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CHINA AND THE WEST

[Tappan Introduction]: For many centuries China had little intercourse with other countries. Various European nations tried to form commercial relations with her, and there was buying and selling between them, but it was most unsatisfactory. The rules made by the Chinese were as fickle as the wind. Often the merchants, or "foreign devils," as the Chinese called them, were in danger of their lives. Several nations had sent representatives to China, and in 1792 England decided to send Lord Macartney as an ambassador to the emperor in the hope of establishing safe and reasonable relations of trade. Even before the ambassador landed, the Chinese contrived to run up a flag on the vessel that bore him up the Peiho, whereon was written "Tribute-bearer from England." This was quite in accordance with the Chinese custom of claiming all gifts as tribute. Another custom of theirs was that whoever approached the throne of the emperor must perform the kowtow, that is, must kneel three times, and at each kneeling must bow three times till his head touched the floor. This was the way in which the greater idols were approached and signified that the emperor was a god. Lord Macartney told the Chinese legate that he would not perform the kowtow unless a high officer of state would kowtow before a picture of the King of England. The emperor finally agreed to admit the ambassador, who bent his knee, as he would have done before his own sovereign. The next English ambassador, Lord Amherst, who came in 1817, refused to kowtow, was told that he was a very rude man who did not know how to behave, and was bidden to go home at once.

On the day of audience the ambassadors were ushered into the garden of Jeho. Tents had been pitched; the imperial one had nothing magnificent, but was distinguished from all the others by its yellow color. The imperial family, as well as mandarins of the first rank, had all collected. Shortly after daylight the sound of musical instruments announced the approach of the emperor. He was seated in an open chair, borne by sixteen men, and seen emerging from a grove in the background. Clad in a plain dark silk with a velvet bonnet and a pearl in front of it, he wore no other distinguishing mark of his high rank.

As soon as the monarch was seated upon his throne, the master of the ceremonies led the ambassador [Lord Macartney] toward the steps. The latter approached, bent his knee, and handed, in a casket set with diamonds, the letter addressed to His Imperial Majesty by the King of England. The emperor assured him of the satisfaction he felt at the testimony which His Britannic Majesty gave him of his esteem and good will in sending him an embassy with a letter and rare presents; that he on his part entertained sentiments of the same kind toward the sovereign of Great Britain, and hoped that harmony would always be maintained between their respective subjects. He then presented to the ambassador a stone scepter, whilst he graciously received the private presents of the principal personages of the embassy. He was perfectly good-humored, and especially pleased with the son of Sir G. Staunton, who talked a little Chinese, and received as a token of imperial favor a yellow plain tobacco pouch with the figure of the five-clawed dragon embroidered upon it.

Afterward the ambassadors from Burmah and little Bukharia were introduced and performed the nine prostrations. A sumptuous banquet was then served up, and after their departure they had presents sent to them consisting of silks, porcelain, and teas. Upon an application made to the prime minister, respecting a merchant ship which had accompanied the ambassador's frigate, they received the most flattering answer, and every request was fully granted to them. Having accompanied the embassy, the ship was to pay no duty. After their return to Peking, it was intimated to them the His Majesty,

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on his way to Yuen-ming-yuen, would be delighted if the ambassador came to meet him on the road. When the emperor observed him, he stopped short and graciously addressed him. He was carried in a chair and followed by a clumsy cart, which could not be distinguished from other vehicles if it had not been for the yellow cloth over it.

In consequence of this embassy, His Imperial Majesty called together a council to deliberate what answer ought to be given to the letter. The result of this conference was that the ambassador was given to understand that, as the winter approached, he ought to be thinking about his departure. At an interview with the minister of state, to which he was invited in the palace, he found the emperor's answer contained in a large roll covered with yellow silk and placed in a chair of state. From thence it was sent into the ambassador's hotel, accompanied by several presents. News which arrived from Canton, stating the probability of a rupture between England and the French Republic, hastened the departure of the ambassador. He had been very anxious to obtain some privileges for the British trade, but the prime minister was as anxious to evade all conversation upon business. The splendid embassy was viewed only as a congratulatory mission and treated as such. The Chinese were certainly not wanting in politeness, nor did the emperor even treat them rudely; but empty compliments were not the object of this expensive expedition.

Source: From: Eva March Tappan, ed., China, Japan, and the Islands of the Pacific, Vol. I of The World's Story: A History of the World in Story, Song, and Art, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1914), pp. 189-192.

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Two Edicts from the Qianlong Emperor,On The Occasion of Lord Macartney’s Mission To China, September 1793[Edict I]You, O King, live beyond the confines of many seas, nevertheless, impelled by yourhumble desire to partake of the benefits of our civilization, you have dispatched a missionrespectfully bearing your memorial. Your Envoy has crossed the seas and paid his respects atmy Court on the anniversary of my birthday. To show your devotion, you have also sentofferings of your country’s produce.I have perused your memorial: the earnest terms in which it is couched reveal arespectful humility on your part, which is highly praiseworthy. In consideration of the fact thatyour Ambassador and his deputy have come a long way with your memorial and tribute, I haveshown them high favour and have allowed them to be introduced into my presence. Tomanifest my indulgence, I have entertained them at a banquet and made them numerous gifts. Ihave also caused presents to be forwarded to the Naval Commander and six hundred of hisofficers and men, although they did not come to Peking, so that they too may share in my allembracingkindness.As to your entreaty to send one of your nationals to be accredited to my Celestial Courtand to be in control of your country’s trade with China, this request is contrary to all usage ofmy dynasty and cannot possibly be entertained. It is true that Europeans, in the service of thedynasty, have been permitted to live at Peking, but they are compelled to adopt Chinese dress,they are strictly confined to their own precincts and are never permitted to return home. Youare presumably familiar with our dynastic regulations. Your proposed Envoy to my Courtcould not be placed in a position similar to that of European officials in Peking who areforbidden to leave China, nor could he, on the other hand, be allowed liberty of movement andthe privilege of corresponding with his own country; so that you would gain nothing by hisresidence in our midst.Moreover, Our Celestial dynasty possesses vast territories, and tribute missions from thedependencies are provided for by the Department for Tributary States, which ministers to theirwants and exercises strict control over their movements. It would be quite impossible to leavethem to their own devices. Supposing that your Envoy should come to our court, his language

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and national dress differ from that of our people, and there would be no place in which hemight reside. It may be suggested that he might imitate the Europeans permanently resident inPeking and adopt the dress and customs of China, but, it has never been our dynasty’s wish toforce people to do things unseemly and inconvenient. Besides, supposing I sent an Ambassadorto reside in your country, how could you possibly make for him the requisite arrangements?Europe consists of many other nations besides your own: if each and all demanded to berepresented at our Court, how could we possibly consent? The thing is utterly impracticable.How can our dynasty alter its whole procedure and regulations, established for more than acentury, in order to meet your individual views? If it be said that your object is to exercisecontrol over your country’s trade, your nationals have had full liberty to trade at Canton formany a year, and have received the greatest consideration at our hands. Missions have beensent by Portugal and Italy, preferring similar requests. The Throne appreciated their sincerityand loaded them with favours, besides authorizing measures to facilitate their trade with China.You are no doubt aware that, when my Canton merchant, Wu Chaop’ing, was in debt to theforeign ships, I made the Viceroy advance the monies due, out of the provincial treasury, andordered him to punish the culprit severely. Why then should foreign nations advance thisutterly unreasonable request to be represented at my Court? Peking is nearly 10,000 li fromCanton, and at such a distance what possible control could any British representative exercise?If you assert that your reverence for Our Celestial dynasty fills you with a desire toacquire our civilization, our ceremonies and code of laws differ so completely from your ownthat, even if your Envoy were able to acquire the rudiments of our civilization, you could notpossibly transplant our manners and customs to your alien soil. Therefore, however adept theEnvoy might become, nothing would be gained thereby.Surveying the wide world, I have but one aim in view, namely, to maintain a perfectgovernance and to fulfill the duties of the State; strange and costly objects do not interest me. If Ihave commanded the tribute offerings sent by you, O King, are to be accepted, this was solely inconsideration for the spirit which prompted you to dispatch them from afar. Our dynasty’s

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majestic virtue has penetrated unto every country under Heaven, and Kings of all nations haveoffered their costly tribute by land and sea. As your Ambassador can see for himself, we possessall things. I set no value on objects strange or ingenious, and have no use for your country’smanufactures. This then is my answer to your request to appoint a representative at my Court, arequest contrary to our dynastic usage, which would only result in inconvenience to yourself. Ihave expounded my wishes in detail and have commanded your tribute Envoys to leave inpeace on their homeward journey. It behoves you, O King, to respect my sentiments and todisplay even greater devotion and loyalty in the future, so that, by perpetual submission to ourThrone, you may secure peace and prosperity for your country hereafter. Besides making gifts(of which I enclose a list) to each member of your Mission, I confer upon you, O King, valuablepresents in excess of the number usually bestowed on such occasions, including silks andcurios—a list of which is likewise enclosed. Do you reverently receive them and take note of mytender goodwill towards you! A special mandate.

[Edict II]You, O King from afar, have yearned after the blessings of our civilization, and in youreagerness to come into touch with our converting influence have sent an Embassy across the seabearing a memorial. I have already taken note of your respectful spirit of submission, havetreated your mission with extreme favour and loaded it with gifts, besides issuing a mandate toyou, O King, and honouring you with the bestowal of valuable presents. Thus has myindulgence been manifested.Yesterday your Ambassador petitioned my Ministers to memorialize me regarding yourtrade with China, but his proposal is not consistent with our dynastic usage and cannot beentertained. Hitherto, all European nations, including your own country’s barbarian merchants,have carried on their trade with Our Celestial Empire at Canton. Such has been the procedurefor many years, although Our Celestial Empire possesses all things in prolific abundance andlacks no product within its borders. There was therefore no need to import the manufactures ofoutside barbarians in exchange for our own produce. But as the tea, silk, and porcelain whichthe Celestial Empire produces are absolute necessities to European nations and to yourselves,

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we have permitted, as a signal mark of favour, that foreign hongs2 should be established atCanton, so that your wants might be supplied and your country thus participate in ourbeneficence. But your Ambassador has now put forward new requests which completely fail torecognize the Throne’s principle to “treat strangers from afar with indulgence,” and to exercisea pacifying control over barbarian tribes, the world over. Moreover, our dynasty, swaying themyriad races of the globe, extends the same benevolence towards all. Your England is not theonly nation trading at Canton. If other nations, following your bad example, wrongfullyimportune my ear with further impossible requests, how will it be possible for me to treat themwith easy indulgence? Nevertheless, I do not forget the lonely remoteness of your island, cut offfrom the world by intervening wastes of sea, nor do I overlook your inexcusable ignorance ofthe usages of Our Celestial Empire. I have consequently commanded my Ministers to enlightenyour Ambassador on the subject, and have ordered the departure of the mission. But I havedoubts that, after your Envoy’s return he may fail to acquaint you with my view in detail or thathe may be lacking in lucidity, so that I shall now proceed to take your requests one by one andto issue my mandate on each question separately. In this way you will, I trust, comprehend mymeaning.1. Your Ambassador requests facilities for ships of your nation to call at Ningpo, Chusan,Tientsin and other places for purposes of trade. Until now trade with European nationshas always been conducted at Macao, where the foreign hongs are established to storeand sell foreign merchandise. Your nation has obediently complied with this regulationfor years past without raising any objection. In none of the other ports named have hongs2 Trading firms licensed by the Chinese government.been established, so that even if your vessels were to proceed thither, they would haveno means of disposing of their cargoes. Furthermore, no interpreters are available, soyou would have no means of explaining your wants, and nothing but generalinconvenience would result. For the future, as in the past, I decree that your request isrefused and that the trade shall be limited to Macao.2. The request that your merchants may establish a repository in the capital of my Empirefor the storing and sale of your produce is even more impracticable than the last. My

