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

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The experiment has proved successful beyond a doubt. Old women
and young children have in this way come to read the Scriptures
and other books in a few days. This revolution must go forward
with the spread of Christianity; nor is it too much to expect that
in the lapse of ages, the hieroglyphs of the learned language will
for popular use be superseded by the use of the Roman alphabet, or
by a new alphabet recently invented and propagated by officials
in Peking.

In conclusion: Our missionaries have made our merchants acquainted
with China; and they have made foreign nations known to the Chinese.
They have aided our envoys in their negotiations; and they have
conferred on the Chinese the priceless boon of scientific text-books.
Also along with schools for modern education, they have introduced
hospitals for the relief of bodily suffering.

W. A. P. M.

PEKING,
Aug. 4. 1906.

[Page 292]
II.

UNMENTIONED REFORMS[*]

[Footnote *: Written by the author for the _North-China Daily
News_.]

The return of the Mission of Inquiry has quickened our curiosity
as to its results in proposition and in enactment. All well-wishers
of China are delighted to learn that the creation of a parliament
and the substitution of constitutional for autocratic government are
to have the first place in the making of a New China. The reports
of the High Commissioners are not yet before the public, but it
is understood that they made good use of their time in studying
the institutions of the West, and that they have shown a wise
discrimination in the selection of those which they recommend for
adoption. There are, however, three reforms of vital importance,
which have scarcely been mentioned at all, which China requires
for full admission to the comity of nations.

1. A CHANGE OF COSTUME

During their tour no one suggested that the Chinese costume should
be changed nor would it have been polite or politic to do so. But I
do not admire either the taste or the wisdom of those orators who,
in welcoming the distinguished visitors; applauded them for their
graceful dress and stately carriage. If that indiscreet flattery
had any effect it merely tended
[Page 293]
to postpone a change which is now in progress. All the soldiers
of the Empire will ere long wear a Western uniform, and all the
school children are rapidly adopting a similar uniform. To me few
spectacles that I have witnessed are so full of hope for China as
the display on an imperial birthday, when the military exhibit
their skilful evolutions and their Occidental uniform, and when
thousands of school children appear in a new costume, which is
both becoming and convenient. But the Court and the mandarins cling
to their antiquated attire. If the peacock wishes to soar with
the eagle, he must first get rid of his cumbersome tail.

This subject, though it savours of the tailor shop, is not unworthy
the attention of the grand council of China's statesmen. Has not
Carlyle shown in his "Sartor Resartus" how the Philosophy of Clothes
is fundamental to the history of civilisation? The Japanese with
wonderful foresight settled that question at the very time when
they adopted their new form of government.

When Mr. Low was U. S. Minister in Peking some thirty years ago,
he said to the writer "Just look at this tomfoolery!" holding up
the fashion plates representing the new dress for the diplomatic
service of Japan. Time has proved that he was wrong, and that the
Japanese were right in adopting a new uniform, when they wished to
fall in line with nations of the West. With their old shuffling
habiliments and the cringing manners inseparable from them, they
never could have been admitted to intercourse on easy terms with
Western society.

[Page 294]
The mandarin costume of China, though more imposing, is not less
barbaric than that of Japan; and the etiquette that accompanies
it is wholly irreconcilable with the usages of the Western world.
Imagine a mandarin doffing his gaudy cap, gay with tassels, feathers,
and ruby button, on meeting a friend, or pushing back his long
sleeves to shake hands! Such frippery we have learned to leave
to the ladies; and etiquette does not require them to lay aside
their hats.

Quakers, like the mandarins, keep their hats on in public meetings;
and the oddity of their manners has kept them out of society and
made their following very exiguous. Do our Chinese friends wish
to be looked on as Quakers, or do they desire to fraternise freely
with the people of the great West?

Their cap of ceremony hides a shaven pate and dangling cue, and
here lies the chief obstacle in the way of the proposed reform
in style and manners. Those badges of subjection will have to be
dispensed with either formally or tacitly before the cap that conceals
them can give way to the dress hat of European society. Neither
graceful nor convenient, that dress hat is not to be recommended
on its own merits, but as part of a costume common to all nations
which conform to the usages of our modern civilisation.

