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

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The existence of an _imperium in imperio_ which comes between
them and their people is of course distasteful to the mandarins;
and they are bent on curtailing its privileges. If its franchises
were surrendered, "Ichabod" might be inscribed on the gates of
the model settlement.

The practice of marking out a special quarter for each nationality
is an old one in China, adopted for convenience. When, after the
first war, the British exacted the opening of ports, they required
the grant of a concession in each, within which their consuls should
have chief, if not exclusive authority. Other nations made the
same demands; and China made the grants, not as to the British
from necessity, but apparently from choice--the foreign consul
being bound to keep his people in order. Now, however, the influx
of natives into the foreign settlements, and the enormous growth
of those mixed communities in wealth and population, have led the
Chinese Government to look on the ready compliance of its predecessors
as a blunder. Accordingly, in opening new ports in the interior it
marks out a foreign quarter, but makes no "concession." It does not
as before waive the exercise of jurisdiction within those limits.

[Page 258]
The above question relates solely to the government of Chinese
residing in the foreign "concessions." But there is a larger question
now looming on the political sky, viz., how to recover the right
of control over foreigners, wherever they may be in the Empire.
If it were in their power, the Chinese would cancel not merely
the franchises of foreign settlements, but the treaty right of
exemption from control by the local government. This is a franchise
of vital interest to the foreigner, whose life and property would
not be safe were they dependent on the native tribunals as these
are at present constituted.

Such exemption is customary in Turkey and other Moslem countries,
not to say among the Negroes of Africa. It was recognised by treaty
in Japan; and the Japanese, in proportion as they advanced in the
path of reform, felt galled by an exception which fixed on them the
stigma of barbarism. When they had proved their right to a place
in the comity of nations, with good laws administered, foreign
powers cheerfully consented to allow them the exercise of all the
prerogatives of sovereignty.

How does her period of probation compare with that of her neighbour?
Japan resolved on national renovation on Western lines in 1868.
China came to no such resolution until the collapse of her attempt
to exterminate the foreigner in 1900. With her the age of reform
dates from the return of the Court in 1902--as compared with Japan
four years to thirty! Then what a contrast in the animus of the
two countries! The one characterised by law and order, the other
[Page 259]
by mob violence, unrestrained, if not instigated, by the authorities!

When the north wind tried to compel a traveller to take off his
cloak, the cloak was wrapped the closer and held the tighter. When
the sun came out with his warm beams, the traveller stripped it
off of his own accord.

The sunrise empire has exemplified the latter method; China prefers
the former. Is it not to be feared that the apparent success of
the boycott will encourage her to persist in the policy of the
traveller in the north wind. She ought to be notified that she
is on probation, and that the only way to recover the exercise of
her sovereign rights is to show herself worthy of confidence. The
Boxer outbreak postponed by many years the withdrawal of the cloak
of ex-territoriality, and every fresh exhibition of mob violence
defers that event to a more distant date.

To confound "stranger" with "enemy" is the error of Bedouin or
Afghan. Does not China do the same when she mistakes hostility to
foreigners for patriotism? By this blunder she runs the risk of
alienating her best friends, England and America. A farmer attempting
to rope up a shaky barrel in which a hen was sitting on a nest full
of eggs, the silly fowl mistook him for an enemy and flew in his
face. Is not China in danger of being left to the fate which her
friends have sought to avert?

In April a magistrate went by invitation to the French Catholic
Mission to settle a long-standing dispute, and he settled it by
committing suicide--in China the most dreaded form of revenge. Carried
[Page 260]
out gasping but speechless, he intimated that he was the victim of a
murderous attack by the senior priest. His wounds were photographed;
and the pictures were circulated with a view to exciting the mob.
Gentry and populace held meetings for the purpose of screwing their
courage up to the required pitch--governor and mandarins kept carefully
in the background--and on the fifth day the mission buildings were
destroyed and the priests killed. An English missionary, his wife
and daughter, living not far away, were set upon and slain, not
because they were not known to belong to another nation and another
creed, but because an infuriated mob does not care to discriminate.

