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 CHARLES WILLIAM WASON 
 
 COLLECTION 
 
 CHINA AND THE CHINESE 
 
 THE GIFT OF 
 
 CHARLES WILLIAM WASON 
 
 CLASS OF 1S76 
 
 1918 
 
Cornell University Library 
 DS 721.G19 
 
 New life currents in China / 
 
 3 1924 023 504 818 
 
The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023504818 
 
Wherever the doctor goes in China, crowds press around him 
 for reUef. From the work of medical missions, with their mani- 
 fold blessings of public health education and movements for 
 sanitation and prevention of disease, have come many of the 
 new life currents that are changing the character of China's 
 national existence. 
 
NEW LIFE CURRENTS 
 IN CHINA 
 
 BY 
 
 MARY NINDE GAMEWELL 
 
 NEW YORK 
 MISSIONARY EDUCATION MOVEMENT 
 OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA 
 
COPYRIGHT, igig, BY 
 
 MISSIONARY EDUCATION MOVEMENT OF THE 
 
 UNITED STATES AND CANADA 
 
CORRESPONDENCE CONCERNING 
 MISSION STUDY 
 
 Send the proper one of the following blanks to the secretary of 
 your denominational mission board whose address is in the "List of 
 Mission Boards and Correspondents" at the end of this book. 
 
 We expect to form a mission study class, and desire to have any 
 suggestions that you can send that will help in organizing and 
 conducting it. 
 
 Name 
 
 Street and Number 
 
 City or Town State .. . 
 
 Denomination Church. 
 
 Text-book to be used 
 
 We have organized a mission study class and secured our books. 
 Below is the enrolment. 
 
 Name of City or Town State 
 
 Text-book Underline auspices under 
 
 which class is held: 
 Denomination Church Y. P. Soc. 
 
 Church Men Senior 
 
 Women's Soc. Intermediate 
 Name of Leader Y. W. Soc. Junior 
 
 , , 1 Sunday School 
 
 Address 
 
 Name of Pastor., Date of starting 
 
 State whether Mission Study Class, Prequeqcy of Meetings 
 
 Lecture Course, Program Meet- 
 ings, or Reading Cirde Number of Members 
 
 Does Leader desire Helps?. . . 
 
 Chairman, Missionary Committee, Young People's Society 
 
 Address 
 
 Chairman, Missionary Committee, Sunday School. 
 
 Address 
 
IN LOVING MEMORY OF 
 MY FATHER AND MOTHER 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTEB PAGE 
 
 Foreword xi 
 
 I The Coming China 3 
 
 II Triumphs of Western Medical Science . 29 
 
 III Chinese Leadership in Medicine ... 57 
 
 IV Prevention Better than Cure .... 83 
 V Economic and Industrial Changes . . 107 
 
 VI The Vitalizing Power of Christian Educa- 
 tion 133 
 
 VII Three Social Transfontfetions . . . 161 
 
 VIII The Conquering Church in China . . 191 
 
 APPENDIXES 
 
 A Bibliography 217 
 
 B Area and Population 220 
 
 C Important Events in Modern Chinese His- 
 tory 222 
 
 D Educational Statistics of the Protestant 
 
 Missions 224 
 
 E Medical Statistics of the Protestant Missions 225 
 
 F Chinese Workers Employed by the Missions 226 
 
 G Relative Occupation of Mission Fields . 227 
 
 Index 229 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGB 
 
 The Missionary physician ......... Frontispiece 
 
 President Hsu Shi Chang 12 
 
 A Chinese labor battalion ready to embark for France '. 20 
 
 New plant of the Peking Union Medical College . . 36 
 
 Bronze manikin used by the Imperial Surgeons ... 60 
 
 A clinic in a modern Chinese hospital 68 
 
 An exhibit used in the public health campaign ... 84 
 
 Burning of a twelve-million-dollar opium stock in Shanghai 100 
 Stock-judging at Canton Christian College . . . .116 
 
 The first agricultural demonstration train 124 
 
 A girls' Bible class ... 148 
 
 Founder's Day procession, Ginling College .... is6 
 
 The first graduating class from Ginling College . . ,. 156 
 
 A Boy Scout troop in Shanghai 164 
 
 Field day sports 172 
 
 A Red Cross group in Shanghai i8e 
 
 The first Chinese bishop of the Anglican Church . . . 204 
 
 MAPS AND CHARTS 
 
 Map showing centers of work of China Medical Board . 45 
 
 Daybreak in China ,. .. . 193 
 
 Progress of the Chinese churches 302 
 
 A pioneer home missionary enterprise ..... 214 
 
 Chinese workers employed by the missions .... 226 
 
 Relative occupation of mission fields . . •. .■ '^ . 227 
 
 Map of China r., . . End 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 The present hour is a crucial one in the history 
 of China. Never has she faced such unparalleled 
 opportunities or been confronted by graver perils. 
 For a time her very life seemed to hang in the 
 balance. But we believe the real crisis passed with 
 the sudden ending of the European war, and that 
 the changes sure to be brought about during this 
 period of world building will strengthen and make 
 permanent the country's foundations. 
 
 China is not like ancient Egypt, whose greatness 
 has departed though she still lives on. China is a 
 vital force whose largest possibilities of develop- 
 ment lie before and not behind her. A new, fresh 
 life is beginning to course through the nation's 
 veins. How can this new life be fostered so there 
 will not be the awful waste which has weakened 
 China almost to the breaking point? 
 
 The conservation of the physical, mental, mate- 
 rial, and, above all, the spiritual life of China and 
 the Chinese people e<t this present time, — what a 
 theme for our consideration ! 
 
 It will be seen that I have said but little, except 
 indirectly, about the work being done in China by 
 more than six thousand missionaries representing 
 over one hundred mission boards of the British 
 Empire, the United States, and Europe. 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 All Christian work carried on to-day is the direct 
 result of missionary effort. But I have felt — and 
 foreigners generally share my conviction — that the 
 time has come to direct the attention of the people 
 at home more to the work of the Chinese Chris- 
 tians. From the first, missionaries have recognized 
 that the final issue of their task was the develop- 
 ment of a Chinese church which should assume the 
 burden of evangelizing the land. 
 
 The Chinese Christians, untrammeled by our 
 limitations, and numbering thousands where we do 
 tens, will carry the Torch of Truth to perishing 
 millions that we can never hope to reach. It is 
 well for us to know more fully what manner of 
 Christians the Chinese are, and the kind and 
 amount of work they are doing. 
 
 My subject is so vast in its scope, that in the 
 following chapters I have been able only to touch 
 lightly upon several phases of it. But it is my 
 earnest hope and prayer that something in these 
 pages may awaken the readers' interest sufficiently 
 to send them to the mission reports of the individual 
 mission boards, and to reference books for detailed 
 information. 
 
 To each and every one in China and America, 
 Chinese and foreigners, who have so generously 
 helped me in the preparation of this book, I wish to 
 express my deepest gratitude. 
 
 Mary Ninde Gamewell. 
 Shanghai, China, 
 January, 1919. 
 
I 
 
 THE COMING CHINA 
 
CHAPTER I 
 THE COMING CHINA 
 
 Who knows China? Dr. Arthur H. Smith, 
 whose missionary experience extends over forty- 
 five years, once said with dry humor, " I have met 
 only two classes of people who are able confidently 
 to assert, ' We do ! ' They are newspaper reporters 
 and globe-trotters. As for myself, I am contin- 
 ually discovering a continental area still unex- 
 plored." 
 
 Never has China been more of an enigma and an 
 uncertainty, even to the Chinese themselves, than 
 during the years since the birth of the Republic 
 in 1911. 
 
 " You are living under a Republic in China, 
 aren't you?" observed a citizen of San Francisco 
 to a missionary friend just off the steamer. 
 
 " I don't know," was the reply. 
 
 " You don't know! Why, what do you mean? " 
 
 " I mean that when I left China, we had a Repub- 
 lic. What the form of government may be to-day, 
 I can't say." 
 
 3 
 
4 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 The Spirit of Unrest 
 
 Politically, we have been standing on the top of 
 a volcano for several years, fearing that at any 
 hour a new eruption might break forth. The coun- 
 try is still torn with civil strife. There is one 
 government in Peking, which enjoys the prestige 
 of recognition by the Foreign Powers, and another 
 in Canton, that claims it is the only body which 
 has a legal right to exist. The contention is not 
 between the North and South, but between mili- 
 tarism and democracy. Some strong politicians in 
 the South have sided with the Northerners, while 
 the sympathies of many in the North are wholly 
 with the democratic party of the South. In the 
 meantime, unchecked lawlessness has kept poor 
 China in a ferment. The armies of the contending 
 governments have carried on a destructive guer- 
 rilla warfare. Bandits and lawless soldiers — the 
 terms are really synonymous — have terrorized the 
 people; in places attacking whole villages, killing 
 the men and committing outrages on the women 
 and children or making them prisoners ; holding up 
 trains and robbing them in true Wild West fash- 
 ion, and firing at steamers on the Upper Yangtsze. 
 Many of the gentry, whenever they heard that 
 troops were approaching, sent their wives and 
 daughters to improvised refuges protected by the 
 Red Cross flag, the sanctuary of the home proving 
 unavailing. 
 
THE COMING CHINA 5 
 
 While a friend and I were journeying south from 
 Tientsin at a time that these conditions were 
 acute, our train came to a sudden halt. We heard 
 that there had been fighting ahead of us on the day 
 before ; rails torn up ; telegraph wires cut, and some 
 Chinese killed. The train stopped all that night and 
 till noon the next day, waiting for orders. Soldiers 
 were stationed outside and in the coaches as guards. 
 As it grew dark, we watched them from the car 
 window pacing up and down the road, gray-clad 
 figures with rifles over their shoulders, and so we 
 felt very safe. Just as we were composing our- 
 selves for a little sleep, a train boy came along and 
 locked the door of our compartment. When we 
 objected, he explained that as there were soldiers 
 about they might enter during the night and steal 
 from us! 
 
 In the South pirates have held high revel. Coal 
 in Canton was sold at thirty dollars a ton, with 
 rich mines a few miles away, but there was no safe 
 way of transporting the coal even had it been possi- 
 ble to mine it. Amid the general disorder many 
 Chinese lost their lives; one or two foreigners were 
 killed, and others taken prisoners and held for 
 ransom. 
 
 The people are sighing for peace. The attitude 
 of the laboring classes is well expressed in the 
 words of an old farmer. 
 
 "What about this Republic?" he inquired of a 
 group of cronies in the tea-house as he sat puffing 
 
6 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 away at his water-pipe. Then opening his mouth 
 and thrusting in his finger, he announced lacon- 
 ically, " This is the Republic to me — three meals a 
 day!" 
 
 Notwithstanding the disturbed state of the coun- 
 try trains have continued to run ; schools have been 
 kept open; new industries have been started; mail- 
 couriers at great risk of life have followed their 
 routes to the uttermost confines of the land, and 
 business, though depressed, has never ceased its 
 steady grind. All this speaks volumes for the poise 
 and patient endurance of the Chinese and augurs 
 well for the future, when under a settled and 
 stable government they have a chance to develop 
 normally. 
 
 A Country with a Wonderful Past 
 
 It will be worth our while to turn back a few 
 pages in China's history to get a back'ground for 
 present conditions. Picture China in the good old 
 days, or rather, in the sleepy old days; the China 
 whose beginning was in the dim, pre-historic past, 
 able to point to the most ancient existing civiliza- 
 tion ; the land where gunpowder was invented and 
 a newspaper printed with movable type long before 
 Gutenberg saw the light; China that was the home 
 of philosophers, statesmen, artists, and scholars; 
 all this when Europe and America were nothing 
 but howling wildernesses, and our ancestors little 
 
THE COMING CHINA -^ 
 
 better than savages. We Anglo-Saxons are too- 
 often prone to forget this. 
 
 If the Chinese are a proud race, they have good 
 reason to be so, and we of a later civilization can- 
 not blame them. The old map of China represented 
 a flat earth with China, the " Middle Kingdom,"^ 
 filling the center, and around on the edges were 
 mere dots which stood for the habitations of the 
 rest of mankind, the outside barbarians. China, 
 self-sufficient and aloof, wrapped the cloak of her 
 exclusiveness about her and for long centuries re- 
 garded with haughty disdain the beings who had 
 not the good fortune to be born Chinese. 
 
 But the time cam,e, when although still a great 
 nation, China became a stagnant one; she had 
 ceased to grow. A new, pulsating life was needed 
 to quicken and revive her. It is a law of nature 
 that growth is usually accompanied with pain, and 
 some rude shocks were required to rouse China 
 from slumber. One came in 1842, when at the 
 close of the Opium War she was forced to open 
 five treaty ports. This brought a fresh influx of 
 foreigners — merchants and missionaries. 
 
 Thirty years later, in 1872, an event occurred 
 which turned the eyes of Americans with new inter- 
 est toward China. Thirty young men — the num- 
 ber swelled later to a hundred and twenty — were 
 sent by the government in the care of the noted 
 Dr. Yung Wing to study in America. The students 
 were placed tw© and two in carefully selected New 
 
8 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 England homes, whose wholesome influence soon 
 awoke in them a desire not only to imbibe West- 
 ern learning but to return to China as the saviors 
 of their country. An inkling of this soon reached 
 the ears of the self-satisfied conservatives in the 
 " Flowery Kingdom." " Who are these young up- 
 starts," they said indignantly, " that they should 
 presume to be able to teach us anything!" In 
 1 88 1 all the students were summarily recalled and 
 properly humbled. 
 
 New Influences at Work 
 
 China received another startling jolt in 1894. 
 She went to war with Japan confident of easy vic- 
 tory, but to her astonishment and chagrin, Japan 
 won out. Japan succeeded because she employed 
 modern military tactics, while China's heterogene- 
 ous troops, supposed to be Invincibles, depended 
 on their age-old methods of warfare. Scales began 
 to fall from the eyes of even the most rigid 
 conservatives. 
 
 China at this time had an Emperor, Kwanghsii, 
 who as a small lad had developed a keen fondness for 
 Western mechanical toys. He was fascinated by 
 toy engines, steamboats, and similar devices. When 
 he reached man's estate, in the closing years of the 
 last century, he read scientific books and sought 
 conversation with those who could tell him about 
 the modern things. Gathering around him a group 
 
THE COMING CHINA 9 
 
 of young progressives like himself, together they 
 mapped out reform after reform, which in the 
 twinkling of an eye was to call forth a modern and 
 rejuvenated China. But with the unwisdom of 
 impetuous youth he went a little too fast. The 
 Empress Dowager was mightily displeased at this 
 introduction of modernism, and it was no light 
 matter to rouse the ire of the " Old Buddha," for 
 she was the real power behind the throne. Not 
 only that, but she and her legion of sympathizers 
 were affrighted over the recent trend of events. 
 Ancient China seemed to be sweeping along to 
 certain destruction and a frantic effort must be 
 made to save her. " Away with the Foreign Devils 
 that have caused all our trouble ! " became the cry. 
 " Away with their innovations ! Away with their 
 religions ! We want none of them ! " 
 
 There was reason for much of this anti-foreign 
 feeling. That is another thing we must not forget. 
 Certain of the Foreign Powers had for some time 
 been engaged in a game of grabbing, or appropriat- 
 ing choice bits of territory on slight pretext, and 
 casting covetous eyes on others. 
 
 Old China becomes New China 
 
 At length the die was cast resulting in the Boxer 
 Rebellion, which was in full swing in the month of 
 June, 1900, through most of the northern provinces. 
 When the AUied armies were nearing Peking in 
 
10 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 August of that memorable summer, and the terri- 
 ble Siege of Peking was about to end, the Empress 
 Dowager fled stealthily in the night, without pomp 
 or ceremony, to the interior city of Hsianfu. Then 
 Peking, the " Forbidden City," so long a place of 
 mystery, was thrown open to the world, and the 
 marvelous Dragon Throne, hitherto sacred to 
 royalty, was robbed of its glory after the desecrat- 
 ing Occidental had sat upon it. 
 
 China was humbled in the dust. She had staked 
 all and lost. But the hour of her deepest humilia- 
 tion was also the beginning of her noblest exalta- 
 tion. New China was to rise phoenix-like from the 
 ashes of old China. Never again would she be 
 " China, the Exclusive." The barriers to progress 
 were gone. " No longer pray for open doors in 
 China," exclaimed an American prelate. " Her 
 iTcry walls are down ! " 
 
 The Court returned to Peking. The people now 
 began clamoring for reforms. They asked for 
 representative provincial government and it was 
 granted; for a national parliament and it was 
 promised in 1917. The railroad between Tientsin 
 and Peking, laid in 1897, and which superstition had 
 decreed must stop seven miles south of the capital, 
 making it necessary to go that distance at first in 
 a cart or sedan-chair and later by trolley, now 
 passed unrestricted within the city walls. A hand- 
 some new railway station has been built with com- 
 fortable waiting-rooms for both men and women, 
 
THE COMING CHINA li: 
 
 and its modern equipment is significant of the great 
 change that has taken place in China. 
 
 In 1908 the Emperor and Empress Dowager 
 died within a day of each other. On the following, 
 day, a gray November morning, the gorgeous cata- 
 falque of the " Old Buddha," borne in relays by a 
 hundred and twenty-eight staggering, perspiring 
 coolies, passed through the East Gate of Peking on 
 its way to the Imperial Mausoleum. Thus ended 
 a long, and eventful chapter in the history of: 
 China. 
 
 The Birth of the Republic 
 
 Scarcely, it seemed, had the sound of funeral 
 music died away when in the autumn of 191 1, China 
 became the scene of another cataclysm. One day a 
 child emperor sat on the throne, on the next, the 
 reign of the alien Manchus had ended, and lo, the 
 Republic of China came into being ! So quickly, so 
 unexpectedly the change took place that the world 
 looked on in breathless amazement. Then demurs 
 arose. " China is not ready for a republic ! " was 
 the cry. " How much better a constitutional mon- 
 archy!" 
 
 A republic in China is not such an anomaly as 
 most Westerners suppose. The Chinese from ear- 
 liest times have been among the most democratic 
 people on earth, and while their central authority 
 has been most autocratic, they have enjoyed in 
 
12 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 large measure local self-government. They well 
 understood, too, how to secure their rights if the 
 petty local magistrate failed to mete out justice. 
 Innumerable cases are on record where the removal 
 of an objectionable ofificial has been caused by the 
 townspeople, or even occasionally of their having 
 taken the law into their own hands, and, perhaps, 
 throwing the poor fellow into the river and keeping 
 him there till he begged for mercy. 
 
 If before the Revolution events chased each 
 other, they now fairly tumbled over one another in 
 their rapid movement. It is interesting to note 
 how many projects, business, educational, and 
 philanthropic, date their origin from^ 191 1. It was 
 a memorable day for China when the grounds of 
 the Temple of Heaven in Peking, formerly closed 
 to all but the emperor and his suite, who went 
 once a year to worship in the temple, were thrown 
 open to the public. And it was a still greater day 
 when, as a striking evidence of the change, a 
 woman — a Chinese woman — stood under the very 
 shadow of the temple and gave an evangelistic 
 address to a large and attentive audience! 
 