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capital is the hub and centre about which all quarters of the globe revolve. Its ordinancesare most august and its laws are strict in the extreme. The subjects of our dependencieshave never been allowed to open places of business in Peking. Foreign trade has hithertobeen conducted at Macao, because it is conveniently near the sea, and therefore animportant gathering place for the ships of all nations sailing to and from. If warehouseswere established in Peking, the remoteness of your country lying far to the northwest ofmy capital, would render transport extremely difficult. Possessing facilities at Macao,you now ask for further privileges at Peking, although our dynasty observes the severestrestrictions respecting the admission of foreigners within its boundaries, and has neverpermitted the subjects of dependencies to cross the Empire’s barriers and settle at willamongst the Chinese people. This request is also refused.3. Regarding your nation’s worship of the Lord of Heaven, it is the same religion as that ofother European nations. Ever since the beginning of history, sage Emperors and wiserulers have bestowed on China a moral system and inculcated a code, which from timeimmemorial has been religiously observed by the myriads of my subjects. There hasbeen no hankering after heterodox doctrines. Even the European (missionary) officials inmy capital are forbidden to hold intercourse with Chinese subjects; they are restrictedwithin the limits of their appointed residences, and may not go about propagating theirreligion. The distinction between Chinese and barbarian is most strict, and yourAmbassador’s request that barbarians shall be given full liberty to disseminate theirreligion is utterly unreasonable.It may be, O King, that the above proposals have been wantonly made by your Ambassadoron his own responsibility, or perhaps you yourself are ignorant of our dynastic regulations andhad no intention of transgressing them when you expressed these wild ideas and hopes. I haveever shown the greatest condescension to the tribute missions of all States which sincerely yearnafter the blessings of civilization, so as to manifest my kindly indulgence. I have even gone outof my way to grant any requests which were in any way consistent with Chinese usage. Aboveall, upon you, who live in a remote and inaccessible region, far across the spaces of ocean, but

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who have shown your submissive loyalty by sending this tribute mission, I have heapedbenefits far in excess of those accorded to other nations. But the demands presented by yourEmbassy are not only a contradiction of dynastic tradition, but would be utterly unproductiveof good result to yourself, besides being quite impracticable. I have accordingly stated the factsto you in detail, and it is your bounden duty reverently to appreciate my feelings and to obeythese instructions henceforward for all time, so that you may enjoy the blessings of perpetualpeace. If, after the receipt of this explicit decree, you lightly give ear to the representations ofyour subordinates and allow your barbarian merchants to proceed to Chekiang and Tientsin,with the object of landing and trading there, the ordinances of my Celestial Empire are strict inthe extreme, and the local officials, both civil and military, are bound reverently to obey the lawof the land. Should your vessels touch shore, your merchants will assuredly never be permittedto land or to reside there, but will be subject to instant expulsion. In that event your barbarianmerchants will have had a long journey for nothing. Do not say that you were not warned indue time! Tremblingly obey and show no negligence! A special mandate!

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Commissioner Lin: Letter to Queen Victoria, 1839

Lin, high imperial commissioner, a president of the Board of War, viceroy of the two Keäng provinces, &c., Tang, a president of the Board of War, viceroy of the two Kwang provinces, &c., and E., a vice-president of the Board of War, lieut.-governor of Kwangtung, &c., hereby conjointly address this public dispatch to the queen of England for the purpose of giving her clear and distinct information (on the state of affairs) &c.

It is only our high and mighty emperor, who alike supports and cherishes those of the Inner Land, and those from beyond the seas-who looks upon all mankind with equal benevolence---who, if a source of profit exists anywhere, diffuses it over the whole world---who, if the tree of evil takes root anywhere, plucks it up for the benefit of all nations;---who, in a word, hath implanted in his breast that heart (by which beneficent nature herself) governs the heavens and the earth! You, the queen of your honorable nation, sit upon a throne occupied through successive generations by predecessors, all of whom have been styled respectful and obedient. Looking over the public documents accompanying the tribute sent (by your predecessors) on various occasions, we find the following: "All the people of my country, arriving at the Central Land for purposes of trade, have to feel grateful to the great emperor for the most perfect justice, for the kindest treatment," and other words to that effect. Delighted did we feel that the kings of your honorable nation so clearly understood the great principles of propriety, and were so deeply grateful for the heavenly goodness (of our emperor):---therefore, it was that we of the heavenly dynasty nourished and cherished your people from afar, and bestowed upon them redoubled proofs of our urbanity and kindness. It is merely from these circumstances, that your country---deriving immense advantage from its commercial intercourse with us, which has endured now two hundred years---has become the rich and flourishing kingdom that it is said to be!

But, during the commercial intercourse which has existed so long, among the numerous foreign merchants resorting hither, are wheat and tares, good and bad; and of these latter are some, who, by means of introducing opium by stealth, have seduced our Chinese people, and caused every province of the land to overflow with that poison. These then know merely to advantage themselves, they care not about injuring others! This is a principle which heaven's Providence repugnates; and which mankind conjointly look upon with abhorrence! Moreover, the great emperor hearing of it, actually quivered with indignation, and especially dispatched me, the commissioner, to Canton, that in conjunction with the viceroy and lieut.-governor of the province, means might be taken for its suppression!

Every native of the Inner Land who sells opium, as also all who smoke it, are alike adjudged to death. Were we then to go back and take up the crimes of the foreigners, who, by selling it for many years have induced dreadful calamity and robbed us of enormous wealth, and punish them with equal severity, our laws could not but award to them absolute annihilation! But, considering that these said foreigners did yet repent of their crime, and with a sincere heart beg for mercy; that they took 20,283 chests of opium piled up in their store-ships, and through Elliot, the superintendent of the trade of your said country, petitioned that they might be delivered up to us, when the same were all utterly destroyed, of which we, the imperial commissioner and colleagues, made a duly prepared memorial to his majesty;---considering these circumstances, we have happily received a fresh proof of the extraordinary goodness of the great emperor, inasmuch as he who voluntarily comes forward, may yet be deemed a fit

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subject for mercy, and his crimes be graciously remitted him. But as for him who again knowingly violates the laws, difficult indeed will it be thus to go on repeatedly pardoning! He or they shall alike be doomed to the penalties of the new statute. We presume that you, the sovereign of your honorable nation, on pouring out your heart before the altar of eternal justice, cannot but command all foreigners with the deepest respect to reverence our laws! If we only lay clearly before your eyes, what is profitable and what is destructive, you will then know that the statutes of the heavenly dynasty cannot but be obeyed with fear and trembling!

We find that your country is distant from us about sixty or seventy thousand miles, that your foreign ships come hither striving the one with the other for our trade, and for the simple reason of their strong desire to reap a profit. Now, out of the wealth of our Inner Land, if we take a part to bestow upon foreigners from afar, it follows, that the immense wealth which the said foreigners amass, ought properly speaking to be portion of our own native Chinese people. By what principle of reason then, should these foreigners send in return a poisonous drug, which involves in destruction those very natives of China? Without meaning to say that the foreigners harbor such destructive intentions in their hearts, we yet positively assert that from their inordinate thirst after gain, they are perfectly careless about the injuries they inflict upon us! And such being the case, we should like to ask what has become of that conscience which heaven has implanted in the breasts of all men?

We have heard that in your own country opium is prohibited with the utmost strictness and severity:---this is a strong proof that you know full well how hurtful it is to mankind. Since then you do not permit it to injure your own country, you ought not to have the injurious drug transferred to another country, and above all others, how much less to the Inner Land! Of the products which China exports to your foreign countries, there is not one which is not beneficial to mankind in some shape or other. There are those which serve for food, those which are useful, and those which are calculated for re-sale; but all are beneficial. Has China (we should like to ask) ever yet sent forth a noxious article from its soil? Not to speak of our tea and rhubarb, things which your foreign countries could not exist a single day without, if we of the Central Land were to grudge you what is beneficial, and not to compassionate your wants, then wherewithal could you foreigners manage to exist? And further, as regards your woolens, camlets, and longells, were it not that you get supplied with our native raw silk, you could not get these manufactured! If China were to grudge you those things which yield a profit, how could you foreigners scheme after any profit at all? Our other articles of food, such as sugar, ginger, cinnamon, &c., and our other articles for use, such as silk piece-goods, chinaware, &c., are all so many necessaries of life to you; how can we reckon up their number! On the other hand, the things that come from your foreign countries are only calculated to make presents of, or serve for mere amusement. It is quite the same to us if we have them, or if we have them not. If then these are of no material consequence to us of the Inner Land, what difficulty would there be in prohibiting and shutting our market against them? It is only that our heavenly dynasty most freely permits you to take off her tea, silk, and other commodities, and convey them for consumption everywhere, without the slightest stint or grudge, for no other reason, but that where a profit exists, we wish that it be diffused abroad for the benefit of all the earth!

Your honorable nation takes away the products of our central land, and not only do you thereby obtain food and support for yourselves, but moreover, by re-selling these products to other countries you reap a threefold profit. Now if you would only not sell opium, this threefold profit would be secured to you: how can you possibly consent to forgo it for a drug that is hurtful to men, and an unbridled craving after gain that seems to know no bounds! Let

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us suppose that foreigners came from another country, and brought opium into England, and seduced the people of your country to smoke it, would not you, the sovereign of the said country, look upon such a procedure with anger, and in your just indignation endeavor to get rid of it? Now we have always heard that your highness possesses a most kind and benevolent heart, surely then you are incapable of doing or causing to be done unto another, that which you should not wish another to do unto you! We have at the same time heard that your ships which come to Canton do each and every of them carry a document granted by your highness' self, on which are written these words "you shall not be permitted to carry contraband goods;" this shows that the laws of your highness are in their origin both distinct and severe, and we can only suppose that because the ships coming here have been very numerous, due attention has not been given to search and examine; and for this reason it is that we now address you this public document, that you may clearly know how stern and severe are the laws of the central dynasty, and most certainly you will cause that they be not again rashly violated!

Moreover, we have heard that in London the metropolis where you dwell, as also in Scotland, Ireland, and other such places, no opium whatever is produced. It is only in sundry parts of your colonial kingdom of Hindostan, such as Bengal, Madras, Bombay, Patna, Malwa, Benares, Malacca, and other places where the very hills are covered with the opium plant, where tanks are made for the preparing of the drug; month by month, and year by year, the volume of the poison increases, its unclean stench ascends upwards, until heaven itself grows angry, and the very gods thereat get indignant! You, the queen of the said honorable nation, ought immediately to have the plant in those parts plucked up by the very root! Cause the land there to be hoed up afresh, sow in its stead the five grains, and if any man dare again to plant in these grounds a single poppy, visit his crime with the most severe punishment. By a truly benevolent system of government such as this, will you indeed reap advantage, and do away with a source of evil. Heaven must support you, and the gods will crown you with felicity! This will get for yourself the blessing of long life, and from this will proceed the security and stability of your descendants!

In reference to the foreign merchants who come to this our central land, the food that they eat, and the dwellings that they abide in, proceed entirely from the goodness of our heavenly dynasty: the profits which they reap, and the fortunes which they amass, have their origin only in that portion of benefit which our heavenly dynasty kindly allots them: and as these pass but little of their time in your country, and the greater part of their time in our's, it is a generally received maxim of old and of modern times, that we should conjointly admonish, and clearly make known the punishment that awaits them.