English and French officials proceeded to the scene in gunboats to
examine the case and arrange a settlement. The case of the English
family was settled without difficulty; but that of the French mission
was more complicated. Among the French demands were two items which
the Chinese Government found embarrassing. It had accepted the
theory of murder and hastily conferred posthumous honours on the
deceased magistrate. The French demanded the retraction of those
honors, and a public admission of suicide. To pay a money indemnity
and cashier a governor was no great hardship, but how could the
court submit to the humiliation of dancing to the tune of a French
piper? An English surgeon declared, in a sealed report of autopsy,
that the wounds must have been self-inflicted, as their position
made it impossible for them to have been inflicted by an assailant.
But

[Note from PG proofer: two lines of text missing here.]

[Page 261]
In 1870 France accepted a money payment for the atrocious massacre at
Tientsin, because the Second Empire was entering on a life-and-death
struggle with Germany. If she makes things easy for China this time,
will it not be because the Republic is engaged in mortal combat
with the Roman Church?

China's constant friction and frequent collisions with France spring
chiefly from two sources; (1) the French protectorate over the Roman
missions, and (2) the menacing attitude of France in Indo-China.
It was to avenge the judicial murder of a missionary that Louis
Napoleon sent troops to China in 1857-60. From this last date the
long-persecuted Church assumed an imperious tone. The restitution
of confiscated property was a source of endless trouble; and the
certainty of being backed up by Church and State emboldened native
converts not only to insist on their own rights, but to mix in
disputes with which they had no necessary connection--a practice
which more than anything else has tended to bring the Holy Faith
into disrepute among the Chinese people.

Yet, on the other side, there are more fruitful sources of difficulty
in the ignorance of the people and in the unfair treatment of converts
by the Chinese Government. While the Government, having no conception
of religious freedom, extends to Christians of all creeds a compulsory
toleration and views them as traitors to their country, is it not
natural for their pagan neighbours to treat them with dislike and
suspicion?

In this state of mind they, like the pagans of ancient Rome, charge
them with horrible crimes, and seize the slightest occasion for
murderous attack. A church
[Page 262]
spire is said to disturb the good luck of a neighbourhood--the
people burn the building. A rumour is started that babies in a
foundling hospital have their eyes taken out to make into photographic
medicine--the hospital is demolished and the Sisters of Charity
killed. A skeleton found in the house of a physician is paraded
on the street as proof of diabolical acts--instantly an angry mob
wrecks the building and murders every foreigner within its reach.
One of these instances was seen in the Tientsin massacre of 1869,
the other in the Lienchow massacre of 1905. Nor are these isolated
cases. Two American ladies doing hospital work in Canton were set
upon by a mob, who accused them of killing a man whose life they
were trying to save, and they narrowly escaped murder. But why
extend the gruesome list? In view of their mad fury, so fatal to
their benefactors, one is tempted to exclaim: _Unglaube du bist
nicht so viel ein ungeheuer als aberglaube du!_ "Of the twin
monsters, unbelief and superstition, the more to be dreaded is
the last!"

In China if a man falls in the street, the priest and Levite consult
their own safety by keeping at a distance; and if a good Samaritan
stoops to pick him up it is at his peril. In treating the sick a
medical man requires as much courage and tact as if he were dealing
with lunatics! These dark shadows, so harmful to the good name of
China, are certain to be dissipated by the numerous agencies now
employed to diffuse intelligence. But what of the feeling towards
religious missions?

Medical missions are recognised as a potent agency in overcoming
prejudice. They reach the heart of
[Page 263]
the people by ministering to their bodily infirmities; high officials
are among their supporters; and the Empress Dowager latterly showed a
disposition to give them her patronage. But how about the preaching
missionary and the teaching missionary? Are the Chinese hostile
to these branches of missionary work?

Unlike Mohammedan or Brahman, the Chinese are not strongly attached
to any form of religious faith. They take no umbrage at the offer
of a new creed, particularly if it have the advantage of being
akin to that of their ancient sages. What they object to is not
the creed, but the foreigner who brings it. Their newspapers are in
fact beginning to agitate the question of accepting the Christian
faith and propagating it in their own way, without aid from the
foreigner. That they would be glad to see merchant and missionary
leave them in peace, no one can doubt. Yet the influence of missions
is steadily on the increase; and their influence for good is
acknowledged by the leading minds of the Empire.