It must have struck the High Commissioners that, wherever they
went, they encountered in good society only one general type of
costume. Nor would it be possible for them to advise the adoption
of the costume of this or that nationality--a general conformity
is all that seems feasible or desirable. Will the Chinese
[Page 295]
cling to their cap and robes with a death grip like that of the
Korean who jumped from a railway train to save his high hat and
lost his life? As they are taking passage on the great railway of
the world's progress, will they not take pains to adapt themselves
in every way to the requirements of a new era?

2. POLYGAMY

We have as yet no intimation what the Reform Government intends
to do with this superannuated institution. Will they persist in
burning incense before it to disguise its ill-odour, or will they
bury it out of sight at once and for ever?

The Travelling Commissioners, whose breadth and acumen are equally
conspicuous, surely did not fail to inquire for it in the countries
which they visited. Of course, they did not find it there; but, as
with the question of costume, the good breeding of their hosts would
restrain them from offering any suggestion touching the domestic
life of the Chinese.

The Commissioners had the honour of presentation to the Queen-Empress
Alexandra. Fancy them asking how many subordinate wives she has
to aid her in sustaining the dignity of the King-Emperor! They
would learn with surprise that no European sovereign, however lax
in morals, has ever had a palace full of concubines as a regular
appendage to his regal menage; that for prince and people the ideal
is monogamy; and that, although the conduct of the rich and great
is often such as to make us blush for our Christian civilisation,
it is true this day that the crowned heads of Europe are in general
setting a worthy example of
[Page 296]
domestic morals. "Admirable!" respond the Commissioners; "our ancient
sovereigns were like that, and our sages taught that there should
be '_Ne Wu Yuen Nu, Wai wu Kwang-tu_' (in the harem no pining
beauty, outside no man without a mate). It is the luxury of later
ages that keeps a multitude of women in seclusion for the pleasure
of a few men, and leaves the common man without a wife. We heartily
approve the practice of Europe, but what of Africa?"

"There the royal courts consider a multitude of wives essential to
their grandeur, and the nobles reckon their wealth by the number
of their wives and cows. The glory of a prince is that of a cock
in a barn-yard or of a bull at the head of a herd. Such is their
ideal from the King of Dahomey with his bodyguard of Amazons to
the Sultan of Morocco and the Khedive of Egypt. Not only do the
Mahommedans of Asia continue the practice--they have tried to transplant
their ideal paradise into Europe. Turkey, decayed and rotten, with
its black eunuchs and its Circassian slave girls, stands as an
object-lesson to the whole world."

"We beg your pardon, we know enough about Asia; but what of
America--does polygamy flourish there?"

"It did exist among the Peruvians and Aztecs before the Spanish
conquest, but it is now under ban in every country from pole to
pole. Witness the Mormons of Utah! They were refused admission
into the American Union as long as they adhered to the Oriental
type of plural marriage."

"Ah! We perceive you are pointing to the Mormons as a warning to
us. You mean that we shall not be admitted into the society of
the more civilised nations
[Page 297]
as long as we hold to polygamy. Well! Our own sages have condemned
it. It has a long and shameful record; but its days are numbered.
It will do doubt be suppressed by our new code of laws."

This imaginary conversation is so nearly a transcript of what must
have taken place, that I feel tempted to throw the following paragraphs
into the form of a dialogue. The dialogue, however, is unavoidably
prolix, and I hasten to wind up the discussion.

With reference to the Mormons I may add that at the conference
on International Arbitration held at Lake Mohonk last July, there
were present Jews, Quakers, Protestants and Roman Catholics, but
no Mormons and no Turks. Creeds were not required as credentials,
but Turk and Mormon did not think it worth while to knock at the
door. Both are objects of contempt, and no nation whose family
life is formed on the same model can hope to be admitted to full
fraternity with Western peoples.

The abominations associated with such a type of society are inconsistent
with any but a low grade of civilisation--they are eunuchs, slavery,
unnatural vice, and, more than all, a general debasement of the female
sex. In Chinese society, woman occupies a shaded hemisphere--not
inaptly represented by the dark portion in their national symbol the
_Yinyang-tse_ or Diagram of the Dual principles. So completely
has she hitherto been excluded from the benefits of education that
a young man in a native high school recently began an essay with
the exclamation--"I am glad I am not a Chinese woman. Scarcely
one in a thousand is able to read!"

