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

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[Page 48]
Hupeh signifies "north of the lake"; Hunan, "south of the lake"--the
great lake of Tungting lying between the two. Hupeh has been open to
trade and residence for over forty years; but the sister province
was long hermetically sealed against the footprints of the white
man. Twenty or even ten years ago to venture within its limits
would have cost a European his life. Its capital, Changsha, was
the seat of an anti-foreign propaganda from which issued masses of
foul literature; but the lawless hostility of the people has been
held in check by the judicious firmness of the present viceroy,
and that city is now the seat of numerous mission bodies which
are vying with each other in their efforts to diffuse light and
knowledge. It is also open to commerce as a port of trade.

One of the greatest distinctions of the province is its production
of brave men, one of the bravest of whom was the first Marquis Tseng
who, at the head of a patriotic force from his native province,
recaptured the city of Nanking and put an end to the chaotic government
of the Taiping rebels--a service which has ever since been recognised
by the Chinese Government in conferring the viceroyalty of Nanking
on a native of Hunan.

Lying to the south of the river, is the province of Kiangsi, containing
the Poyang Lake, next in size to the Tungting. Above its entrance
at Kiukiang rises a lone mountain which bears the name of Kuling.
Beautifully situated, and commanding a wide view of lake and river,
its sides are dotted with pretty cottages, erected as summer resorts
for people from all the inland ports. Here may be seen the flags of many
[Page 49]
nations, and here the hard-worked missionary finds rest and recreation,
without idleness; for he finds clubs for the discussion of politics
and philosophy, and libraries which more than supply the absence of
his own. Just opposite the entrance to the lake stands the "Little
Orphan," a vine-clad rock 200 feet in height, with a small temple
on the top. It looks like a fragment torn from the mountain-side
and planted in the bosom of the stream. Fancy fails to picture
the convulsion of which the "Little Orphan" is the monument.

Farther down is the province of Anhwei which takes its name from
its chief two cities, Anking and Weichou. In general resembling
Kiangsi, it has two flourishing ports on the river, Anking, the
capital, and Wuhu. Of the people nothing noteworthy is to be observed,
save that they are unusually turbulent, and their lawless spirit
has not been curbed by any strong hand like that of the viceroy
at Wuchang.[*] The province is distinguished for its production
of great men, of whom Li Hung Chang was one.

[Footnote *: This was written before the Nanchang riot of March,
1906.]

[Page 50]
CHAPTER X

PROVINCES OF THE UPPER YANG-TSE

_A Perilous Passage--Szechuen--Kweichau, the Poorest Province
in China--Yuennan--Tribes of Aborigines_

Thus far our voyage of exploration, like one of Cook's tours, has
been personally conducted. From this point, however, I must depend
upon the experience of others: the guide himself must seek a guide
to conduct him through the remaining portions of the empire.

We enter the Upper Yang-tse by a long and tortuous passage through
which the "Great River" rushes with a force and a roar like the
cataracts of the Rhine, only on a vastly greater scale. In some
bygone age volcanic forces tore asunder a mountain range, and the
waters of the great stream furrowed out a channel; but the obstructing
rocks, so far from being worn away, remain as permanent obstacles
to steam navigation and are a cause of frequent shipwrecks. Yet,
undeterred by dangers that eclipse Scylla and Charybdis, the laborious
Chinese have for centuries past carried on an immense traffic through
this perilous passage. In making the ascent their junks are drawn
against the current by teams of coolies, tens or hundreds of the
latter being harnessed to the tow-lines of one boat and driven
like a bullock train in South Africa. Slow
[Page 51]
and difficult is the ascent, but swift and perilous the downward
passage.

No doubt engineering may succeed in removing some of the obstacles
and in minifying the dangers of this passage. Steam, too, may supply
another mode of traction to take the place of these teams of men.
A still revolution is in prospect, namely a ship canal or railway.
The latter, perhaps, might be made to lift the junks bodily out of
the water and transport them beyond the rapids. Two cities, however,
would suffer somewhat by this change in the mode of navigation,
namely, Ichang at the foot and Chungking at the head of the rapids.
The latter is the chief river port of Szechuen, a province having
four times the average area.