Said the High Commissioner Tuan Fang, in an address to the Mission
Boards at New York, February 2,1906:

"We take pleasure this evening in bearing testimony to the part
taken by American missionaries in promoting the progress of the
Chinese people. They have borne the light of Western civilisation into
every nook and corner of the Empire. They have rendered inestimable
service to China by the laborious task of translating into the Chinese
language religious and scientific works of the West. They help us
to bring happiness and comfort to the poor and the suffering by
the establishment
[Page 264]
of hospitals and schools. The awakening of China which now seems
to be at hand may be traced in no small measure to the hand of the
missionary. For this service you will find China not ungrateful."

Mission stations, now counted by hundreds, have generally high
schools or colleges. Not only is the science taught in them up-to-date,
but the conscientious manner in which they are conducted makes
them an object-lesson to those officials who are charged with the
supervision of government schools. To name only a few:

Here in Peking is a university of the American Methodist Episcopal
Church which is not unworthy of the name it bears. At Tungchow, a
suburb of the capital, is a noble college of the American Board
(Congregationalist) which is in every point a worthy compeer. These
cooeperate with each other and with a Union Medical College which
under the London Mission has won the favour of the Empress Dowager.

The American Presbyterian Mission has a high school and a theological
seminary, and cooeperates to a certain extent with the three societies
above named. A quadrilateral union like this speaks volumes as
to the spirit in which the work of Christian education is being
carried forward. The Atlantic is bridged and two nations unite;
denominational differences are forgotten in view of the mighty
enterprise of converting an empire. In the economy of their teaching
force they already experience the truth of the maxim "Union is
Strength."

In Shantung, at Weihien, there is a fine college in
[Page 265]
which English Baptists unite with American Presbyterians. The original
plant of the latter was a college at Tengchow, which under Dr.
Mateer afforded conclusive proof that an education deep and broad
may be given through the medium of the Chinese language. In most
of these schools the English language is now claiming a prominent
place, not as the sole medium for instruction, but as a key to the
world's literature, and a preparation for intercourse with foreign
nations.

At Shanghai, which takes the lead in education as in commerce,
there is an admirable institution called St. John's College which
makes English the basis of instruction. Numberless other schools
make it a leading branch of study to meet the wants of a centre
of foreign trade.

One of the best known institutions of Shanghai is a Roman Catholic
College at Siccawei, which preserves the traditions of Matteo Ricci,
and his famous convert Paul Sue. In connection with it are an
astronomical observatory and a weather bureau, which are much
appreciated by foreigners in China, and ought to be better known
throughout the Empire.

Passing down a coast on which colleges are more numerous than
lighthouses, one comes to Canton, where, near the "Great City"
and beautifully conspicuous, rises the Canton Christian College.

These are mentioned by way of example, to show what missionaries are
doing for the education of China. It is a narrow view of education
that confines it to teaching in schools. Missionaries led the way
in Chinese journalism and in the preparation of textbooks in all
branches of science. The Society for the
[Page 266]
Diffusion of Useful Knowledge is spreading broadcast the seeds of
secular and religious truth.

Gratitude for the good they have already done, as well as for benefits
to come, ought to lead the Chinese Government to accord a generous
recognition to all these institutions. At the opening of the Union
Medical College, Mr. Rockhill, the American minister, in a remarkable
address, proposed the recognition of their degrees by the Government;
and as a representative of the Empress Dowager was in the chair on
that occasion, there is reason to hope that his suggestion will
not be overlooked.

[Page 267]
CHAPTER XXXII

THE MANCHUS, THE NORMANS OF CHINA

_The Ta-Ts'ing Dynasty--The Empress Dowager--Her Origin--Her
First Regency--Her Personality--Other Types--Two Manchu Princes--Two
Manchu Ministers--The Nation's Choice--Conclusions_

In a wide survey of the history of the world, we discover a law
which appears to govern the movements of nations. Those of the
north show a tendency to encroach on those of the south. The former
are nomads, hunters, or fishers, made bold by a constant struggle
with the infelicities of their environment. The latter are occupied
with the settled industries of civilised life.