 No sooner was China made a republic than the 
 queue, that Manchu badge of a conquered people, 
 began to disappear. Those who did not dispose of 
 this appendage themselves, generally had it cut off 
 for them. In many places men with shears sat in 
 the city gates and when a queue appeared on the 
 horizon, it and its wearer speedily parted company. 
 
Press Illustrating Service. 
 
 Hsu Shi Chang elected president of 
 September, 1918. 
 
 the Chinese Republic, 
 
THE COMING CHINA 13 
 
 Sometimes a family living in the suburbs of a city, 
 fearing a return of the Manchus to power had one 
 male member shorn and sent him daily into town 
 to do the marketing, while the others retained their 
 queues in case of an emergency. A few queues are 
 still seen, but there is not one in Canton. The Can- 
 tonese, it is said, will not tolerate them. 
 
 The Political Kaleidoscope 
 
 Since the birth of the Republic, the Ship of State, 
 alas, has not moved along on even keel. It has 
 encountered shoals and breakers and been buffeted 
 by many a storm. From the time that Sun Yat- 
 sen handed over the reins of government to Yuan 
 Shih-kai, four men have occupied the presidential 
 chair. As if that were not change enough, China 
 reverted for a week to an empire. In the early 
 dawn of July i, 191 7, the frightened little ex- 
 emperor Hsun Tung, was hurried from bed; seated 
 on the tottering throne for six unhappy days ; then 
 hurried back into private life. 
 
 China has been drifting dangerously near the 
 rocks. Perhaps never before in her history has she 
 faced such grave perils. In the summer of 191 7, 
 resident foreigners, and also many Chinese, enter- 
 tained very gloomy forebodings; some persons even 
 going so far as to predict that China's days as an 
 independent nation were numbered. She was ex- 
 ploited by a group of unscrupulous politicians who 
 
14 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 had apparently taken as their slogan, " Our country- 
 is going to ruin anyway; so let us make all the 
 money and gain all the political preferment we can 
 before the final catastrophe ! " Hence, they 
 adopted the policy of selling China piecemeal to 
 Japan, and of mortgaging her inalienable rights 
 and possessions. And Japan's stanchest defend- 
 ers will hardly deny that she has been keen to 
 take all that she could get, by fair means or foul. 
 It is an indisputable fact that her tendrils have 
 been reaching out in all directions over China, 
 laying hold on whatever they could appropriate. 
 
 Expressions of anxiety are heard everywhere. In 
 one of the mission schools some young girls were 
 heard crying aloud one day. 
 
 " What is the matter? " asked the teacher. 
 
 " Our country is sold ! Our country is sold ! " 
 they wailed. 
 
 " But you cannot help your country in this way," 
 she urged. 
 
 " No," they asserted tearfully, " we cannot help 
 our country at all, but we can cry." 
 
 Passive acceptance of conditions by no means 
 represents the spirit of all Chinese, but until the 
 political parties unite and there is a strong central 
 government, resistance seems futile. Most Chinese, 
 however, even in the darkest hours, have not 
 despaired. 
 
 " If there were no men in China with high ideals, 
 there would be no trouble. If there were not such 
 
THE COMING CHINA 15 
 
 men, there would be no progress. The present 
 struggle in China means the working out of better 
 conditions. It is a fight of the new and good 
 against the old and bad, but in the end the good 
 will win." These were the words of a government 
 physician, a Christian man, when discussing the 
 situation of affairs. 
 
 Many feel that the only way to settle China's 
 difficulties is through international mediation. A 
 Chinese official quaintly phrased this idea with the 
 words, " Only men with blue eyes can curb corrupt 
 officials." Another statement descriptive of the at- 
 titude of some of the Chinese in the matter of 
 intervention was made by a well-known journalist. 
 " If you have a dirty, cluttered room, you may try 
 to put it in order yourself, a slow, difficult and, 
 perhaps, impossible process, or you may invite some 
 one to help you. It remains for us in China either 
 to ask help or to have it thrust upon us and we 
 prefer to ask for it." 
 
 Japan's Failure as a Neighbor 
 
 At the opening of the war Japan had an oppor- 
 tunity such as no country ever had before to 
 befriend a sister nation. The Western Powers, 
 absorbed with the world war, practically gave her 
 the Far East to look after and keep peaceful, but 
 never before has there been such strife in China; 
 never so much bloodshed and unrest. 
 
i6 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 Japan has not taken a large, noble view of the 
 situation. Instead, she has sought simply her own 
 aggrandizement and pushed her preferential claims. 
 She has endeavored to gain a large measure of con- 
 trol of China's currency, iron mines, railroads, 
 arsenals, telegraphs, and even as petty a matter as 
 the Peking telephone system which is a very poor 
 and unsatisfactory outfit. 
 
 The country has been overrun with bandits, 
 mostly ex-soldiers, who are armed with modern 
 weapons secured from Japan. Japanese agents 
 have encouraged if they have not actually stirred 
 up strife. All this Japan feels to be to her interest, 
 for the worse that things are in China, the sooner 
 Japan will be needed to come over and restore 
 order. Evidence comes from many quarters that 
 she is actively at work, both openly and secretly. 
 Many of the Chinese seem satisfied, however, that 
 now the war is over, Japan will not be permitted 
 to retain for her exclusive use the advantages she 
 has gained by being one of the Allies. They think 
 that other nations will question her claim to 
 paramountcy in China. What China needs is a 
 leader — an unselfish, strong, broad-minded leader. 
 And he will be found. 
 
 China's Part in the War 
 
 The hour that the joyful news was flashed over 
 the wires to the Far East that the armistice had 
 been signed in Europe, a ray of light shot across 
 
THE COMING CHINA 17 
 
 China's darkened sky. It was the token of the 
 coming dawn of a new day which would end her 
 night of gloom. She soon bestirred herself to set 
 her house in order, for the Foreign Powers told 
 China frankly that the safeguarding of her rights 
 and interests at the Peace Conference would de- 
 pend very much on whether she could show a united 
 front at home. 
 
 China will never have cause to be sorry that 
 she had a part in the European War. It was in 
 August, 1917, that she threw down the gauntlet 
 and cast in her lot with the Allies. She sent no 
 troops to France, but in America and other foreign 
 countries where Chinese were living, as well as in 
 China itself, many brave youths promptly enlisted, 
 or volunteered for religious work under the Young 
 Men's Christian Association. At one mission col- 
 lege in the interior, a Service Flag having six 
 stars was unfurled at a public gathering, and the 
 parents of the boys, who were in the audience, 
 were called to the platform; their faces beamed 
 with pride because they had sons at the Front. 
 
 China's largest contribution to the Allied cause 
 was her 175,000 stalwart laborers, whose help in 
 winning the war proved indispensable. They 
 served not only in France but also in Mesopotamia 
 and Africa. Their work was usually well behind the 
 firing-line, though they did occasionally get under 
 fire. And at least once, in a crisis, they were called 
 on to shoulder arms, when they not only fought 
 
i8 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 valiantly, but were very loth afterward to lay down 
 their arms. 
 
 The Red Cross in China 
 
 For the past two years a Red Cross Society in 
 Shanghai, which is composed of about forty Chi- 
 nese women, has worked faithfully for the soldiers 
 of the Allies. One woman, the mother of seven 
 children, as her holiday stint knit seventeen pairs 
 of socks and made six hundred bandages. 
 
 How royally the Chinese contributed to the 
 American Red Cross Drive in China ! They organ- 
 ized committees to raise money and worked like 
 Trojans; thousands marched in the parades, while 
 hundreds of columns in the Chinese newspapers 
 were devoted to advertising the " Drive." Not only 
 the rich and well-to-do gave of their abundance, but 
 many of the very poor ricksha and wheelbarrow 
 men added their mites, though, perhaps, not one 
 of them knew what it was ever to have a satisfying 
 meal. A coolie in Ningpo, earning less than ten 
 dollars a month, and on which he had to support 
 himself and family, sent to Shanghai by courier post 
 — not knowing that there was a modern postal 
 system between the two cities — a dollar and a half, 
 paying fifteen cents for the money to be delivered, 
 and another fifteen for the return of the receipt. 
 
 But generous as was the spontaneous response of 
 the Chinese to the Red Cross Drive, it was exceeded 
 
THE COMING CHINA 19 
 
 by their gifts at the time of the United War Work 
 Campaig-n. The enthusiastic cooperation of the 
 Chinese deHghted and touched the resident for- 
 eigners. From large places and small, from young 
 and old, from high and low, the money poured in. 
 Bushels of coppers, the big, Chinese coppers, were 
 contributed by school children. 
 
 The Peace Celebration 
 
 The grand climax to the war activities came in 
 the Victory celebration. Not only in the large 
 cities, but in many of the small ones where there 
 are few foreigners, flying banners and exploding 
 firecrackers testified to the universal rejoicing. The 
 Victory celebration in Shanghai lasted three days. 
 On all the principal streets and many of the side 
 streets, the Chinese republican flag floated proudly 
 in the breeze. Multitudes were abroad in the day- 
 time, but it was at night, when the Bund, the river, 
 and Nanking Road were ablaze with electricity, 
 that it seemed as if all China had turned out-of- 
 doors and the roadways and sidewalks were 
 thronged with surging crowds, good-natured, won- 
 dering, and jubilant. 
 
 In the nightly processions, among the numerous 
 nationalities of this cosmopolitan city, the Chinese 
 were fully represented. They marched with the 
 others — policemen, Boy Scouts, members of guilds, 
 prominent civilians, and thousands of students. 
 
20 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 both men and women. Some of the finest floats, 
 dehciously characteristic, were the work of the 
 Chinese. China was an important part of the Vic- 
 tory celebration of the Allies, and so gay and re- 
 juvenated, that she bore little semblance to the 
 staid, sleepy old China of fifty years ago. 
 
 What the War Brought to China 
 
 With all the rest of the world, China has suffered, 
 has learned, and has been benefited by the Euro- 
 pean War. She can never be asked what she was 
 before 1914. Always democratic in heart, it is un- 
 believable that China hereafter should submit to 
 the autocratic rule of the militarists. Their day is 
 past. 
 
 China's share in the war has given her a new 
 sense of international relationships and obligations. 
 If a vestige of the old exclusiveness remained, it 
 must have disappeared forever. " Going into the 
 war has made China feel that she is really a part 
 of the world," said a gentleman from one of the 
 highest official families in the land, his fine face 
 aglow with feeling. 
 
 " The Red Cross Drive and the United War 
 Work Campaign taught us how to do big things in 
 a big way," declared another influential Chinese. 
 " We saw the success of organized eflFort in a great 
 cause, and with no smirch, no graft about it." 
 
 China has caught the spirit of true patriotism 
 
Fi 
 
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 J= 
 
THE COMING CHINA 2t 
 
 which leads men to labor and sacrifice, not for an 
 individual, a family or a clan only, but for a nation. 
 The war has brought home forcibly to the Chinese 
 the necessity for increasing China's productiveness, 
 and for developing her vast resources that are now- 
 unavailable either for her own or the world's need- 
 As the labor battalions return from France, there 
 will be additional industrial and social problems for 
 China to solve. Will new industries be started and 
 factories built to give them employment? Will 
 they be satisfied to live as before in mud houses on 
 poor and insufficient food, eking out a bare exist- 
 ence under the hardest conditions ? And how about 
 the families of these coolies, whose army allow- 
 ances during the fighter's absence had enabled them, 
 to live better than they ever had before? Will they 
 readily and contentedly resume their former modes 
 of living? The coolies' sojourn in France not only 
 benefited them physically, but gave them a new 
 conception of life, industrially, politically, and mor- 
 ally. They saw new machinery and learned some- 
 thing about modern inventions. They found that 
 even in war, governments could be stable and con- 
 siderate of the well-being of the governed. 
 
 What Chinese Laborers Think of Our Civilisation^ 
 
 What has the experience of the laborers meant to 
 them morally and spiritually and how will they 
 interpret the life of the West to their own people? 
 
22 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 Observers who have been with them in France note 
 the fact that they have been brought into contact 
 very often with the most degrading influences in 
 western lands. The danger is that they will return 
 holding only contempt for Christian civilization. A 
 Young Men's Christian Association secretary 
 from Peking, who served in the camps of the labor 
 battalions in France, describes some of the tend- 
 encies to be found among these men: 
 
 "A Chinese told a Y.M.C.A. secretary that be- 
 fore coming to France he had heard that the French 
 were civilized but, said he, ' These people are not 
 civilized.' A Chinese under the American army 
 had been buncoed out of ten francs by an Ameri- 
 can soldier and at the trial of the latter made a 
 plea for clemency on the ground that the defendant 
 had no bringing up and knew no better. Another 
 in the same place was heard to remark, ' Perhaps 
 after all, Americans are not all bad.' Too often 
 these impressions are secured in situations such as 
 I saw in a powder factory where a thousand Chi- 
 nese were used. In the same compound with them 
 were five hundred Portguese laborers who were 
 illiterate, dirty, and had drunken brawls in the 
 neighboring wine shops. Across the street was 
 another compound where were quartered one hun- 
 dred and fifty women munition workers who 
 worked side by side with the Chinese in the fac- 
 tory. Some of these were refugees, but no small 
 number were of very low class. ... In this place 
 there had been misunderstandings and mistreat- 
 ment by the authorities, resulting in a meeting, with 
 loss of life, before quiet was restored. France and 
 
THE COMING CHINA 23 
 
 the West have glorious sides, but of these the 
 Orientals were ignorant, seeing only the worst and 
 seamiest. What will be the effect if they bring 
 back to China by their actions and words the only 
 side of Western civilization they have seen and say 
 this is the Christian West! " ^ 
 
 Many missionaries were withdrawn from their 
 stations during the war to accompany the Chinese 
 battalions as interpreters, officers, and Young Men's 
 Christian Association secretaries. Thus provision 
 was made to bring the strangers into touch with 
 some of the finer forces of Western life. An espe- 
 cially helpful service was rendered by Chinese 
 Christian college students from America who 
 worked among their own countrymen in the labor 
 corps with peculiar effectiveness because of their 
 ability to help the European army officers and the 
 Chinese workmen understand each other. One of 
 these men was placed among a thousand Chinese in 
 a powder factory just after the men had been riot- 
 ing. At once he set about to cultivate the friend- 
 ship of the authorities and made a warm personal 
 friend of the commander. Direct talks showed the 
 authorities a better way of handling the men,with the 
 consequence that relations were more harmonious. 
 To the mien he was a real friend. He turned the 
 moving picture machine by the hour; he visited 
 them in their barracks and hospitals; he greeted 
 
 ' Dwight W. Edwards in The China Mission Year Book, 1918, 
 p. 56. 
 
24 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 every one with a smile and a kind word ; he admon- 
 ished them regarding their moral dangers, and he 
 opened up before them the fine side of French life. 
 In short he became the dominant factor in the life 
 of these men and was a great help in the interpre- 
 tation of authorities to men and men to authorities. 
 No wonder the commander wrote back to him, ' I 
 think much of the kind things you have done for 
 my Chinese '." 
 
 The return of the laborers will raise questions of 
 profound importance among all those who are try- 
 ing to help China in her progress toward a settled 
 life. Naturally the old-time associates of these 
 men coming back from such distant travels will 
 want to hear all about the life of the West. Thus 
 foreign influences will touch in a very direct way 
 hundreds of interior villages, for these men will 
 reach a very different stratum of society from that 
 reached by the returned students and wealthy 
 traveling class. 
 
 When the Shantung laborers went to France it 
 was the first time in the history of China that 
 northern Chinese in any considerable numbers had 
 gone abroad, for emigration had always been from 
 the South. Chinese have emigrated from southern 
 China in large numbers and been eminently suc- 
 cessful in business in their adopted countries. It is 
 said that ninety per cent, of the business in Manila 
 is in their hands; it is on them that the economic 
 importance of the east coasts of Sumatra and Java 
 
THE COMING CHINA 25 
 
 depend, while many of the richest plantations in 
 the Malay peninsula are owned by multi-millionaire 
 Chinese. The progressiveness of the South, it is 
 claimed, can be in large measure directly traced to 
 the influence of Chinese emigrants. Can we not ex- 
 pect that the thousands of men who have been 
 engaged in war service (now coming home) will do 
 something similar for the people of their own 
 class in the North? 
 
 These then are some of the new life currents 
 running through China to-day. These are some of 
 the problems which the coming China must face. 
 And that many of her people are beginning to face 
 them earnestly and with determination there can 
 be no doubt. A spiritual change has come over the 
 Chinese of late, so marked, and so clearly inspired 
 of God, that we are awed by it. The people. Chris- 
 tians and non-Christians alike, feel the country's 
 need, in these times of transition and unrest, of a 
 propelling force stronger and higher than anything- 
 within themselves. " We have the machinery but 
 lack the power," they say. 
 
 We are to consider in this book the human re- 
 sources of China and those movements that have 
 as their purpose the development of the power 
 which will make these resources of the nation yield 
 rich gains for her citizens and for the world's good. 
 
 The relief of the bodily suffering of China's vast 
 population, the measures that are being taken tc^ 
 
a6 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 make physical life safer, may well claim our atten- 
 tion at the outset, for upon the issue of this venture 
 depends necessarily a truly successful outcome of 
 the larger effort to mediate the abundant life to 
 the soul of a people. 
 
II 
 
 TRIUMPHS OF WESTERN MEDICAL 
 SCIENCE 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 TRIUMPHS OF WESTERN MEDICAL 
 SCIENCE 
 
 Gray dawn was gradually chasing away the 
 shadows on a raw winter morning in the old city 
 of Canton. Before the entrance to a Chinese build- 
 ing huddled a group of sick folk, women and chil- 
 dren as well as men, many from highly respectable 
 families. All night long they had crouched there, 
 and now, worn and haggard, they waited impa- 
 tiently for admittance to the mission hospital. As 
 day advanced, the company around the doorway 
 swelled to a surging crowd, while as far as the eye 
 could see in either direction, the narrow street 
 was congested with approaching sedan-chairs, from 
 the meanest in appearance to the handsomely cur- 
 tained turn-out of the high official attended by his 
 body-guard. Presently the welcome sound of slid- 
 ing bolts was heard and the gates were thrown 
 open, but with the sudden inrush, the weaker ones 
 were in danger of being trampled upon and killed. 
 Hour after hour patients filed into the doctor's 
 office, where the most distressing cases were 
 treated, while others that could wait were bidden 
 to come another time. As the shadows of evening 
 
 39 
 
30 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 fell and the door was shut at last, the young for- 
 eigner, spent with fatigue, heaved a sigh of relief. 
 
 It was Peter Parker, the first missionary doctor 
 to China, Sent out by the American Board of For- 
 eign Missions, he reached his field of labor in 1834, 
 the very year Robert Morrison, the first Protestant 
 missionary to China, closed his eyes in death. Thus 
 it is that " God buries his workmen but carries on 
 his work." 
 
 Opening China at the Point of th^ Lancet 
 
 Canton presented to Dr. Parker's eyes no ani- 
 mated river embankment swept by an occasional 
 automobile; no lofty buildings, such as line the 
 modern Bund ; no electric lights ; but the same type 
 of people that we see to-day, raw-boned, lithe, and 
 nervous. The newcomer was not welcomed with 
 outstretched arms, but, instead, suspicion and 
 aversion were written on every face. It was a year 
 before he could rent a house and open his hospital. 
 On the first morning not a person came ; the second 
 day one solitary woman ventured in; the third 
 there were half a dozen patients, and after that 
 it was not a question of how to get people to the 
 hospital but how to keep the pressure from becom- 
 ing too great. Sometimes as many as a thousand 
 sought admission on a single day. 
 
