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

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On the death of Tung-chi, the adroit selection of a nephew of three
summers to succeed to the throne as her adopted son, gave the Dowager
the prospect of another long regency. Recalled to power by the
[Page 274]
reactionaries, in 1898, after a brief retirement, the Empress Dowager
dethroned her puppet by a second _coup-d'etat_.

During the ruinous recoil that followed she had the doubtful
satisfaction of feeling herself sole aristocrat of the Chinese
Empire. Was it not the satisfaction of a gladiator who seated himself
on the throne of the Caesars in a burning amphitheatre? Was she
not made sensible that she, too, was a creature of circumstances,
when her ill-judged policy compelled her a second time to seek
safety in flight? A helpless fugitive, how could she conceive that
fortune held in reserve for her brighter days than she had ever
experienced?

Accepting the situation and returning with the Emperor, the Empire
and the world accepted her, and, taught by experience, she engaged
in the congenial task of renovating the Chinese people. Advancing
years, consciousness of power, and willing conformity to the freer
usages of European courts, all conspired to lead her to throw aside
the veil and to appear openly as the chief actor on this imperial
stage.

Six years ago her seventieth birthday was celebrated with great
pomp, although she had forbidden her people to be too lavish in
their loyalty. At Wuchang, Tuan Fang, who was acting viceroy, gave
a banquet at which he asked me to make a speech in the Dowager's
honor. The task was a delicate one for a man who had borne the
hardships of a siege in 1900; but I accepted it, and excused the
Dowager on the principle of British law, that "The king can do no
[Page 275]
wrong." Throwing the blame on her ministers, I pronounced a eulogy
on her talents and her public services.

The question arises, did we know her in person and character? Have
we not seen her in that splendid portrait executed by Miss Carl,
and exhibited at St. Louis? If we suspect the artist of flattery,
have we not a gallery of photographs, in which she shows herself
in many a majestic pose? Is flattery possible to a sunbeam? We
certainly see her as truly as we see ourselves in a mirror!

As to character, it is too soon to express an opinion. _Varium
et mutabile semper femina_.

To pencil and sunbeam add word-pictures by men and women from whose
critical eyes she did not conceal herself; and we may confidently
affirm that we knew her personal appearance as well as we knew that
of any lady who occupies or shares a European throne. A trifle
under the average height of European ladies, so perfect were her
proportions and so graceful her carriage that she seemed to need
nothing to add to her majesty. Her features were vivacious and
pleasing rather than beautiful; her complexion, not yellow, but
subolive, and her face illuminated by orbs of jet, half-hidden
by dark lashes, behind which lurked the smiles of favour or the
lightning of anger. No one would take her to be over forty. She
carried tablets on which, even during conversation, she jotted
down memoranda. Her pencil was the support of her sceptre. With it
she sent out her autograph commands; and with it, too, she inscribed
those pictured characters which were worn as the proudest decorations
[Page 276]
of her ministers. I have seen them in gilded frames in the hall
of a viceroy.

The elegance of her culture excited sincere admiration in a country
where women are illiterate; and the breadth of her understanding
was such as to take in the details of government. She chose her
agents with rare judgment, and shifted them from pillar to post,
so that they might not forget their dependence on her will. Without
a parallel in her own country, she has been sometimes compared
with Catherine II. of Russia. She had the advantage in the decency
of her private life; for though she is said to have had favourites
they have never dared to boast of her favours, nor was a curious
public ever able to identify them.

Her full name, including honorific epithets added by the Academy,
was Tse Hi Tuanyin Kangyi Chaoyu Chuangcheng Shoukung Chinhien
Chunghi. A few hours before her death, which occurred on the day
after the Emperor's, she named his nephew as successor, and the
present ruler, Hsuan-Tung, who was born in 1903, began to reign
November 14, 1908.

Let the Dowager be taken as a type of the Manchu woman. The late
Emperor, though handsome and intelligent, was too small for a
representative of a robust race. Tuan Fang, the High Commissioner,
is a more favourable specimen. The Manchus are in general taller
than the Chinese, and both in physical and intellectual qualities
they prove that their branch of the family is far from effete.