The Goths and Vandals of Rome, and the Tartars under Genghis and
Tamerlane all conform to this law and seem to be actuated by a
common impulse. In the east and west of the Eastern hemisphere
may be noted two examples of this general movement, which afford
a curious parallel: I refer to the Normans of Great Britain and
the Manchus of China. Both empires are under the sway of dynasties
which originated in the north; for the royal house of Britain,
though under another title, has always been proud of its Norman
blood.

The Normans who conquered Britain had first
[Page 268]
settled in France and there acquired the arts of civilised life.
The Manchus coming from the banks of the Amur settled in Liao-tung,
a region somewhat similarly situated with reference to China. There
they learned something of the civilisation of China, and watched
for an opportunity to obtain possession of the empire. In Britain a
kindred branch of the Norman family was on the throne, and William
the Conqueror contrived to give his invasion a colour of right, by
claiming the throne under an alleged bequest of Edward the Confessor.
The Manchus, though not invoking such artificial sanction, aspired
to the dominion of China because their ancestors of the Golden
Horde had ruled over the northern half of the empire. The Norman
conquest, growing out of a family quarrel, was decided by a single
battle. The Manchus' conquest of a country more than ten times the
extent of Britain was not so easy to effect. Yet they achieved
it with unexampled rapidity, because they came by invitation and
they brought peace to a people exhausted by long wars. Their task
was comparatively easy in the north, where the traditions of the
Kin Tartars still survived; but it was prolonged and bloody in
the south.

Both houses treated their new subjects as a conquered people. Each
imposed the burden of foreign garrisons and a new nobility. Each
introduced a foreign language, which they tried to perpetuate as
the speech of the court, if not of the people. In each case the
language of the people asserted itself. In Britain it absorbed
and assimilated the alien tongue; in China, where the absence of
common elements made amalgamation
[Page 269]
impossible, it superseded that of the conquerors, not merely for
writing purposes, but as the spoken dialect of the court.

Both conquerors found it necessary to conciliate the subject race
by liberal and timely concessions; but here begins a contrast.
In Britain no external badge of subjection was ever imposed; in
process of time all special privileges of the ruling caste were
abolished; and no trace of race antipathy ever displays itself
anywhere--if we except Ireland. In China the cue remains as a badge
of subjection. Habit has reconciled the people to its use; but it
still offers a tempting grip to revolutionary agitators. Every
party that raises the standard of revolt abolishes the cue; would
it not be wise for the Manchu Government to make the wearing of
that appendage a matter of option, especially as it is beginning
to disappear from their soldiers' uniform?

The extension of reform in dress from camp to court and from court
to people (to them as a matter of option) would remove a danger.
It would also remove a barrier in the way of China's admission
into the congress of nations. The abolition of the cue implies
the abandonment of those long robes which make such an impression
of barbaric pomp. Already the Chinese are tacitly permitted to
adopt foreign dress; and in every case they have to dispense with
the cue. The Japanese never did a wiser thing than to adopt our
Western costume. Their example tends to encourage a reform of the
same kind in China. A new costume means a new era.

Another point is required to complete the parallel:
[Page 270]
each victor has given the conquered country a better government
than any in its previous history. To Confucius feudalism was a
beau-ideal, and he beautifully compares the sovereign to the North
Star which sits in state on the pole of the heavens while all the
constellations revolve around it, and pay it homage. Yet was the
centralised government of the First Hwang-ti an immense improvement
on the loose agglomeration of the Chous. The great dynasties have all
adopted the principle of centralisation; but not one has applied it
with such success, nor is there one which shows so large a proportion
of respectable rulers as the house of Ta-ts'ing. Of the first six
some account has been given in Part II. As to the next two it is
too soon to have the verdict of history. One died after a brief
reign of two years and three months, too short to show character.
The other now sits at the foot of the throne, while his adoptive
mother sways the sceptre. Both have been overshadowed by the Empress
Dowager and controlled by her masterful spirit.