Suppose the subject of another country were to come to England to trade, he would certainly be required to comply with the laws of England, then how much more does this apply to us of the celestial empire! Now it is a fixed statute of this empire, that any native Chinese who sells opium is punishable with death, and even he who merely smokes it, must not less die. Pause and reflect for a moment: if you foreigners did not bring the opium hither, where should our Chinese people get it to re-sell? It is you foreigners who involve our simple natives in the pit of death, and are they alone to be permitted to escape alive? If so much as one of those deprive one of our people of his life, he must forfeit his life in requital for that which he has taken: how much more does this apply to him who by means of opium destroys his fellow-men? Does the havoc which he commits stop with a single life? Therefore it is that those foreigners who now import opium into the Central Land are condemned to be beheaded and strangled by the new statute, and this explains what we said at the beginning about plucking up the tree of evil, wherever it takes root, for the benefit of all nations.

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We further find that during the second month of this present year, the superintendent of your honorable country, Elliot, viewing the law in relation to the prohibiting of opium as excessively severe, duly petitioned us, begging for "an extension of the term already limited, say five months for Hindostan and the different parts of India, and ten for England, after which they would obey and act in conformity with the new statute," and other words to the same effect. Now we, the high commissioner and colleagues, upon making a duly prepared memorial to the great emperor, have to feel grateful for his extraordinary goodness, for his redoubled compassion. Any one who within the next year and a half may by mistake bring opium to this country, if he will but voluntarily come forward, and deliver up the entire quantity, he shall be absolved from all punishment for his crime. If, however, the appointed term shall have expired, and there are still persons who continue to bring it, then such shall be accounted as knowingly violating the laws, and shall most assuredly be put to death! On no account shall we show mercy or clemency! This then may be called truly the extreme of benevolence, and the very perfection of justice!

Our celestial empire rules over ten thousand kingdoms! Most surely do we possess a measure of godlike majesty which ye cannot fathom! Still we cannot bear to slay or exterminate without previous warning, and it is for this reason that we now clearly make known to you the fixed laws of our land. If the foreign merchants of your said honorable nation desire to continue their commercial intercourse, they then must tremblingly obey our recorded statutes, they must cut off for ever the source from which the opium flows, and on no account make an experiment of our laws in their own persons! Let then your highness punish those of your subjects who may be criminal, do not endeavor to screen or conceal them, and thus you will secure peace and quietness to your possessions, thus will you more than ever display a proper sense of respect and obedience, and thus may we unitedly enjoy the common blessings of peace and happiness. What greater joy! What more complete felicity than this!

Let your highness immediately, upon the receipt of this communication, inform us promptly of the state of matters, and of the measure you are pursuing utterly to put a stop to the opium evil. Please let your reply be speedy. Do not on any account make excuses or procrastinate. A most important communication.

P. S. We annex an abstract of the new law, now about to be put in force.

"Any foreigner or foreigners bringing opium to the Central Land, with design to sell the same, the principals shall most assuredly be decapitated, and the accessories strangled; and all property (found on board the same ship) shall be confiscated. The space of a year and a half is granted, within the which, if any one bringing opium by mistake, shall voluntarily step forward and deliver it up, he shall be absolved from all consequences of his crime."

This said imperial edict was received on the 9th day of the 6th month of the 19th year of Taoukwang,  at which the period of grace begins, and runs on to the 9th day of the 12th month of the 20th year of Taoukwang, when it is completed.

Source: From: Chinese Repository, Vol. 8 (February 1840), pp. 497-503; reprinted in William H. McNeil and Mitsuko Iriye, eds., Modern Asia and Africa, Readings in World History Vol. 9, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1971), pp. 111-118.

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Excerpts from The Treaty of Nanjing, August 1842

Article IThere shall henceforth be Peace and Friendship between ... (England and China) and between their respective Subjects, who shall enjoy full security and protection for their persons and property within the Dominions of the other.

Article II

His Majesty the Emperor of China agrees that British Subjects, with their families and establishments, shall be allowed to reside, for the purpose of carrying on their commercial pursuits, without molestation or restraint at the Cities and Towns of Canton, Amoy, Foochow-fu, Ningpo, and Shanghai, and Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain, etc., will appoint Superintendents or Consular Officers, to reside at each of the above-named Cities or Towns, to be the medium of communication between the Chinese Authorities and the said Merchants, and to see that the just Duties and other Dues of the Chinese Government as hereafter provided for, are duly discharged by Her Britannic Majesty’s Subjects.

Article III

It being obviously necessary and desirable, that British Subjects should have some Port whereat they may careen and refit their Ships, when required, and keep Stores for that purpose, His Majesty the Emperor of China cedes to Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain, etc., the Island of Hong-Kong, to be possessed in perpetuity by her Britannic Majesty, Her Heirs and Successors, and to be governed by such Laws and Regulations as Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain, etc., shall see fit to direct.

Article V

The Government of China having compelled the British Merchants trading at Canton1

to deal exclusively with certain Chinese Merchants called Hong merchants (or Cohong) who had

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been licensed by the Chinese Government for that purpose, the Emperor of China agrees to abolish that practice in future at all Ports where British Merchants may reside, and to permit them to carry on their mercantile transactions with whatever persons they please, and His Imperial Majesty further agrees to pay to the British Government the sum of Three Millions of Dollars, on account of Debts due to British Subjects by some of the said Hong Merchants (or Cohong) who have become insolvent, and who owe verylarge sums of money to Subjects of Her Britannic Majesty.

Article VII

It is agreed that the Total amount of Twenty-one Millions of Dollars, described in the three preceding Articles, shall be paid as follows:Six Millions immediately. Six Millions in 1843...Five Millions in 1844 ...Four Millions in 1845 ...Article IX

The Emperor of China agrees to publish and promulgate, under his Imperial Sign Manual and Seal, a full and entire amnesty and act of indemnity, to all Subjects of China on account of their having resided under, or having had dealings and intercourse with, or having entered the Service of Her Britannic Majesty, or of Her Majesty’s Officers, and His Imperial Majesty further engages to release all Chinese Subjects who may be at this momentin confinement for similar reasons.

Article X

His Majesty the Emperor of China agrees to establish all the Ports which are by the 2nd Article of this Treaty to be thrown open for the resort of British Merchants, a fair and regular Tariff of Export and Import Customs and other Dues, which Tariff shall be publicly notified and

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promulgated for general information, and the Emperor further engages, that when British Merchandise shall have once paid at any of the said Ports the regulated Customs and Dues agreeable to the Tariff, to be hereafter fixed, such Merchandise may be conveyed by Chinese Merchants, to any Province or City in the interior of the Empire of China on paying further amount as Transit Duties which shall not exceed ___ percent2

on the tariff value of such goods.

Emperor Kuang Hsu: Attempted Reforms, 1898

The Peking Gazette continued to come daily bringing with it the following twenty-seven decrees in a little more than twice that many days. I will give an epitome of the decrees that the reader at a glance may see what the Emperor undertook to do. Summarized they are as follows:

1. The establishment of a university at Peking.

2. The sending of imperial clansmen to foreign countries to study the forms and conditions of European and American government.

3. The encouragement of the arts, sciences and modern agriculture.

4. The Emperor expressed himself as willing to hear the objections of the conservatives to progress and reform.

5. Abolished the literary essay as a prominent part of the governmental examinations.

6. Censured those who attempted to delay the establishment of the Peking Imperial University.

7. Urged that the Lu-Han railway should be prosecuted with more vigour and expedition.

8. Advised the adoption of Western arms and drill for all the Tartar troops.

9. Ordered the establishment of agricultural schools in all the provinces to teach the farmers improved methods of agriculture.

10. Ordered the introduction of patent and copyright laws.

11. The Board of War and Foreign Office were ordered to report on the reform of the military examinations.

12. Special rewards were offered to inventors and authors.

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13. The officials were ordered to encourage trade and assist merchants.

14. School boards were ordered established in every city in the empire.

15. Bureaus of Mines and Railroads were established.

16. Journalists were encouraged to write on all political subjects.

17. Naval academies and training-ships were ordered.

18. The ministers and provincial authorities were called upon to assist--nay, were begged to make some effort to understand what he was trying to do and help him in his efforts at reform.

19. Schools were ordered in connection with all the Chinese legations in foreign countries for the benefit of the children of Chinese in those places.

20. Commercial bureaus were ordered in Shanghai for the encouragement of trade.

21. Six useless Boards in Peking were abolished.

22. The right to memorialize the throne in sealed memorials was granted to all who desired to do so.

23. Two presidents and four vice-presidents of the Board of Rites were dismissed for disobeying the Emperor's orders that memorials should be allowed to come to him unopened.

24. The governorships of Hupeh, Kuangtung, and Yunnan were abolished as being a useless expense to the country.

25. Schools of instruction in the preparation of tea and silk were ordered established.

26. The slow courier posts were abolished in favour of the Imperial Customs Post.

27. A system of budgets as in Western countries was approved.

I have given these decrees in this epitomized form so that all those who are interested in the character of this reform movement in China may understand something of the influence the young Emperor's study had had upon him. Grant that they followed one another in too close proximity, yet still it must be admitted by every careful student of them, that there is not one that would not have been of the greatest possible benefit to the country if they had been put into operation. If the Emperor had been allowed to proceed, making them all as effective as he did the Imperial University, and if the ministers and provincial authorities had responded to his call, and had made "some effort to understand what he was trying to do," China might have by this time been close upon the heels of Japan in the adoption of Western ideas.

Source

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From: Isaac Taylor Headland,  1859-1942.:  Court life in China: the capital, its officials and people, (New York, F.H. Revell, c1909), Project Gutenberg Etext 523

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Isaac Taylor Headland: Court Life in China: The Capital, Its Officials and People, (New York, F.H. Revell, c1909)

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Excerpts from “Observations on a Trip to America”By Liang Qichao (1903)New York

Liang Qichao (1873-1929) was a young colleague and follower of Kang Youwei (1858-1927) during the failed “100Days Reform” of 1898. When the Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908) put an end to the reform, Liang narrowlyescaped arrest (and certain execution). He settled into exile in Japan, where he pursued a highly influential career asa writer and publisher of journals, including the popular fortnightly Renewing the People (Xinmin congbao), publishedbetween 1902 and 1905.In the document below, Liang presents observations made on his first trip to the United States and Canada, in 1903.