 At the time there were, of course, no anes- 
 thetics; chloroform was first used in China in 1848. 
 
TRIUMPHS OF WESTERN MEDICAL SCIENCE 31 
 
 But fortitude under suffering is a national char- 
 acteristic. When about to operate on an old woman 
 for cataract on both eyes, Dr. Parker asked her 
 if she could stand pain. "If you like you may 
 take both eyes out and put them in again," 
 was her unhesitating reply. A patient about to 
 undergo a major operation, coolly remarked on the 
 first incision of the knife, " It hurts. Doctor," then 
 settled back to endure the pain in silence. 
 
 The year 1839 was made memorable by the ar- 
 rival in China of the second missionary doctor, 
 William Lockhart, a representative of the London 
 Missionary Society, the same society which had 
 the honor of sending out Robert Morrison. One 
 likes to picture the meeting between the two pion- 
 eer doctors. In these later days, with 350 mission- 
 ary doctors in China, if a new one comes we are 
 glad, but unless he is sent out for some special 
 work, we are too busy to take much notice. But 
 how different with Parker and Lockhart! What 
 a handclasp there must have been; what eager 
 questions and answers; what comfort and fellow- 
 ship ! While Dr. Parker remained in the South, 
 Dr. Lockhart gradually moved northward, opening 
 medical work in Shanghai and afterward in Peking 
 when in i860, that city permitted foreigners to 
 reside within its walls. 
 
 More than eighty years have rolled by since the 
 advent of Western medicine ushered in a new day 
 for China's suffering millions. The work has 
 
32 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 steadily expanded till now there are 270 missionary 
 men doctors, 81 women doctors, 162 missionary 
 nurses, all women, and 320 mission hospitals scat- 
 tered over China; not a province is without their 
 beneficent influence. Down in Canton the pioneer 
 hospital is still doing fine work, though not in its 
 old location, for after the original building was 
 burned in 1856, it reopened on a much more advan- 
 tageous site close to the river front. With its 300 
 beds for both men and women, its large clinic, and 
 its busy staff of foreign and Chinese doctors and 
 nurses, the Hospital of Universal Benevolence, as it 
 is known to the Chinese, gives practical demonstra- 
 tion of the motto which has been its watchword 
 from the beginning, " Service." Like many other 
 mission hospitals at the present time, this one meets 
 all its running expenses, except the salaries of the 
 foreign doctors, from the hospital fees and the 
 generous gifts of wealthy Chinese. 
 
 Medical Work Handicapped by Ignorance 
 
 Because Peter Parker quickly found favor ia the 
 eyes of the people and met with almost phenomenal 
 success as soon as his hospital opened, it must not 
 be imagined that medical work in China has devel- 
 oped without let or hindrance. Missionary doctors 
 have traveled over no royal, unobstructed highway 
 to victory, but prejudice, ignorance, and supersti- 
 tion have hedged them about at almost every step. 
 
TRIUMPHS OF WESTERN MEDICAL SCIENCE 33 
 
 The old idea that medicine is made from the eyes 
 and hearts of kidnapped children still obtains to 
 such an extent in many places that a doctor in 
 Anhwei tells me she frequently encourages a public 
 inspection of her jars and bottles that there may be 
 no secret misgivings as to their contents. A doc- 
 tor in Canton reports that after the recent death 
 of a child patient she was only able to quiet the 
 frantic parents by paying to have the body ex- 
 humed in order to prove that she had not stolen 
 the child's eyes. 
 
 Where the Chinese still entertain a suspicion of 
 foreign hospitals it is generally because they have 
 never been in one and know nothing about them. 
 A few years ago a missionary doctor in Foochow 
 carried to her hospital a sick woman, who was 
 accompanied by her little daughter. Though the 
 family had consented to the removal of the woman 
 to the hospital, the neighbors were roused to such 
 a pitch of excitement that the doctor stood in some 
 danger of being mobbed. On the following morn- 
 ing the little girl slipped out and went home, but 
 returned in the afternoon with a dozen of the lead- 
 ing men. They were received courteously and 
 shown over the hospital, and its work explained to 
 them. On the next day another group came and 
 they too were taken through the hospital. After 
 that, the doctors and hospital had no more loyal, 
 staunch friends than these very people who had so 
 violently opposed them. Petty handicaps have ever 
 
34 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 been the doctors' portion but are too common to be 
 permitted to become irritating. 
 
 " Now, take one of these powders every day. 
 Don't forget; just one a day and when they are 
 gone come back," is frequently the injunction. 
 
 On the next day the patient returns for more 
 medicine. The first is gone — swallowed in one 
 dose. 
 
 "Why did you not do as I told you? " asks the 
 doctor. 
 
 " Because, if a little medicine is good, is not 
 much medicine still better? " 
 
 " This man has a bottle of yellow medicine. I 
 want yellow medicine too," begs another patient. 
 
 " But you do not need that kind." 
 
 " That does not matter; it looks good and I want 
 it." 
 
 " You must be sure to come back to-morrow. 
 Your case needs careful attention or you may be 
 very sick," warns the doctor of a woman threat- 
 ened with a run of fever. But she goes out never 
 to be seen again. 
 
 Less than forty per cent, of clinical patients re- 
 turn for a second visit. If there are other hospitals 
 in the place, they are doubtless going the rounds to 
 test the treatment given in each. Out-calls are 
 discouraging because Chinese etiquette decrees 
 that a doctor cannot call a second time unless he is 
 sent for. In all likelihood, at the time of his visit 
 other doctors have preceded him, probably Chinese 
 
TRIUMPHS OF WESTERN MEDICAL SCIENCE 35 
 
 old-school medical men, and their medicines are 
 lying hidden out of sight on the shelf. The doctor 
 whose visit is followed by improvement in the 
 patient's condition is given all the credit for the 
 cure. 
 
 Curiosity and Interest of Relatives 
 
 Occupants of the hospital beds often tax the doc- 
 tor's patience sorely, but their numerous relatives 
 are still more of a trial. The latter see no reason 
 why they should not visit the hospital in troops at 
 any hour of the day, stay as long as they choose, 
 chatter vociferously, or, if the spirit moves them, 
 take the patient home, perhaps just after a critical 
 operation; then if he dies, the doctor is blamed. It 
 used to be almost the universal custom for a hospital 
 patient to provide his own bedding, food, clothes, 
 and attendants ; in fact, to live much as he .would 
 at home. But latterly restrictions have grown more 
 numerous until now in many hospitals, food, bed- 
 ding, and nurses are furnished, and visitors admit- 
 ted only at stated times. The clothing of poor 
 patients is thoroughly steamed and put away to be 
 given back when they are dismissed. 
 
 While the confidence of the Chinese in foreign 
 medicine has been a matter of comparatively slow 
 growth, their faith in surgery, which was a novelty 
 in the Far East, was immediate and almost implicit. 
 They look upon the cures effected as little short of 
 
3* NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 miraculous. The doctor is obliged to exercise 
 great caution in operating, as a death may result 
 in serious trouble for him and the hospital. How- 
 ever, the old suspicion of malicious intent is rapidly 
 dying out and the surgeon is often urged to operate 
 when in his judgment such measures are not 
 necessary. 
 
 " Please, Doctor, operate upon me ! " a patient 
 will plead. 
 
 " I cannot. You would die if I did." 
 
 " Oh, no, I will not die. I promise not to die ! " 
 
 Where Etiquette is a Barrier 
 
 The years have brought many marked changes in 
 the attitude of Chinese women toward foreign doc- 
 tors. " Forty years ago," said a woman doctor 
 in Tientsin, " when I made an out-call I had to go 
 in a closely-curtained chair lest the patient lose 
 face by having her neighbors see a foreign doctor 
 visit her home. As for consulting a man doctor, a 
 Chinese woman would rather have died than do 
 it!" 
 
 Several years ago a male physician was called 
 to the home of a woman patient of very high official 
 rank. The patient was entirely concealed bv the 
 bed-curtains and only one shapely hand was thrust 
 out that the doctor might feel her pulse. The doc- 
 tor remained in the room, talking quietly with 
 other members of the family — ^while, little by little, 
 
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TRIUMPHS OF WESTERN MEDICAL SCIENCE Zf 
 
 the curtains parted until they were entirely thrown 
 back. 
 
 " The explanation is easy enough," commented 
 the doctor in speaking of the incident. " The Chi- 
 nese are still largely dominated by custom which in 
 their real thinking has come to have slight hold 
 upon them." 
 
 In many of the men's hospitals, women as well 
 as men attend the clinics, and this is especially true 
 if there is a foreign woman nurse on the staff. 
 Until within recent years there were no general 
 mission hospitals in China, but they are happily 
 increasing in number. That the people are not 
 opposed to them is shown by the number of pa- 
 tients in the women's wards, and for the sake of 
 economy and convenience they are greatly to be 
 desired. 
 
 The Establishment of Medical Schools 
 
 Missionary doctors had not been long in China 
 before they felt the urgent need of training native 
 assistants. In the beginning the Chinese were not 
 attracted to the study of medicine. For a time the 
 government paid young men to enter its medical 
 schools, and the kind of doctors they turned out, 
 albeit trained according to Western methods, can 
 easily be imagined. The few youths whom the early 
 missionaries were able to induce to take up the 
 work, were taught enough to be of use in the dis- 
 
38 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 pensary and clinic, and even to give some assist- 
 ance in the operating room. It v^^as not long 
 though before the medical profession attained great 
 popularity and drew to it many of China's most 
 promising young men. Later mission medical 
 schools were opened, but as they could afford only 
 limited advantages, those who aspired after the 
 best went abroad for their training. 
 
 It was during the latter years of the last century 
 that Chinese girls began to study medicine. At 
 first they were encouraged to do so by the mis- 
 sionaries who realized the crying need in China of 
 Chinese women doctors, but soon the movement 
 became wholly spontaneous and rapid. All hoitor 
 to the brave spirits who first fared courageously 
 forth upon the untrodden path leading to a pro- 
 fessional career! It was the Chinese woman's 
 " Great Adventure," but that she dared it and won 
 out, proves her inherent strength and capabilities. 
 
 There are in China to-day, nine missionary medi- 
 cal schools for men, three for women, and the 
 Peking Union Medical College under the China 
 Medical Board, which is coeducational. The 
 Hackett Medical College in Canton, the oldest 
 medical college for women in China, has just cele- 
 brated its twentieth anniversary, having graduated 
 altogether 104 students. 
 
 The chief difficulty young people have encoun- 
 tered in taking up the study of medicine has been 
 their deficiency in pre-medical education. Medical 
 
TRIUMPHS OF WESTERN MEDICAL SCIENCE 39 
 
 schools have felt obliged to adopt a somewhat low 
 standard, which has not always led to a high grade 
 of graduate doctors. The standard, however, is 
 constantly rising. The Woman's Union Medical 
 College in Peking, opened in 1908, has just ad- 
 vanced a step and made the condition for entrance, 
 besides a middle or high school course, the equiv- 
 alent of one year in college, and after 1920, two 
 years of college work will be required. 
 
 The Need of Chinese Doctors 
 
 The clearing house for missionary medical 
 interests throughout China, is the China Medical 
 Missionary Association, with headquarters in 
 Shanghai. 
 
 There are few sadder sights in China than a 
 closed hospital — empty beds, cobwebbed windows, 
 dust-covered bottles in the dispensary — and suf- 
 fering humanity knocking in vain for admission. 
 Perchance the foreign doctor was called home by 
 illness or the exigencies of the late war, and there 
 was no one to fill the vacancy; so the patients were 
 sent away and the door locked. 
 
 Now that the missionary physicians are being 
 released from war service, there is an urgent de- 
 mand for the reopening of the hospitals. New 
 hospitals are needed in many centers where condi- 
 tions have been studied and where the location of 
 adequate medical plants is a pressing obligation 
 
40 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 upon the missionary forces. No part of the pro- 
 gram for public health is of more importance 
 than the provision of a sufificient number 
 of well-equipped medical schools for training 
 Chinese doctors. For China's salvation, physical 
 as well as spiritual, depends in the final issue on her 
 own people, and the more quickly they can get 
 under the load the better in every way. 
 
 The pressing need for doctors brings up the 
 mooted question of a short cut in medicine. Some 
 reason thus : " A full scientific course is ideal, but 
 of necessity it must be reserved for the few. Not 
 many have the required educational preparation, 
 money, or mental qualifications. Besides, the full 
 course takes time, as years of study are needed. 
 Meanwhile, multitudes all around are dying. Why 
 not give a short course in medicine, good as far as 
 it goes, and send many abroad to relieve suflfering 
 and save life? " But the objectors declare emphat- 
 ically, " No ! We are here to give China our best. 
 If we sanction partially qualified doctors, others 
 who have picked up a smattering of medical know- 
 ledge, perhaps as dispensary assistants, will go out 
 without our sanction and do infinite harm. We 
 cannot aflford to seem to be a party to such danger- 
 ous practises." It is a well-known fact that China 
 is overrun with quacks. The government not re- 
 quiring practitioners to register, any one who will 
 may hang out his sign, and the number of impos- 
 tors who work upon the credulity of the people — 
 
TRIUMPHS OF WESTERN MEDICAL SCIENCE 41 
 
 and realize handsome incomes is legion. They are 
 far more of a menace to the public than the Chinese 
 old-school medical man. 
 
 A young man called one morning at a foreign 
 hospital and taking out an expensive medicine case 
 containing more than three hundred bottles, asked 
 casually if the doctor would tell him how to use the 
 drugs as he expected to be made physician-in- 
 chief to the provincial troops in the city where he 
 lived, " But I can't tell you in a few minutes how 
 to dispense medicine ! " the doctor exclaimed, 
 aghast at the man's temerity. " That is something 
 it requires years to learn." The aspirant for medi- 
 cal honors went away disappointed, but in a couple 
 of months, having gathered up a few stray facts, he 
 was duly appointed to the position he coveted. 
 
 The Trained Nurses of China 
 
 The need for Chinese nurses soon became as 
 imperative as that for doctors. But at this point 
 the missionaries encountered a serious difficulty. 
 While the medical profession appealed to the youth 
 of China as a worthy calling, nursing was a differ- 
 ent matter. It was sneered at as a coolie's work, 
 and for a time only those from a class little better 
 than coolies could be persuaded to take it up. They 
 were ignorant, raw, incapable, and likely to do an 
 immense amount of mischief unless constantly 
 watched. Foreign nurses, who soon began com- 
 
42 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 ing to China in considerable numbers, did much to 
 dignify the profession. Occasionally a little of the 
 old spirit still manifests itself as when the women 
 students in a nurses' training school " struck " be- 
 cause they were required to carry the trays at meal 
 time to the patients, but such outbursts are rare, 
 and the young people of education and good social 
 standing who are studying nursing grow constantly 
 more numerous. There are even a few who are 
 graduate nurses from leading hospitals in America 
 and Great Britain. 
 
 Excellent work, however, is being done in some 
 of the training schools in China. While visiting 
 the Nurses' Training School in Peking, one of the 
 foreign nurses told me that at first the Chinese 
 nurses had refused to be photographed in their uni- 
 forms. That would stamp them as servants. Now, 
 they are satisfied to appear so dressed in the pic- 
 ture; but it was some time before they were willing 
 to wear white shoes because white is used as 
 mourning in China. 
 
 The Nurses' Association, which was organized in 
 191 1, has done much to encourage high grade 
 work. It has 162 members, foreign and Chinese, 
 of whom eight are men. By a rule adopted in 
 1916 those hospitals that are registered with the 
 Nurses' Association withhold their diploma at the 
 end of their three-year nursing course until the 
 candidates have passed the examination and se- 
 cured the diploma of the Central organization. 
 
TRIUMPHS OF WESTERN MEDICAL SCIENCE 43 
 
 Some faint-hearted girls, who so dread the test 
 which is a severe one that they prefer to sacrifice 
 their diplomas, are often made sensible later of 
 what it would mean to them in their work, and 
 return after a year or two of nursing to take the 
 examination. 
 
 Men in the Nursing Profession 
 
 For several years men nurses were greatly in 
 excess of women nurses, as men's hospitals far 
 outnumber hospitals for women. But as general 
 hospitals multiply, the ratio between men and 
 women nurses is gradually changing. It is com- 
 monly conceded, however, that the time is not ripe 
 for women nurses to be put in men's wards. A trial 
 was made a few years ago in a hospital in Central 
 China with the result that the local press took the 
 matter up and such a stir was created that it looked 
 for a while as if the hospital would have to close 
 its doors. 
 
 " Do men make as good nurses as women in 
 China?" some one may ask. As a rule they are 
 better nurses than foreign men because they are 
 more accustomed to certain kinds of indoor work. 
 But like men the world over, they lack the nursing 
 instinct which is born in most women, and that 
 nameless something we may call the " woman's 
 touch." 
 
 At first it was thought that it would not do in 
 
44 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 hospital work to put a foreign woman nurse in 
 charge of Chinese men nurses, but the plan has 
 worked admirably. A foreign nurse in a northern 
 province, who spoke most warmly in commendation 
 of her " boys," was showing me through her beau- 
 tifully kept hospital one day. We came to the 
 linen room where the cupboards containing band- 
 ages were thrown open for me to see. Taking up 
 one of the neat rolls Miss M. said, " Each of these 
 contains twelve pieces of gauze I tell my boys, 
 whose work it is to prepare them, that when I say 
 ' twelve pieces,' I mean exactly that, and not eleven 
 pieces or thirteen pieces. I impress upon them 
 that a mistake may mean that a piece of gauze is 
 left in a wound and may result in the death of the 
 patient. But it is hard to teach them to be exact." 
 
 The Rockefeller Foundation in China 
 
 The opening of the Peking Union Medical Col- 
 lege under the China Medical Board of the Rocke- 
 feller Foundation in the autumn of 1919 will mark 
 a signal advance in the achievements of Western 
 medical science in China. Unsurpassed in staff, 
 equipment, and financial backing, the organization 
 faces a future bright with possibilities. But in all 
 our enthusiasm and rejoicing over the new plant, 
 let us not forget that it rests on other men's founda- 
 tions, for without the faithful, preparatory work of 
 medical missionaries it could not have come into 
 
TRIUMPHS OF WESTERN MEDICAL SCIENCE 45 
 
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 HOW THE CHINA MEDICAL BOARD IS HELPING 
 
 Squares indicate location of Medical Schools aided by the Board. 
 
 Triangle indicates position of Pre-Medical School aided by Board. 
 
 Circles indicate location of Missionary Hospitals receiving con- 
 tributions from the Board. 
 
 Size is proportioned roughly to the full amounts pledged whether 
 already paid or not. 
 
