Hong Kong,
and sailed under the British flag. Had the viceroy handed her over
to a British court for trial, justice would no doubt have been
done to the delinquents, and the two nations would not have been
embroiled; but, haughty as well as hasty, the viceroy declined to
admit that the British Government had any right to interfere with
his proceedings. Unfortunately (or fortunately) British interests
at Canton were in the hands of Consul Parkes, afterward Sir Harry
Parkes, the renowned plenipotentiary at Peking and Tokio.

Sir John Bowring was governor of Hong Kong, with the oversight of
British interests in the Empire. A gifted poet, and an enthusiastic
advocate of universal peace, he was a man who might be counted on, if in
[Page 163]
the power of man, to hold the dogs of war in leash. But he, too,
had been consul at Canton and he knew by experience the quagmire
in which the best intentions were liable to be swamped.

Parkes, whom I came to know as Her Britannic Majesty's minister in
Peking, was the soul of honour, as upright as any man who walked
the earth. But with all his rectitude, he, like the Viceroy Yeh,
was irascible and unyielding. When the viceroy refused his demand
for the rendition of the _Arrow_ and her crew, he menaced him
with the weight of the lion's paw. Alarmed, but not cowed, the
viceroy sent the prisoners in fetters to the consulate, instead of
replacing them on board their ship; nor did he vouchsafe a word of
courtesy or apology. Parkes, too fiery to overlook such contemptuous
informality, sent them back, much as a football is kicked from
one to another; and the viceroy, incensed beyond measure, ordered
their heads to be chopped off without a trial.

Here was a Gordian knot, which nothing but the sword could loose.
War was provoked as before by the rashness of a viceroy. The
peace-loving governor did not choose to swallow the affront to
his country, nor did the occupant of the Dragon Throne deign to
interfere; looking on the situation with the same sublime indifference
with which the King of Persia regarded the warlike preparations of
the younger Cyrus, when he supposed, as Xenophon tells us, that
he was only going to fight out a feud with a neighbouring satrap.
How could China be opened; how was a stable equilibrium possible
so long as foreign powers were kept at a distance from the capital
of the Empire?

[Page 164]
In three months the haughty viceroy was a prisoner in India, never
to return, and his provincial capital was held by a garrison of
British troops. On this occasion the old blunder of admitting the
city to ransom was not repeated, else Canton might have continued
to be a hotbed of seditious plots and anti-foreign hostilities.
Parkes knew the people, and he knew their rulers also. He was
accordingly allowed to have his own way in dealing with them. The
viceroy being out of the way, he proposed to Pehkwei, the Manchu
governor, to take his place and carry on the provincial government
as if the two nations were at peace. Strange to say, the governor
did not decline the task. That he did not was due to the fact that
he disapproved the policy of the viceroy, and that he put faith
in the assurance that Great Britain harboured no design against
the reigning house or its territorial domain.

To the surprise of the Chinese, who in their native histories find
that an Asiatic conqueror always takes possession of as much territory
as he is able to hold, it soon became evident that the Queen of
England did not make war in the spirit of conquest. Her premier,
Lord Palmerston, invited the cooeperation of France, Russia, and
the United States, in a movement which was expected to issue
advantageously to all, especially to China. France, at that time
under an ambitious successor of the great Napoleon, seized the
opportunity to contribute a strong contingent, with the view of
checkmating England and of obtaining for herself a free hand in
Indo-China, possibly in China Proper also. For assuming a hostile
[Page 165]
attitude towards China, she found a pretext in the judicial murder of a
missionary in Kwangsi, just as Germany found two of her missionaries
similarly useful as an excuse for the occupation of Kiao-Chao in
1897. No wonder the Chinese have grown cautious how they molest a
missionary; but they needed practical teaching before they learned
the lesson.

Unable to take a morsel of China as long as his powerful ally abstained
from territorial aggrandisement, Louis Napoleon subsequently employed
his troops to enlarge the borders of a small state which the French
claimed in Annam, laying the foundation of a dominion which goes
far to console them for the loss of India. America and Russia,
having no wrongs to redress, declined to send troops, but consented
to give moral support to a movement for placing foreign relations
with China on a satisfactory basis.

In the spring of 1858, the representatives of the four powers met
at the mouth of the Peiho, cooeperating in a loose sort of concert
which permitted each one to carryon negotiations on his own account.
As interpreter to the Hon. W. B. Reed, the American minister, I
enjoyed the best of opportunities for observing what went on behind
the scenes, besides being a spectator of more than one battle.