The great province of Szechuen, if it only had the advantages of
a seacoast, would take the lead in importance. As it is, it is
deemed sufficiently important, like Chihli, to have a viceroy of
its own. The name signifies the "four rivers," and the province has
as many ranges of mountains. One of them, the Omeshan, is celebrated
for its beauty and majesty. The mountains give the province a great
variety of climate, and the rivers supply means of transportation
and irrigation. Its people, too, are more uniform in language and
character than those of most other regions. Their language partakes
of the Northern mandarin. Near the end of the Ming dynasty the
whole population is said to have been destroyed in the fratricidal
wars of that sanguinary period. The population accordingly is
comparatively sparse, and the cities are said to present a new and
prosperous aspect. Above Szechuen
[Page 52]
lie the two provinces of Kweichau and Yuennan, forming one viceroyalty
under the name of Yuenkwei.

Kweichau has the reputation of being the poorest province in China,
with a very sparse population, nearly one-half of whom are aborigines,
called _shans_, _lolos_, and _miaotzes_.

Yuennan (signifying not "cloudy south," but "south of the cloudy
mountains") is next in area to Szechuen. Its resources are as yet
undeveloped, and it certainly has a great future. Its climate,
if it may be said to have one, is reputed to be unhealthful, and
among its hills are many deep gorges which the Chinese say are
full of _chang chi_, "poisonous gases" which are fatal to men
and animals--like the Grotto del Cane in Italy. But these gorges
and cliffs abound in better things also. They are rich in unexploited
coal measures and they contain also many mines of the purest copper
ore. The river that washes its borders here bears the name of Kinsha,
the river of "golden sands." Some of its rivers have the curious
peculiarity of flowing the reverse way, that is, to the west and
south instead of toward the eastern sea. The Chinese accordingly
call the province "Tiensheng" the country of the "converse streams."

Within the borders of Yuennan there are said to be more than a hundred
tribes of aborigines all more or less akin to those of Kweichau
and Burma, but each under its own separate chief. Some of them
are fine-looking, vigorous people; but the Chinese describe them
as living in a state of utter savagery. Missionaries, however,
have recently begun work for them; and we may hope that, as for
the Karens of
[Page 53]
Burma, a better day will soon dawn on the Yuennan aborigines.

The French, having colonies on the border, are naturally desirous
of exploiting the provinces of this southern belt, and China is
intensely suspicious of encroachment from that quarter.

[Page 54]
CHAPTER XI

NORTHWESTERN PROVINCES

_Shansi--Shensi--Earliest Known Home of the Chinese--Kansuh_

Of the three northwestern provinces, the richest is Shansi. More
favoured in climate and soil than the other members of the group, its
population is more dense. Divided from Chihli by a range of hills,
its whole surface is hilly, but not mountainous. The highlands give
variety to its temperature--condensing the moisture and supplying
water for irrigation. The valleys are extremely fertile, and of
them it may be said in the words of Job, "As for the earth, out of
it cometh bread: and underneath it is turned up as it were fire."
Not only do the fields yield fine crops of wheat and millet, but
there are extensive coal measures of excellent quality. Iron ore
also is found in great abundance. Mining enterprises have accordingly
been carried on from ancient times, and they have now, with the
advent of steam, acquired a fresh impetus. It follows, of course,
that the province is prolific of bankers. Shansi bankers monopolise
the business of finance in all the adjacent provinces.

Next on the west comes the province of Shensi, from _shen_, a
"strait or pass" (not _shan_ a "hill"), and _si_, "west."

[Page 55]
Here was the earliest home of the Chinese race of which there is
any record. On the Yellow River, which here forms the boundary of
two provinces, stands the city of Si-ngan where the Chou dynasty
set up its throne in the twelfth century B. C. Since that date
many dynasties have made it the seat of empire. Their palaces have
disappeared; but most of them have left monumental inscriptions
from which a connected history might be extracted. To us the most
interesting monument is a stone, erected about 800 A. D. to commemorate
the introduction of Christianity by some Nestorian missionaries
from western Asia.

The province of Kansuh is comparatively barren. Its boundaries
extend far out into regions peopled by Mongol tribes; and the
neighbourhood of great deserts gives it an arid climate unfavourable
to agriculture. Many of its inhabitants are immigrants from Central
Asia and profess the Mohammedan faith. It is almost surrounded by
the Yellow River, like a picture set in a gilded frame, reminding
one of that river of paradise which "encompasseth the whole land
of Havilah where there is gold." Whether there is gold in Kansuh
we have yet to learn; but no doubt some grains of the precious
metal might be picked up amongst its shifting sands.

