My Life in China and America

MY LIFE IN CHINA AND AMERICA BY YUNG WING, A. B., LL. D. YALE COMMISSIONER OF THE CHINESE EDUCATIONAL COMMISSION, ASSOCIATE CHINESE MINISTER IN WASHINGTON, EXPECTANT TAO-TAI OF KIANG SU NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 1909 COPYRIGHT, 1909 BY HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY TO MY DEVOTED SONS MORRISON BROWN AND BARTLETT GOLDEN YUNG THESE REMINISCENCES ABE AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED PKEFACE The first five chapters of this book give an account of my early education, previous to going to America, where it was continued, first at Monson Academy, in Monson, Massachusetts, and later, at Yale College. The sixth chapter begins with my reentrance into the Chinese world, after an absence of eight years. Would it not be strange, if an Occidental education, continually exemplified by an Occi dental civilization, had not wrought upon an Oriental such a metamorphosis in his inward nature as to make him feel and act as though he were a being coming from a different world, when he confronted one so diametrically dif ferent This was precisely my case, and yet neither my patriotism nor the love of my fellow countrymen had been weakened. On the con trary, they had increased in strength from sympathy. Hence, the succeeding chapters of my book will be found to be devoted to the work ing out of my educational scheme, as an expres sion of my undying love for China, and as the iii iv PREFACE most feasible method to my mind, of reformation and regeneration for her. With the sudden ending of the Educational Commission, and the recall of the one hundred and twenty students who formed the vanguard of the pioneers of modern education in China, my educational work was brought to a close. Of the survivors of these students of1872, a few by dint of hard, persistent industry, have at last come forth to stand in the front ranks of the leading statesmen of China, and it is through them that the original Chinese Educational Commission has been revived, though in a mod ified form, so that now, Chinese students are seen flocking to America and Europe from even the distant shores of Sinim for a scientific education. November, 1909, 16 Atwood St., Hartford, Conn. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. BOYHOOD ...... 1 II. SCHOOL DAYS ..... 18 III. JOURNEY TO AMERICA AND FIRST EXPERI ENCES THERE ... 21 IV. AT MONSON ACADEMY .... 27 V. MY COLLEGE DAYS 34 VI. RETURN TO CHINA .... 42 VII. EFFORT TO FIND A POSITION ... 58 VIII. EXPERIENCES IN BUSINESS ... 67 IX. MY FIRST TRIP TO THE TEA DISTRICTS 79 X. MY VISIT TO THE TAIPINGS ... 96 XI. REFLECTIONS ON THE TAIPING REBEL LION 113 XII. EXPEDITION TO THE TAIPING TEA DIS TRICT 123 XIII. MY INTERVIEWS WITH TSANG KWOH FAN 137 XIV. MY MISSION TO AMERICA TO BUY MA CHINERY . . .154 XV. MY SECOND RETURN TO CHINA . . 160 XVI. PROPOSAL OF MY EDUCATIONAL SCHEME 170 vi CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE XVII. THE CHINESE EDUCATIONAL MISSION . . 180 XVIII. INVESTIGATION OF THE COOLIE TRAFFIC IN PERU 191 XIX. END OF THE EDUCATIONAL MISSION . 197 XX. JOURNEY TO PEKING AND DEATH OF MY WIFE 16 XXL MY RECALL TO CHINA .... 224 XXIL THE COUP DETAT OF 1898 . . . 239 APPENDIX 247 INDEX 275 MY LIFE IN CHINA AND AMERICA CHAPTER I BOYHOOD I was born on the 17th of November, 1828, in the village of Nam Ping South Screen which is about four miles southwest of the Portuguese Colony of Macao, and is situated on Pedro Island lying west of Macao, from which it is separated by a channel of half a mile wide. I was one of a familyof four children. A brother was the eldest, a sister came next, I was the third, and another brother was the fourth and the youngest of the group. I am the only survivor of them all. As early as 1834, an English lady, Mrs. Gutzlaff, wife of the Rev. Charles Gutzlaff, a missionary to China, came to Macao and, under the auspices of the Ladies Association in London for the promotion of female education in India and the East, immediately took up the 1