The neutrals, arriving in advance of the belligerents, opened
negotiations with the Viceroy of Chihli, which might have added
supplementary articles, but must have left the old treaties
substantially unchanged. The other envoys coming on the stage insisted
that the viceroy should wear the title and be clothed with the
powers of a plenipotentiary. When that was
[Page 166]
refused, as being "incompatible with the absolute sovereignty of
the Emperor," they stormed the forts and proceeded to Tientsin
where they were met by men whose credentials were made out in due
form, though it is doubtful if their powers exceeded those of the
crestfallen viceroy. A pitiful artifice to maintain their affectation
of superiority was the placing of the names of foreign countries
one space lower than that of China in the despatch announcing their
appointment. When this covert insult was pointed out they apologised
for a clerical error, and had the despatches rectified.

The allies were able to dictate their own terms; and they got all
they asked for, though, as will be seen, they did not ask enough.
The rest of us got the same, though we had struck no blow and shed
no blood. One article, known as "the most-favoured-nation clause"
(already in the treaty of 1844), was all that we required to enable
us to pick up the fruit when others shook the tree.

Four additional seaports were opened, but Tienstin, where the treaties
were drawn up, was not one of them. I remember hearing Lord Elgin,
whose will was absolute, say that he was not willing to have it
thrown open to commerce, because in that case it would be used
to overawe the capital--just as if _overaweing_ were not the
very thing needed to make a bigoted government enter on the path of
progress. Never did a man in repute for statesmanship show himself
more shortsighted. His blunder led to the renewal of the war, and
its continuance for two more years.

[Page 167]
The next year when the envoys came to the mouth of the river, on
their way to Peking to exchange ratified copies of their treaties,
they found the forts rebuilt, the river closed, and access to the
capital by way of Tientsin bluntly refused. In taking this action,
the Chinese were not chargeable with a breach of faith; but the
allies, feeling insulted at having the door shut in their faces,
decided to force it open. They had a strong squadron; but their
gunboats were no match for the forts. Some were sunk; others were
beached; and the day ended in disastrous defeat. Though taking no
part in the conflict the Americans were not indifferent spectators.
Hearing that the British admiral was wounded, their commodore, the
brave old Tatnall, went through a shower of bullets to express
his sympathy, getting his boat shattered and losing a man on the
way. When requested to lend a helping hand, he exclaimed "Blood
is thicker than water;" and, throwing neutrality to the winds,
he proceeded to tow up a flotilla of British barges. His words
have echoed around the world; and his act, though impolitic from
the viewpoint of diplomacy, had the effect of knitting closer the
ties of two kindred nations.

Seeing the repulse of the allies, the American minister, the Hon.
J. E. Ward, resolved to accept an offer which they had declined,
namely, to proceed to the capital by land under a Chinese escort.
His country was pledged in the treaty, of which he was the bearer,
to use her good offices on the occurrence of difficulties with
other powers. Without cavilling at the prescribed route or mode
of conveyance, he felt it his duty to present himself before the
Throne as speedily
[Page 168]
as possible in the hope of averting a threatened calamity. For
him, it was an opportunity to do something great and good; for
China, it was the last chance to ward off a crushing blow. But
so elated were the Chinese by their unexpected success that they
were in no mood to accept the services of a mediator. The Emperor
insisted that he should go on his knees like the tribute-bearer
from a vassal state. "Tell them," said Mr. Ward, "that I go on
my knees only to God and woman"--a speech brave and chivalrous,
but undignified for a minister and unintelligible to the Chinese.
With this he quitted the capital and left China to her fate. He
was not the first envoy to meet a rude rebuff at the Chinese court.
In 1816 Lord Amherst was not allowed to see the "Dragon's Face"
because he refused to kneel. At that date England was not in a
position to punish the insult; but it had something to do with the
war of 1839. In 1859 it was pitiful to see a power whose existence
was hanging in the scales alienate a friend by unseemly insolence.

The following year (1860) saw the combined forces of two empires
at the gates of Peking. The summer palace was laid in ashes to
punish the murder of a company of men and officers under a flag
of truce; and it continues to be an unsightly ruin. The Emperor
fled to Tartary to find a grave; and throne and capital were for
the first time at the mercy of an Occidental army. On the accession
of Hien-feng, in 1850, an old counsellor advised him to make it
his duty to "restore the restrictions all along the coast." His
attempt to do this was one source of his misfortunes. Supplementary
articles were signed within the walls,
[Page 169]
by which China relinquished her absurd pretensions, abandoned her
long seclusion, and, at the instance of France, threw open the
whole empire to the labours of Christian missions. They had been
admitted by rescript to the Five Ports, but no further.

Thus ends the second act of the drama; and a spectator must be
sadly deficient in spiritual insight if he does not perceive the
hand of God overruling the strife of nations and the blunders of
statesmen.