[Page 56]
CHAPTER XII

OUTLYING TERRITORIES

_Manchuria--Mongolia--Turkestan--Tibet, the Roof of the World--Journey
of Huc and Gabet._

Beyond the eastern extremity of the Great Wall, bounded on the
west by Mongolia, on the north by the Amur, on the east by the
Russian seaboard, and on the south by Korea and the Gulf of Pechili,
lies the home of the Manchus--the race now dominant in the Chinese
Empire. China claims it, just as Great Britain claimed Normandy,
because her conquerors came from that region; and now that two
of her neighbours have exhausted themselves in fighting for it,
she will take good care that neither of them shall filch the jewel
from her crown.

That remarkable achievement, the conquest of China by a few thousand
semi-civilised Tartars, is treated in the second part of this work.

Manchuria consists of three regions now denominated provinces,
Shengking, Kairin, and Helungkiang. They are all under one
governor-general whose seat is at Mukden, a city sacred in the
eyes of every Manchu, because there are the tombs of the fathers
of the dynasty.

The native population of Manchuria having been drafted off to garrison
and colonise the conquered
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country, their deserted districts were thrown open to Chinese settlers.
The population of the three provinces is mainly Chinese, and,
assimilated in government to those of China, they are reckoned
as completing the number of twenty-one. Opulent in grain-fields,
forests, and minerals, with every facility for commerce, no part of
the empire has a brighter future. So thinly peopled is its northern
portion that it continues to be a vast hunting-ground which supplies
the Chinese market with sables and tiger-skins besides other peltries.
The tiger-skins are particularly valuable as having longer and
richer fur than those of Bengal.

Of the Manchus as a people, I shall speak later on.[*] Those remaining
in their original habitat are extremely rude and ignorant; yet
even these hitherto neglected regions are now coming under the
enlightening influence of a system of government schools.

[Footnote *: Part II. page 140 and 142; part III, pages 267-280]

Mongolia, the largest division of Tartary, if not of the Empire,
is scarcely better known than the mountain regions of Tibet, a
large portion of its area being covered with deserts as uninviting
and as seldom visited as the African Sahara. One route, however,
has been well trodden by Russian travellers, namely, that lying
between Kiachta and Peking.

In the reign of Kanghi the Russians were granted the privilege of
establishing an ecclesiastical mission to minister to a Cossack
garrison which the Emperor had captured at Albazin trespassing on
his grounds. Like another Nebuchadnezzar, he transplanted them
to the soil of China. He also permitted the Russians
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to bring tribute to the "Son of Heaven" once in ten years. That
implied a right to trade, so that the Russians, like other envoys,
in Chinese phrase "came lean and went away fat." But they were
not allowed to leave the beaten track: they were merchants, not
travellers. Not till the removal of the taboo within the last
half-century have these outlying dependencies been explored by
men like Richthofen and Sven Hedin. Formerly the makers of maps
garnished those unknown regions

"With caravans for want of towns."

Sooth to say, there are no towns, except Urga, a shrine for pilgrimage,
the residence of a living Buddha, and Kiachta and Kalgan, terminal
points of the caravan route already referred to.

Kiachta is a double town--one-half of it on each side of the
Russo-Chinese boundary--presenting in striking contrast the magnificence
of a Russian city and the poverty and filth of a Tartar encampment.
The whole country is called in Chinese "the land of grass." Its
inhabitants have sheepfolds and cattle ranches, but neither fields
nor houses, unless tents and temporary huts may be so designated.
To this day, nomadic in their habits, they migrate from place to
place with their flocks and herds as the exigencies of water and
pasturage may require.

Lines of demarcation exist for large tracts belonging to a tribe,
but no minor divisions such as individual holdings. The members of
a clan all enjoy their grazing range in common, and hold themselves
ready to fight for the rights of their chieftain. Bloody feuds
lasting for generations, such as would rival those of
[Page 59]
the Scottish clans, are not of infrequent occurrence. Their Manchu
overlord treats these tribal conflicts with sublime indifference,
as he does the village wars in China.

The Mongolian chiefs, or "princes" as they are called, are forty-eight
in number. The "forty-eight princes" is a phrase as familiar to
the Chinese ear as the "eighteen provinces" is to ours. Like the
Manchus they are arranged in groups under eight banners. Some of
them took part in the conquest, but the Manchus are too suspicious
to permit them to do garrison duty in the Middle Kingdom, lest the
memories of Kublai Khan and his glory should be awakened. They
are, however, held liable to military service. Seng Ko Lin Sin
("Sam Collinson" as the British dubbed him), a Lama prince, headed
the northern armies against the Tai-ping rebels and afterwards
suffered defeat at the hands of the British and French before the
gates of Peking.