China has had female rulers that make figures in history, such as
Lu of the Han and Wu of the T'ang dynasties, but she has no law
providing for the succession of a female under any conditions. A
female reign is abnormal, and the ruler a monstrosity. Her character
is always blackened so as to make it difficult to delineate. Yet in
every instance those women have possessed rare talent; for without
uncommon gifts it must have been impossible to seize a sceptre
in the face of such prejudices, and to sway it over a submissive
people. Usually they are described much as the Jewish chronicler
sketches the character of Jezebel
[Page 271]
or Athaliah. Cruel, licentious, and implacable, they "destroy the
seed royal," they murder the prophets and they make the ears of
the nation tingle with stories of shameless immorality.

Among these we shall not seek a parallel for the famous Empress
Dowager, so well known to the readers of magazine literature. In
tragic vicissitudes, if not in length of reign, she stood without
a rival in the history of the world. She also stood alone in the
fact that her destinies were interwoven with the tangle of foreign
invasion. Twice she fled from the gates of a fallen capital; and
twice did the foreign conqueror permit her to return. Without the
foreigner and his self-imposed restraint, there could have been no
Empress Dowager in China. Did she hate the foreigner for driving
her away, or did she thank him for her repeated restoration?

The daughter of Duke Chou (the slave-girl story is a myth), she
became a secondary wife of Hienfung in 1853 or 1854; and her sister
somewhat later became consort of the Emperor's youngest brother.
Having the happiness to present her lord with a son, she was raised
to the rank of Empress and began to exert no little influence in the
character of mother to an heir-apparent. Had she not been protected
by her new rank her childless rival might have driven her from
court and appropriated the boy. She had instead to admit a joint
motherhood, which in a few years led to a joint regency.

Scarcely had the young Empress become accustomed to her new dignity,
when the fall of Taku and Tientsin, in 1860, warned the Emperor
of what he might
[Page 272]
expect. Taking the two imperial ladies and their infant son, he
retired to Jeho, on the borders of Tartary, in time to escape capture.
There he heard of the burning of his summer palace and the surrender
of his capital. Whether he succumbed to disease or whether a proud
nature refused to survive his disgrace, is not known. What we do
know is, that on his death, in 1861, two princes, Sushun and Tuanhwa,
organised a regency and brought the court back to the capital about
a year after the treaty of peace had been signed by Prince Kung as
the Emperor's representative. Prince Kung was not included in the
council of regency; and he knew that he was marked for destruction.
Resolving to be beforehand, he found means to consult with the
Empresses, who looked to him to rescue them from the tyranny of
the Council of Eight. On December 2 the blow was struck: all the
members of the council were seized; the leader was put to death in
the market-place; some committed suicide; and others were condemned
to exile. A new regency was formed, consisting of the two Empresses
and Prince Kung, the latter having the title of "joint regent."

What part the Empress Mother had taken in this her first _coup
d'etat_, is left to conjecture. Penetrating and ambitious she
was not content to be a tool in the hands of the Eight. The senior
Empress yielded to the ascendency of a superior mind, as she continued
to do for twenty years.

There was another actor whom it would be wrong to overlook, namely,
Kweiliang, the good secretary, who had signed the treaties at Tientsin.
His daughter
[Page 273]
was Prince Kung's principal wife, and though too old to take a
leading part in the Court revolutions, it was he who prompted Prince
Kung, who was young and inexperienced, to strike for his life.

The reigning title of the infant Emperor was changed from
_Kisiang_, "good luck," to _Tung-chi_, "joint government";
and the Empire acquiesced in the new regime.

One person there was, however, who was not quite satisfied with
the arrangement. This was the restless, ambitious young Dowager.
The Empire was quiet; and things went on in their new course for
years, Prince Kung all the time growing in power and dignity. His
growing influence gave her umbrage; and one morning a decree from
the two Dowagers stripped him of power, and confined him a prisoner
in his palace. His alleged offence was want of respect to their
Majesties; he threw himself at their feet and implored forgiveness.

The ladies were not implacable; he was restored to favour and clothed
with all his former dignities, except one. The title of
_Icheng-wang_, "joint regent," never reappeared.

In 1881 the death of the senior Dowager left the second Dowager
alone in her glory. So harmoniously had they cooeperated during
their joint regency, and so submissive had the former been to the
will of the latter, that there was no ground for suspicion of foul
play, yet such suspicions are always on the wing, like bats in
the twilight of an Oriental court.

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