ACT 3. WAR WITH FRANCE

The curtain rises on the third act of the drama in 1885. Peking was
open to residence, and I had charge of a college for the training
of diplomatic agents.

I was at Pearl Grotto, my summer refuge near Peking, when I was
called to town by a messenger from the Board of Foreign Affairs.
The ministers informed me that the French had destroyed their fleet
and seized their arsenal at Foochow. "This," they said, "is war. We
desire to know how the non-combatants of the enemy are to be treated
according to the rules of international law." I wrote out a brief
statement culled from text-books, which I had myself translated
for the use of the Chinese Government; but before I had finished
writing a clerk came to say that the Grand Council wished to have
it as soon as possible, as they were going to draw up a decree on
the subject. The next day an imperial decree proclaimed a state
of war and assured French people in China that if they refrained
from taking part in any hostile act they might remain in their
places, and count on full protection. Nobly did the government of
the day redeem its pledge.
[Page 170]
Not a missionary was molested in the interior; and two French professors
belonging to my own faculty were permitted to go on with the instruction
of their classes.

There was not much fighting. The French seized Formosa; and both
parties were preparing for a trial of strength, when a seemingly
unimportant occurrence led them to come to an understanding. A small
steamer belonging to the customs service, employed in supplying the
wants of lighthouses, having been taken by the French, Sir Robert
Hart applied to the French premier, Jules Ferry, for its release.
This was readily granted; and an intimation was at the same time
given that the French would welcome overtures for a settlement
of the quarrel. Terms were easily agreed upon and the two parties
resumed the _status quo ante bellum_.

So far as the stipulations were concerned neither party had gained
or lost anything, yet as a matter of fact France had scored a
substantial victory. She was henceforward left in quiet possession
of Tongking, a principality which China had regarded as a vassal
and endeavoured to protect.

ACT 4. WAR WITH JAPAN

China had not thoroughly learned the lesson suggested by this
experience; for ten years later a fourth act in the drama grew out
of her unwise attempt to protect another vassal.

In 1894 the Japanese, provoked by China's interference with their
enterprises in Korea, boldly drew the sword and won for themselves
a place among the great powers. I was in Japan when the war broke
[Page 171]
out, and, being asked by a company of foreigners what I thought
of Japan's chances, answered, "The swordfish can kill the whale."

Not merely did the islanders expel the Chinese from the Korean
peninsula, but they took possession of those very districts in
Manchuria from which they have but yesterday ousted the Russians.
Peking itself was in danger when Li Hung Chang was sent to the
Mikado to sue for peace. Luckily for China a Japanese assassin
lodged a bullet in the head of her ambassador; and the Mikado,
ashamed of that cowardly act, granted peace on easy conditions.
China's greatest statesman carried that bullet in his _dura mater_
to the end of his days, proud to have made himself an offering for
his country, and rejoicing that one little ball had silenced the
batteries of two empires.

By the terms of the treaty, Japan was to be left in possession
of Port Arthur and Liao-tung. But this arrangement was in fatal
opposition to the policy of a great power which had already cast
covetous eyes on the rich provinces of Manchuria. Securing the
support of France and Germany, Russia compelled the Japanese to
withdraw; and in the course of three years she herself occupied
those very positions, kindling in the bosom of Japan the fires
of revenge, and sowing the seeds of another war.[*]

[Footnote *: The Russo-Japanese war lies outside of our present
programme because China was not a party to it, though it involved
her interests and even her existence. The subject will be treated
in another chapter.]

The effect of China's defeat at the hands of her despised neighbour,
was, if possible, more profound than that of her humiliation by
the English and
[Page 172]
French in 1860. She saw how the adoption of Western methods had
clothed a small Oriental people with irresistible might; and her
wisest statesmen set themselves to work a similar transformation
in their antiquated empire. The young Emperor showed himself an
apt pupil, issuing a series of reformatory edicts, which alarmed
the conservatives and provoked a reaction that constitutes the
last act in this tremendous drama.

ACT 5. THE BOXER WAR

The fifth act opens with the _coup d'etat_ of the Empress
Dowager, and terminates with the capture of Peking by the combined
forces of the civilised world.

