ARTICLE VA-SOME RACE-PROBLEMS IN CHINA.

AN added respect for the aggressive enterprise of our century comes from the thought that some of its reforms have reached China. To Western minds that nation has typified absolute conservatism and lack of progress, guarded by avowed contempt for foreigners and inaccessibility to trade. We of the United States have mustered conceit to look upon our hoary-headed neighbor with feelings of mingled pity and contempt. His vast and highly-favored domains have vulgarly been called breeding-grounds for the multiplication of a repulsive, loose-moraled race of "heathen." In the popular mind China has lately been deemed worthy of notice only because likely to cause annoyance by an overflow of undesirable population, or for possible inducements for trade, or because furnishing a mart for our surplus silver. For the comparative philologist, the ethnologist, the evangelist, however, the "Flowery Kingdom" has suggested far deeper and truer questions, concerning the origin of written language, the rise of the ancient nations, the conquering power of Christianity. An exhaustive discussion of any one of these broad subjects might appropriately be made the life-work of a Napoleon for energy, a Pascal for memory, a Gibbon for acumen, a Schliemann for diligence, and, we are safe in adding, a Methusalah for age. Nothing is farther from our intention than an attempt to pronounce upon these vexed questions of scholarship. Yet it may be possible within the limits of a short article to give a brief resumé of recent events,-of progress, if such has been made, in China. Still more interesting should it prove to mark out the lines within which constitutional, social, and religious changes must occur if the complex machinery which governs them is set at work. The present period seems especially appropriate for the discussion of this general theme, for it has introduced to American readers several recent texts on the condition of China and a greatly enlarged reprint of the standard treatise on the "Middle Kingdom." Written by a

thorough scholar forty-three years resident in China, it seems to us unlikly that for fullness of information, fairness of statement, and freshness of style this work will be excelled as a comprehensive synopsis of the whole subject. One may expect, rather, to see the most attractive portions of this immense territory henceforth apportioned among the specialists.

Every country has its local atmosphere, but the atmosphere of China is peculiarly dense and puzzling, with the gathered mists of centuries. All strangers recognize this, but only those who have spent years of deep study in China and come into daily contact with the natives can appreciate fully its significance. When such authorities as Mr. Williams confess that they were often puzzled to apprehend every-day matters from a purely Chinese stand-point, one begins to realize the vast differences separating their race from our own-differences extending not merely to manners and customs, but, apparently, to the very structure of the brain and texture of the heart. The thought is the less grotesque because the exact prototypes and lineal ancestors of these "men of the Middle Kingdom" were in reality inhabitants of a world differing almost radically from our modern one in aspirations, knowledge, and material resources. With this warning to ourselves in mind against surface judgments and against making the genius of our civilization an all-sufficient touchstone for antipodal affairs, we will now endeavor, for the purpose of acquiring a fund of information for future discussion, to draw a few deductions from the educational, constitutional, and religious systems of China. We speak first of the former because it has attracted deepest attention in study of the intellectual development of that country, and because upon it the two others depend as corollaries.

It is necessary to notice that the importance of educating the masses was acknowledged in China as early as five hundred years before our era. At that time none of the other leading nations, Persians, Syrians, or Jews, made the slightest pretense to a system of education. The present Chinese system, with provisions for examinations, dates from A. D. 600. Thus its great antiquity is a proof both of the reverence in which it is held and its want of elasticity, viewed from our stand point. But we must remember the great end of education among the

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Chinese has always been and still is to discipline the heart and purify the affections rather than fill the head with knowledge. The horn-books are dissertations upon the nature of man and platitudes on the value of education. Neither the study of mathematics, geography, natural history, nor the history or languages of foreign countries has any part in the native curriculum. A peculiarity of the Chinese language which accounts for some features in the literary and educational history of the people, has frequently been overlooked by foreign writers on that country.* The structure of the characters is such that there is no clue to their sound save by its pronunciation by a native. The utterances of these sounds are arbitrary and independent of any logical system or sequence, so that if a given province should perish, it has been stated, no approach to its dialect could ever after be gathered from writings or analogy by students from other portions of China. Hence no means exists by which the sound of a foreign language can be intelligently conveyed into the Chinese language so as to open up its literature to natives. Grammars and dictionaries to teach a Chinese English or Italian without oral instruction, are almost utterly impossible. All the characters are like Arabic figures and the dialects in China emulate the diversity of the numerals among European languages. Owing to this cause, then, more than any thing else, the stores of knowledge contained in foreign books are shut out, and always have been, from Chinese scholars. Again, possessed from the earliest times with books in their own language, while contiguous nations had only such writings as were borrowed from them, the idea naturally arose in China that "outside" nations produced nothing in the way of culture worth investigating. But the peculiar maxims above referred to are impregnably implanted in the boys' minds"more deeply," says Mr. Williams, "than are ever Biblical truths and examples on graduates of Yale, Oxford, Heidelberg, or the Sorbonne."