 {.Courtesy of China Medical Board') 
 
46 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 existence. In the hard years of beginnings, men 
 and women heavily burdened have stayed loyally 
 at their posts in hospitals understaffed, meagerly 
 equipped, inadequately financed, enduring sleep- 
 less nights succeeding anxious days spent in praying 
 and planning for means to continue the work. 
 Temples and bamboo sheds have served as dispen- 
 saries, tents as hospitals, and many a critical oper- 
 ation has been successfully performed in a thatched 
 roof hut with a coffin lid for an operating table. A 
 Chinese coffin lid, by the way, is no mean operating 
 table, for its seamless surface is covered with 
 Ningpo varnish which hardens and gives a smooth, 
 polished finish. 
 
 None are more appreciative of the splendid work 
 done by the missionaries than the members of the 
 China Medical Commission, who in 1914 traveled 
 extensively over China studying sympathetically 
 the mission hospitals and medical schools. The 
 China Medical Board is in China to make the 
 dreams of the missionaries come true ! Mission- 
 aries have their ideals for high standards of equip- 
 ment and service, but too often the realization of 
 them fades to the vanishing point. 
 
 The work of the China Medical Board is of 
 three kinds : medical education, represented by the 
 present plant in Peking, and one to follow later in 
 Shanghai for which the land is already bought; a 
 grant-in-aid to a limited number of missionary hos- 
 pitals and medical schools; and fellowships and 
 
TRIUMPHS OF WESTERN MEDICAL SCIENCE 47 
 
 scholarships to enable doctors and nurses, foreign 
 and Chinese, to study in America. 
 
 The palace and grounds of a Manchu prince, cov- 
 ering ten acres in the heart of Peking, were pur- 
 chased by the China Medical Board as the site for 
 their new plant. In the fall of 1917, when the 
 foundations were down for the first building and 
 just before the laying of the corner-stone, a party 
 of us rambled over the place. Fantastic palace 
 buildings on successive terraces, court after court, 
 labyrinthine passages, sylvan dells, and miniature 
 temples, met us at every turn. A year later I 
 visited the grounds again. What a transformation ! 
 Gone were the former landmarks with the excep- 
 tion of some fine old trees and two grotesque stone 
 lions that stood guard at the entrance to the enclo- 
 sure. Eleven gray brick buildings were nearly 
 completed, including those intended for anatomy, 
 physiology, chemistry, administration, library, and 
 hospital with wards for two hundred men and 
 women, all to be completed when the college opens. 
 Three more buildings, making the total number 
 fourteen, will be ready by the fall of 1920. 
 
 An adaptation of Chinese architecture has been 
 used for these buildings. The bricks of the old 
 palace were taken for the modern medical plant and 
 they were found to be better than any bricks made 
 to-day. The green tiles for the roofs came from 
 the ancient Imperial Tile Works. The furniture 
 was made on the premises and as many as 3,500 
 
48 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 workmen have been at work at one time on the 
 buildings and fittings. 
 
 The Question of Coeducation 
 
 On Hataman Street, not far away, is Lockhart 
 Hall, the headquarters of the Pre-Medical School 
 with students' dormitories in the rear. The Pre- 
 Medical School opened in September, 1917. The 
 entire medical course includes three years in the 
 Pre-Medical School, four in college, and one as 
 hospital interne. Internes will be encouraged to 
 scatter among the missionary hospitals, with spe- 
 cial consideration for those in the interior, the only 
 stipulation being that the hospital shall furnish 
 the necessary scientific training. That the China 
 Medical Board has taken an advanced stand, it 
 needs only to be stated that the Peking Union 
 Medical College is coeducational. Now, among 
 China missionaries there are all shades of opinion 
 on the subject of medical coeducation, from those 
 who denounce it vinqualifiedly as utterly ruinous 
 in a country like China, to those who look upon it 
 as an interesting experiment, or decidedly favor it. 
 This question of coeducation came up in conversa- 
 tion with Mr. Roger Greene, resident director of 
 the China Medical Board. 
 
 " The great difficulty," he remarked, " will be to 
 find women who have had the required preparation 
 to enter the Medical College. The Pre-Medical 
 
TRIUMPHS OF WESTERN MEDICAL SCIENCE 49 
 
 School is not open to them, thoug^h it may be 
 later." 
 
 " But provided that women do enter, you anti- 
 cipate no trouble? " 
 
 " No, for the high entrance requirements and the 
 difficulty of the course will act as safeguards. Stu- 
 dents who come to us will naturally be mature and 
 they must be dead in earnest or we shall not keep 
 them. Then, too, we expect to limit the number 
 of students in the college to two hundred. Coedu- 
 cation is possible only where the numbers are small 
 and there is adequate supervision." 
 
 " I understand that your pre-medical internes are 
 visiting the Methodist Woman's Hospital regu- 
 larly?" 
 
 " Yes, and the students of the Union Woman's 
 College come here for autopsies. I have not heard 
 of anything at all to criticise in their conduct." 
 
 A few days later I sought Miss Powell, one of 
 the nurses in the Woman's Hospital. 
 
 " How do you get along with the internes from 
 the Medical College?" 
 
 "Beautifully! " and the sunny face broke into a 
 smile. 
 
 " But don't your patients object to their visits? " 
 
 " At first they did, but I explained to them that 
 the men were here because they wanted to learn 
 better how to help the women of China, and when 
 they understood, nearly every one, even the private 
 patients, gladly consented to see them." 
 
50 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 " There is a great deal of criticism of this thing 
 in China, I find." 
 
 " Yes, I know, and I can't see why. The boys 
 are such perfect gentlemen and they are so gentle 
 and kind. The other night I went with two of 
 them across the city to bring a poor patient to the 
 hospital. The air was bitterly cold and we all 
 shivered, but when the boys saw that the woman 
 was thinly clad, they at once slipped of? their out- 
 side garments and wrapped them around her." 
 
 Christian Relief Institutions 
 
 Dissection was officially authorized in China in 
 1913. This was an inestimable boon to the medical 
 profession. The Chinese naturally have an inher- 
 ent horror of dissection, which grows out of ances- 
 tral worship. Indeed, many carry this so far that 
 they consider it disrespectful to ancestors to muti- 
 late their own bodies ; so that it is often diflficult 
 for doctors to gain their consent to amputate limbs 
 in order to save life. It is almost certain that the 
 long-hoped-for concession would not have been 
 granted when it was, had not the frightful ravages 
 of the pneumonia plague in the winter of 191 1 
 actually forced it from the government. Medical 
 schools were given permission to dissect the un- 
 claimed bodies of criminals. The first dissection in 
 Soochow was made an event. Over sixty officials 
 and representative business men went to witness 
 
TRIUMPHS OF WESTERN MEDICAL SCIENCE 51 
 
 it at the Government Medical College; the scene 
 was photographed, and afterward a pamphlet was 
 published in which it was stated that this was the 
 first dissection in China for four thousand years. 
 While dissection is legalized, pubhc sentiment is 
 still so strongly against it, that except in some of 
 the large eastern cities it is not generally practised. 
 
 A natural outgrowth of medical work was mis- 
 sion schools for the blind and the deaf and dumb, 
 a home for cripples, retreats for lepers, and last, but 
 by no means least, a refuge for the insane at Can- 
 ton. This last-named institution, which is the only 
 one of its kind in China, was started in a small 
 way twenty years ago by Dr. John G. Kerr, of the 
 American Presbyterian Board, after he had been 
 in charge of the old Canton Hospital for forty- 
 three years. 
 
 The story of this truly remarkable work, from 
 its small beginnings through successive stages to 
 the present time, is one of the most interesting in 
 missionary annals. Thei Refuge has now 360 pa- 
 tients, and land, buildings, equipment, current 
 expenses, improvements, and everything except the 
 salary of the foreign superintendent, are paid for by 
 the Chinese. To sit beside Mrs. Kerr, the hale 
 octogenarian who has survived her husband, and 
 listen to her anecdotes of bygone days when most 
 missionaries considered work for the insane a 
 doubtful experiment, is a privilege and inspiration 
 long to be remembered. 
 
52 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 Medical Work a Christian Force 
 
 The purpose and end of all missionary work is to 
 lead men and women to Jesus Christ. Is the med- 
 ical work in China doing this? The mission boards 
 at home in the early years of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury were slow to comprehend that medical work 
 rightly conducted was as truly missionary work as 
 any other and one of the surest evangelizing agen- 
 cies. It is said of Peter Parker that he " opened 
 China at the point of the lancet." When Dr. 
 Leonora Howard began her work in Tientsin it 
 was just after the massacre of 1870, and the mission 
 chapels were empty because the people were afraid 
 to venture out of their homes. But they flocked 
 to the hospital, and one poor soul, after hearing 
 the gospel story, would reach out her hand as Dr. 
 Howard passed along the ward murmuring, " If 
 I can touch you I shall be well." 
 
 The military governor of a certain province was 
 so impressed by the spirit of the hospital where he 
 was a patient, that when he left it he began attend- 
 ing the mission services in his city and soon became 
 an earnest Christian. He now exerts an influence 
 for good that is felt far and wide. 
 
 A poor woman in north China was for several 
 weeks a patient in a mission hospital. She went 
 in as an ignorant, superstitious idol-worshiper ; she 
 came out a new creature in Christ Jesus. She 
 returned to her village and told her husband of 
 
TRIUMPHS OF WESTERN MEDICAL SCIENCE 53 
 
 Jesus. He beat her. She told her neighbors and 
 they scoffed at her. But she would not be silenced,; I 
 and to-day that village is practically Christian be- 
 cause of one woman who found her Savior in a 
 hospital. 
 
 Stories like these could be multiplied by the 
 thousand. Every mission hospital employs one or 
 more Chinese evangelists to work among the pa- 
 tients. At the Yale-in-China hospital in Changsha 
 plans are now being made to do follow-up work in 
 the homes of the patients. 
 
 The China Medical Board, besides having the 
 services of a Chinese evangelist, has engaged an 
 American clergyman, whose whole time will be 
 given to promoting religious and social work in the 
 college and hospital. Daily chapel exercises will 
 be held for the medical students, though attendance 
 will be considered voluntary. It is hoped that the 
 spiritual power and efi&ciency of the college will 
 be as great as that of any other college in China. 
 
 One of our medical missionaries has said, " If 
 China gets Christ, she will soon get hospitals." 
 May we not reverse the statement and say with 
 equal truth, " If China is adequately supplied with 
 Christian hospitals, she will soon get Christ?" 
 
Ill 
 
 CHINESE LEADERSHIP IN MEDICINE 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 CHINESE LEADERSHIP IN MEDICINE 
 
 Dr. Wu Lien Teh, one of China's most brilliant 
 young physicians, was showing several of us over 
 his beautiful new hospital in Peking. In a month 
 or two the workmen would be through and then 
 would come the grand opening. As Dr. Wu hur- 
 ried ahead of us to clear the way, I thought to 
 myself, " We hear much at home about the stolid 
 and slow Chinese, but yonder is the very embodi^ 
 ment of nervous energy! " 
 
 The Central Hospital was well worth seeing. 
 Four spacious wing wards surrounded by windows, 
 a roof garden for convalescents, two perfectly 
 equipped operating rooms, one for in-patients and 
 one for out-patients, diet kitchens for preparing 
 both Chinese and foreign food, an elevator, sunny 
 rooms for private patients and delightful suites for 
 the rich, ideal sanitary arrangements, an ambulance 
 with two beds, and an automobile for the use of 
 the doctors, — nothing seemed to have been for- 
 gotten. 
 
 An All-Chinese Hospital 
 
 " You have a wonderful hospital ! " we exclaimed 
 in admiration as we passed through the attractive 
 rooms. 
 
 57 
 
S8 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 " Well, it ought to be good. For seven years I 
 Have poured my very life-blood into it." 
 
 "What led you to think of building it? " 
 
 " I have had it in mind ever since my student 
 days in Edinburgh but the outbreak of the pneu- 
 monic plague in 191 1 startled me into beginning 
 the work at once." 
 
 "Where did you get your money? " 
 
 " Part of it came from the government, and I 
 secured large private gifts. Some of these will be 
 annuals but the hospital should soon be self- 
 supporting." 
 
 " I suppose you received a good deal of money 
 from foreigners?" 
 
 " Not a copper ! I didn't ask for it. I felt that 
 the time had come for China to have a thoroughly 
 modern hospital built, financed, and operated solely 
 by Chinese. As far as ours goes it will be as good 
 as the best anywhere." 
 
 " How many beds will the hospital have? " 
 
 " A hundred and fifty. We had great difficulty 
 in getting our equipment shipped from abroad on 
 account of the war. The railroads did a fine thing. 
 They carried all my freight free of charge and now 
 they allow me to travel on a pass." 
 
 Just at this point we entered a room where some 
 women nurses were removing the wrappings from 
 a fresh consignment of hospital beds. 
 
 " That shows the difference between men and 
 women nurses," said Dr. Wu as we passed out. " I 
 
CHINESE LEADERSHIP IN MEDICINE S9 
 
 did not tell those girls to do that. Now, if I give 
 the men a job, as soon as they finish it they will sit 
 around and chat and smoke till I set them at some- 
 thing else, but the women find their own work. 
 They have initiative." 
 
 The Headquarters of the Imperial Surgeons 
 
 When we had finished our inspection of the 
 hospital, one of the party turned laughingly to Dr. 
 Wu. 
 
 " I am fond of contrasts. You have just shown 
 us an up-to-date Chinese hospital. Are you too 
 busy to take us to see one of the old-style hospi- 
 tals?" 
 
 " You mean like the Municipal Hospital? " 
 
 " No, something still more primitive." 
 
 The doctor thought a minute. 
 
 " I have it ! " he exclaimed. " I will take you to 
 the College of Imperial Surgeons." 
 
 So we rode across the city in our rickshas and 
 finally entered a courtyard leading to a shabby 
 building covered inside and out with faded fres- 
 coes. Behind it was another court and another 
 building and back of that a third, and how many 
 more beyond I do not know, for we stopped ex- 
 ploring. Dr. Wu led us to a small building not 
 far from the entrance and bade the caretaker draw 
 aside the dusty curtain that concealed the rear 
 wall. As he did so there stood before us a life-size 
 bronze figure which we took for a Buddha. 
 
So NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 " These premises," explained Dr. Wu, " during 
 the late Manchu dynasty were the official head- 
 quarters of the Imperial Surgeons, twenty of them, 
 who lived on fat salaries and attended the members 
 of the royal household. This figure was their cher- 
 ished manikin, though I don't suppose they ever 
 studied it. Do you see how the body is punctured 
 and how evenly the punctures are distributed? 
 Old-time practitioners say there are seven hundred 
 places in the human anatomy where it is safe ta 
 thrust in a needle, but if these are all safe I'd like to 
 iknow where you will find a spot that isn't safe ! " 
 1^ ■" How old do you think this figure is ? " 
 
 *' Oh, I can't say; several hundred years, anyway. 
 Very few people in Peking know about it. I dis- 
 covered it myself only a short time ago." 
 
 It is a mistake to imagine that when Peter Parker 
 came to the Far East there were no doctors and no 
 medicine in China. Indeed, China can boast of a 
 heritage in medical lore of which any country might 
 be proud. Centuries before the time of Hippo- 
 crates, so reliable documents state, medical statis- 
 tics were published by the government; medical 
 men were obliged to pass state examinations before 
 being allowed to practise, and even the need of 
 isolating cases of infectious disease was generally 
 understood. As early as the third century B. C. the 
 great surgeon, Hua To, is reported to have handled 
 several cases of intracranial surgery, and a famous 
 painting actually depicts him performing an opera- 
 
This bronze manikin showing the seven hundred places where 
 the human body may be punctured with safety was an important 
 part of the equipment of the ancient College of Imperial Sur- 
 geons in Peking. 
 
CHINESE LEADERSHIP IN MEDICINE 6i 
 
 tion for necrosis of the elbow upon a distinguished 
 general. 
 
 When we compare the medical profession in 
 China to-day with that of the past, all we can say- 
 is, " How are the mighty fallen ! " Now, doctors 
 are not registered; infectious cases are not iso- 
 lated ; surgery is not practised ; anesthetics are un- 
 known, and the anatomy of the human body is 
 practically as little understood as the mysteries of 
 the planet Mars. 
 
 The Old-School Doctors of China 
 
 Although Western medicine has gained wide- 
 spread popularity, still the old-school doctors have 
 by no means gone out of practise, and their pre- 
 scriptions continue to be relied upon by the masses 
 of the people. Even many of the highly intelligent 
 choose their services, like the Chinese physician, 
 who, though himself trained in Western methods, 
 on being taken sick called in an old-school practi- 
 tioner ; — or the Chinese ambassador to a European 
 court who when dying was found with the ortho- 
 dox medical man mumbling incantations by his 
 bedside. It must be confessed that these very 
 doctors often carry an air of distinction which 
 commends them even to the disbeliever. I once 
 called to see a sick Chinese friend, the principal of 
 a large school. Her doctor was in the room. As 
 he rose to greet me with the beautiful old-fashioned 
 
62 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 salutation, his pongee gown immaculate, his thin 
 white beard adding to the patriarchal dignity of his 
 kind, scholarly face, I found myself saying to him 
 with genuine respect and deference, " Good after- 
 noon. Doctor." 
 
 The profession of medicine is usually followed in 
 certain families through successive generations. 
 There are no medical schools, but some of the 
 ancient books like the National Pharmacopoeia are 
 still extant and studied. The father passes on to 
 his son the knowledge he has acquired, which is 
 pretty sure to include various professional secrets 
 — prescriptions and practises some progenitor has 
 discovered to be useful — and which, instead of 
 being divulged for the good of mankind, are jeal- 
 ously guarded by the recipient as proprietary 
 rights. 
 
 Goose Feather Poultices and Tiger Hair Broth! 
 
 A fundamental principle governing the practise 
 of medicine is that the possession of evil spirits 
 causes most of the ills that flesh is heir to. Con- 
 sequently, the affected part must be pierced with 
 a long, sharp needle to make a way of escape. A 
 man suffering from appendicitis was pounded all 
 over his body with a heavy iron to drive out the 
 offending spirit. Much is made of counter-irri- 
 tants, needles being run under the nails of the toes 
 and fingers in cases of cholera, and the flesh pinched 
 
CHINESE LEADERSHIP IN MEDICINE 63 
 
 with hot copper cash to draw out inflammation, fre- 
 quently with beneficial results. 
 
 Ignorance and superstition lead to many abusive 
 practises on the part of the people. The parents 
 of a child with a fractured skull smeared the open 
 wound with incense ashes and black mud, over 
 which goose feathers were sprinkled. Another 
 child with fever was wrapped tightly in blankets 
 and then deliberately sat upon by an adult till he 
 was smothered to death. A few weeks ago while 
 I was conversing with a lovely young woman, she 
 pulled up her sleeve and showed me an ugly scar 
 on her right arm just above the wrist. 
 
 " Before I became a Christian," she said, " I re- 
 turned home one day from boarding-school to find 
 my father sick unto death with his coffin and burial 
 clothes beside him. I went out of the room, took 
 a knife and cut out a large piece of flesh from my 
 arm. This I boiled in water and gave my father to 
 drink. He soon began to recover and lived another 
 year." 
 
 "What did your mother say?" 
 
 " None of the family knew about it. The cure 
 would have lost its efficacy if I had not kept it a 
 secret for a hundred days. But what I did was 
 nothing unusual in China. It would be an unduti- 
 ful child who would not make such a sacrifice for 
 a parent." 
 