Uncivilized people live underground, half-civilized people live on the surface, andcivilized people live above the ground. Those who live on surface usually live in one- or twostoryhouses. … Some houses in Beijing have entrances going down several stone steps, almostas if going underground. In New York, buildings of ten to twenty stories are not rare, and thetallest reaches thirty-three stories. This can truly be called above the ground. But ordinaryresidential buildings in big cities in America also have one or two basements, and so are bothabove and below ground.Everywhere in New York the eye confronts what look like pigeon coops, spiderwebs,and centipedes; in fact these are houses, electric wires, and trolley cars.New York’s Central Park extends from 71st Street to 123d Street [in fact, 59th to 110th],with an area about equal to the International Settlement and French Concession in Shanghai.Especially on days of rest it is crowded with carriages and people jostling together. The park isin the middle of the city; if it were changed into a commercial area, the land would sell for threeor four times the annual revenue of the Chinese government. From the Chinese point of viewthis may be called throwing away money on useless land and regrettable. The total park area inNew York is 7,000 [Chinese] acres, the largest of any city in the world; London is second with6,500 acres. Writers on city administration all agree that for a busy metropolis not to haveappropriate parks is harmful to public health and morals. Now that I have come to New York, Iam convinced. One day without going to the park leaves me muddled in mind and spirit.very day streetcars, elevated trains, subway trains, horse carriages, automobiles, and

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bicycles go clitter-clatter above and below, banging and booming to left and right, rumbling andringing in front and behind. The mind is confused and the soul is shaken. People say that thosewho live in New York for a long time must have sharper eyes than ordinary people or else theywould have to stand at intersections all day, not daring to take a step.PovertyNew York is the most prosperous city in the world, and also the bleakest. Let me brieflydescribe New York’s darker side.Anti-Oriental agitators criticize the Chinese above all for their uncleanness. From what Ihave seen of New York, the Chinese are not the dirtiest. In streets where Italians and Jews live,in the summer old women and young wives, boys and girls, take stools and sit outside theirdoors, clogging the street. Their clothing is shabby, their appearance wretched. These areas arenot accessible by streetcar and even horse-drawn carriages seldom go there. Tourists are alwayscoming to see how they live. From the outside there is building after multistoried building, butinside each building dozens of families are tenants. Over half of the apartments have nodaylight or ventilation, and gas lights burn day and night. When you enter, the foul smellassaults your nose. Altogether, in New York about 230,000 people live in such conditions.According to statistics for 1888, on Houston and Mulberry streets (where most of thepeople are Italians, with some Germans, Chinese, and Jews), the death rate was 35 perthousand, and 139 per thousand for children under five. In comparison, the overall death ratefor New York was 26 per thousand, so the hardship of these poor people can be imagined.These rates, it is said, are due to the lack of air and light where they live. Another statisticiansays there are 37,000 rented apartments in New York, in which over 1,200,000 people live. Suchdwellings are not only unhealthful but also harmful to morality. According to a statisticianagain, of the 483 people living in one building on a certain street in New York, in one year 102people committed crimes. So great is the influence of these conditions.“Crimson mansions reek of wine and meat, while on the road lie frozen bones. Rich andpoor but a foot apart; sorrows too hard to relate.” So goes Du Fu’s poem [Tang dynasty]. I havewitnessed such things myself in New York. According to statistics of the socialists, 70 percent ofthe entire national wealth of America is in the hands of 200,000 rich people, and the remaining

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30 percent belongs to 79,800,000 poor. Thus the rich people in America are truly rich, and thisso-called wealthy class constitutes no more than one fourhundredth of the population. It can becompared with one hundred dollars being divided among 400 people, with one person gettingseventy dollars and the remaining thirty dollars being divided among 399 people, each getting alittle over seven cents. How strange, how bizarre! This kind of phenomenon is seen in allcivilized countries, particularly in big cities, [but] New York and London are the mostnotorious. The unequal distribution of wealth has reached this extreme. I look at the slums ofNew York and think with a sigh that socialism cannot be avoided.J. P. MorganThis afternoon I went to visit Morgan. Morgan has been called the king of trusts and theNapoleon of the business world. I had no business to discuss with him, but was led by curiosityto meet this man whose magical power is the greatest in America. All his life he has onlyreceived guests and never called on others. Even presidents and prime ministers, if they needhis help in their nations’ financial matters, come to consult him and do not expect him to visitthem. I was also told that his appointments are limited to one to five minutes each. Evenextremely important problems can be decided in this briefest span of time, so far without error.His energy and acumen are truly unrivaled. I wrote a letter two days ago expressing my wish torequest a five-minute conversation. At the appointed time, I went to his Wall Street office tovisit him. There were scores of visitors in his receiving room, who were led to see him one byone; no one exceeded five minutes. As I had nothing to ask of him and did not want to waste hisprecious time, I went in and talked with him for only three minutes. He gave me a word ofadvice: The outcome of any venture depends on preparations made ahead of time; once it isstarted, its success or failure is already decided and can no longer be altered. This is the solemotto for his success in life, and I was deeply impressed.The Industrial TrustIn New York City at the turn of the century, a monster was created called the “trust.”This monster was born in New York, but its power had spread to all of the United States and isspeeding over the whole world. In essence, this monster, whose power far exceeds that ofAlexander the Great or Napoleon, is the one and only sovereign of the twentieth-century world.

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For years I have wanted to find out its true nature; now in New York, I finally have theopportunity. …The origins of the trust can be traced to the Oil Trust of 1882, which was the personalcreation of [John D.] Rockefeller, known to the world as the petroleum king. Then in 1883, theCotton Oil Trust was formed, in 1886 the Bread Trust, and in 1887 the Sugar Refining Trust.Their profits were conspicuous and startled all the world. Thenceforth the whole countrybecame crazed about trusts, until today almost 80 percent of the capital of the entire UnitedStates is under the control of trusts. The United States today is the premier capitalist nation inthe world, and American capital amounts to almost half that of the entire world. Thussomewhat less than half of the world’s total capital is now in the hands of this tiny number oftrust barons. Alas! How strange! How amazing! In sum, the trust is the darling of the twentiethcentury, and certainly cannot be destroyed by human effort, as is recognized by all of even theslightest learning. From now on, domestic trusts will grow into international trusts, and thenation that will be most severely victimized will surely be China. It is clear that we cannot lookat this problem as if observing a fire from the opposite shore.LynchingAmericans have an unofficial form of punishment known as “lynching” with which totreat blacks. Such a phenomenon is unimaginable among civilized countries. It started with afarmer named Lynch. Because he had been offended by a black, he suspended him from a treeto wait for the police officers to arrive, but the black man died before they came. So his namehas been used for this ever since. Recently the common practice is burning people to death.Whenever a black has committed an offense a mob will be directly gathered and burn himwithout going through the courts. Had I only been told about this and not been to Americamyself I would not have believed that such cruel and inhuman acts could be performed inbroad daylight in the twentieth century. During the ten months I was in America I counted noless than ten-odd accounts of this strange business in the newspapers. At first I was shocked,but have become accustomed to reading about it and no longer consider it strange. Checkingthe statistics on it, there have been an average of 157 such private punishments each year since

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1884. Hah! When Russia killed a hundred and some score Jews, the whole world considered itsavage. But I do not know how to decide which is worse, America or Russia.To be sure there is something despicable about the behavior of blacks. They would dienine times over without regret if they could possess a white woman’s flesh. They often rapethem at night in the forest and then kill them in order to silence them. Nine out of ten lynchingsare for this, and it is certainly something to be angry about. Still, why does the governmentallow wanton lynchings to go unpunished even though there is a judiciary? The reason is noneother than preconceived opinions about race. The American Declaration of Independence saysthat people are all born free and equal. Are blacks alone not people? Alas, I now understandwhat it is that is called “civilization” these days!LibrariesThe various university libraries I have seen do not have people who retrieve books[from the stacks], but let students go and get them on their own. I was amazed. At theUniversity of Chicago, I asked the head of the library whether or not books were lost this way.He answered that about two hundred volumes were lost every year, but hiring several peopleto supervise the books would cost more than this small number of books and, further, wouldinconvenience the students. So it is not done. In general, books are lost mostly during the twoweeks before examinations because students steal them to prepare for examinations, and manyof them are afterwards returned. In this can be seen the general level of public morality. Even asmall thing like this is something Orientals could not come close to learning to do in a hundredyears.Chinese FlawsFrom what has been discussed above, the weaknesses of the Chinese people can belisted as follows:1. Our character is that of clansmen rather than citizens. Chinese social organization isbased on family and clan as the unit rather than on the individual, what is called “regulatingone’s family before ruling the country.” … In my opinion, though the power of self-governmentof the Aryans of the West was developed earlier, our Chinese system of local self-governmentwas just as good. Why is it that they could form a nation-state and we could not? The answer isthat what they developed was the city system of self-government, while we developed a clan

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system of self-government. … That Chinese can be clansmen but cannot be citizens, I came tobelieve more strongly after traveling in North America. …2. We have a village mentality and not a national mentality. I heard Roosevelt’s speechto the effect that the most urgent task for the American people is to get rid of the villagementality, by which he meant people’s feelings of loyalty to their own town and state. From thepoint of view of history, however, America has been successful in exercising a republican formof government precisely because this local sentiment was there at the start, and so it cannot becompletely faulted. But developed to excess it becomes an obstacle to nation building. … WeChinese have developed it too far. How could it be just the San Francisco Chinese? It is trueeverywhere at home, too. …3. We can accept only despotism and cannot enjoy freedom. … When I look at all thesocieties of the world, none is so disorderly as the Chinese community in San Francisco. Why?The answer is freedom. The character of the Chinese in China is not superior to those of SanFrancisco, but at home they are governed by officials and restrained by fathers and elderbrothers. The situation of the Chinese of Southeast Asia would seem different from those inChina; but England, Holland, and France rule them harshly, ordering the breakup of assembliesof more than ten people, and taking away all freedoms. This is even more severe than insideChina, and so they are docile. It is those who live in North America and Australia who enjoy thesame degree of freedom under law as Westerners. In towns where there are few of them, theycannot gather into a force and their defects are not so apparent. But in San Francisco, whichleads the list of the free cities with the largest group of Chinese living in the same place, wehave seen what the situation is like. …With such country men, would it be possible to practice the election system? … To speakfrankly, I have not observed the character of Chinese at home to be superior to those in SanFrancisco. On the contrary, I find their level of civilization far inferior to those in San Francisco.… Even if there are some Chinese superior to those in San Francisco, it is just a small matter ofdegree; their lack of qualification for enjoying freedom is just the same. …Now, freedom, constitutionalism, and republicanism mean government by the majority,but the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people are like [those in San Francisco]. If we

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were to adopt a democratic system of government now, it would be nothing less thancommitting national suicide. Freedom, constitutionalism, and republicanism would be likehempen clothes in winter or furs in summer; it is not that they are not beautiful, they are justnot suitable for us. We should not be bedazzled by empty glitter now; we should not yearn forbeautiful dreams. To put it in a word, the Chinese people of today can only be governedautocratically; they cannot enjoy freedom. I pray and yearn, I pray only that our country canhave a Guanzi, a Shang Yang, a Lycurgus, a Cromwell alive today to carry out harsh rule, andwith iron and fire to forge and temper our countrymen for twenty, thirty, even fifty years. Afterthat we can give them the books of Rousseau and tell them about the deeds of Washington.4. We lack lofty objectives. … This is the fundamental weakness of us Chinese. …The motives of Europeans and Americans are not all the same, but in my estimation the mostimportant are their love of beauty, concern for social honor, and the idea of the future in theirreligion. These three are at the root of the development of Western spiritual civilization, and arewhat we Chinese lack most. …There are many other ways in which the Chinese character is inferior to that ofWesterners; some happened to impress me so that I recorded them, but others I have forgotten.Let me now list several that I noted down, in no particular order:Westerners work only eight hours a day and rest every Sunday. Chinese stores are openevery day from seven in the morning to eleven or twelve at night, but though shopkeepers siterect there all day, day in and day out, without rest, they still fail to get as rich as theWesterners. And the work they do is not comparable to the Westerners’ in quantity. Why? Inany kind of work the worst thing is to be fatigued. If people work all day, all year they arebound to be bored; when they are bored they become tired, and once they are tired everythinggoes to waste. Resting is essential to human life. That the Chinese lack lofty goals must be dueto their lack of rest.American schools average only 140 days of study a year, and five or six hours every day.But for the same reason as before, Westerners’ studies are superior to those of the Chinese.A small Chinese shop often employs several or more than a dozen people. In a Westernshop, usually there are only one or two employees. It may be estimated that one of them does