In the winter the Mongol princes come with their clansmen to revel
in the delights of Cambalu, the city of the great Khan, as they
have continued to call Peking ever since the days of Kublai, whose
magnificence has been celebrated by Marco Polo. Their camping-ground
is the Mongolian Square which is crowded with tabernacles built
of bamboo and covered with felt. In a sort of bazaar may be seen
pyramids of butter and cheese, two commodities that are abominations
to the Chinese of the south, but are much appreciated by Chinese
in Peking as well as by the Manchus. One may see also mountains
of venison perfectly fresh; the frozen carcasses of "yellow sheep"
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(really not sheep, but antelopes); then come wild boars in profusion,
along with badgers, hares, and troops of live dogs--the latter only
needing to be wild to make them edible. This will give some faint
idea of Mongolia's contribution to the luxuries of the metropolis.
Devout Buddhist as he is, the average Mongol deems abstinence from
animal food a degree of sanctity unattainable by him.

Mongols of the common classes are clad in dirty sheepskins. Their
gentry and priesthood dress themselves in the spoils of wolf or
fox--more costly but not more clean. Furs, felt, and woollen fabrics
of the coarsest texture may also be noticed. Raiment of camel's
hair, strapped with a leathern girdle after the manner of John
the Baptist, may be seen any day, and the wearers are not regarded
as objects of commiseration.

Their camel, too, is wonderfully adapted to its habitat. Provided
with two humps, it carries a natural saddle; and, clothed in long
wool, yellow, brown or black, it looks in winter a lordly beast.
Its fleece is never shorn, but is shed in summer. At that season
the poor naked animal is the most pitiable of creatures. In the
absence of railways and carriage roads, it fills the place of the
ship of the desert and performs the heaviest tasks, such as the
transporting of coals and salt. Most docile of slaves, at a word
from its master it kneels down and quietly accepts its burden.

At Peking there is a lamasary where four hundred Mongol monks are
maintained in idleness at the expense of the Emperor. Their manners
are those of highwaymen. They have been known to lay rough
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hands on visitors in order to extort a charitable dole; and, if
rumour may be trusted, their morals are far from exemplary.

My knowledge of the Mongols is derived chiefly from what I have
seen of them in Peking. I have also had a glimpse of their country
at Kalgan, beyond the Great Wall. A few lines from a caravan song
by the Rev. Mark Williams give a picture of a long journey by those
slow coaches:

"Inching along, we are inching along,
At the pace of a snail, we are inching along,
Our horses are hardy, our camels are strong,
We all shall reach Urga by inching along.

"The things that are common, all men will despise;
But these in the desert we most highly prize.
For water is worth more than huge bags of gold
And argols than diamonds of value untold."
--_A Flight for Life_, Pilgrim Press, Boston.

Politically Turkestan is not Mongolia, but Tamerlane, though born
there, was a Mongol. His descendants were the Moguls of India. At
different epochs peoples called Turks and Huns have wandered over
the Mongolian plateau, and Mongols have swept over Turkestan. To
draw a line of demarcation is neither easy nor important. In the
Turkestan of to-day the majority of the people follow the prophet
of Mecca. Russia has absorbed most of the khanates, and has tried
more than once to encroach on portions belonging to China. In one
instance she was foiled and compelled to disgorge by the courage of
Viceroy Chang, a story which I reserve for the sequel. The coveted
region was Ili, and Russia's pretext for crossing the
[Page 62]
boundary was the chronic state of warfare in which the inhabitants
existed.

Tibet is the land of the Grand Lama. Is it merely tributary or
is it a portion of the Chinese Empire? This is a question that
has been warmly agitated during the last two years--brought to
the front by Colonel Younghusband's expedition and by a treaty
made in Lhasa. Instead of laying their complaints before the court
of Peking, the Indian Government chose to settle matters on the
spot, ignoring the authority of China. Naturally China has been
provoked to instruct her resident at Lhasa to maintain her rights.

A presumptive claim might be based on the fact, that the Grand Lama
took refuge at Urga, where he remained until the Empress Dowager
ordered him to return to his abandoned post. China has always had
a representative at his court; but his function would appear to
be that of a political spy rather than an overseer, governor, or
even adviser. Chinese influence in Tibet is nearly _nil_.
For China to assert authority by interference and to make herself
responsible for Tibet's shortcomings would be a questionable policy,
against which two wars ought to be a sufficient warning. She was
involved with France by her interference in Tongking and with Japan
by interference in Korea. Too much intermeddling in Tibet might
easily embroil her with Great Britain.