 Chinese medicines comprise an almost endless 
 variety. They include some Western drugs, like 
 
64 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 castor oil, camphor, sulphur, and quinine. Besides 
 many herbs which unquestionably possess healing 
 properties, there are medicines in use not so appe- 
 tizing and palatable, such as dried scorpions, tigers' 
 teeth, cockroaches, cicadas, and snake skins. A 
 woman presented herself at a foreign hospital com- 
 plaining that although she had eaten over two hun- 
 dred spiders her health had not improved ! The 
 bones of tigers are believed to give great strength 
 to the weak and debilitated. Those who cannot 
 afiford such a luxury are advised to drink a decoc- 
 tion which is made from the hairs of the tiger's 
 mustache. 
 
 Never shall I forget a visit that I made with a 
 Presbyterian missionary to a wholesale medicine 
 factory in Hangchow. We clambered up steep 
 flights of stairs to the numerous stories and roofs 
 of the rambling old buildings where vast quantities 
 of herbs, leaves, berries, and roots were drying in 
 the sun, or gathered into baskets and boxes ready 
 for shipment; we descended into the basement to 
 peer into caldrons where suspicious looking mix- 
 tures were boiling, and, finally, ended our wander- 
 ings in the rooms given up to the compounding of 
 deer medicine. It is deer medicine for which this 
 particular factory is noted. There were living deer 
 in pens, and medicine was being made from every 
 part of the deer's body : horns, skin, hair, and hoofs, 
 though the horn mixture is considered the most 
 valuable. 
 
CHINESE LEADERSHIP IN MEDICINE 65 
 
 Chinese Hospitals of Former Days 
 
 Under the old regime, hospitals, as we under- 
 stand them in the West, were unknown in China. 
 There were Halls of Benevolence where coffins 
 were sometimes furnished to the poor, and medi- 
 cine irregularly dispensed, though even these places 
 were few. But the opening of foreign hospitals in- 
 spired the Chinese to follow in time with hospitals 
 of their own, and no study is more interesting than 
 the steady development of these native hospitals, 
 through their several gradations, from the worst to 
 the best. A step above the Halls of Benevolence, 
 or possibly a step below them, are the hospitals 
 occasionally found with a few beds for in-patients, 
 but which are run in haphazard fashion, and are 
 wretchedly dirty and unsanitary. 
 
 Far in advance of this class is the type well illus- 
 trated in the great eleemosynary institution in Can- 
 ton known in English as Convenience Hospital. It 
 averages the year round more than seven hundred 
 in-patients. Additional wards are being erected 
 and, in the meantime, two mommoth bamboo sheds 
 accommodate the overflow. All the doctors are of 
 the old school. Like their confreres elsewhere in 
 China, they diagnose disease by the state of the 
 pulse, feeling in turn both wrists. The beating of 
 the pulse on the left arm indicates the condition 
 of the heart, while that on the right shows the 
 health of the lungs and liver. 
 
66 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 "Is surgery practised here?" I asked. The 
 guide looked blank. 
 
 " Do the doctors ever use the knife on their 
 patients? " 
 
 " No," he replied with emphasis. " They never 
 touch a patient with a knife." 
 
 The place is quite clean and the patient's rooms 
 comfortable enough but with only slight provi- 
 sion' for Hght. The out-door passage-ways that 
 separate the wards, instead of admitting light and 
 air, are choked with a dense growth of tropical 
 plants. Boxes in which to deposit gifts for the 
 hospital are placed in different parts of the city 
 and large sums are donated annually. 
 
 The Development of Chinese Medical Work 
 
 Next in order are the hospitals where both West- 
 ern-trained and Chinese-trained doctors, all Chi- 
 nese, are in attendance, and both Western and 
 Chinese medicine dispensed. Peking has several 
 excellent examples of this kind of hospital. Usu- 
 ally the foreign dispensary with its doctors is on 
 one side of the building, and the Chinese on the 
 other. Patients may take their choice. Which is 
 the more popular seems to depend on the locality. 
 In the aggregate, the people's patronage is appar- 
 ently divided quite impartially. 
 
 The Kwang Hua Hospital in Canton is unique, 
 not so much on account of its being run according 
 
CHINESE LEADERSHIP IN MEDICINE 67 
 
 to Western methods by Western-trained doctors, 
 all of them Chinese, but because the medical school 
 in connection with it is coeducational. This school 
 and the Peking Union Medical College are the only 
 coeducational medical schools in China. The 
 Kwang Hua Medical School has eighty students, 
 thirty of whom are women. The walls of the hos- 
 pital reception room are hung with pictures of 
 men and women students in cap and gown, and 
 their bright, earnest faces certainly speak well for 
 the success of the school. The up-keep of this 
 hospital is good, but here again the wards and 
 private rooms are conspicuous for their lack of 
 sufficient light and air. 
 
 Heading the list of Chinese hospitals, indeed, in 
 every way infinitely superior to the best of the 
 others, are the Central Hospital in Peking described 
 at the beginning of this chapter, and the new gov- 
 ernment Army and Navy Hospital, also in Peking. 
 An American gentleman who visited this latter 
 hospital shortly before it was opened described it 
 as "really tremendous." It stands on a valuable 
 plot of three hundred acres which was formerly the 
 site of the Imperial Granaries. Besides the hospi- 
 tal, the plant includes a medical school for four 
 hundred students, the only national medical school 
 in China, a veterinary hospital, and a drug manu- 
 factory. 
 
 The numerous buildings, which are strictly Chi- 
 nese in plan and architecture though entirely mod- 
 
68 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 ern in equipment, are all one-story in height and 
 connected wherever desirable by covered passage- 
 ways. The blue trimmings around the doors and 
 windows and the ornamentation over the gateways, 
 heighten the Oriental effect. Two of the Granary 
 buildings have been allowed to stand, one as a 
 stable for the horses kept to teach the medical 
 students to ride, and the other, formerly the temple 
 of the God of Architecture, is fitted up as a social 
 hall for the students. The head of the hospital 
 and the man who must be credited with planning 
 and carrying through the entire enterprise, is Dr. 
 Chuan Shao Ching. He is a Christian, having 
 been a student as a boy in the American Board 
 College in Tungchow near Peking, and later gradu- 
 ating from Johns Hopkins University. The Chi- 
 nese are also conducting several isolation hospitals 
 successfully; one at Peking being of especially 
 high grade. 
 
 China furnishes two splendid examples of cooper- 
 ative work between Chinese and foreigners. One 
 of these is the Yale-in-China medical work at 
 Changsha, the capital of Hunan, where the most 
 cordial relations are maintained. The work is 
 growing so rapidly that it is hard to expand the 
 facilities of the plant at an equal pace. The other 
 plant is the Kung Ye Hospital and Medical School 
 in Canton. Here the work is entirely financed by 
 the Chinese, though three foreign doctors are on the 
 staff. The main buildings of the new hospital and 
 
A clinic in one of the new hospitals maintained under Chi- 
 nese auspices. China is beginning to tackle seriously the problem 
 of training her young people according to the most approved 
 modern methods. 
 
CHINESE LEADERSHIP IN MEDICINE 69 
 
 medical school situated in the outskirts of the city, 
 have recently been opened, and the Chinese have 
 spared no money to make them as complete as 
 possible. It is an interesting commentary on con- 
 ditions in China that when the new^ site was pur- 
 chased, seven thousand graves had to be removed, 
 the management paying four and a half dollars for 
 each one that was identified. 
 
 Enter the Chinese Woman Doctor 
 
 In the old days in China there were large num- 
 bers of medical men but no medical women. Now 
 that the Chinese woman doctor has emerged, it is 
 surprising how eager young women from the best 
 families are to enter the profession. And it is still 
 more astonishing that their wishes meet with such 
 hearty approval from their parents, many of them 
 dyed-in-the-wool conservatives. Girls are not 
 easily lured from their chosen work by offers of 
 marriage. A student who had just returned from 
 America, and was still unattached, set out to look 
 for a wife. He confided his desire to a friend. She 
 knew a doctor, a sweet Christian girl, who she 
 felt would be just the right helpmeet for the young 
 man; so she broached the subject to her but the 
 girl refused to consider it for a moment. 
 
 " I could not think of giving up my profession," 
 she protested, " and besides, if I wanted to do so 
 my parents would be unwilling. They sacrificed 
 too much to give me my medical education." 
 
70 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 The go-between went to another young woman 
 doctor with the same question and received sub- 
 stantially the same answer. 
 
 Chinese women doctors, as their numbers multi- 
 ply, are making it increasingly difficult for ignor- 
 ant midwives to continue their dangerous prac- 
 tises. Dr. Tsao, head of the Government Women's 
 Hospital in Tientsin, is planning to give a course 
 of lectures to the midwives of that city. The 
 Commissioner of Police has pledged his assistance. 
 
 " The trouble is going to be," said Dr. Tsao, in 
 speaking of the matter to me, " that as midwives 
 are not required to register, I shall never know 
 how many women practising midwifery have es- 
 caped me. When I lived in Nanking, the Health 
 Commissioner helped me open classes for mid- 
 wives. Eighty-seven came, but I knew that didn't 
 include all. I could not remember the face of 
 each woman in my classes but they were familiar 
 with mine. As I went about the city calling on 
 my patients, I formed the habit if I met a midwife 
 of asking, 'Do you know me?' If she answered 
 ' No,' I replied, ' Very well, I will have you ar- 
 rested for malpractise. If you attended my classes 
 you would know me.' In this way I was able to 
 put a check on a good many." 
 
 Chinese Leadership in Plague Epidemics 
 
 The Chinese understand how to deal with the 
 Chinese as no foreigner can ever hope to do. A 
 
CHINESE LEADERSHIP IN MEDICINE ?i 
 
 well-known woman doctor has a corps of nurses 
 who are devoted to her. The one who has been 
 with her longest has full charge of the operating 
 room. The doctor never gives it a thought. If 
 there is to be an operation at six o'clock in the 
 morning, the nurse unbidden will rise at one to 
 give herself ample time to have everything in readi- 
 ness. She hesitates at nothing, neither at scrub- 
 bing floors nor washing windows. It is all a part 
 of the work. But occasionally a new nurse proves 
 fractious. It may be that a coolie woman plastered 
 with dirt is brought in and the new nurse is as- 
 signed the task of cleaning her up. She backs 
 away in disdain. That is work fit only for coolies. 
 
 " All right," says the doctor cheerfully, and roll- 
 ing up her sleeves sets to work on the woman her- 
 self. The nurse is dumbfounded at this unexpected 
 turn of affairs and begs to be allowed to reheve the 
 doctor. No, she may stand and look on but can- 
 not help. There is never any further trouble with 
 that nurse. 
 
 A woman doctor arrived one stormy night at the 
 home of a patient in a distant village. The little 
 room where the woman lay was filled with loud- 
 talking relatives and neighbors. The air was sti- 
 fling. The doctor bade the crowd disperse but they 
 refused to stir. Calling for a basin of hot water, the 
 doctor dipped in her hands with the palms up, then 
 looked around threateningly at the people, com- 
 manded briefly, " Go ! " and they went. 
 
72 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 The epidemic of pneumonic plague in Manchuria 
 in 191 1 soon resulted in so many deaths that the 
 coffins of the dead accumulated too rapidly to bury. 
 Indeed, the frozen ground made it impossible to dig 
 graves. In a short time there was at Harbin an 
 accumulation of four thousand coffins which be- 
 came a menace to health. The doctors wished to 
 burn them but the people rose up in almost uncon- 
 trollable excitement at the mere suggestion. Such 
 an act in defiance of the time-honored custom of 
 burying the dead was not to be thought of for a 
 moment. The situation grew desperate. Finally, 
 one of the doctors said, " I will discuss the matter 
 with the crowd." Now there is nothing that the 
 Chinese enjoy more than a discussion. It is their 
 very meat and drink. Understanding the native 
 temperament, this Chinese doctor knew the people 
 could be brought to terms if reasoned with, where 
 coercion would fail. So he talked quietly, explain- 
 ing the danger and the need of disposing of the 
 coffins quickly. After some argument a man spoke 
 out with conviction, 
 
 " He is right ! " 
 
 " Yes," declared another, " what the doctor says 
 is true. The coffins must be burned." 
 
 "Is it your wish that the coffins be burned?" 
 queried the doctor. 
 
 " It is," was the unanimous response, 
 
 " Will you send a request through the doctors 
 
CHINESE LEADERSHIP IN MEDICINE 73 
 
 to the government at Peking to have them 
 burned?" 
 
 "We will!" 
 
 The next day the cofEns were set up on end in 
 rows of a hundred and burned in sight of a silent 
 but approving throng of on-lookers. 
 
 During the second scourge of plague in 191 7, a 
 Chinese doctor in a Shansi city saved a desperate 
 situation after a well-meaning foreigner had givein 
 an example of how not to handle a Chinese official 
 at a time of crisis. It was imperative that the 
 gates of the city be closed to prevent further 
 spread of the scourge. A foreign doctor went to 
 see the local magistrate. 
 
 " You must close the city gates at once," he told 
 him. 
 
 " No, it can't be done." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " Trade cannot stop. The people have to go in 
 and out to market." 
 
 " But do you want every one to die of the 
 plague? " 
 
 The official answered with a shrug. 
 
 The harassed doctor reached the limit of en- 
 durance. 
 
 " If you do not order the gates closed I will 
 report you to Peking and have you removed from 
 office," he exclaimed indignantly. 
 
 " That will please me," was the cool rejoinder. 
 " I do not like this office. I wish to give it up." 
 
74 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 The Chinese doctor then took hold of the case. 
 He called on the magistrate. 
 
 "What do you want?" 
 
 " Nothing just now. I am studying the situa- 
 tion." The plague was discussed. Later in the 
 day the doctor went again to the yamen. 
 
 "Has the plague stopped?" 
 
 " No, it is getting worse." 
 
 " Should the gates of the city be closed? " 
 
 " You are the one in authority. It is for you 
 to decide." 
 
 " They shall be shut at once ! " and the magis- 
 trate was as good as his word. 
 
 Reaching the Lonely Places 
 
 The National Medical Association of China was 
 organized in the spring of 191 5. All of its five 
 hundred members, one hundred and forty of them 
 being women, are Chinese, and graduates of medi- 
 cal schools either in China, Japan, or the West. 
 The National Medical Association of China, like 
 the China Medical Missionary Association, holds 
 biennial conferences. In 1917 the two Associations 
 met in Canton at the same time and during the ten 
 days the conference lasted held a number of very 
 enjoyable and profitable joint sessions. Several of 
 the best papers presented were by women, and at a 
 banquet on the evening before the meetings began, 
 the address of welcome by a woman doctor of 
 
CHINESE LEADERSHIP IN MEDICINE 75 
 
 Canton was said to be its most delightful feature. 
 
 With the number of Chinese doctors so rapidly 
 on the increase, the question naturally arises, 
 " What quality of work are they doing and where 
 are they locating?" 
 
 The majority of Chinese doctors are doing faith- 
 ful, conscientious work and rendering a real service 
 to their people. Some have given evidence of ex- 
 ceptional ability. I recall one who a short time ago 
 attended a foreigner in a desperate case of illness 
 with a skill and devotion which were beyond 
 praise. 
 
 As to locality, most of the doctors in inde- 
 pendent practise settle in the large cities near the 
 coast. Again and again I have asked myself in 
 traveling over China, " But what about the great 
 interior? Who is going to care for the sick in the 
 country far removed from the populous centers?" 
 People have said to me : 
 
 " Doctors cannot practise in the interior because 
 drugs are too expensive. The poor cannot pay for 
 them and the doctor cannot afford to give them 
 away." 
 
 " The country people will have nothing to do 
 with a foreign-trained doctor. Education along 
 this line must be given in the primary schools." 
 
 " Custom does not permit young women doctors, 
 unchaperoned, to settle in the country districts." 
 
 In Soochow and Kiukiang the women doctors 
 and nurses, when the stafif is large enough to per- 
 
76 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 mit of it, take turns in making trips into the coun- 
 try. The hospital in Kiukiang has a traveling 
 pharmacy, neat and compact, comprising a goodly 
 assortment of drugs, bandages, and surgical instru- 
 ments. A doctor and several nurses go to a wide, 
 unoccupied territory, itinerate over it, stopping 
 often to hold clinics, lecture on sanitation and home 
 hygiene, and conduct evangelistic services. Then 
 they settle down in some convenient center for a 
 year perhaps, being relieved from time to time by 
 fresh workers from Kiukiang. In this way many 
 are helped who are too far away to benefit by the 
 hospital in the city. 
 
 I am acquainted with graduate doctors and 
 nurses who have married preachers with country 
 charges or teachers in rural districts and when 
 bidding their city friends good-by have assured 
 them smilingly, " We are not giving up our pro- 
 fession ; we are just carrying it to a new field and 
 a new people, where, by house to house visitation 
 and by the example of our own happy, sanitary 
 home, we hope to do our largest work." 
 
 The Missionary and His Chinese Staff 
 
 There are mission hospitals in the interior, it 
 is true, but they are few and scattered and the 
 country and needs are great. It is to their own 
 people the Chinese sick are stretching out their 
 hands, and more and more it is their own who 
 
CHINESE LEAJDERSHIP IN MEDICINE ^^ 
 
 must respond to the call, whether it be in the city 
 or in the country. But the highest type of service 
 means sacrifice. Often we hear the sad plaint from 
 missionaries, " Our Chinese doctors are going 
 away! Our Chinese nurses are leaving us! We 
 educated them, we trained them, and now just as 
 they are fitted to be of real help, they are turning 
 from our doors.^" 
 
 "Why is it?" we ask. 
 
 " Our mission salaries are small, and they can 
 earn more in government employ or independent 
 practise." 
 
 What are the missions to do in the face of this 
 situation? This is a problem that the home 
 churches maintaining the missionary enterprise 
 must face as squarely as their missionaries abroad, 
 for vital questions of financial support are involved. 
 We must remember that prices have advanced in 
 China as well as in western lands; we must take 
 account of the ways in which the very training of 
 these young men and young women in Christian 
 schools has tended to advance their standards of 
 living. Then, too, we must consider that youth, 
 ardent and ambitious, not unnaturally wishes to 
 test its strength amid new and untried conditions. 
 Although the missionaries have often been unable 
 to hold promising workers, still it is true that many 
 a capable young Chinese has entered into the 
 blessed experience that furnishes the only final 
 solution to these perplexing questions concerning 
 
78 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CfflNA 
 
 the field of their life-work. They have caught such 
 a vision of the boundless opportunities for self- 
 denying service which lie around them, and are so 
 possessed and animated by the spirit of the Master 
 that to give and not to get, to minister and not to 
 be ministered unto, is their guiding principle. 
 
 The Hospital as a Center of Christian Teaching 
 
 The leading men in a village in the province of 
 Kwangtung, away in the South, clubbed together 
 and subscribed enough money to pay the salary of 
 a resident woman doctor. Then they sent to 
 Canton for one. As the villagers were pledged to 
 protect her, it was safe for a young woman to go. 
 But could a girl be found ready to exchange the 
 pleasures, advantages, and friendships of the city 
 for life in a distant village among coarse, ignorant 
 country folk? A girl quickly volunteered and went 
 to the outpost. As she drew near the village, the 
 people came flocking to meet her with banners, 
 music, and firecrackers to show rejoicing. The gov- 
 ernor himself could not have been welcomed more 
 royally. The young doctor remained in her new 
 home eight years and during that time a hospital, 
 a school, and a church were built, and where for- 
 merly there had not been a Christian, the names 
 of one hundred members were enrolled on the 
 church records. 
 