Prince Kung, who for fifteen years presided over the imperial cabinet,
was tall, handsome and urbane.
[Page 277]
Despite the disadvantages of an education in a narrow-minded court,
he displayed a breadth and capacity of a high order. Prince Ching,
who succeeded him in 1875, though less attractive in person, is not
deficient in that sort of astuteness that passes for statesmanship.
What better evidence than that he has kept himself on top of a
rolling log for thirty years? To keep his position through the
dethronement of the Emperor and the convulsions of the Boxer War
required agility and adaptability of no mean order. Personally I
have seen much of both princes. They are abler men than one would
expect to find among the offshoots of an Oriental court.

Wensiang, who from the opening of Peking to his death in 1875 bore
the leading part in the conduct of foreign affairs, showed great
ability in piloting the state through rocks and breakers. His mental
power greatly impressed all foreigners, while it secured him an easy
ascendency among his countrymen. Such men are sure to be overloaded
with official duties in a country like China. Physically he was not
strong; and on one occasion when he came into the room wheezing
with asthma he said to me: "You see I am like a small donkey, with
a tight collar and a heavy load." The success of Prince Kung's
administration was largely due to Wensiang. Paochuin, minister
of finance, and member of the Inner Council, was distinguished
as a literary genius. Prince Kung delighted on festive occasions
to call him and Tungsuin to a contest in extempore verse. To enter
the lists with a noted scholar and poet like Tung, showed how the
Manchus have come to vie with the Chinese in the
[Page 278]
refinements of literary culture. I remember him as a dignified
greybeard, genial and jocose. On the fall of the Kung ministry,
he doffed his honours in three stanzas, which contain more truth
than poetry:

"Through life, as in a pleasing dream,
Unconscious of my years,
In Fortune's smile to bask I seem;
Perennial, Spring appears.

"Alas! Leviathan to take
Defies the fisher's art;
From dreams of glory I awake,--
My youth and power depart.

"That loss is often gain's disguise
May us for loss console.
My fellow-sufferers, take advice
And keep your reason whole."

In more than one crisis, the heart of the nation has cleaved to
the Manchu house as the embodiment of law and order. The people
chose to adhere to a tolerably good government rather than take
the chance of a better one emerging from the strife of factions.

Three things are required to confirm their loyalty: (1) the abolition
of tonsure and pigtail, (2) the abandonment of all privileges in
examinations and in the distribution of offices, (3) the removal
of all impediments in the way of intermarriage.

This last has been recently authorised by proclamation. It is not
so easy for those who are in possession of the loaves and fishes to
admit others to an equal share. If to these were added the abolition
of a degrading
[Page 279]
badge, the Manchu dynasty might hope to be perpetual, because the
Manchus would cease to exist as a people.

CONCLUSIONS

1. More than once I have demanded the expulsion of the Manchus,
and the partition of China. That they deserved it no one who knows
the story of 1900 will venture to deny. It was not without reason
that _Mene tekel_ and _Ichabod_ were engraved on the
medal commemorating the siege in Peking. If I seem to recant, it
is in view of the hopeful change that has come over the spirit of
the Manchu Government. Under the leadership of Dowager Empress
and Emperor, the people were more likely to make peaceful progress
than under a new dynasty or under the Polish policy of division.

2. The prospect of admission to the full privileges of a member of
the brotherhood of nations will act as an incentive to improvement.
But the subjection of foreigners to Chinese jurisdiction ought
not to be conceded without a probation as long and thorough as
that through which Japan had to pass. In view of the treachery
and barbarism so conspicuous in 1900--head-hunting and edicts to
massacre foreigners--a probation of thirty years would not be too
long. During that time the reforms in law and justice should be
fully tested, and the Central Government should be held responsible
for the repression of every tendency to anti-foreign riots.

A government that encourages Boxers and other rioters as patriots
does not merit an equal place in the
[Page 280]
congress of nations. The alternative is the "gunboat policy," according
to which foreign powers will administer local punishment. If the
mother of the house will not chastise her unruly children, she
must allow her neighbours to do it.

3. Prior to legal reform, and at the root of it, the adoption of a
constitution ought to be insisted on. In such constitution a leading
article ought to be not toleration, but freedom of conscience. As
long as China looks on native Christians as people who have abjured
their nationality, so long will they be objects of persecution;
self-defence and reprisals will keep the populace in a ferment, and
peace will be impossible. If China is sincere in her professions
of reform, she will follow the example of Japan and make her people
equal in the eye of the law without distinction of creed.