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the same amount of work that it takes three of us to do. It is not that the Chinese are notdiligent, they are simply not intelligent.To rest on Sunday is wonderful. After each six days, one has renewed energy. Aperson’s clarity of spirit depends on this. The Chinese are muddle-headed. We need not adopttheir Sunday worship, but we should have a program of rest every ten days.When more than a hundred Chinese are gathered in one place, even if they are solemnand quiet, there are bound to be four kinds of noise: the most frequent is coughing, next comeyawning, sneezing, and blowing the nose. During speeches I have tried to listen unobtrusively,and these four noises are constant and ceaseless. I have also listened in Western lecture hallsand theaters; although thousands of people were there, I heard not a sound. In Oriental busesand trolleys there are always spittoons, and spitters are constantly making a mess. Americanvehicles seldom have spittoons, and even when they do they are hardly used. When Orientalvehicles are on a journey of more than two or three hours, more than half of the passengersdoze off. In America, even on a full day’s journey, no one tries to sleep. Thus can be seen thephysical differences between Orientals and Westerners. …On the sidewalks on both sides of the streets in San Francisco (vehicles go in the middleof the street), spitting and littering are not allowed, and violators are fined five dollars. On NewYork trolleys, spitting is prohibited and violators are fined five hundred dollars. Since Chineseare such messy and filthy citizens, no wonder they are despised.When Westerners walk, their bodies are erect and their heads up. We Chinese bow atone command, stoop at a second, and prostrate ourselves at a third. The comparison shouldmake us ashamed.When Westerners walk their steps are always hurried; one look and you know that thecity is full of people with business to do, as though they cannot get everything done. TheChinese on the other hand walk leisurely and elegantly, full of pomp and ritual—they are trulyridiculous. You can recognize a Chinese walking toward you on the street from a distance ofseveral hundred feet, and not only from his short stature and yellow face.Westerners walk together like a formation of geese; Chinese are like scattered ducks.When Westerners speak, if they are addressing one person, then they speak so one person canhear; if they are addressing two people, they make two people hear; similarly with ten and with

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hundreds, thousands, and tens of thousands. The volume of their voices is adjustedappropriately. In China, if several people sit in a room to talk, they sound like thunder. Ifthousands are gathered in a lecture hall, the [speaker’s] voice is like a mosquito. WhenWesterners converse, if A has not finished, B does not interrupt. With a group of Chinese, onthe other hand, the voices are all disorderly; some famous scholars in Beijing considerinterrupting to be a sign of masterfulness — this is disorderliness in the extreme. Confuciussaid, “Without having studied the Book of Songs one cannot speak; without having studied therites, one cannot behave.” My friend Xu Junmian also said, “Chinese have not learned to walkand have not learned to speak.” This is no exaggeration. Though these are small matters, theyreflect bigger things.[Translated by R. David Arkush and Leo O. Lee]

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Excerpts from Reforming Men’s Minds Comes Before Reforming InstitutionsBy Chu Chengbo

IntroductionQing scholars and officials of the late nineteenth century were very concerned with the empire’s weakness, whichwas there for all to see as the Qing experienced defeat at the hands of the British, the French, and, in 1895, the formertributary country of Japan. Concern with weakness led scholars and officials to offer a number of different analyses ofthe causes of weakness and to propose a variety of actions meant to address those problems.Chu Chengbo, an imperial official, submitted the following memorial to the Guangxu emperor (1871-1908, r. 1875-1908) in the wake of Japan’s defeat of the Qing in 1895.

In the present world our trouble is not that we lack good institutions but that we lackupright minds. If we seek to reform institutions, we must first reform men’s minds. Unless allmen of ability assist each other, good laws become mere paper documents; unless those whosupervise them are fair and enlightened, the venal will end up occupying the places of theworthy. …At the beginning of the Tongzhi reign (1862-1874), Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang, ShenBaozhen, Li Hongzhang, and others, because the danger from abroad was becoming daily moreserious, strongly emphasized Western learning. In order to effect large-scale manufacture, theybuilt shipyards and machine factories; in order to protect our commercial rights, they organizedthe China Merchants Steam Navigation Company and cotton mills; in order to educate personsof talent, they founded the Tongwen College and other language schools; in order to strengthentraining, they established naval and military academies. Countless other enterprises wereinaugurated, and an annual expenditure amounting to millions was incurred. Truly no effortwas spared in the attempt to establish new institutions after the pattern of the West.When these enterprises were first undertaken, the regulations and systems werethoroughly considered so as to attain the best. It was asserted then that although China at theoutset had to imitate the superior techniques of the West, eventually she would surpass theWestern countries. But [in fact] perfunctory execution of these reforms has brought us to the

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point now where the island barbarians [the Japanese] have suddenly invaded us, and the wholesituation of the nation has deteriorated. Was it because there were no reforms or because thereforms were no good? The real mistake was that we did not secure the right men to managethe new institutions.In some cases the authorities knew only how to indulge in empty talk; in other cases theofficials succeeding those who originated the reforms gradually became lax and let the projectsdrop. Generally the initial effort was seldom maintained to the end; and while there was muchtalk, there was little action. … If the proposals had been carried out gradually and persistently,China would have long ago become invincible. But these far-reaching plans failed because weonly put up an ostentatious façade behind which were concealed the avarice and selfishness [ofthe officials].In order to create a new impression in the country and to stimulate the lax morale of thepeople, it is necessary to distinguish between meritorious and unworthy men and to orderrewards and punishments accordingly. … If this fundamental remedy is adopted, the raising offunds will bring in abundant revenues, and the training of troops will result in a strong army.Institutions that are good will achieve results day by day, while institutions that are not so goodcan be changed to bring out their maximum usefulness. Otherwise, profit-seeking opportunistswill vie with each other in proposing novel theories … and there will be no limit to their evildoings.As to the present institutions and laws, although in name they adhere to pastformulations “respectfully observed,” in fact they have lost the essence of their originalmeaning. If we cling to the vestiges of the past, it will be conforming to externals whiledeparting from the spirit. But if we get at the root, a single change can lead to completefulfillment of the Way. … We should, therefore, make the necessary adjustments in accordancewith the needs of the time. If we secure the right persons, all things can be transformed withouta trace; but if we do not obtain the right persons, laws and institutions will only serve thenefarious designs of the wicked.

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Excerpts from “Destroying the Family”By Han Yi (Pseudonym) 1907All of society’s accomplishments depend on people to achieve, while the multiplicationof the human race depends on men and women. Thus if we want to pursue a social revolution,we must start with a sexual revolution — just as if we want to reestablish the Chinese nation,expelling the Manchus is the first step to the accomplishment of other tasks. … Yet, wheneverwe speak of the sexual revolution, the masses doubt and obstruct us, which gives rise toproblems. In bringing up this matter then we absolutely must make a plan that gets to the rootof the problem. What is this plan? It is to destroy the family.The family is the origin of all evil. Because of the family, people become selfish. Because of thefamily, women are increasingly controlled by men. Because of the family, everything uselessand harmful occurs (people now often say they are embroiled in family responsibilities while infact they are all just making trouble for themselves, and so if there were no families, these trivialmatters would instantly disappear). Because of the family, children — who belong to the worldas a whole — are made the responsibility of a single woman (children should be raised publiclysince they belong to the whole society, but with families the men always force the women toraise their children and use them to continue the ancestral sacrifices). These examples constituteirrefutable proof of the evils of the family. …Moreover, from now on in a universal commonwealth, everyone will act freely, never again willthey live and die without contact with one another as in olden times. The doctrine of humanequality allows for neither forcing women to maintain the family nor having servants tomaintain it. The difficulties of life are rooted in the family. When land belongs to everyone andthe borders between here and there are eradicated, then there will be no doubt that the “family”itself definitely should be abolished. As long as the family exists, then debauched men willimprison women in cages and force them to become their concubines and service their lust, orthey will take the sons of others to be their own successors. If we abolish the family now, thensuch men will disappear. The destruction of the family will thus lead to the creation of publicmindedpeople in place of selfish people, and men will have no way to oppress women.Therefore, to open the curtain on the social revolution, we must start with the destruction of the

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family.

COURT LIFE IN CHINA THE CAPITAL ITS OFFICIALS AND PEOPLE By ISAAC TAYLOR HEADLAND Professor in the Peking University

PREFACE

Until within the past ten years a study of Chinese court life would have been an impossibility. The Emperor, the Empress Dowager, and the court ladies were shut up within the Forbidden City, away from a world they were anxious to see, and which was equally anxious to see them. Then the Emperor instituted reform, the Empress Dowager came out from behind the screen, and the court entered into social relations with Europeans.

For twenty years and more Mrs. Headland has been physician to the family of the Empress Dowager's mother, the Empress' sister, and many of the princesses and high official ladies in Peking. She has visited them in a social as well as a professional way, has taken with her her friends, to whom the princesses have shown many favours, and they have themselves been constant callers at our home. It is to my wife, therefore, that I am indebted for much of the information contained in this book.

There are many who have thought that the Empress Dowager has been misrepresented. The world has based its judgment of her character upon her greatest mistake, her participation in the Boxer movement, which seems unjust, and has closed its eyes to the tremendous reforms which only her mind could conceive and her hand carry out. The great Chinese officials to a man recognized in her a mistress of every situation; the foreigners who have come into most intimate contact with her, voice her praise; while her hostile critics are confined for the most part to those who have never known her. It was for this reason that a more thorough study of her life was undertaken.

It has also been thought that the Emperor has been misunderstood, being overestimated by some, and underestimated by others, and this because of his peculiar type of mind and character. That he was unusual, no one will deny; that he was the originator of many of China's greatest reform measures, is equally true; but that he lacked the power to execute what he conceived, and the ability to select great statesmen to assist him, seems to have been his chief shortcoming.

To my wife for her help in the preparation of this volume, and to my father-in-law, Mr. William Sinclair, M. A., for his suggestions, I am under many obligations.

I. T. H.

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XXII The Court and the New Education

Abolish the eight-legged essay. Let the new learning be the test of scholarship, but include the classics, history, geography and government of China in the examinations. The true essay will then come out. If so desired, the eight-legged essay can be studied at home; but why trouble the school with them, and at the same time waste time and strength that can be expended in something more profitable? --Chang Chih-tung in "Chinas Only Hope,"

XXII THE COURT AND THE NEW EDUCATION

The changes in the attitude of the court towards a new educational system began, as do many great undertakings, in a very simple way. We have already shown how the eunuchs secured all kinds of foreign mechanical toys to entertain the baby Emperor Kuang Hsu; how these were supplemented in his boyhood by ingenious clocks and watches; how he became interested in the telegraph, the telephone, steam cars, steamboats, electric light and steam heat, and how he had them first brought into the palace and then established throughout the empire: and how he had the phonograph, graphophone, cinematograph, bicycle, and indeed all the useful and unique inventions of modern times brought in for his entertainment.

He then began the study of English. When in 1894 a New Testament was sent to the Empress Dowager on the occasion of her sixtieth birthday, he at once secured from the American Bible Society a copy of the complete Bible for himself. He began studying the Gospel of Luke. This gave him a taste for foreign literature and he sent his eunuchs to the various book depositories and bought every book that had been translated from the European languages into the Chinese. To these he bent all his energies and it soon became noised abroad that the Emperor was studying foreign books and was about to embrace the Christian faith. This continued from 1894 till 1898, during which time his example was followed by tens of thousands of young Chinese scholars throughout the empire, and Chang Chih-tung wrote his epoch-making book "China's Only Hope" which, being sent to the young Emperor, led him to enter upon a universal reform, the chief feature of which may be considered the adoption of a new educational system.

But now let us notice the animus of Kuang Hsu. He has been praised without stint for his leaning towards foreign affairs, when in reality was it not simply an effort on the part of the young man to make China strong enough to resist the incursions of the European powers? Germany had taken Kiaochou, Russia had taken Port Arthur, Japan had taken Formosa, Great Britain had taken Weihaiwei, France had taken Kuangchouwan, and even Italy was anxious to have a slice of his territory, while all the English papers in the port cities were talking of China being divided up amongst the Powers, and it was these things which led the Emperor to enter upon his work of reform.