 I am speaking of a little woman who, for long 
 
CHINESE LEADERSHIP IN MEDICINE 79 
 
 weeks, lay on a bed of suffering battling against 
 disease brought on by selfless outpouring of her 
 life in her work. During her illness she was at- 
 tended by the community physician, who in addi- 
 tion did what he could to help the assistant doctors 
 and nurses in the compound hospital. Later, when 
 his patient was recovering, he wrote her a letter 
 from which I venture to quote a few sentences. 
 
 " It is a great pleasure to me to be greeted by 
 the smiling faces of your nurses and assistant 
 doctors and to receive such courteous treatment 
 from them. Dr. K. gives an excellent anesthetic, 
 certainly far better than the average well-trained 
 physician at home. Dr. A. is a very clear-headed, 
 conscientious, and hard-working girl, and I am 
 most pleased with her work. I have told her that 
 if she cares to assist me in my foreign operative 
 work I shall be most happy to have her do so. 
 Have you any objection? I should pay her, of 
 course, the same as I would any assistant. Your 
 hospital is a real oasis in the desert. Without 
 exaggeration I have never seen in China a higher 
 degree of Christian character than is exhibited on 
 the faces of your doctors and nurses. The credit 
 is all yours. Whenever I hear any sneers at mis- 
 sionaries, as one does occasionally in the foreign 
 concessions, my answer is, ' You would change 
 your mind if you went to Dr. Stone's hospital.' " 
 
IV 
 
 PREVENTION BETTER THAN CURE 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 PREVENTION BETTER THAN CURE 
 
 If Dr. Peter Parker could come back to earth 
 and go among the hospitals in China, pass up and 
 down the wards and visit the clinics, would he not 
 exclaim sorrowfully, " The same old crowds ! The 
 same old diseases ! The same old misery and dirt 
 and ignorance ! " The death-rate in China is said 
 to be higher than in any other part of the world; 
 the infant mortality exceeds fifty per cent. 
 
 Competent physicians, after careful study, tell us 
 that seventy-five per cent, of the deaths are pre- 
 ventable. Think of it, seventy-five per cent. ! The 
 figures amaze us. This does not take into account 
 the unrecorded suffering whose sum total is be- 
 yond compute, which could be eliminated if pre- 
 ventive measures were understood. Recent indus- 
 trial developments are creating new perils. For 
 example, with the introduction of railroads and 
 steamboats, travel has enormously increased. For- 
 merly, when an epidemic broke out, it was confined 
 within a limited area, a province or a part of one. 
 Now it is liable to spread over many. Before 
 China established commercial relations with other 
 countries and while her people stayed at home, her 
 
 83 
 
84 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 health conditions affected outsiders but slightly. 
 To-day, with members of the human family every- 
 where jostling each other, and bound to mingle 
 more and more, the ills of one nation become the 
 menace of all. Last year the missionary doctors 
 in China treated more than 3,200,000 patients, but 
 encouraging as these figures seem, what are they 
 in a country with a population of 350,000,000 or 
 tjoo,ooo,ooo? 
 
 The Gospel of Preventive Medicine 
 
 To really solve the health problem in China, the 
 time has come when we must make it our business 
 to preach from the housetops, and proclaim in 
 trumpet tones throughout the length and breadth 
 of the land, the Gospel of Preventive Medicine and 
 Sanitation ! Not that we can afford to lay less stress 
 on Curative Medicine, but if a lasting benefit is 
 to be conferred on the Chinese, we must go deeper 
 and strike at the root of the trouble. 
 
 Let us briefly review some of the existing con- 
 ditions which militate against life and health. 
 Scarcely a city or town in China can boast a sewer 
 system. History records that three thousand 
 years ago drains were in use, and that an ancient 
 " Worthy " wrote a book on health in which he 
 claimed that physical well-being depended on 
 obeying two comprehensive laws, — restraint of the 
 appetites and cleanliness in house and person. 
 
Board of Foreign Missions, Methodist Episcopal Church. 
 
 A part of the traveling- health exhibit which has been used all 
 over the country to show the people how to check the scourges 
 of disease. Seventy-five per cent.' of deaths in China are pre- 
 ventable. 
 
r ' 
 
PREVENTION BETTER THAN CURE 85 
 
 Alas, these laws, so far as the rank and file of the 
 common people are concerned, have long since 
 been a dead letter. The universal custom of drink- 
 ing boiled tea is the salvation of the nation. Still, 
 many die annually of cholera, dysentery, and ty- 
 phoid fever from using the water in contaminated 
 wells and canals. A once large and prosperous 
 village in the south has become practically extinct 
 because of a leaky well near which the germ-in- 
 fected clothing of the sick was habitually washed. 
 I have seen women cleaning vegetables — some of 
 them, like lettuce, to be eaten uncooked — in stag- 
 nant water covered with a thick, green scum. 
 
 The houses, even of the rich, are too often dark, 
 damp, and close. Many are without windows, but 
 whether windows are present or not, fresh air is 
 shut out at night. The inmates huddle together 
 in small rooms; a mother, suffering from tubercu- 
 losis it may be, sleeping with several young chil- 
 dren. Those suffering from contagious diseases 
 are allowed to mingle freely with the rest of the 
 family. Even in so well-ordered a community as 
 the International Settlement in Shanghai, small- 
 pox patients continually elude the health officers; 
 ride in the public rickshas; beg on the crowded 
 streets, and sell foodstuffs in the markets. 
 
 Rats, that with difficulty are excluded from the 
 most carefully kept homes, overrun the premises of 
 the poor. And rats bring plague. At one time 
 during a scourge of the bubonic plague in Canton, 
 
«6 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 the city government paid six cents for every rat 
 brought to police headquarters. Diseased animals 
 and also dead ones, no matter what the cause of 
 death may have been, are consumed greedily by 
 the poor. 
 
 Fear of the Deadly Bath 
 
 To most of the uneducated Chinese the idea of 
 a bath is a fearful thing. " Why don't you wash 
 your child?" I asked a village woman on a hot 
 summer day. She glanced apprehensively at the 
 small, nude figure, caked with dirt, and replied 
 with an emphatic shake of the head, " Oh, he 
 Tvould die if I washed him." A woman who had 
 just arrived at a hospital was told she must have 
 a bath. " No, no ! " she cried in alarm. " I have 
 4ived sixty years without a bath and I shall not 
 begin now." She left the hospital rather than 
 yield. The poor creature had probably followed 
 the usual custom of occasionally lifting up her 
 padded garments and wiping off her skin with a 
 damp cloth. 
 
 The ignorance of many mothers regarding the 
 care of their offspring is pathetic. " I don't see 
 why my baby took sick," wept a young mother 
 'whose infant son had just died. " We were so care- 
 ful of him and the trousers he was wrapped in 
 -were a hundred and fifty years old ! " This was in 
 the South where often the swaddling clothes of 
 
PREVENTION BETTER THAN CURE 87 
 
 new-born babes are garments once worn by adults 
 and kept in the family as heirlooms. They are 
 probably unwashed and filled with disease germs. 
 Mothers of nursing babies have a common habit of 
 taking into their own mouths cooked rice or other 
 soft food, chewing it until it is mushy, then shoving 
 it with the tongue into the child's mouth. Many 
 babies die of tuberculosis contracted in this way. 
 Very young children are fed all sorts of indigesti- 
 ble food, watermelon, cucumbers, raw turnips, salt 
 pork, and so forth, with the result that where death 
 does not follow in summer from dysentery or 
 cholera, they commonly break out with ugly boils 
 and ulcers, especially about the head and face. 
 Scalp diseases and the consequent loss of hair are 
 primarily due to the barber's use of an infected 
 razor to shave the child's head. Neglect of chil- 
 dren having trachoma or smallpox has led to a fear- 
 ful amount of blindness. 
 
 What the Sanitation Expert Faces 
 
 The cheap tea and lodging houses patronized by 
 the coolie class are favorite breeding places for 
 germs of all descriptions. The habit of careless 
 expectoration both indoors and out makes the 
 Chinese an easy prey to their national Nemesis, 
 tuberculosis. Food and meat shops, fruit-stalls 
 and markets are centers of infection. The food- 
 shops, whose entire front opens on the street, are 
 
88 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 presided over by cooks whose person and habits 
 are far from neat. One in Hinghwa was discovered 
 to be a leper. As fast as the food is cooked it is 
 laid out uncovered in close proximity to the passer- 
 by, where it soon becomes well sprinkled with 
 germ-laden dust, and is freely handled by would- 
 be purchasers, who turn it over piece by piece till 
 they find a bit to their liking. 
 
 Fruit, to make it more tempting, is often cut 
 open, where it soon turns brown from decay and 
 the dust that rises from the much-traveled street. 
 Flies constitute one of China's gravest perils. In 
 warm weather the meat shops are black with them. 
 Mosquitoes rise in swarms from stagnant water in 
 ponds and ditches, making malaria a curse of the 
 country. The streets of many cities are so narrow 
 that rickshas or sedan-chairs going in opposite 
 directions can pass only with difficulty, and are 
 usually wet and slippery from the water spilled out 
 of overfull buckets. Healthgiving sunshine seldom 
 filters down into these streets, which are roofed in 
 summer with bamboo mats, and none penetrates to 
 the rooms back of the shops where the families 
 sleep. But there is no need to continue this recital. 
 Enough has been said to show how many and 
 serious are the dangers that threaten the Chinese 
 from the cradle to the grave. The paramount con- 
 sideration is, what is being done to insure a higher 
 standard of health and to avert the menace of 
 pestilence that always confronts China? 
 
PREVENTION BETTER THAN CURE 89 
 
 Cleaning up the Cities 
 
 The growing interest of the Chinese in all mat- 
 ters relating to public health is most encouraging. 
 After the Boxer Rebellion and particularly follow- 
 ing the Revolution, city walls began to come down. 
 It seems a pity to destroy these ancient landmarks, 
 yet in some places it is the only way that streets 
 can be widened; foul moats filled in, and houses 
 that have become rat-holes and breeding places for 
 disease demolished. 
 
 In Shanghai, on the fine road built over the old 
 moat, an electric car line runs. The district form- 
 erly known as the Manchu City in Hangchow, 
 since it was destroyed in 191 1, has changed from a 
 dirty, crowded, unsanitary city, to a beautiful 
 modern one, with wide avenues, and sightly build- 
 ings. Most of the Chinese section of the city of 
 Hankow was destroyed by fire during the Revolu- 
 tion. The government afterward engaged a for- 
 eign architect to draw plans for a modern, model 
 city. Much money was spent, and the architect 
 remained three years on the ground, but in the 
 end, unfortunately, nothing came of it, for the 
 people went ahead and rebuilt the city as it was 
 originally. Chengtu in Western Szechuan, has the 
 reputation of being one of the cleanest cities in 
 China. Wheelbarrows gather up the refuse each 
 morning and the city employs beggars to keep the 
 streets clean. 
 
90 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 In Kaifeng, the capital of Honan, a Public Health 
 Association was organized in 1916 composed of the 
 leading men of the city. The Association has gone 
 actively to work removing refuse, sprinkling the 
 streets with uncontaminated water, disposing of 
 unburied and rotting coffins, and disseminating 
 health literature. Peking has so changed that 
 those who knew the city before 1900 but have not 
 seen it in the interim would hardly recognize it. 
 In Canton the city wall is about to be torn down, 
 and where the old yamen stood, a public park is 
 to be laid out. Several years ago an enlightened 
 official undertook to clean up the streets of Canton, 
 hut not satisfied with that, removed the gambling 
 tables that stood outside the shops and closed the 
 brothels, saying all were a disgrace to the city. He 
 soon found, however, that the way of the reformer, 
 like that of the transgressor, is hard. He was in- 
 vited one day to the city magistrate's residence, 
 regaled with a fine dinner, then taken out and shot. 
 That was his reward. Some cities, one being Nan- 
 king, rejoice in a Board of Public Health and a 
 regularly appointed Health Commissioner. 
 
 Modern Science and New Table Manners vs. Disease 
 
 At the close of the plague epidemic in 191 1, an 
 International Commission met in Harbin to study 
 the cause of the plague and its prevention. The 
 result of this effort was the organization of the 
 
PREVENTION BETTER THAN CURE gi 
 
 North Manchurian Plague Prevention Service with. 
 Dr. Wu Lien Teh as its president. The Chinese 
 government provided means to open a plague hos- 
 pital in Harbin with branches in other cities, and to 
 establish plague hospitals in connection with the 
 railway stations. This was the first time the gov- 
 ernment had taken any serious part in the work of 
 preventive medicine. The plague hospitals are fully- 
 staffed and equipped, ready for use on short notice.. 
 When not needed for plague patients they are used 
 as general hospitals. 
 
 The influential body of returned students consti- 
 tutes a powerful factor in promoting public health, 
 education. The numerous examples they furnish, 
 of neat, sanitary, well-ordered homes are their larg- 
 est contribution, but they do not neglect precept. 
 Often a Chinese friend sitting next to me at a 
 public dinner has whispered warningly, " Don't 
 wipe your mouth with that napkin " ; " It isn't safe 
 to drink from that cup " ; "I wouldn't touch the 
 lettuce — you do not know where it has been 
 grown," and so on. 
 
 Dr. Wu Lien Teh has invented a sanitary brass 
 platter that he wishes might come into general 
 use. The platter is large enough to hold five bowls 
 and rests on a revolving standard in the center of 
 the dining table, so that the food can be easily- 
 reached by all. Each bowl is provided with chop- 
 sticks and spoon which makes it unnecessary to put 
 the individual chopsticks into the common dish. la 
 
92 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 many of the homes of the educated classes, indi- 
 vidual chopsticks are no longer used to take food 
 from the common bowls. 
 
 Enlisting the 'Students in the Health Campaign 
 
 Missionaries have set to M^ork in right good earn- 
 est to stress public health education. In mission 
 schools, from the university dovsrn to the little day- 
 schools, sanitation and home hygiene are being 
 increasingly brought to the attention of the stu- 
 dents by means of lectures, practical demonstra- 
 tion, and to some extent through text-books. It is 
 hoped that soon the conservation of public health 
 will be made a regular branch of study in every 
 school. 
 
 A missionary of the American Episcopal Board 
 has introduced into her group of country day- 
 schools a simplified form of Camp Fire and Blue 
 Bird Societies. The Blue Birds receive a red bead 
 if for a month they take deep breathing exercises 
 every day; cover food to keep flies off; refrain from 
 spitting on the floor and ground, and so on through 
 seventeen subjects. Camp Fire girls, among other 
 useful things, are taught how to prevent the spread 
 of malaria, smallpox, and tuberculosis. In one 
 school the pupils have adopted a poor child. Its 
 clothes are made entirely by the girls, and the 
 older ones are instructed how to bathe and dress 
 the child in the most approved way. 
 
PREVENTION BETTER THAN CURE 93 
 
 A doctor in Central China bought land for a 
 hospital, and when some of the smaller buildings 
 were already up, he sold the property for another 
 site near a mission college. He realized that while 
 his hospital was- needed, yet his largest contribu- 
 tion to China would be the practical knowledge he 
 could impart to the students with respect to pre- 
 ventive medicine, sanitation, and hygiene. In one 
 of his lectures to the students he asked them to 
 draw a map_ of a model sanitary city. One boy 
 became so interested that he did not stop with one 
 but handed in four ! 
 
 The civil governor of Changsha, the capital of 
 Hunan, has recently built some fine roads in the sub- 
 urbs of the city. As he is an unusually progressive 
 man, it is hoped that he may be induced to build 
 small, sanitary houses along these roads, and rent 
 them reasonably to poor families from the con- 
 gested districts of Changsha. The vacated houses 
 could then be pulled down, and others, sanitary 
 and rat-proof, could be erected in their stead, thus 
 gradually reconstructing the entire city. Public 
 health education would naturally go hand in hand 
 with civic improvements. 
 
 Making Health Education Popular 
 
 Dr. W. W. Peter, a secretary of the Young Men's 
 Christian Association, who came to China in 191 1, 
 gave the initial impulse to public health education 
 
94 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 on a large scale. Knowing it to be a scientific fact 
 that eighty-five per cent, of all knowledge is gained 
 through the eye, and only fifteen per cent, through 
 the ear, nose, finger, and tongue senses combined, 
 he set his ingenious brain to work devising all kinds 
 of apparatus which could be used with effect in 
 giving object lessons. He finally amassed two and 
 a half tons of stage properties and wall exhibits, 
 and with these and two trained Chinese assistants, 
 he set out to visit the principal cities in China, 
 traveling in all 22,000 miles. He prepared a lec- 
 ture on the theme, " The Relation of National 
 Health to National Strength." In it he states 
 that although China, because of her pristine 
 greatness, should stand in the front rank, she is in 
 reality a backward nation. And why has she fallen 
 behind? Largely because of reduced efficiency 
 owing to poor health. 
 
 Sometimes while Dr. Peter was giving his lec- 
 ture, his conclusions were challenged, as when once 
 a man in the audience rose and said that he did 
 not believe preservation of life in China was desir- 
 able. The struggle for existence was too keen and 
 the country overpopulated. To this Dr. Peter re- 
 plied that in Shantung, the most densely popu- 
 lated province in China, there were not so many 
 people to the square mile as in Belgium. This 
 statement was received with great astonishment. 
 
 The differences in the two countries are readily 
 apparent. Belgium is one of the most highly organ- 
 
PREVENTION BETTER THAN CURE 95 
 
 ized industrial countries; China is distinctly agri- 
 cultural. But in considering the struggle for exist- 
 ence, is China not able to sustain a great industrial 
 development? Does she not have the natural re- 
 sources for it? Are her people not suited for indus- 
 trial enterprises? Will not a higher standard of 
 public health make it possible for the nation to 
 support even a greater population under vastly- 
 improved economic conditions? 
 
 Dr. Peter had a lecture for w^omen on " The Care 
 of the Baby," v^rhich w^as given under the auspices 
 of the Young Women's Christian Association. 
 During this lecture a living baby w^as washed and 
 dressed on the platform in sight of all present. In 
 a northern city where the lecture was repeated four 
 times in a single day, the idea got abroad that the 
 same baby was bathed on each occasion. To bathe 
 a baby once a day in China is bad enough, but four 
 times ! The people were filled with consternation, 
 and it was not until a month later, when the local 
 Chinese press, in all seriousness, reported that the 
 babies bathed at Dr. Peter's lectures were still 
 living that the popular mind was calmed. 
 
 A National Joint Council on Public Health 
 
 Dr. Peter's campaign called out thousands to see 
 his exhibits and listen to his lectures. The appeal 
 was to the educated classes, officials, gentry, and 
 students. Some did not understand, and took the 
 
96 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 demonstrations to be a series of jugglers' tricks. 
 But much genuine and lasting good was done. At 
 the close of the campaign in Peking, sixteen of the 
 leading men of the country met as a committee to 
 discuss ways and means of promoting public health 
 education in China. 
 