4. All kinds of reform are involved in the new education, and to that
China is irrevocably committed. Reenforced by railroad, telegraph,
and newspaper, the schoolmaster will dispel the stagnation of remote
districts, giving to the whole people a horizon wider than their
hamlet, and thoughts higher than their hearthstone. Animated by
sound science and true religion, it will not be many generations
before the Chinese people will take their place among the leading
nations of the earth.

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APPENDIX

I.

THE AGENCY OF MISSIONARIES IN THE DIFFUSION OF SECULAR KNOWLEDGE
IN CHINA[*]

[Footnote *: This paper was originally written for Dr. Dennis's
well-known work on The Secular Benefits of Christian Missions.
As it now appears it is not a mere reprint, it having been much
enlarged and brought down to date.]

While the primary motive of missionaries in going to China is, as
in going to other countries, the hope of bringing the people to
Christ, the incidental results of their labours in the diffusion
of secular knowledge have been such as to confer inestimable benefit
on the world at large and on the Chinese people in particular.
This is admitted by the recent High Commission.[**]

[Footnote **: See page 263.]

It was in the character of apostles of science that Roman Catholic
missionaries obtained a footing in Peking three centuries ago,
and were enabled to plant their faith throughout the provinces.
Armed with telescope and sextant they effected the reform of the
Chinese calendar, and secured for their religion the respect and
adherence of some of the highest minds in the Empire. So firmly
was it rooted that churches of their planting were able to survive
a century and a half of persecution. Their achievements, recorded
in detail by Abbe Huc and others, fill some of the
[Page 282]
brightest pages in the history of missions. I shall not enlarge
on them in this place, as my present task is to draw attention
to the work of Protestant missions.

A CENTURY OF PROTESTANT MISSIONS.

It is not too much to claim for these last that for a century past
they have been active intermediaries, especially between the
English-speaking nations and the Far East. On one hand, they have
supplied such information in regard to China as was indispensable
for commercial and national intercourse, while on the other they
have brought the growing science of the Western world to bear on
the mind of China. Not only did Dr. Morrison, who led the way in
1807, give the Chinese the first translation of our Holy Scriptures;
he was the very first to compile a Chinese dictionary in the English
language.

THE PIONEER OF AMERICAN MISSIONS

It was not until 1838 that America sent her pioneer missionary
in the person of Dr. Bridgman. Besides cooeperating with others in
the revision of Morrison's Bible, or, more properly, in making a
new version, Bridgman won immortality by originating and conducting
the _Chinese Repository_, a monthly magazine which became a
thesaurus of information in regard to the Chinese Empire.

THE PRESS--A MISSIONARY FRANKLIN

The American Board showed their enlightened policy by establishing
a printing-press at Canton, and
[Page 283]
in sending S. Wells Williams to take charge of it, in 1833. John
R. Morrison, son of the missionary, had, indeed, made a similar
attempt; but from various causes he had felt compelled to relinquish
the enterprise. From the arrival of Williams to the present day the
printing-press has shown itself a growing power--a lever which,
planted on a narrow fulcrum in the suburb of a single port, has
succeeded in moving the Eastern world.

The art of printing was not new to the Chinese. They had discovered
it before it was dreamed of in Europe; but with their hereditary
tendency to run in ruts, they had continued to engrave their characters
on wooden blocks in the form of stereotype plates. With divisible
types (mostly on wood) they had indeed made some experiments; but
that improved method never obtained currency among the people. It
was reserved for Christian missions to confer on them the priceless
boon of the power press and metallic types. What Williams began at
Canton was perfected at Shanghai by Gamble of the Presbyterian
Board, who multiplied the fonts and introduced the process of
electrotyping.

Shut up in the purlieus of Canton, it is astonishing how much Dr.
Williams was able to effect in the way of making China known to the
Western world. His book on "The Middle Kingdom," first published in
1848, continues to be, after the lapse of half a century, the highest
of a long list of authorities on the Chinese Empire. Beginning like
Benjamin Franklin as a printer, like Franklin he came to perform a
brilliant part in the diplomacy of our country, aiding in the
[Page 284]
negotiation of a new treaty and filling more than once the post
of charge d'affaires.