In the summer of 1898 therefore he sent out an edict to the effect that:

"Our scholars are now without solid and practical education; our artisans are without scientific instructors; when compared with other countries WE SOON SEE HOW WEAK WE ARE. DOES ANY ONE THINK THAT OUR TROOPS ARE AS WELL DRILLED OR AS WELL LED AS THOSE OF THE FOREIGN ARMIES? OR THAT WE CAN SUCCESSFULLY STAND AGAINST THEM? Changes must be made to accord with the necessities of the times. . . . Keeping in mind the morals of the sages and wise men, we must

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make them the basis on which to build newer and better structures. WE MUST SUBSTITUTE MODERN ARMS AND WESTERN ORGANIZATION FOR OUR OLD REGIME; WE MUST SELECT OUR MILITARY OFFICERS ACCORDING TO WESTERN METHODS OF MILITARY EDUCATION; we must establish elementary and high schools, colleges and universities, in accordance with those of foreign countries; we must abolish the Wen-chang (literary essay) and obtain a knowledge of ancient and modern world-history, a right conception of the present-day state of affairs, with special reference to the governments and institutions of the countries of the five great continents; and we must understand their arts and sciences."

The effect of this edict was to cause hundreds of thousands of young aspirants for office to put aside the classics and unite in establishing reform clubs in many of the provincial capitals, open ports, and prefectural cities. Book depots were opened for the sale of the same kind of literature the Emperor had been studying, magazines and newspapers were issued and circulated in great numbers, lectures were delivered and libraries established, and students flocked to the mission schools ready to study anything the course contained, literary, scientific or religious. Christians and pastors were even invited into the palace by the eunuchs to dine with and instruct them. But the matter that gave the deepest concern to the boy in the palace was: "How can we so strengthen ourselves that we will be able to resist the White Peril from Europe?"

Among the important edicts issued in the establishment of the new education was the one of June 11, 1898, in which he ordered that "a great central university be established at Peking," the funds for which were provided by the government. Among other things he said: "Let all take advantage of the opportunities for the new education thus open to them, so that in time we may have many who will be competent to help us in the stupendous task of putting our country on a level with the strongest of the western powers." It was not wisdom the young man was after for the sake of wisdom, but he wanted knowledge because knowledge was power, and at that time it was the particular kind of power that was necessary to save China from utter destruction.

On the 26th of the same month he censured the princes and ministers who were lax in reporting upon this edict, and ordered them to do so at once, and it was not long until a favourable report was given and, for the first time in the history of the empire, a great university was launched by the government, destined, may we not hope, to accomplish the end the ambitious boy Emperor had in view.

Kuang Hsu was aware that a single institution was not sufficient to accomplish that end. On July 10th therefore he ordered that "schools and colleges be established in all the provincial capitals, prefectoral, departmental and district cities, and allowed the viceroys and governors but two months to report upon the number of colleges and free schools within their provinces," saying that "all must be changed into practical schools for the teaching of Chinese literature, and Western learning and become feeders to the Peking Imperial University." He ordered further that all memorial and other temples that had been erected by the people but which were not recorded in the list of the Board of Rites or of Sacrificial Worship, were to be turned into schools and colleges for the propagation of Western learning, a thought which was quite in harmony with that advocated by Chang Chih- tung. The funds for carrying on this work, and the establishment of these schools, were to be provided for by the China Merchants' Steamship Company, the Telegraph Company and the Lottery at Canton.

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On August 4th he ordered that numerous preparatory schools be established in Peking as special feeders to the university; and on the 9th appointed Dr. W. A. P. Martin as Head of the Faculty and approved the site suggested for the university by Sun Chia-nai, the president. On the 16th he authorized the establishment of a Bureau for "translating into Chinese Western works on science, arts and literature, and textbooks for use in schools and colleges"; and on the 19th he abolished the "Palace examinations for Hanlins as useless, superficial and obsolete," thus severing the last cord that bound them to the old regime.

What, now, was the Empress Dowager doing while Kuang Hsu was issuing all these reform edicts, which, we are told, were so contrary to all her reactionary principles? Why did she not stretch forth her hand and prevent them? She was spending the hot months at the Summer Palace, fifteen miles away, without offering either advice, objection or hindrance, and it was not until two delegations of officials and princes had appeared before her and plead with her to come and take control of affairs and thus save them from being ousted or beheaded, and herself from imprisonment, did she consent to come. By thus taking the throne she virtually placed herself in the hands of the conservative party, and all his reform measures, except that of the Peking University and provincial schools, were, for the time, countermanded, and the Boxers were allowed to test their strength with the allied Powers.

Passing over the two bad years of the Empress Dowager, which we have treated in another chapter, we find her again, after the failure of the Boxer uprising, and the return of the court to Peking, reissuing the same style of edicts that had gone out from the pen of Kuang Hsu. On August 29, 1901, she ordered "the abolition of essays on the Chinese classics in examinations for literary degrees, and substituted therefor essays and articles on some phase of modern affairs, Western laws or political economy. This same procedure is to be followed in examination of candidates for office."

And now notice another phase of this same edict. "The old methods of gaining military degrees by trial of strength with stone weights, agility with the sword, or marksmanship with the bow on foot or on horseback, ARE OF NO USE TO MEN IN THE ARMY, WHERE STRATEGY AND MILITARY SCIENCE ARE THE SINE QUA NON TO OFFICE, and hence they should be done away with forever." It is, as it was with Kuang Hsu, the strengthening of the army she has in mind in her first efforts at reform, that she may be able to back up with war-ships and cannon, if necessary, her refusal to allow Italy or any other European power to filch, without reason or excuse, the territory of her ancestors.

September 12, 1901, she issued another edict commanding that "all the colleges in the empire should be turned into schools of Western learning; each provincial capital should have a university like that in Peking, whilst all the schools in the prefectures and districts are to be schools or colleges of the second or third class," neither more nor less than a restatement of the edict of July 10, 1898, as issued by the deposed Emperor, except that she confined it to the schools without taking the temples.

September 17, 1901, she ordered "the viceroys and governors of other provinces to follow the example of Liu Kun-yi of Liang Kiang, Chang Chih-tung of Hukuang, and Kuei Chun (Manchu) of Szechuan, in sending young men of scholastic promise abroad to study any branch of Western science or art best suited to their tastes, that in time they may return to China and place the fruits of their knowledge at the service of the empire." Such were some of the edicts issued by the Emperor and the Empress Dowager in their efforts to launch this new

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system of education which was to transform the old China into a strong and sturdy youth. What now were the results?

The Imperial College in Shansi was opened with 300 students all of whom had already taken the Chinese degree of Bachelor of Arts. It had both Chinese and foreign departments, and after the students had completed the first, they were allowed to pass on to the second, which had six foreign professors who held diplomas from Western colleges or universities, and a staff of six translators of university textbooks into Chinese, superintended by a foreigner. In 1901-2 ten provinces, under the wise leadership of the Empress Dowager, opened colleges for the support of which they raised not less than $400,000.

The following are some of the questions given at the triennial examinations of these two years in six southern provinces:

1. "As Chinese and Western laws differ, and Western people will not submit to Chinese punishments, what ought to be done that China, like other nations, may be mistress in her own country?"

2. "What are the Western sources of economic prosperity, and as China is now so poor, what should she do?"

3. "According to international law has any one a right to interfere with the internal affairs of any foreign country?"

4. "State the advantages of constructing railways in Shantung."

5. "Of what importance is the study of chemistry to the agriculturist?"

While Yuan Shih-kai was Governor of Shantung he induced Dr. W. M. Hayes to resign the presidency of the Presbyterian College at Teng Choufu and accept the presidency of the new government college at Chinanfu the capital of the province. Dr. Hayes drew up a working plan of grammar and high schools for Shantung which were to be feeders to this provincial college. This was approved by the Governor, and embodied in a memorial to the throne, copies of which the Empress Dowager sent to the governors and viceroys of all the provinces declaring it to be a law, and ordering the "viceroys, governors and literary chancellors to see that it was obeyed."

Dr. Hayes and Yuan Shih-kai soon split upon a regulation which the Governor thought it best to introduce, viz., "That the Chinese professors shall, on the first and fifteenth of each month, conduct their classes in reverential sacrifice to the Most Holy Confucius, and to all the former worthies and scholars of the provinces." Dr. Hayes and his Christian teachers withdrew, and it was not long until those who professed Christianity were excused from this rite, while the Christian physicians who taught in the Peking Imperial University were allowed to dispense with the queue and wear foreign clothes, as being both more convenient and more sanitary.

When Governor Yuan was made viceroy of Chihli, he requested Dr. C. D. Tenny to draw up and put into operation a similar schedule for the metropolitan province. This was done on a very much enlarged scale, and at present (1909) "the Chihli province alone has nine thousand schools, all of which are aiming at Western education; while in the empire as a whole there

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are not less than forty thousand schools, colleges and universities," representing one phase of the educational changes that have been brought about in China during the last dozen years.

The changes in the new education among women promise to be even more sweeping than those among men. Dr. Martin, expressing the sentiments then in vogue, said, as far back as 1877, "that not one in ten thousand women could read." In 1893 I began studying the subject, and was led at once to doubt the statement. The Chinese in an offhand way will agree with Dr. Martin. But I found that it was a Chinese woman who wrote the first book that was ever written in any language for the instruction of girls, and that the Chinese for many years have had "Four Books for Girls" corresponding to the "Four Books" of the old regime, and that they were printed in large editions, and have been read by the better class of people in almost every family. In every company of women that came to call on my wife from 1894 to 1900, there was at least one if not more who had read these books, while the Empress Dowager herself was a brilliant example of what a woman of the old regime could do. Where the desire for education was so great among women, that as soon as it became possible to do so, she launched the first woman's daily newspaper that was published anywhere in the world, with a woman as an editor, we may be sure that there was more than one in ten thousand during the old regime that could read. What therefore may we expect in this new regime where women are ready to sacrifice their lives rather than that the school which they are undertaking to establish shall be a failure?

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John Hay to Andrew D. White First Open Door Note September 6 1899Department of State, Washington, September 6, 1899 At the time when the Government of the United States was informed by that of Germany that it had leased from His Majesty the Emperor of China the port of Kiao-chao and the adjacent territory in the province of Shantung, assurances were given to the ambassador of the United States at Berlin by the Imperial German minister for foreign affairs that the rights and privileges insured by treaties with China to citizens of the United States would not thereby suffer or be in anywise impaired within the area over which Germany had thus obtained control.

More recently, however, the British Government recognized by a formal agreement with Germany the exclusive right of the latter country to enjoy in said leased area and the contiguous "sphere of influence or interest" certain privileges, more especially those relating to railroads and mining enterprises; but as the exact nature and extent of the rights thus recognized have not been clearly defined, it is possible that serious conflicts of interest may at any time arise not only between British and German subjects within said area, but that the interests of our citizens may also be jeopardized thereby.

Earnestly desirous to remove any cause of irritation and to insure at the same time to the commerce of all nations in China the undoubted benefits which should accrue from a formal recognition by the various powers claiming "spheres of interest" that they shall enjoy perfect equality of treatment for their commerce and navigation within such "spheres," the Government of the United States would be pleased to see His German Majesty's Government give formal assurances, and lend its cooperation in securing like assurances from the other interested powers, that each, within its respective sphere of whatever influence--

First. Will in no way interfere with any treaty port or any vested interest within any so-called "sphere of interest" or leased territory it may have in China.