At first thought the public examinations for the four literary degrees are a very encouraging feature of Chinese education. Certain results they do accomplish and accomplish very well,

* For this lucid and concise explanation of the intellectual isolation of China, I am indebted to Mr. Frederick Wells Williams, of the Yale College Library.-J. A. P.

by helping to make an aristocracy of culture instead of wealth or birth; by interposing a bulwark of intelligence between the government and the masses; by furnishing the government. with many convenient occasions for seeming to take an interest in the welfare of the people, in honoring and entertaining successful competitors in the examinations. But the vital point must not be lost sight of, that the remarkable interest which. centres in these occasions is because they are in reality desperate struggles for office. Though few of the thousands of applicants may reach the desired posts, the unsuccessful still win the influence and dignity of a privileged class. The triumph of these examinations is, therefore, on the side of stability of government rather than higher education. There is no attempt at original thinking, nor is there much pretense to wide and sound scholarship except in the examinations for the highest degrees. What the government really offers is: "Con the old rules, and we will give the best of you an opportunity of putting those rules into practice." The highest praise, then, which can fairly be bestowed on Chinese education is that it tends to peace, by giving talent a fair chance against wealth, birth, and intrigue. Later we shall consider whether these negative merits are sufficient for the well-being and safety of any modern nation, even

of China.

In theory the Chinese government is patriarchal and sublime. The Emperor is the father of his people and vicegerent of Heaven, interceding for his subjects on all extraordinary occasions. But he lives in a "Forbidden Palace;" the access to him by petition is uncertain and usually ineffective; during the past two hundred years few of the plebeians have looked upon their hwangti's, or "august sovereign's" face; the very streets through which he passes are usually screened with mats. The five orders of nobility, however, are unentailed, and the privileges of the eight upper classes are mostly confined to harmless vanities of dress and immunity from degrading punishments. There is nothing like a congress or parliament, or any body elected to represent the people and clothed with requisite authority to discuss constitutional questions. The active force of government is lodged in the Imperial Cabinet and Council of State, whose duties are to receive edicts, present

memorials to the Emperor, to discuss topics of general interest to the nation and the army. Under the direction of these bodies, six executive boards administer details of revenue, war, etc. In short, about all the paraphernalia of modern nationconducting are present-excepting provisions for liberty of the individual, representation, and taxation! which the English fought for in bloody wars and we maintained in our declaration of independence. Similar paradoxes are found in their judicial system. There are supreme courts and courts of error and appeal; but civil and criminal proceedings are hopelessly confused. Justice can be invoked at almost any hour of the day or night; but judges are never without instruments of torture to use on either principals or witnesses.

The surest test of the character of this, as of all other monarchic governments, is the relations which officials bear to the people. Chinese officers, especially of the lower grades, are notoriously corrupt and harsh. Jealousy between them is fermented by a regularly organized system of espionage. The only retort which the people have against a particularly brutal offender is a street pasquinade which may perchance reach the eyes of some superior. The people fear the government much, but they fear each other more. In the breasts of each one of them is implanted the ante-Christian belief that one can rise to success only as his neighbors suffer defeat. Here, too, is an excellent inference, by contrast, of what an important factor the power of combination has been in modern civilization. The surveillance of their police would not allow the Chinese people to combine except on the basis of business-guilds. Having no press they could never institute a reform in a legitimate way, by criticism of government. One prop of government is the multiplication of petty offices at the capital. No man can hold a civil office in his own province, nor marry in the district under his control, nor own land in it, nor have any near relatives holding office under him. Another prop is that an amended edition of the Ta Tsing Liuh Li, or General Code of Civil, Fiscal, Ritual, and Criminal laws is published every five years by the authorities and extensively sold and read by the people. As this treatise is conspicuously able, terse, clear and plausible among the similar productions of heathen nations, restless minds