EXPANSION OF THE WORK

The next period of missionary activity dates from the treaty of
Nanking, which put an end to the Opium War, in 1842. The opening
of five great seaports to foreign residence was a vast enlargement
in comparison with a small suburb of Canton; and the withdrawal
of prohibitory interdicts, first obtained by the French minister
Lagrene, invited the efforts of missionary societies in all lands.
In this connection it is only fair to say that, in 1860, when the
Peking expedition removed the remaining barriers, it was again
to the French that our missionaries were indebted for access to
the interior.

MEDICAL WORK

From the earliest dawn of our mission work it may be affirmed that
no sooner did a chapel open its doors than a hospital was opened
by its side for the relief of bodily ailments with which the rude
quackery of the Chinese was incompetent to deal. Nor is there at
this day a mission station in any part of China that does not in
this way set forth the practical charity of the Good Samaritan.
This glorious crusade against disease and death began, so far as
Protestants are concerned, with the Ophthalmic Hospital opened
by Dr. Peter Parker at Canton in 1834.

MEDICAL TEACHING

The training of native physicians began at the same date; and those
who have gone forth to bless their
[Page 285]
people by their newly acquired medical skill may now be counted
by hundreds. In strong contrast with the occult methods of native
practitioners, neither they nor their foreign teachers have hidden
their light under a bushel. Witness the Union Medical College, a
noble institution recently opened in Peking under the sanction
and patronage of the Imperial Government. A formal despatch of the
Board of Education (in July, 1906) grants the power of conferring
degrees, and guarantees their recognition by the state. For many
years to come this great school is likely to be the leading source
of a new faculty.

THE SEEDS OF A NEW EDUCATION

Not less imperative, though not so early, was the establishment of
Christian schools. Those for girls have the merit of being the first
to shed light on the shaded hemisphere of Chinese society. Those for
boys were intended to reach all grades of life; but their prime
object was to raise up a native ministry, not merely to cooeperate
with foreign missions, but eventually to take the place of the
foreign missionary.

THE EARLIEST UNION COLLEGE

One of the earliest and most successful of these lighthouses was
the Tengchow College founded by Dr. C. W. Mateer. It was there
that young Chinese were most thoroughly instructed in mathematics,
physics, and chemistry. So conspicuous was the success of that
institution that when the Government opened a university in Peking,
and more recently in Shantung,
[Page 286]
it was in each case to Tengchow that they had recourse for native
teachers of science. From that school they obtained text-books,
and from the same place they secured (in Dr. Hayes) a president
for the first provincial university organised in China.

METHODIST EPISCOPAL UNIVERSITY IN PEKING

The missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church have of late taken
up the cause of education and carried it forward with great vigour.
Not to speak of high schools for both sexes in Fukien, they have a
flourishing college in Shanghai, and a university in the imperial
capital under the presidency of H. H. Lowry. Destroyed by the Boxers
in 1900, that institution has now risen phoenix-like from its ashes
with every prospect of a more brilliant future than its most sanguine
friends ever ventured to anticipate.

AMERICAN BOARD COLLEGE AT TUNGCHOW

A fine college of the American Board at Tungchow, near the capital,
met the same fate and rose again with similar expansion. Dr. Sheffield,
its president, has made valuable contributions to the list of
educational text-books.

These great schools, together with the Medical College of the London
Mission, above referred to, and a high school of the United States
Presbyterians, have formed a system of coeoperation which greatly
augments the efficiency of each. Of this educational union the
chief cornerstone is the Medical College.

A similar cooeperative union between the English
[Page 287]
Baptists and American Presbyterians is doing a great work at Weihien, in
Shantung. I speak of these because of that most notable feature--union
international and interdenominational. Space would fail to enumerate
a tithe of the flourishing schools that are aiding in the educational
movement; but St. John's College, at Shanghai (U. S. Episcopal),
though already mentioned, claims further notice because, as we
now learn, it has been given by the Chinese Government the status
of a university.

PREPARATION OF TEXT-BOOKS

Schools require text-books; and the utter absence of anything of
the kind, except in the department of classical Chinese, gave rise
to early and persistent efforts to supply the want. Manuals in
geography and history were among the first produced. Those in
mathematics and physics followed; and almanacs were sent forth
yearly containing scientific information in a shape adapted to
the taste of Chinese readers--alongside of religious truths. Such
an annual issued by the late Dr. McCartee, was much sought for.
A complete series of text-books in mathematics was translated by
Mr. Wylie, of the London Mission; and text-books on other subjects,
including geology, were prepared by Messrs. Muirhead, Edkins, and
Williamson. At length the task of providing text-books was taken
in hand by a special committee, and later on by the Society for
the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, now under the direction of the
Rev. Dr. Richard.