[Page 298]
If "Knowledge is power," as Bacon said, and Confucius before him,
what a source of weakness has this neglect of woman been to China.
Happily she is not excluded from the new system of national education,
and there is reason to believe that with the reign of ignorance
polygamy will also disappear as a state of things repugnant to
the right feeling of an intelligent woman. But would it not hasten
the enfranchisement of the sex, and rouse the fair daughters of
the East to a nobler conception of human life if the rulers would
issue a decree placing concubinage under the ban of law? Nothing
would do more to secure for China the respect of the Western world.

3. DOMESTIC SLAVERY

Since writing the first part of this paper, I have learned that
some of the Commissioners have expressed themselves in favour of
a change of costume. I have also learned that the regulation of
slavery is to have a place in the revised statutes, though not
referred to by the Commissioners. Had this information reached
me earlier, it might have led me to omit the word "unmentioned"
from my general title, but it would not have altered a syllable
in my treatment of the subject.

Cheering it is to the well-wishers of China to see that she has
a government strong enough and bold enough to deal with social
questions of this class. How urgent is the slave question may be
seen from the daily items in your own columns. What, for example,
was the lady from Szechuen doing but carrying on a customary
[Page 299]
form of the slave traffic? What was the case of those singing girls
under the age of fifteen, of whom you spoke last week, but a form
of slavery? Again, by way of climax, what will the Western world
think of a country that permits a mistress to beat a slave girl
to death for eating a piece of watermelon--as reported by your
correspondent from Hankow? The triviality of the provocation reminds
us of the divorce of a wife for offering her mother-in-law a dish
of half-cooked pears. The latter, which is a classic instance, is
excused on the ground of filial duty, but I have too much respect
for the author of the "Hiaoking," to accept a tradition which does a
grievous wrong to one of the best men of ancient times. The tradition,
however unfounded, may serve as a guide to public opinion. It suggests
another subject, which we might (but will not) reserve for another
section, viz., the regulation of divorce and the limitation of
marital power. It is indeed intimately connected with my present
topic, for what is wife or concubine but a slave, as long as a
husband has power to divorce or sell her at will--with or without
provocation?

Last week an atrocious instance, not of divorce, but of wife-murder,
occurred within bow-shot of my house. A man engaged in a coal-shop
had left his wife with an aunt in the country. The aunt complained
of her as being too stupid and clumsy to earn a living. Her brutal
husband thereon took the poor girl to a lonely spot, where he killed
her, and left her unburied. Returning to the coal-shop, he sent
word to his aunt that he was ready to answer for what he had done,
if called to account. "Has he been called to account?"
[Page 300]
I enquired this morning of one of his neighbours. "Oh no! was the
reply; it's all settled; the woman is buried, and no inquiry is
called for." Is not woman a slave, though called a wife, in a society
where such things are allowed to go with impunity? Will not the new
laws, from which so much is expected, limit the marriage relation
to one woman, and make the man, to whom she is bound, a husband,
not a master?

Confucius, we are told, resigned office in his native state when
the prince accepted a bevy of singing girls sent from a neighbouring
principality. The girls were slaves bought and trained for their
shameful profession, and the traffic in girls for the same service
constitutes the leading form of domestic slavery at this day--so
little has been the progress in morals, so little advance toward
a legislation that protects the life and virtue of the helpless!

But the slave traffic is not confined to women; any man may sell
his son; and classes of both sexes are found in all the houses of
the rich. Praedial servitude was practised in ancient times, as it
was in Europe in the Middle Ages, and in Russia till a recent day.
We read of lands and labourers being conferred on court favourites.
How the system came to disappear we need not pause to inquire. It
is certain, however, that no grand act of emancipation ever took
place in China like that which cost Lincoln his life, or that for
which the good Czar Alexander II. had to pay the same forfeit.
Russia is to-day eating the bitter fruits of ages of serfdom; and
the greatest peril ever encountered by the United States was a
war brought on by negro slavery.

[Page 301]
The form of slavery prevailing in China is not one that threatens
war or revolutions; but in its social aspects it is worse than
negro slavery. It depraves morals and corrupts the family, and
as long as it exists, it carries the brand of barbarism. China
has great men, who for the honour of their country would not be
afraid to take the matter in hand. They would, if necessary, imitate
Lincoln and the Czar Alexander to effect the removal of such a
blot.