 As a result of the interest awakened by the cam- 
 paign, three organizations, the Young Men's Chris- 
 tian Association, the China Medical Missionary 
 Association, and the National Medical Association 
 of China united to form the Joint Council on Pub- 
 lic Health. Dr. S. M. Woo, a graduate of Johns 
 Hopkins Medical School and of the Health Depart- 
 ment of Harvard University, was called back to 
 China as Dr. Peter's colleague. From his office in 
 Shanghai, Dr. Woo is fairly flooding the country 
 with literature on public health. His pamphlets, 
 written in a clear, convincing style, are on such 
 topics as " Home Sanitation," " Tuberculosis," 
 " Prevention of Infection," " Infant Hygiene," and 
 so forth. With the reverence the Chinese feel 
 for the printed page, these tracts are not likely to 
 be thrown away but read and pondered. 
 
 An important development of great significance 
 to the medical profession in China has recently 
 come about through the efforts of the two medical 
 and pharmaceutical associations, — the evolving of 
 a uniform medical terminology. Lack of such a 
 standard has greatly impeded medical work. Its 
 preparation required three years of hard work. It 
 
PREVENTION BETTER THAN CURE 97 
 
 has now been submitted to the Minister of Educa- 
 tion and accepted. This is a great victory and was 
 won after the government under the Manchus had 
 spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in a vain 
 effort to reach the same result. 
 
 The White Plague in China 
 
 Excepting epidemics, probably no disease known 
 in China annually exacts such a toll from the peo- 
 ple as tuberculosis. Every thirty-seven seconds 
 there is a death from it. There are many reasons 
 for the prevalence of this scourge, but without 
 doubt one of the chief causes is lack of proper 
 physical exercise. Hard-working coolies are usu- 
 ally strong and healthy, but many from the gentry 
 and student classes, who spend long hours in 
 unventilated rooms bending over their work, grow 
 every day more hollow-chested and stoop-shoul- 
 dered. Old-time custom frowned on an erect 
 carriage. If a girl walked briskly with chest 
 expanded and shoulders thrown back, she was 
 bold. If a man did it he was no scholar. A mis- 
 sionary, at whose home I was visiting, burst into my 
 room one morning with the cry, " Oh, what shall 
 I do! Two more of my loveliest girls have spit 
 blood. It looks as if the whole school was going 
 into consumption. Can't you give them some exer- 
 cises in deep breathing? We must do something to 
 save them 1 " 
 
98 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 The Young Men's Christian Association and the 
 Young Women's Christian Association have made 
 scientific physical training a special feature of their 
 work. Each organization has opened a National 
 School of Physical Education in Shanghai. Both 
 schools have met vvrith a success exceeding expecta- 
 tion; students have come from many provinces and 
 from government as well as mission schools. The 
 course extends over two years. 
 
 " It is wonderful what a change this physical 
 work makes in the girls," said one of the foreign 
 secretaries of the Young Women's Christian Asso- 
 ciation to me. " When the new students enter they 
 are stiff, sober, and distant. It is the hardest work 
 at first to get them to unbend the least little bit. 
 But gradually they catch the spirit of play and 
 exercise, and not only does their health improve, 
 but the whole expression of their faces alter. They 
 become responsive and animated." 
 
 " The girls have certainly learned how to laugh," 
 I remarked as the ring of happy voices broke in on 
 our conversation from the adjoining gymnasium. 
 
 " Did you ever see them at a game of tennis? " 
 asked the secretary. 
 
 " You forget that I lived for a few weeks next 
 door to your tennis court ! " I said. 
 
 Then I recalled with amusement what a mission- 
 ary in another city had told me about her girls' 
 initial effort at basket-ball. They felt it was dis- 
 courteous to outstrip a playmate who was running 
 
PREVENTION BETTER THAN CURE 99 
 
 after the ball, and if during the game a giri chanced 
 to jostle another she stopped to say very politely, 
 " Please excuse me ! " 
 
 A short time ago the physical work of the Young 
 Men's Christian Association was entirely under 
 the direction of foreign secretaries. Now, in some 
 of the large cities it is in the hands of Chinese secre- 
 taries who are carrying it forward in a way that 
 delights those who trained them. Men of all ages 
 are attracted to the gymnasium. The members 
 of the business men's classes are frequently among 
 the most enthusiastic; a sixty-year old gentleman 
 in Canton never fails to be present no matter what 
 the weather. 
 
 Good Sportsmen Mean Better Citizens 
 
 Much is now made of athletics, and the popu- 
 larity they have acquired is almost unbelievable 
 when we consider that the country we are talking 
 about is China, A most salutary lesson which 
 athletics are teaching is good sportsmanship. It 
 sometimes comes a little hard. During a foot- 
 ball game in an interior city recently, 800 boys 
 sullenly walked off the field in spite of protests, 
 because, forsooth, the other side was winning. 
 But such exhibitions of bad temper are not often 
 witnessed, A good sport in a field game will make 
 a good sport later in the game of politics, and China 
 has sore need of men with the sportsman spirit. 
 
100 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 The second Far Eastern Championship Games 
 were held in China in the spring of 1915, and .will 
 come to China again in 1921 or 1923. Physical 
 education is now a definite part of the government 
 course of study, beginning with the primary school, 
 and is receiving marked attention in government, 
 private, and mission schools. 
 
 Fighting the Real Chinese Dragon 
 
 Closely related to this subject of prevention of 
 disease is the opium problem. In April, 191 7, we 
 supposed the victory had been won and that after 
 the long wait and bitter fight, the drug was for- 
 ever banished from China. But just then, to our 
 dismay, the hydra-headed monster showed itself 
 once more. Fifteen hundred chests of opium had 
 for six or seven years been stored in Shanghai, for 
 which the foreign merchants who imported it de- 
 manded payment. The government bought the 
 opium, but, instead of burning it as most people 
 confidently expected would be done, 300 chests 
 were sold to a Chinese syndicate and the sale 
 of opium was legalized in three provinces. It was 
 only a short time before in many a province poppy 
 fields bloomed again, and the smell of opium smoke 
 began once more to offend our nostrils. 
 
 The shameful story need not be repeated in 
 detail. Suffice it to say that all over China the best 
 Chinese lifted up their voices in righteous indigna- 
 
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PREVENTION BETTER THAN CURE loi 
 
 tion against this breach of their country's faith. 
 Mass meetings were held, and proclamations issued. 
 Memorials rained into Peking. Foreign Powers 
 also sent their protests. Such pressure was brought 
 to bear on the government that President Hsu 
 Shih Chang finally ordered the remaining 1,200 
 chests in Shanghai to be publicly burned. The 
 Vice-Minister of Justice was despatched from 
 Peking to supervise not only the burning of the 
 opium, but prior to that, an examination of the 
 opium chests to make sure that they had not been 
 tampered with, and that what was burned later 
 could be relied upon as being the genuine article. 
 Twenty-one organizations, patriotic and religious, 
 united in sending a request to Peking that they be 
 allowed to have representatives present at both the 
 examination and the burning of the opium. The 
 request was granted. 
 
 ^ Twelve-Million^Dollar Bonfire 
 
 On the 8th of January, 1919, the examination 
 of the opium began in a large warehouse where 
 600 chests had been stored. Admittance was 
 by ticket and only those got inside who had good 
 reason to be there. On a platform close to the 
 place where the boxes were opened sat the govern- 
 ment representative. At the other end of the plat- 
 form was a small laboratory where expert chemists, 
 British, French, and Chinese, were kept busily 
 
102 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 making tests. Each chest of Patna opium con- 
 tained forty balls, and the present market price of 
 each ball is $500 in gold, making the value of a 
 ■chest $20,000. The balls were about the size of a 
 cocoanut. 
 
 Customs officials presided over the opening of 
 each box. The balls were taken out and counted 
 in the presence of the witnesses. Any one could 
 order a ball cut in two. Many were opened and 
 their contents examined. If there was any ques- 
 tion about the stufif being opium it was put to a 
 chemical test. A few balls had been tampered with, 
 and one box was found to contain coal instead of 
 opium; but, considering the quantity, the leakage 
 was very slight. After the contents of each box 
 had been examined, the balls were returned to it 
 and the box sealed with two seals, the seals being 
 given at night into the custody of two foreigners. 
 
 At the end of eight days, the first 600 boxes of 
 opium had been examined and were ready to be 
 burned. On the bank of the Whangpoo River 
 opposite Shanghai, the government erected four 
 kilns at a cost of $900 each. At exactly nine 
 o'clock on the day selected for the ceremony, two 
 launches carrying about one hundred people left 
 Shanghai for Pootung where the burning was to 
 take place. After several days of rain the air was 
 clear and bracing as was eminently fitting, for 
 January 17, 1919, will always be a red letter day 
 in the history of China. 
 
PREVENTION BETTER THAN CURE 103 
 
 The American Consul-General of Shanghai, Mr. 
 Thomas Sammons, threw one of the first balls 
 into the fire. To see 600 of them burning at 
 once with at least a dim realization of what the 
 moral effect of this conflagration will be in China, 
 was a sight to stir the feelings of even the most 
 phlegmatic. Twenty-five or thirty chests of opium 
 were consumed daily in each kiln. 
 
 Organising to Fight the Drug Traffic 
 
 On the afternoon of the day set for the burning 
 of the opium, a meeting of the Young Men's Chris- 
 tian Association was held in Martyrs' Memoral Hall 
 to organize an International Anti-Opium Associa- 
 tion. There have been similar gatherings recently 
 in Peking and Tientsin and it is hoped that Interna- 
 tional Anti-Opium Associations will be formed all 
 over China. The Association is Anti-Morphine as 
 well as Anti-Opium, for although morphine is a 
 contraband article, it is smuggled into the country 
 in vast quantities, and because it acts more quickly 
 and is more deadly in its effect, it threatens to be 
 even more of a curse than opium. 
 
 During these last days in Shanghai some really 
 good people have sighed regretfully because so 
 much opium that might be used medicinally was to 
 be wasted. But since doctors agree that a bottle 
 of morphine containing a few ounces will last a 
 hospital treating several thousand patients annu- 
 
I04 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 ally for a number of years, it is evident that the 
 opium now in stock could not be disposed of as a 
 medicine in a millennium. A considerable amount 
 of confiscated opium, morphine, and cocaine that 
 had been smuggled into China has been handed 
 over to the Allied Consul-Generals for the use of 
 the Allied Red Cross and military hospitals. 
 
 While the opium has been burned in Shanghai, 
 it is a sorrowful fact that in several of the provinces 
 there is a revival of opium growing. In Fukien 
 province farmers are seen uprooting their half- 
 matured potato plants and sowing the seed of the 
 poppy in their places. Since opium brings forty 
 times as much in price as any other crop, the 
 farmers, in their ignorance and poverty, must not 
 be blamed too much. But the situation has become 
 desperate, and Chinese and foreigners are joining 
 hands in a solemn pledge to use their utmost power 
 and influence to free China from the evils of opium, 
 morphine, and kindred drugs. 
 
 The British Commissioner of Customs reports 
 that during the years from 1900 to 1916, China 
 must have spent $1,200,000,000 on imported opium. 
 The amount of money squandered on the native 
 drug cannot be estimated. 
 
V 
 ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL CHANGES 
 
CHAPTER V 
 ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL CHANGES 
 
 The conservation of human life is not a subject 
 that can be limited to a study of medical education, 
 sanitation, and plague campaigns. In China, as in 
 all other lands, the saving of life, and the enriching 
 of the life that is saved, cannot be considered apart 
 from such fundamental matters as the provision of 
 safeguards against natural disasters and as the 
 economic and industrial conditions that are of such 
 prime importance in determining the welfare of 
 the nation. 
 
 In approaching the study of this larger field, we 
 may well consider, first, the whole group of prob- 
 lems presented by the devasting floods that sweep 
 over China with terrible frequency and the famine 
 and disease consequent upon them. 
 
 'A Big Job for the Chinese Red Cross 
 
 The North China flood of 191 7 will go down in 
 history as one of the most disastrous that ever 
 visited this country. It affected particularly the 
 eastern and southern portion of the province of 
 Chihli. I reached Tientsin one September morn- 
 
 107 
 
io8 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 ing from Peking expecting to go on South by train 
 in a day or two. Instead, I was shut up in the city 
 for ten days, and when I did leave, it was not by 
 train but by steamer down the coast. The water 
 rose alarmingly fast. One evening I mailed a let- 
 ter in a certain post-box. The next morning I 
 could not get within a block of it. At eleven o'clock 
 one forenoon I watched men wading through a 
 flooded street carrying other men, less robust, on 
 their backs. That afternoon at four o'clock the 
 water had crept a block and a half nearer. 
 
 Day after day I tried to get to my mission com- 
 pound. When I did finally go it was in a Chinese 
 boat over a wide expanse of sea in which broken 
 furniture, coffins, and refuse floated about. Roofs 
 of Chinese houses that had not yet collapsed pro- 
 truded here and there out of the water. On some 
 of them whole families were camping, though in 
 imminent danger of a watery grave as soon as the 
 weakening walls gave way. 
 
 CooHes worked desperately, throwing up dykes 
 to save, if possible, the still unflooded districts. 
 Doorways and lower story windows were protected 
 by embankments of brick and earth. The streets 
 were thronged. In rickshas, carts, on foot, in car- 
 riages and automobiles, the people streamed by. 
 They carried bedding, cooking utensils, children, 
 mirrors, china, ornaments, bird cages, anything and 
 everything that could be snatched up in a hurry. 
 One man held in one hand a huge clock and with 
 
ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL CHANGES 109 
 
 the other clasped to his breast his ancestral tablets. 
 
 On the first night that it rained, thousands of 
 people were on the streets with no shelter but, 
 perhaps, a bamboo mat which some of them had 
 carried from their homes. Those of us still beyond 
 the danger zone in warm, comfortable beds could 
 not sleep for thinking of them. Babies were born 
 that night and many of the sick and aged died. 
 Vans piled high with household efifects, and carry- 
 ing the Red Cross flag, rumbled past. How we 
 blessed the Chinese Red Cross Society! 
 
 As fast as they could be opened. Refuges gath- 
 ered in the homeless. All was confusion at first, 
 though later the Refuges became well-organized 
 camps where children went to school and women 
 were given sewing, spinning, and similar work to 
 do, while the men were sent away to build dykes 
 and roads. I accompanied a missionary doctor to 
 her clinic in one of the Refuges. She could only 
 treat a small fraction of the many who flocked to 
 her improvised bamboo hut, and it wrung my heart 
 to see how patiently the rest turned away. They 
 showed only that spirit in all their trouble and 
 losses. I wonder if in the whole world there can 
 be found another people as patient and uncom- 
 plaining as the Chinese. 
 
 Six Million People Homeless from One Flood 
 
 That flood was a costly thing. It inundated in 
 part or entirely between 17,000 and 18,000 villages 
 
no NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 and rendered homeless almost 6,000,000 people. 
 Millions were cast adrift to face a bitterly cold 
 winter with only scant summer clothing and noth- 
 ing to eat. Picture this vast number of members 
 of the human family trying to satisfy the gnawing* 
 of hunger by feeding on bark, roots, and husked 
 corn cobs, and warming themselves by fires made 
 from bits of their own furniture, even the house 
 itself! Watch, in your imagination, the poor crea- 
 tures crowding into temples, once too sacred to 
 admit women; a mother and her babies finding a 
 home on a bamboo mat the size of a hearth rug, 
 and hanging her wet garments to dry on the big 
 wooden idols ! And all this notwithstanding coloni- 
 zation schemes and the untiring eflorts of humane 
 societies of every creed and clime to relieve suffer- 
 ing! The flood lasted most of the winter around 
 Tientsin and engineers say the water will not dis- 
 appear for years from one of the southern districts. 
 
 How Forester and Engineer Cooperate 
 
 Floods are almost an annual occurrence. The 
 Tientsin Flood was spoken of as phenomenal simply 
 because it was a little worse than most of them. 
 The appalling thing is that they are becoming more 
 frequent, more disastrous, and of longer duration. 
 I crossed the Yellow River at its widest point one 
 dark night. As the train rolled over the bridge, I 
 looked from the car window down on the swirling, 
 
ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL CHANGES in 
 
 thunderous torrent below, called " China's Sor- 
 row," and remembered how it had once been re- 
 ported in Tientsin during the flood, that the Yellow 
 River dykes might give way. 
 
 "If they do, what will happen?" I asked an 
 engineer. 
 
 " We shall drown like rats," he answered, " noth- 
 ing can save us." 
 
 Floods in China are accounted for in two ways. 
 First, the melting of snow on the mountain tops 
 in the west and the periodic torrential rains which 
 cause the rivers in their lower basins — where the 
 country is comparatively level and the current slow 
 — to flow over and break through their dykes. 
 Secondly, quantities of silt are annually washed 
 down from the denuded hills and mountains to be 
 deposited on the river beds and to choke their 
 outlets. The turbid waters of the Yellow River 
 and the lower Yangtzse are conclusive evidence of 
 this waste. In certain great areas in the interior 
 no one can travel without being at once impressed 
 with the bareness of the hillsides. At one time they 
 were clothed with noble forests, but in the strug- 
 gle for life, and ignorant of what spoliation would 
 mean, the people have recklessly cut them down, 
 and even dug out the roots and scraped away the 
 underbrush for fuel. 
 
 The floods of 191 7 roused the Chinese govern- 
 ment to adopt vigorous measures to prevent a 
 recurrence of the catastrophe in the following 
 
112 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 year. A Flood Relief and Conservancy Committee 
 was appointed with an able Chinese as its Director- 
 General. Expert American engineers are on the 
 ground studying the situation. Plans are being 
 made to build higher and stronger dykes and to 
 establish a system of reservoirs, barrages, and out- 
 lets. But the best engineering skill in the world 
 cannot keep the silt from washing down and sooner 
 or later making it necessary to do the work all over 
 again. The bed of one river in North China has 
 risen ten feet in six years. The bed of another 
 river is reported to be in places twenty feet higher 
 than the adjacent country. The final solution of the 
 flood problem is bound up with afforestation; but 
 that is a process of centuries. Hence it is impera- 
 tive that the forester and the engineer work in co- 
 operation; the forester planting trees along the 
 upper reaches of the rivers, and the engineer build- 
 ing dykes and reservoirs along their lower basins. 
 
 Arbor Day Now in the Chinese Calendar 
 
 This question of afforestation has its industrial 
 and social sides. Nearly all the timber used for 
 building purposes is imported, most of it being 
 Oregon pine, when shipping facilities are normal. 
 The government spends annually $1,000,000 for 
 the purchase of ties from abroad for the Peking- 
 Hankow Railroad. The progressive director of 
 the road has determined to put an end to 
 
ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL CHANGES 113 
 
 ^this by growing forests in China which will supply 
 the necessary timber. Several sites, thirty-three 
 miles square, have been selected and the work of 
 planting is to begin at once. It will take forty 
 years for the trees to grow, but the cost of main- 
 taining the forest for the whole period will be less 
 than that spent in buying ties for one year. 
 