Second. That the Chinese treaty tariff of the time being shall apply to all merchandise landed or shipped to all such ports as are within said "sphere of interest" (unless they be "free ports"), no matter to what nationality it may belong, and that duties so leviable shall be collected by the Chinese Government.

Third. That it will levy no higher harbor dues on vessels of another nationality frequenting any port in such "sphere" than shall be levied on vessels of its own nationality, and no higher railroad charges over lines built, controlled, or operated within its "sphere" on merchandise belonging to citizens or subjects of other nationalities transported through such "sphere" than shall be levied on similar merchandise belonging to its own nationals transported over equal distances.

The liberal policy pursued by His Imperial German Majesty in declaring Kiao-chao a free port and in aiding the Chinese Government in the establishment there of a customhouse are so clearly in line with the proposition which this Government is anxious to see recognized that it entertains the strongest hope that Germany will give its acceptance and hearty support. The

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recent ukase of His Majesty the Emperor of Russia declaring the port of Ta-lien-wan open during the whole of the lease under which it is held from China to the merchant ships of all nations, coupled with the categorical assurances made to this Government by His Imperial Majesty's representative at this capital at the time and since repeated to me by the present Russian ambassador, seem to insure the support of the Emperor to the proposed measure. Our ambassador at the Court of St. Petersburg has in consequence, been instructed to submit it to the Russian Government and to request their early consideration of it. A copy of my instruction on the subject to Mr. Tower is herewith inclosed for your confidential information.

The commercial interests of Great Britain and Japan will be so clearly observed by the desired declaration of intentions, and the views of the Governments of these countries as to the desirability of the adoption of measures insuring the benefits of equality of treatment of all foreign trade throughout China are so similar to those entertained by the United States, that their acceptance of the propositions herein outlined and their cooperation in advocating their adoption by the other powers can be confidently expected. I inclose herewith copy of the instruction which I have sent to Mr. Choate on the subject.

In view of the present favorable conditions, you are instructed to submit the above considerations to His Imperial German Majesty's Minister for L Foreign Affairs, and to request his early consideration of the subject.

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Famine 1876-1879: Crisis in Population and Ecology

Unfortunately for China, the demands of western powers and the devastation caused by rebellions coincided with other social crises which challenged the Chinese government and people. Foremost among these crises was a tremendous population increase which put an enormous strain on already hard-pressed resources. During the long period of peace from the late 17th century until the end of the 18th century, the population of China more than doubled, growing from nearly 150 million to over 300 million. The next period, 1779-1850, brought another 56% increase, bringing the total population to 430 million (approximately 1/2 the 1980 total) on the eve of the great Taiping rebellion of mid-century. This population spurt was all the more difficult to deal with since by the late 18th century there were few regions left which could absorb more internal migration. Even frontier areas like the west and south-west were filling up. As in other times of Chinese history, there were creative responses: more intense irrigation, the development of earlier ripening strains of rice that allowed double cropping, and, most importantly, the gradual acceptance of New World food crops such as maize (corn), sweet potatoes, tobacco and peanuts for marginal lands. But these agricultural advances were double-edged: they may have resulted in more food, animal feed, and fuel, but they also led to erosion of the more intensely cultivated hills and the beginnings of a labor surplus, particularly in crowded areas like the lower Yangtze delta.

But it was not only food production and available opportunities for work that could not keep up with the population surge. The machinery of government had been reasonably well-suited for a smaller population, yet a proportionate increase in administrative personnel was not made to keep pace with the population. By the 19th century, it is estimated that a direct magistrate, the lowest level official responsible for all local administration, might be responsible for as many as 250,000 people. Small wonder that when real crises came, officials in government were powerless to avoid them, and people had nothing to fall back on except for some meager donations and national and international relief efforts, which reached few people. To get an idea of the extent of the suffering in the late nineteenth century look closely at the woodblock prints from the China Famine Relief Fund distributed in Europe. As you view them, keep in mind that they were produced during one of the most disastrous famines in recent Chinese history, which took place between 1876-1879. It affected all five provinces of north China and claimed at least 9.5 million lives. The immediate cause was a three year drought which withered crops from 1873-6.

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Excerpts from Reforming Men’s Minds Comes Before Reforming InstitutionsBy Chu Chengbo

In the present world our trouble is not that we lack good institutions but that we lackupright minds. If we seek to reform institutions, we must first reform men’s minds. Unless allmen of ability assist each other, good laws become mere paper documents; unless those whosupervise them are fair and enlightened, the venal will end up occupying the places of theworthy. …At the beginning of the Tongzhi reign (1862-1874), Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang, ShenBaozhen, Li Hongzhang, and others, because the danger from abroad was becoming daily moreserious, strongly emphasized Western learning. In order to effect large-scale manufacture, theybuilt shipyards and machine factories; in order to protect our commercial rights, they organizedthe China Merchants Steam Navigation Company and cotton mills; in order to educate personsof talent, they founded the Tongwen College and other language schools; in order to strengthentraining, they established naval and military academies. Countless other enterprises wereinaugurated, and an annual expenditure amounting to millions was incurred. Truly no effortwas spared in the attempt to establish new institutions after the pattern of the West.When these enterprises were first undertaken, the regulations and systems werethoroughly considered so as to attain the best. It was asserted then that although China at theoutset had to imitate the superior techniques of the West, eventually she would surpass theWestern countries. But [in fact] perfunctory execution of these reforms has brought us to thepoint now where the island barbarians [the Japanese] have suddenly invaded us, and the wholesituation of the nation has deteriorated. Was it because there were no reforms or because thereforms were no good? The real mistake was that we did not secure the right men to managethe new institutions.In some cases the authorities knew only how to indulge in empty talk; in other cases theofficials succeeding those who originated the reforms gradually became lax and let the projectsdrop. Generally the initial effort was seldom maintained to the end; and while there was muchtalk, there was little action. … If the proposals had been carried out gradually and persistently,

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China would have long ago become invincible. But these far-reaching plans failed because weonly put up an ostentatious façade behind which were concealed the avarice and selfishness [ofthe officials].In order to create a new impression in the country and to stimulate the lax morale of thepeople, it is necessary to distinguish between meritorious and unworthy men and to orderrewards and punishments accordingly. … If this fundamental remedy is adopted, the raising offunds will bring in abundant revenues, and the training of troops will result in a strong army.Institutions that are good will achieve results day by day, while institutions that are not so goodcan be changed to bring out their maximum usefulness. Otherwise, profit-seeking opportunistswill vie with each other in proposing novel theories … and there will be no limit to their evildoings.As to the present institutions and laws, although in name they adhere to pastformulations “respectfully observed,” in fact they have lost the essence of their originalmeaning. If we cling to the vestiges of the past, it will be conforming to externals whiledeparting from the spirit. But if we get at the root, a single change can lead to completefulfillment of the Way. … We should, therefore, make the necessary adjustments in accordancewith the needs of the time. If we secure the right persons, all things can be transformed withouta trace; but if we do not obtain the right persons, laws and institutions will only serve the

nefarious designs of the wicked.

From Sources of Chinese Tradition: From 1600 Through the Twentieth Century, compiled by Wm. Theodore de Bary and RichardLufrano, 2nd ed., vol. 2 (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000), 275-276. © 2000 Columbia University Press. Reproducedwith the permission of the publisher. All rights reserved.

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THE BREAK UP OF CHINA AND OUR INTEREST IN IT

THE literal "cycle of Cathay," or period of sixty years,--not the vague literary expression of Lord Tennyson,--which has just ended, was probably the most momentous for China, if not for the world at large; for it was in 1839 that the difficulties of intercourse between the East and the West came to the first crisis. The year 1899 seems to mark another crisis, which, as regards the integrity of the Chinese problem, may prove final. Yet the situation in Far Eastern Asia was grasped by only a few Western observers before 1895, when the struggle for suzerainty over Corea revealed the helplessness of China, and lifted Japan to a seat in the council of Powers. Though worsted in two foreign wars and nearly wrecked by an internal convulsion, the government of the "Son of Heaven" had learned nothing new and forgotten nothing old. The abortive issue of the French attack in 1884 seemed even to give it greater arrogance, and to increase the deference with which it was treated by Europe.

For ten years after the late Jules Ferry had declared Peking to be "une quantite negligeable" events conspired to prove his estimate incorrect. The Burlingame burlesque was forgotten, and the Dragon was again believed to be awakening. He looked very formidable--at a distance. Taking into consideration the blindness of the British, who had been the pioneers of trade, and whose commercial supremacy was still unthreatened, to the political and social conditions of the country, we need not wonder at the ignorance displayed by other peoples. English military experts referred to China as a desirable ally in the struggle, then thought imminent, of Slav and Saxon over India. A succession of muzzled or incompetent envoys represented Queen Victoria at Peking, and set to the consuls throughout the Chinese Empire an example of subservience to native authorities intensely mortifying to the foreign commercial communities which had grown to prosperity under a more vigorous regime. The

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lives and property of the Queen's subjects became so cheap that they were the favorite toys of petty mandarins.

During all this period the attitude of the American government and people was different, but hardly more enlightened. The relations of the United States to china were peculiar; the few American resident merchants, who had built up fortunes by exporting Oriental produce, disappeared, and no large importers had arisen. The delusions of a prohibitive tariff and a purely home market paralyzed American enterprise abroad, and the effect of our navigation laws was to deprive us of that share in the carrying trade of Asia which we had enjoyed before our civil war. On the other hand, an enormous influx of Chinese peasants upon the Pacific coast had glutted the labor market, and produced as bitter a racial hostility to them as could be reciprocated by the untraveled multitudes of the Flowery Land. Familiarity with the Chinese individual in our own country had bred contempt for his nation at home, and the interests, missionary rather than commercial, of American citizens in China were more courageously though not more skillfully upheld than those of European subjects.

How long the nations of the West might have indulged in pleasant dreams of a self-instructed Chinese monarchy holding out both hands for the world's commerce and civilization, varied by that strange recurrent nightmare known as "the Yellow Peril," it is difficult to say. But the internal ferment and consequent expansion of Japan hastened the awakening. At first the attention of Europe was concentrated on the naval struggle in the Yellow Sea, from which it was thought possible to learn valuable lessons in armament and tactics. Even after the destruction of Chinese sea power and the occupation of Corea by Japanese troops, the danger threatening the Celestial Empire itself was not realized in Europe. China, it was widely and confidently asserted, could absorb Japanese armies as she would a duststorm. They must simply melt away, leaving their island homes depopulated. The conservative prophets were so rapidly discomfited that

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bewilderment seized the press and politicians of Great Britain. The Yellow Peril bogey was transferred to Japan, and when Germany, Russia, and France decided to interfere, the authorities of Downing Street seemed willing to be ignored. Had a strong personality ruled the counsels of the Queen something might have been done to save British prestige; but Lord Rosebery was a man of many moods and many minds, hampered by an unpopular domestic policy which he had inherited together with that Elijah's mantle of leadership which was soon to trip him up.

The events which followed the Treaty of Shimonoseki are within the memory of every adult reader of the newspapers. Book after book has been published, professing to give a solution of the Far Eastern question, and often embodying merely the prejudices of a compiler or the perfunctory notes of a flying journalist. The utterances of the Honorable G.N. Curzon and Mr. Archibald R. Colquhoun were the most important, until the publication recently of Lord Charles Beresford's report to the British Associated Chambers of Commerce. (The Break-up of China. Harpers.) Lord Charles appeals not only to the commercial classes of his own country, but to the public of the United States as well; he is, like his predecessors, a believer in a fair field and no favor for all nations in China, but in addition to this he advocates an Anglo-American entent, which, with the probable adhesion of Japan and possibly of Germany, he regards as necessary to maintain the "open door." The alternative policy he judges "certain to encompass the doom of China, and equally certain to produce international strife. Mastery in Asia under a system of 'spheres of influence' will not be determined by effusion of ink."