[Page 288]
So deeply was the want of text-books felt by some of the more
progressive mandarins that a corps of translators was early formed
in connection with one of the government arsenals--a work in which
Dr. John Fryer has gained merited renown. Those translators naturally
gave prominence to books on the art of war, and on the politics
of Western nations, the one-sided tendency of their publications
serving to emphasise the demand for such books as were prepared
by missionaries.

Text-books on international law and political economy were made
accessible to Chinese literature by Dr. W. A. P. Martin, who, having
acted as interpreter to two of the American embassies, was deeply
impressed by the ignorance of those vital subjects among Chinese
mandarins.

On going to reside in Peking, in 1863, Dr. Martin carried with him
a translation of Wheaton, and it was welcomed by the Chinese Foreign
Office as a timely guide in their new situation. He followed this
up by versions of Woolsey, Bluntschli and Hall. He also gave them
a popular work on natural philosophy--not a translation--together
with a more extended work on mathematical physics. Not only has
the former appeared in many editions from the Chinese press, but
it has been often reprinted in Japan; and to this day maintains
its place in the favour of both empires. To this he has lately
added a text-book on mental philosophy.

A book on the evidences of Christianity, by the same author, has
been widely circulated both in China and in Japan. Though distinctly
religious in aim, it
[Page 289]
appeals to the reader's taste for scientific knowledge, seeking to
win the heathen from idolatry by exhibiting the unity and beauty
of nature, while it attempts to show the reasonableness of our
revealed religion.

THREE PRESIDENTS OF GOVERNMENT COLLEGES

It is not without significance that the Chinese have sought presidents
for their highest schools among the ranks of Protestant missionaries.
Dr. Ferguson of the Methodist Episcopal Mission was called to the
presidency of the Nanyang College at Shanghai; Dr. Hayes, to be
head of a new university in Shantung; and Dr. Martin, after serving
for twenty-five years as head of the Diplomatic College in Peking,
was, in 1898, made president of the new Imperial University. His
appointment was by decree from the Throne, published in the Government
_Gazette_; and mandarin rank next to the highest was conferred
on him. On terminating his connection with that institution, after
it was broken up by Boxers, he was recalled to China to take charge
of a university for the two provinces of Hupeh and Hunan.

CREATORS OF CHINESE JOURNALISM

In the movement of modern society, no force is more conspicuous
than journalism. In this our missionaries have from the first taken
a leading part, as it was they who introduced it to China. At every
central station for the last half-century periodicals have been
issued by them in the Chinese language.
[Page 290]
The man who has done most in this line is Dr. Y. J. Allen, of the
Methodist Episcopal Church South. He has devoted a lifetime to
it, besides translating numerous books.

Formerly the Chinese had only one newspaper in the empire--the
_Peking Gazette_, the oldest journal in the world. They now
have, in imitation of foreigners, some scores of dailies, in which
they give foreign news, and which they print in foreign type. The
highest mandarins wince under their stinging criticisms.

THEY LEAD A VERNACULAR REVOLUTION

It is one of the triumphs of Christianity to have given a written
form to the language of modern Europe. It is doing the same for
heathen nations in all parts of the earth. Nor does China offer
an exception. The culture for which her learned classes are noted
is wholly confined to a classic language that is read everywhere,
and spoken nowhere, somewhat as Latin was in the West in the Middle
Ages, save that Latin was really a tongue capable of being employed
in speech, whereas the classical language of China is not addressed
to the ear but to the eye, being, as Dr. Medhurst said, "an occulage,
not a language."

The mandarin or spoken language of the north was, indeed, reduced
to writing by the Chinese themselves; and a similar beginning was
made with some of the southern dialects. In all these efforts the
Chinese ideographs have been employed; but so numerous and disjointed
are they that the labour of years is required to get a command of
them even for reading in a vernacular
[Page 291]
dialect. In all parts of China our missionaries have rendered the
Scriptures into the local dialects. so that they may be understood
when read aloud, and that every man "may hear in his own tongue the
wonderful works of God." In some places they have printed them in
the vernacular by the use of Chinese characters. Yet those characters
are clumsy instruments for the expression of sounds; and in several
provinces our missionaries have tried to write Chinese with Roman
letters.

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