In one sense the Buddhist pope may justly claim to be the highest of
earthly potentates. No other sits on a throne at an equal elevation
above the level of the sea. Like Melchizedeck, he is without father
or mother--each occupant of the throne being a fresh
[Page 63]
incarnation of Buddha. The signs of Buddhaship are known only to
the initiated; but they are supposed to consist in the recognition
of places, persons, and apparel. These lamas never die of old age.

While in other parts of the Empire polygamy prevails for those
who can afford it, in Tibet polyandry crops up. Which is the more
offensive to good morals we need not decide; but is it not evident
that Confucianism shows its weakness on one side as Buddhism does
on the other? A people that tolerates either or both hardly deserves
to be regarded as civilised.

The Chinese call Tibet the "roof of the world," and most of it is
as barren as the roof of a house. Still the roof, though producing
nothing, collects water to irrigate a garden. Tibet is the mother
of great rivers, and she feeds them from her eternal snows. On her
highlands is a lake or cluster of lakes which the Chinese describe
as _Sing Su Hai_, the "sea of stars." From this the Yellow
River takes its rise and perhaps the Yang-tse Kiang. A Chinese
legend says that Chang Chien poled a raft up to the source of the
Yellow River and found himself in the Milky Way, _Tienho_,
the "River of Heaven."

Fifty years ago two intrepid French missionaries, Huc and Gabet,
made their way to Lhasa, but they were not allowed to remain there.
The Chinese residents made them prisoners, under pretext of giving
them protection, and sent them to the seacoast through the heart
of the empire. They were thus enabled to see the vast interior
at a time when it was barred alike to traveller and missionary.
Of this adventurous
[Page 64]
journey Huc's published "Travels" is the immortal monument.

We have thus gone over China and glanced at most of her outlying
dependencies. The further exploration of Tibet we may postpone
until she has made good her claims to dominion in that mountain
region. The vastness of the Chinese Empire and the immensity of
its population awaken in the mind a multitude of questions to which
nothing but history can give an adequate reply. We come therefore
to the oracle whose responses may perhaps be less dubious than
those of Delphi.

[Page 65]
PART II

HISTORY IN OUTLINE FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

[Page 67]
CHAPTER XIII

ORIGIN OF THE CHINESE

_Parent Stock a Migratory People--They Invade China from the
Northwest and Colonise the Banks of the Yellow River and of the
Han--Their Conflicts with the Aborigines--Native Tribes Absorbed
by Conquerors_

That the parent stock in which the Chinese nation had its origin
was a small migratory people, like the tribes of Israel, and that
they entered the land of promise from the northwest is tolerably
certain; but to trace their previous wanderings back to Shinar,
India, or Persia would be a waste of time, as the necessary data
are lacking. Even within their appointed domain the accounts of
their early history are too obscure to be accepted as to any extent
reliable.

They appear to have begun their career of conquest by colonising
the banks of the Yellow River and those of the Han. By slow stages
they moved eastward to the central plain and southward to the Yang-tse
Kiang. At that early epoch, between 3000 and 2000 B. C., they found the
country already occupied by various wild tribes whom they considered
as savages. In their early traditions they describe these tribes
respectively by four words: those of the south are called _Man_
(a word with the silk radical); those on the east, _Yi_ (with
[Page 68]
the bow radical); those on the north, _Tih_ (represented by
a dog and fire); and those on the west, _Jung_ ("war-like,
fierce," the symbol for their ideograph being a spear). Each of
these names points to something distinctive. Some of these tribes
were, perhaps, spinners of silk; some, hunters; and all of them,
formidable enemies.

The earliest book of history opens with conflicts with aborigines.
There can be no question that the slow progress made by the invaders
in following the course of those streams on which the most ancient
capitals of the Chinese were subsequently located was owing to the
necessity of fighting their way. Shun, the second sovereign of
whose reign there is record (2200 B. c.), is said to have waged
war with San Miao, three tribes of _miaotze_ or aborigines,
a term still applied to the independent tribes of the southwest.
Beaten in the field, or at least suffering a temporary check, he
betook himself to the rites of religion, making offerings and praying
to Shang-ti, the supreme ruler. "After forty days," it is stated,
"the natives submitted."

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