It is proposed, we are told, to limit slavery to minors--freedom
ensuing on the attainment of majority. This would greatly ameliorate
the evil, but the evil is so crying that it demands not amelioration,
but extinction. Let the legislators of China take for their model
the provisions of British law, which make it possible to boast that
"as soon as a slave touches British soil his fetters fall." Let
them also follow that lofty legislation which defines the rights
and provides for the well-being of the humblest subject. Let the
old system be uprooted before a new one is inaugurated, otherwise
there is danger that the limiting of slavery to minors will leave
those helpless creatures exposed to most of the wrongs that accompany
a lifelong servitude.

The number and extent of the reforms decreed or effected are such
as to make the present reign the most illustrious in the history
of the Empire. May we not hope that in dealing with polygamy and
domestic slavery, the action of China will be such as to lift her
out of the class of Turkey and Morocco into full companionship
with the most enlightened nations of Europe and America.

[Page 302]
III.

A NEW OPIUM WAR

The fiat has gone forth--war is declared against an insidious enemy
that has long been exhausting the resources of China and sapping
the strength of her people. She has resolved to rid herself at
once and forever of the curse of opium. The home production of
the drug, and all the ramifications of the vice stand condemned
by a decree from the throne, followed by a code of regulations
designed not to limit, but to extirpate the monster evil.

In this bold stroke for social reform there can be no doubt that
the Government is supported by the best sentiment of the whole
country. Most Chinese look upon opium as the beginning of their
national sorrows. In 1839 it involved them in their first war with
the West; and that opened the way for a series of wars which issued
in their capital being twice occupied by foreign forces.

Their first effort to shake off the incubus was accompanied by
such displays of pride, ignorance and unlawful violence that Great
Britain was forced to make war--not to protect an illegal traffic,
but to redress an outrage and to humble a haughty empire. In this
renewed onslaught the Chinese have exhibited so much good sense
and moderation as to show that they have learned much from foreign
intercourse during the sixty-seven years that have intervened.

[Page 303]
Without making any appeal to the foreigner, they courageously resolved
to deal with the evil in its domestic aspects. Most of the mandarins
are infected by it; and the licensed culture of the poppy has made
the drug so cheap that even the poor are tempted to indulge.

The prohibitory edict asserts that of the adult population 30 or
40 per cent. are under the influence of the seductive poison. This,
by the way, gives an enormous total, far beyond any of the estimates
of foreign writers.

Appalled by the signs of social decadence the more patriotic of
China's statesmen were not slow to perceive that all attempts at
reform in education, army, and laws must prove abortive if opium
were allowed to sap the vigour of the nation. "You can't carve a
piece of rotten wood," says Confucius. Every scheme for national
renovation must have for its basis a sound and energetic people. It
was this depraved taste that first made a market for the drug; if
that taste can be eradicated the trade and the vice must disappear
together, with or without the concurrence of Great Britain.

Great Britain was not, however, to be ignored. Besides her overshadowing
influence and her commercial interests vast and varied, is she not
mistress of India, whose poppy-fields formerly supplied China and
are still sending to the Chinese market fifty thousand chests per
annum? No longer an illegal traffic, this importation is regulated
by treaty. Concerted action might prevent complications and tend
to insure success. The new British Government was approached on the
[Page 304]
subject. Fortunately, the Liberals being in power, it was not bound
by old traditions.

A general resolution passed the House of Commons without a dissentient
voice, expressing sympathy with China and a willingness to adopt
similar measures in India. "When asked in the House what steps had
been taken to carry out the resolution for the abolition of the
opium traffic between India and China, Mr. Morley replied, that
he understood that China was contemplating the issue of regulations
restricting the importation, cultivation, and consumption of opium. He
had received no communication from China; but as soon as proposals were
submitted he was prepared to consider them in a sympathetic spirit.
H. B. M.'s minister in Peking had been instructed to communicate
with the Chinese Government to that effect."