Instead of attempting, even in outline, a narrative of events, it
will be more useful to direct attention to the springs of action.
It should be borne in mind that the late Emperor was the adopted son
of the Dowager Empress. After the death of her own son, Tung-chi,
who occupied the throne for eleven years under a joint regency
of two empresses, his mother cast about for some one to adopt in
his stead. With motives not difficult to divine she chose among
her nephews an infant of three summers, and gave him the title
_Kwangsu_, "Illustrious Successor." When he was old enough
to be entrusted with the reins of government, she made a feint
of laying down her power, in deference to custom. Yet she exacted
of the imperial youth that he visit her at her country palace and
throw himself at her feet once in five days--proof enough that
she kept her hand on the helm, though she
[Page 173]
mitted her nephew to pose as steersman. She herself was noted for
progressive ideas; and it was not strange that the young man, under
the influence of Kang Yuwei, backed by enlightened viceroys, should
go beyond his adoptive mother. Within three years from the close
of the war he had proclaimed a succession of new measures which
amounted to a reversal of the old policy; nor is it likely that
she disapproved of any of them, until the six ministers of the
Board of Rites, the guardians of a sort of Levitical law, besought
her to save the empire from the horrors of a revolution.

For her to command was to be obeyed. The viceroys were her appointees;
and she knew they would stand by her to a man. The Emperor, though
nominally independent, was not emancipated from the obligations of
filial duty, which were the more binding as having been created
by her voluntary choice. There was no likelihood that he would
offer serious resistance; and it was certain that he would not
be supported if he did. Coming from behind the veil, she snatched
the sceptre from his inexperienced hand, as a mother takes a deadly
weapon from a half-grown boy. Submitting to the inevitable he made
a formal surrender of his autocratic powers and, confessing his
errors, implored her "to teach him how to govern." This was in
September, 1898.

Stripped of every vestige of authority, the unhappy prince was
confined, a prisoner of state, in a secluded palace where it was
thought he would soon receive the present of a silken scarf as a hint
to make way for a worthier successor. That his life was spared was no
[Page 174]
doubt due to a certain respect for the public sentiment of the
world, to which China is not altogether insensible. He having no
direct heir, the son of Prince Tuan was adopted by the Dowager
as heir-apparent, evidently in expectation of a vacancy soon to
be filled. Prince Tuan, hitherto unknown in the politics of the
state, became, from that moment, the leader of a reactionary party.
Believing that his son would soon be called to the throne by the
demise of the Emperor, he put on all the airs of a _Tai-shang
Hwang_, or "Father of an Emperor."

Here again the _patria potestas_ comes in as a factor; and
in the brief career of the father of the heir-apparent, it shows
itself in its most exaggerated form. Under the influence of the
reactionary clique, of which he was acknowledged chief, the Empress
Dowager in her new regency was induced to repeal almost everything
the Emperor had done in the way of reform. In her edict she said
cynically: "It does not follow that we are to stop eating, because
we have been choked!" Dislike to foreign methods engendered an
ill-concealed hatred of foreigners; and just at this epoch occurred
a series of aggressions by foreign powers, which had the effect
of fanning that hatred into a flame.

In the fall of 1897 Germany demanded the cession of Kiao-Chao,
calling it a lease for 99 years. The next spring Russia under the
form of a lease for 25 years obtained Port Arthur for the terminus
of her long railway. England and France followed suit: one taking
a _lease_ of Wei-hai-wei; the other, of Kwang-chou-wan. Though
in every case the word "lease"
[Page 175]
was employed, the Chinese knew the transfer meant permanent alienation.

A hue and cry was raised against what they described as the "slicing
of the melon," and in Shantung, where the first act of spoliation
had taken place, the Boxers, a turbulent society of long standing,
were encouraged to wage open war against native Christians, foreigners
and foreign products, including railways, telegraphs, and all sorts
of merchandise.

Not until those predatory bands had entered the metropolitan province,
with the avowed object of pushing their way to Peking[*] did the
legations take steps to strengthen their guards. A small reinforcement
of 207 men luckily reached Peking a few days before the railway
was wrecked.

[Footnote *: On March 30, 1900, the following Boxer manifesto in
jingling rhyme, was thrown into the London Mission, at Tientsin. It
is here given in a prose version, taken from "A Flight for Life,"
by the Rev. J. H. Roberts, Pilgrim Press, Boston.

"We Boxers have come to Tientsin to kill an foreign devils, and
protect the Manchu dynasty. Above, there is the Empress Dowager
on our side, and below there is Junglu. The soldiers of Yulu and
Yuhien [governors of Shantung and Chihli] are an our men. When
we have finished killing in Tientsin, we shall go to Peking. All
the officials high and low will welcome us. Whoever is afraid let
him quickly escape for his life."]

With a view to protect the foreign settlement at Tientsin, then
threatened by Boxers, the combined naval forces stormed the forts
at the mouth of the river, and advanced to that rich emporium. The
Court denounced this as an act of war, and ordered all foreigners
to leave the capital within twenty-four hours. That meant slaughter
at the hands of the Boxers. The foreign ministers protested, and
[Page 176]
endeavoured by prolonged negotiation to avoid compliance with the
cruel order.

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