The merit of this report lies in the fact that it gives the results of careful investigations on the spot by a man of world-wide fame in his profession, having extensive knowledge of human nature and a judgment as open and impartial as robust patriotism and special associations ever leave to us at maturity. Beresford received the confidence of all

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Anglo-Saxon communities in China, as well as assurances of sympathy from German traders and of hearty support by the people and press of Japan. He had access to the highest officials of the Chinese government, and almost every facility for verifying the military and naval collapse of the empire. He was also interviewed by the fugitive leader of the ill-fated Reform Party in China, which was overthrown by the coup d'etat of September, 1898. He saw the Russians at work in Manchuria and the Germans in Shantung, and he listened to the grievances of Englishmen against their consular service, to which some reformers in this country are wont to point as a model. He has studied the treaties, and observed the administration and effects of the tariff which depends upon them, as conscientiously as the forts and arsenals which might have more personal interest for a rear admiral who has seen active service. Above all, he has learned how to assimilate and condense the vast amount of information which he received, how to discard the extreme view, and how to sift the unfounded assertion. Whether or not one may agree with the practical utility of the open door policy, the Break-up of China is the most available and authoritative statement of essential truths for a student of politics or a seller of produce in the Orient.

Lord Charles has assuredly made out a good case against the inaction or opportunism of the British government amid recent developments, and he shows how seriously British and American trade is menaced by the closing of an immense general market. The advent of the United States to a seat on the court-martial of Powers which is trying the case of China is likely to be of great moment. Hitherto the majority has been distinctly inclined to give a sentence of summary decapitation and dissection. America, secure in a splendid isolation and confident in the permanent sufficiency of her domestic market, regarded the Oriental problem as academic, and its solution as immaterial to her welfare, until the guns of Admiral Dewey stirred the masses of his fellow countrymen to a keen sense of their needs and responsibilities. But other than

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sentimental reasons must be advanced for our undertaking with Great Britain or a syndicate of Powers to buttress the tottering colossus of China.

Almost all statistics of the foreign trade of China are based upon the returns of the Imperial Maritime Customs, which do not include the figures of import or export by overland routes. But the commerce of Western Europe and America is almost wholly sea-borne, and Lord Charles Beresford shows how great our export trade to China is, and how much it increased during the decade which ended with 1897. In free competition with British plain gray and white cotton goods, the American variety has risen from fourteen and a half per cent of the total import eleven years ago to twenty-nine and a half per cent during the year before last. The figures given by Consul-General Jernigan in his report of October 25, 1895, indicated that the value of the direct sea-borne trade relations between China and the United States for 1894 was greater than that between China and the European continent (Russia excepted); that it was more than double that between Russia and China, and amounted to nearly five eighths of the direct trade of Great Britain with China. Mr. A.R. Colquhoun stated that "the volume of the United States trade with China represented more than one seventh of the entire foreign trade of the empire in 1896. While the import trade from China has increased slowly, the export trade to China has increased one hundred years, and is more than fifty per cent larger than the German exports." (China in Transformation, page 156.) A depression in 1898, due in part to our war with Spain, is more than offset by the estimates for 1899. And all this notwithstanding the purchasing power of Chinese silver has fallen thirty per cent since 1893.

Our present rivalry with Russia is in kerosene oil. But the Russian oil is so much inferior that dishonest methods are employed to introduce it. Tins and cases which have contained American oil and still bear its trademarks are used to pack Russian oil, to the injury of the

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American exporter and the native consumer. Another branch of American trade, and one capable in an open market of indefinite development, is the importation of flour for the northern provinces; but if these regions of China, where wheat instead of rice is the staple food of the people, should be acknowledged as the Russian "sphere of influence," the exclusion of American flour and oil by administrative enactment is sure to follow. It is, moreover, noteworthy in the statistics of the northern ports that American imports have more generally increased in that section than in the Yangtse Valley or the southern provinces, where they are not at present threatened with political discrimination.

Russia has always been served by the best men she has in the career of diplomacy. With her especially it may be said that "a diplomat is an honest man sent abroad to lie for his country." There may be significance in the fact that her present ambassador at Washington has played a great part in the overshadowing influence of the Tsar at Peking. Of course, the cabinet and the press are given to understand, with extreme unctuousness, that Russian influence in Asia is friendly to American interests; but it is well to remember, as a guarantee of Russian good faith, the recent crime against the liberties of Finland.

Lord Charles Beresford's chapters on Railways and Waterways are highly interesting, because it is by facility of travel and transportation that the dough of Cathay must be leavened. But the distinguished defender of the open door is not always consistent in his exposition. He is inclined to surrender in practice a crucial part of his policy for the sake of getting it adopted in theory. "If the open door policy is maintained throughout China," he writes, "the more countries who employ their capital and energy in making railways, the better it will be for British trade; but in order to secure the open door policy, it may be that we shall have to concede to other countries preferential rights or spheres of interest, as far as railway enterprise is concerned. This we have already done with regard to Germany in Shantung and

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Russia in Manchuria, and the question arises, What is our position in the Yangtse Valley, where other Powers possess railway concessions?" Very pertinent; but if there are to be spheres of railway influence, why should there not be spheres of mining, bridging, conservancy, or other engineering influence? Where are they to cease, and how are they to be regulated? It would be a jungle of jurisdictions, a gnarled knot of privileges which only the sword could cut. We have already, as pointed out by Lord Charles, an example of conflicting courts in the residential concessions at the port of Hankow, where the invalidity of certain titles to real estate is the distress of the occupants, and would be the despair of an American conveyancer.

The trouble is that there has been no definite agreement among the Powers since the collapse of China was made clear to the meanest intellect. Each government has been bullying Peking in its turn, demanding this or that contract or concession with or without the color of a pretext. Where only a harbor or a fringe of seacoast is involved, the disadvantages of the scramble policy may not be immediately patent; but when it is extended to the complicated charters of public carriers, the development of mineral resources, or any enterprise requiring the employment of intricate machinery and skilled labor, the absurdity is manifest. It might reach such proportions that the consent of five Powers would be necessary to construct a breakwater in the Gulf of Pechili, or that one Power could veto the opening of a switch at a railway junction in the Yangtse Valley.

No such compromise is possible. Either, as Lord Charles Beresford believes and in the main strongly presents to us, "the world must adhere firmly to the open door and equal opportunity policy," with its logical sequence of a revival of the imperial authority in China by injecting stimulants and vigorously chafing the extremities, or there must be accurately surveyed and delimited geographical regions, where Briton, Cossack, Frank, Teuton, Japanese, or Yankee may grow whatever crop

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of institutions he may prefer and the soil can bear.

Is it for the benefit of the United States to deal with China as a vast unit under her native flag, or as fragments under many flags? That is what we have to decide; and Lord Charles confesses that, when he passed through America, the public mind was partly distracted from his message by the acute stage of the Philippine problem. It is to be hoped that our government is silently exercising the utmost vigilance in behalf of our commercial privileges on the continent of Asia. Failure to do so might not be politically disastrous to the present administration, but posterity will not forgive nor history condone faults of omission or indifference after such warning as have already been given. Surely, no American administration would seriously contemplate the establishment of a dependency or protectorate on the mainland of China, while our interests there may be safeguarded by international control and reciprocity; but it is difficult to see how these securities can be obtained without more definite engagements on the part of our State Department than our uninformed public opinion now demands. Nevertheless, the signs of a healthy and growing interest are numerous. The American Asiatic Association of those directly interested in the Far East was formed last year, with headquarters at New York, corresponding to the British China Association, and may in time possess equal weight. A very valuable document, Commercial China in 1899, has been issued by the Bureau of Statistics of the Treasury Department at Washington, and gives in a concise and intelligible form the main facts and prospects of the situation. A wide dissemination of this pamphlet is earnestly to be desired; and every factor is to be encouraged that brings home to American manufacturers and merchants the opportunity that awaits them,--an opportunity that, by a wise foreign policy and far-sighted commercial methods, can add immensely to our trade and to our international influence.

"The Break-Up of China, and Our Interest in It", The Atlantic

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Monthly, August 1899; Volume 84, No. 502; pages 276 - 280.

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Abolition of the Examination System, 1898

The changes in the attitude of the court towards a new educational system began, as do many great undertakings, in a very simple way. We have already shown how the eunuchs secured all kinds of foreign mechanical toys to entertain the baby Emperor Kuang Hsu; how these were supplemented in his boyhood by ingenious clocks and watches; how he became interested in the telegraph, the telephone, steam cars, steamboats, electric light and steam heat, and how he had them first brought into the palace and then established throughout the empire: and how he had the phonograph, graphophone, cinematograph, bicycle, and indeed all the useful and unique inventions of modern times brought in for his entertainment.

He then began the study of English. When in 1894 a New Testament was sent to the Empress Dowager on the occasion of her sixtieth birthday, he at once secured from the American Bible Society a copy of the complete Bible for himself. He began studying the Gospel of Luke. This gave him a taste for foreign literature and he sent his eunuchs to the various book depositories and bought every book that had been translated from the European languages into the Chinese. To these he bent all his energies and it soon became noised abroad that the Emperor was studying foreign books and was about to embrace the Christian faith. This continued from 1894 till 1898, during which time his example was followed by tens of thousands of young Chinese scholars throughout the empire, and Chang Chih-tung wrote his epoch-making book "China's Only Hope" which, being sent to the young Emperor, led him to enter upon a universal reform, the chief feature of which may be considered the adoption of a new educational system.

But now let us notice the animus of Kuang Hsu. He has been praised without stint for his leaning towards foreign affairs, when in reality was it not simply an effort on the part of the young man to make China strong enough to resist the incursions of the European powers? Germany had taken Kiaochou, Russia had taken Port Arthur, Japan had taken Formosa, Great Britain had taken Weihaiwei, France had taken Kuangchouwan, and even Italy was anxious to have a slice of his territory, while all the English papers in the port cities were talking of China being divided up amongst the Powers, and it was these things which led the Emperor to enter upon his work of reform.

In the summer of 1898 therefore he sent out an edict to the effect that:

"Our scholars are now without solid and practical education; our artisans are without scientific instructors; when compared with other countries WE SOON SEE HOW WEAK WE ARE. DOES ANY ONE THINK THAT OUR TROOPS ARE AS WELL DRILLED OR AS WELL LED AS THOSE OF THE FOREIGN ARMIES? OR THAT WE CAN SUCCESSFULLY STAND AGAINST THEM? Changes must be made to accord with the necessities of the times. . . . Keeping in mind the morals of the sages and wise men, we must make them the basis on which to build newer and better structures. WE MUST SUBSTITUTE MODERN ARMS AND WESTERN ORGANIZATION FOR OUR OLD REGIME; WE MUST SELECT OUR MILITARY OFFICERS ACCORDING TO WESTERN METHODS OF MILITARY EDUCATION; we must establish elementary and high schools, colleges and universities, in accordance with those of foreign countries; we must abolish the Wen-chang (literary essay) and obtain a knowledge of ancient and modern world-history, a right conception of the present-day state of affairs, with special reference to the governments and

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institutions of the countries of the five great continents; and we must understand their arts and sciences."

 

Source From: Isaac Taylor Headland,  1859-1942.:  Court life in China: the capital, its officials and people, (New York, F.H. Revell, c1909), Project Gutenberg Etext 523