The telegram containing these words is dated London, October 30.
The imperial edict, which initiated what many call "the new crusade,"
was issued barely forty days before that date (viz., on September
20). Let it also be noted that near the end of August a memorial
of the Anti-Opium League, suggesting action on the part of the
Government, was sent up through the Nanking viceroy. It was signed
by 1,200 missionaries of different nations and churches. Is it
not probable that their representations, backed by the viceroy,
moved the hand that sways the sceptre?

The decree runs as follows:

"Since the first prohibition of opium, almost the whole of China
has been flooded with the poison. Smokers of opium have wasted
their time, neglected their employment, ruined their constitutions,
and impoverished their households. Thus for several decades China
has presented a
[Page 305]
spectacle of increasing poverty and weakness. It rouses our indignation
to speak of the matter. The Court is now determined to make China
powerful; and it is our duty to urge our people to reformation
in this respect.

"We decree, therefore, that within a limit of ten years this harmful
muck be fully and entirely wiped away. We further command the Council
of State to consider means for the strict prohibition both of
opium-smoking and of poppy-growing."

Among the regulations drawn up by the Council of State are these:

That all smokers of opium be required to report themselves and to
take out licenses.

Smokers holding office are divided into two classes. Those of the
junior class are to cleanse themselves in six months. For the seniors
no limit of time is fixed. Both classes while under medical treatment
are to pay for approved deputies, by whom their duties shall be
discharged.

All opium dens are to be closed after six months. These are places
where smokers dream away the night in company with the idle and
the vicious.

No opium lamps or pipes are to be made or sold after six months.
Shops for the sale of the drug are not to be closed until the tenth
year.

The Government provides medicines for the cure of the habit.

The formation of anti-opium societies is encouraged; but the members
are cautioned not to discuss political questions.

The question no doubt arises in the mind of the reader, Will China
succeed in freeing herself from bondage to this hateful vice? It
is easy for an autocrat to issue a decree, but not easy to secure
obedience. It
[Page 306]
is encouraging to know that this decisive action is favoured by
all the viceroys--Yuan, the youngest and most powerful, has already
taken steps to put the new law in force in the metropolitan province.
A flutter of excitement has also shown itself in the ranks of Indian
traders--Parsees, Jews, and Mohammedans--who have presented a claim
for damages to their respectable traffic.

On the whole we are inclined to believe in the good faith of the
Chinese Government in adopting this measure, and to augur well
for its success. Next after the change of basis in education, this
brave effort to suppress a national vice ranks as the most brilliant
in a long series of reformatory movements.

W. A. P. M.
PEKING, January, 1907.

[Page 307]
INDEX

[Page 309]
INDEX

Adams, John Quincy, on the Opium War, 153
Albazin, Cossack garrison captured at, 57
Alphabet, a new, invented by Wang Chao, 217
Amherst, Lord, declines to kneel to Emperor, 168
Amoy, seaport in Fukien province, 14
its grass cloth and peculiar sort of black tea, 15
Anhwei, province of, home of Li Hung Chang, 49
Anti-foot-binding Society, supported by Dowager Empress in an edict, 217
Anti-foreign Agitation, 244-266
American influence in the Far East and, 245-251
"Appeal from the Lion's Den," 176
Army, the Chinese, 200-202
_Arrow_ War, the, 162-169
allied troops at Peking, 168
Canton occupied by British troops, 164
China abandons her long seclusion, 169
crew of the _Arrow_ executed without trial, 163
negotiations of the four powers with China, 165
seizure of the lorcha _Arrow_, 162

Bamboo tablets, writings of Confucius engraved on, 106
Battle of the Sea of Japan, 191-192
Bell-tower, boy's soul supposed to be hovering in, 21
Black-haired race, Chinese style themselves the, 151
Bowring, Sir John, Governor of Hong Kong, and the _Arrow_ case,
162-163
Boxer War, the, 172-180
a Boxer manifesto, 175
Boycott, the, 247, 252, 253, 259
Bridges, 16, 41, 42
Bridgman, Dr., pioneer missionary to China, 282
founds the Chinese Repository, 282
Buddhism, introduction of, into China, 95
"Apotheosis of Mercy," a legend of Northern Buddhism, 108
number of Buddhist monasteries, 108
rooted in the minds of the illiterate, 108
Burden, Bishop, of the English Church Mission. Hang-chow, 23
Burlingame, Hon. Anson, U. S. Minister to China, 212

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