 Native timber is needed for ship-building, one of 
 the industries being most rapidly developed in 
 China. Working people must have barges, trucks, 
 and wheelbarrows, but their cost is constantly in- 
 creasing. The homes of the very poor are often 
 devoid of furniture and their mud huts easily col- 
 lapse in a heavy rain because little or no wood is 
 used in their construction. Chinese coffins are 
 very large and require heavy boards. No wonder 
 that the ability to purchase one and keep it in the 
 living-room against the time of need, takes a great 
 weight off the minds of those whose pocketbooks 
 are lean. A Chinese professor of forestry said to 
 me with more pathos than humor, 
 
 "We hear a great deal about the high cost of 
 living in the West, but I could say something about 
 the high cost of dying in the East ! " 
 
 Mr. Joseph Bailie, dean of the College of Agri- 
 culture and Forestry of Nanking University, has 
 conferred a lasting benefit on China by the affor- 
 estation and agricultural colonization experiments 
 that he has been conducting: first, on the barren 
 wastes of Purple Mountain near Nanking and now 
 
114 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 in other parts of the country. It was his encourage- 
 ment which gave China her Arbor Day which was 
 first officially recognized in the spring of 191 5- 
 Each succeeding year students in mission schools 
 have celebrated the day with growing enthusiasm; 
 government schools are fast following their ex- 
 ample, and it is evident that the ceremony is an 
 institution which has come to stay. 
 
 In China Intensive Cultivation is a Fine Art 
 
 China is an agricultural country. More than 
 three fourths of her people are engaged in farming. 
 As there are many farmers so there are many 
 farms; some of them little more than garden 
 patches. But so thoroughly have Chinese farmers 
 mastered the art of fertilization and the rotation of 
 crops, that it is little short of miraculous what one 
 of these small plots of ground can be made to yield. 
 Down in Kwangtung, the province of which Can- 
 ton is the capital, one sixth of an acre vdll support 
 one person, two acres will keep a family of five 
 with a good margin, while seven acres constitute 
 wealth. To be the owner of a hundred acres is 
 opulence indeed but to which few aspire. In the 
 North where the land is less fertile and the scale 
 of living higher, the farms are larger. But even 
 there a family of five or six can subsist on three 
 acres of land, and five acres give comfort, as com- 
 fort is reckoned among the farming class of China. 
 
ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL CHANGES 115 
 
 Millions of acres of once fertile land able to 
 nourish many millions of people, are now, because 
 of the flood and silt, reduced to unproductive 
 swamps ; " drowned farm lands " they are called. 
 There is seldom a year when in the late summer 
 or early autumn one cannot see along the line of 
 the railroad between Nanking and Tientsin, large 
 tracts of land under water, out of which rise trees 
 and fences, the conical tops of graves, and the 
 highest parts of mud villages. It is pitiful to watch 
 farmers wading about their flooded fields gathering 
 up here and there stalks of grain, heavy and water- 
 soaked and no longer fit for food, but useful, when 
 dried, as fuel. 
 
 Young China Says the Old Ways Must Change 
 
 Millions of Chinese nightly lie down to sleep not 
 knowing where to-morrow's food is to come from. 
 Yet the studies that have been made by scientific 
 agriculturists show that the productiveness of the 
 farm lands could be greatly increased. If the 
 mythical genius, who, tradition has it, invented 
 the Chinese plow nearly three thousand years be- 
 fore the Christian Era, could come back to earth, 
 would he be flattered or disappointed to see the 
 same kind of plow in use to-day and the same old 
 methods of farming followed? 
 
 " What was good enough for our fathers is good 
 enough for us, so why change? " say the farmers. 
 
ii6 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 But the farmers' sons of the present generation 
 are not so complaisant, and already some of them 
 are stoutly declaring, 
 
 " What was good enough for our sires can be 
 improved upon by us, and there is going to be a 
 change ! " 
 
 Mr. Tao, the head of the Department of Agricul- 
 ture in the Normal College in Nanking, is an ex- 
 ceptionally able man. He is a graduate of the 
 College of Agriculture of Cornell University and 
 has many plans for the development of his work. 
 
 " Many Chinese think it very strange to have a 
 Department of Agriculture in a Normal College, 
 but it is certainly needed, and no department in our 
 school is more popular with the boys," said Mr. 
 Tao to me in conversation a few months ago, 
 
 " What do you expect your graduates to do ?" 
 I asked. 
 
 " Some will teach in government agricultural 
 schools. Others will make model farms out of 
 waste lands. Then I am earnestly hoping that 
 many will go to rural districts and open schools for 
 the farmers' sons." 
 
 " Is it going to be hard to induce them to adopt 
 new methods in farming?" 
 
 " It will not do to introduce Western ideas whole- 
 sale. If we go too fast, the farmers will close right 
 up and refuse any of our suggestions. We must 
 help them gradually to change to the new methods. 
 Instead, for example, of urging them to use a mod- 
 
ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL CHANGES 117 
 
 ern plow, show at first how the old one can be 
 improved upon a little." Mr, Tao explained his 
 plans for teaching the farmers to employ their 
 spare time in winter making pickles, sauces, and 
 other marketable products, so that they may add 
 to their meager income. 
 
 Model Farms and Experimental Stations 
 
 Not all the progressives in China are young men 
 and sometimes young blood flows in the veins of 
 men well past their prime. A retired official of 
 high rank in Central China takes a deep interest 
 in agricultural reform and has redeemed 20,00a 
 acres of waste land near his ancestral home. 
 
 " We cannot force the farmers to take up witb 
 new ways," he said. " We must begin at the bot- 
 tom. I have been working at this problem for 
 seven years and have only got so high," putting^ 
 his hand a few inches above the floor. 
 
 In answer to a question regarding modern farm 
 machinery. His Excellency continued, with a shake: 
 of the head, " It could only be used on the large- 
 model farms. The private farms are too small ancB 
 the farmers will not combine. As our industries 
 develop and more men are needed to work in mills 
 and factories, perhaps in time we shall have fewer 
 farmers and larger farms." 
 
 Iron and cotton are the two chief sources of 
 China's wealth. China was once the greatest cot- 
 
ii8 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 ton producing country in the world and there is no 
 reason why she should not be so again. The first 
 Cotton Growing Association in China was organ- 
 ized in 191 7. The next year the association dis- 
 tributed among cotton growers 120 bags of 
 selected seed, — gave it away to encourage im- 
 proved methods of cultivation. China is in great 
 need of experimental stations. Mr. Nieh, the re- 
 tired official referred to, proposes to form a stock 
 company and sow eighteen acres of reclaimed land 
 with the best cotton seed from America, making it 
 a model experimental station. 
 
 An Agricultural Demonstration Train 
 
 Something unusually interesting happened in 
 China last September. It was when the first agri- 
 , cultural campaign was inaugurated in Peking, and 
 the first demonstration train, with five coaches well 
 stocked with agricultural implements, seeds, pic- 
 tures, and literature, started from the capital on its 
 journey to Hankow. The director of the Central 
 Agricultural Experimental Station in Peking was 
 in charge of the campaign, with assistants from 
 the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce. 
 
 The train stopped for a day or two at each of 
 the thirty-six large stations along the route, the 
 local officials having been notified in advance to 
 advertise its coming. On reaching a stopping- 
 place, a brass band composed of boys from a Peking 
 
ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL CHANGES 115' 
 
 Orphanage went through the town playing stir- 
 ring music to announce the arrival of the train,, 
 and farmers were invited on board to inspect the 
 exhibit. Afterward, members of the campaign com- 
 mittee carried seeds and implements to one or 
 more near-by farms and gave an actual demonstra- 
 tion of their use. 
 
 In the evening there was a lecture with lantern 
 slides in the town hall or in the station or a temple, 
 wherever a place large enough could be secured. 
 Pamphlets written in simple language were dis- 
 tributed. Seeds were given away and the farmers 
 told that the campaign managers would return 
 next year to see what improvements had been 
 made. The people turned out in crowds. The 
 wives of the farmers came, too, and were as eager 
 and intelligent as the men. Seed that had been 
 expected to last the entire trip, gave out after four 
 stations were visited and an order had to be sent 
 to Peking for a fresh supply. 
 
 'Agriculture in the Mission Schools 
 
 Some mission schools by adding a course in 
 agriculture to their curriculum are helping to create 
 and stimulate an interest in the subject. The Uni- 
 versity of Nanking has a College of Agriculture 
 and Forestry with fine experimental farms. Four- 
 teen of the twenty-two provinces in China are rep- 
 resented among its students. At Canton Christian 
 
J20 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 College the students are supporting an agricul- 
 tural school for boys from the neighboring villages; 
 the little fellows are given practical work on the 
 college farm. 
 
 One afternoon recently as I stood watching a 
 group of Canton Christian College students bend- 
 ing over the ground with spade and shovel and 
 working with an energy which it did one's heart 
 good to see, I was reminded of a story once told 
 me by a North China missionary. A college stu- 
 dent went to call on one of his teachers before 
 going home for the summer. 
 
 " How do you advise me to spend my vaca- 
 tion? " he asked. 
 
 " What occupation does your father follow? " 
 
 " He is a farmer." 
 
 " The best thing for you to do is to go home and 
 help him." 
 
 The lad was quite shocked. " But I am a 
 scholar," he demurred. " My brothers, who are 
 iiot scholars, assist my father." 
 
 The teacher gave a little sound advice which in 
 his heart he had no idea would be followed, and 
 the boy turned away with a moody countenance. 
 When college reopened, the first student to seek 
 this teacher was the one he had supposed that he 
 had deeply ofifended. The boy's face shone as he 
 held out his hands, palms up. They were covered 
 with callouses. 
 
 " These are hands that I am proud to shake ! " 
 
ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL CHANGES 121 
 
 responded the missionary heartily as he took the 
 boy's hands in both of his. 
 
 Travel by Water and by Rail 
 
 In 1878 there was a terrible drought in the prov- 
 ince of Shansi. The Chinese live on such a close 
 margin that if for a single season the crops fail, 
 famine is almost sure to follow. It was so that 
 year. Yet while thousands were starving in Shansi 
 there was food enough and to spare in the adjoin- 
 ing provinces. But what did it avail, since the 
 means for transporting it quickly to the famishing 
 people were lacking? If a famine occurred to-day, 
 the situation would not be wholly relieved. China 
 has now, it is true, 6,000 miles of railway, but that 
 is only one mile to each 50,000 people, while in the 
 United States there is a mile of railway to every 
 360 persons. Still it is encouraging that in spite 
 of untoward conditions, during the last year or two 
 800 miles of track have been laid, and now that 
 the European war is over, every one is predicting 
 a great boom in railroad construction. 
 
 China is well provided with natural water-ways. 
 Her far-famed artificial water-way, the Grand 
 Canal, is the longest in existence, approximating 
 1,000 miles from Peking to Hangchow in the prov- 
 ince of Chekiang where it joins the sea. Like Rome, 
 it was not built in a day. Work on it began in 540- 
 B. C. and was not completed till 2,000 years 
 
122 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 later. In olden times it was over the Grand 
 Canal that barges carried the Imperial grain to 
 Peking, but the palmy days when tribute was ex- 
 acted have gone by and this once magnificent 
 water-way has suffered sadly from neglect. In- 
 stead of a blessing, as it should be still, it has degen- 
 erated into one of China's worst " Sorrows." 
 Bordering the Grand Canal in a single district are 
 2,000,000 acres of swamps which were once fruit- 
 ful farms. The American engineers now in China 
 are centering their attention on this section of 
 the Grand Canal, hoping to be able to remedy its 
 condition. 
 
 There May Have Been Good Roads in China Once? 
 
 The roads of China — what tongue or pen can do 
 justice to them? In the dim past some must have 
 resembled old Roman roads, judging from stone 
 tlocks and bits of pavement that are occasionally 
 seen scattered about. Except for a few courier 
 roads and those in the environs of certain large 
 cities, notably Peking, where some fine new ones 
 have recently been built, most of China's roads are 
 nothing but foot-paths. The upkeep of all but the 
 courier roads is kft to the farmers, but why, 
 reason these tillers of the soil, should we spend 
 time and strength in repairing them, when others, 
 far more than ourselves, will reap the benefit? And 
 why make the roads wide, since the wider they are, 
 
ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL CHANGES 123 
 
 the more land must be sliced off the farms that, 
 adjoin? If a farmer in carrying his produce to ■ 
 market finds it convenient at times to drive his 
 mules over his neighbors' fields and so tramples 
 down their grain, his neighbors in turn drive their: 
 mules over his fields, so they are quits. 
 
 Some roads where the earth has been washed or 
 blown or dug away are considerably below the 
 level of the adjacent farms, and in wet weather 
 become flooded and impassable. Others are the 
 dykes between paddy fields, and when it rains are- 
 so muddy and slippery, that to walk over them.' 
 safely requires the skill of an acrobat. Traveling 
 by sedan-chair over the narrow roads in Szechuan. 
 is at times a highly exhilarating experience, as- 
 when in crossing a dyke one sees approaching a. 
 long line of pack-mules with bulging panniers, andi 
 knows full well that if one party or the other is to 
 be pushed off into the wet rice-field it will not be 
 the pack-mules ! 
 
 The World's Largest Courier Mail Service 
 
 In Shantung, the home of the wheelbarrow, it is 
 equally exciting, when traveling by cart, to en- 
 counter half way through one of the long, deep 
 gullies a line of wheelbarrows heavily laden with 
 stone, and pushed by coolies whose straining mus- 
 cles stand out like whip-cords. For either of us 
 to turn back is impossible. To pass seems equally 
 
124 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 impossible. But our cart driver nicely balances our 
 cart on one precipitous side of the canyon, and the 
 coolies their wheelbarrows on the opposite side, and 
 ^o slowly, very slowly we creep past each other. 
 
 The transportation of goods is dependent on 
 Tiuman carriers to an extent that is hard for the 
 -people of the West to realize. One cannot help 
 "thinking, when watching these long lines of mus- 
 -cular coolies that one meets on every road pushing 
 •wheelbarrows, hauling trucks, or carrying enor- 
 MTious weights suspended from poles on their 
 ^shoulders, what a boon it will be for the country 
 ^^hen with better means of transportation, these 
 Tnen are released for other labor. In this connec- 
 tion I must not omit to mention the mail-couriers. 
 These humble servants of the government do really 
 w^onderful work. From a point in the province 
 of Honan, where the railroad ends, to far-away 
 Turkestan, the Chinese post-office maintains a day 
 and night courier service of 2,223 miles, probably 
 the longest single courier line in the world. The 
 mail-couriers travel by camel, mule, and pony, on 
 rafts made of inflated hides, and on foot; they cross 
 turbulent streams that are not bridged, hanging on 
 to wire ropes and bamboo poles ; they face death 
 from brigands, unruly soldiers, and wild beasts. 
 Some that travel by foot cover forty miles a day. 
 Others travel sixty miles at a stretch, carrying forty 
 pounds of letter mail, and without any rest except 
 brief stops for food. Mail is rarely lost. One 
 
ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL CHANGES 125 
 
 winter I traveled from Shanghai to Szechuan, down 
 to Fukien and up to Peking. My letters were for- 
 warded and reforwarded, till the original address 
 was almost obliterated, but as far as I know there 
 was only one letter that I failed to receive. 
 
 The Dawn of a New Industrial Day 
 
 Not long ago I read in a morning paper that at 
 Wusih, a prosperous city on the railroad between 
 Shanghai and Nanking, smoke rises daily from the 
 chimneys of fifty mills and factories, whereas only 
 ten years ago there were not more than half a 
 dozen. I have learned since that the statement was 
 somewhat exaggerated, but it at least gives an 
 idea of the rapid industrial development of the past 
 few years. The advance in some directions has 
 been by leaps and bounds. Cotton-mills lead off, 
 but silk- and flour-mills, paper, soap, match, can- 
 ning, and other factories are rapidly multiplying. 
 At a large canning factory in Shanghai, the em- 
 ployees wear a white uniform with cap, and the 
 premises are kept sanitary and spotlessly clean. 
 The neatly labeled tins of vegetables, fish, and fruit, 
 many of the varieties being peculiar to China, have 
 a most appetizing appearance. 
 
 There has been a remarkable development of late 
 in ship-building. A few months ago a 2500-ton 
 steamer slid gracefully into the Whangpoo River at 
 Shanghai, the largest yet launched from a Chinese 
 
126 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN ChllJNA 
 
 shipyard. Recently the American government con- 
 tracted with the Kiangnan Dock and Engineering 
 Company of Shanghai for the construction of 
 four huge cargo ships, with an option for the 
 building of eight more. These io,ooo-ton ships 
 will be the largest ever built in China and among 
 the largest yet constructed by the American Ship- 
 ping Board. 
 
 The largest single-unit industrial enterprise in 
 China is the Premier Iron and Steel Corporation, 
 at Hanyang, which is across the Han River from 
 Hankow, often called the Chicago of China. This 
 immense plant, which has been in operation for 
 twenty-five years, employs about five thousand 
 men, two thousand of whom are skilled workmen, 
 and turns out annually 120,000 tons of pig iron and 
 60,000 tons of steel. This Company expects next 
 year to operate another plant sixty miles south of 
 Hankovv on the Yangtsze River, where several 
 hundred acres of land have been purchased and 
 some of the buildings are nearing completion. 
 
 True Progress — China Has Department Stores! 
 
 A novel development of recent years in the in- 
 dustrial world of China is the modern department 
 store. As yet these stores are found only in sev- 
 eral of the coast cities, Canton, Hongkong, and 
 Shanghai, but such is their success and popularity, 
 that other more conservative cities are sure to 
 
ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL CHANGES 127 
 
 want them before long. Progressive Canton boasts 
 of as many as four or five. Her latest venture is a 
 nine-story building, a real Chinese sky-scraper! 
 Not many years ago any building higher than one 
 story was utterly discountenanced by the Chinese, 
 as something sure to bring the worst kind of ill 
 luck. A Peking missionary when putting up a 
 new house received a call one day from his Chi- 
 nese neighbor who insisted that a chimney over- 
 looking his premises must be torn down as a 
 necromancer had told him that it would bring cer- 
 tain destruction to his family. Failing to secure a 
 promise to have it removed, the anxious house- 
 holder the next day engaged a number of carts, 
 and had his wives, children, and furniture carried 
 to a place of safety, while he returned alone to 
 watch developments. After several weeks, as 
 nothing happened, he brought his family back. 
 
 The oldest department store in China is known 
 as The Sincere Company; it opened in Canton in 
 1900. In 1907 a third Sincere Company Store, the 
 second being in Hongkong, began business in 
 Shanghai; and within a year still another depart- 
 ment store. The Wing On Company, opened its 
 doors across the street. The two Shanghai stores 
 are five stories high with roof gardens where there 
 is a small menagerie, a cinematograph, and num- 
 erous other attractions. Adjoining each depart- 
 ment store and run in conjunction with it, is a large 
 modern hotel, with hundreds of single rooms and 
 
128 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 handsome suites, dining-rooms where Chinese and 
 foreign food is served, banqueting halls, elevators, 
 and swarms of servants in livery who give a very 
 up-to-date air to the establishment 
 
 A large part of the stock in these stores is 
 foreign merchandise, and how the companies were 
 able to import it during the past few years when 
 shipping facilities were few and freight charges 
 exorbitantly high, is a mystery! The Sincere 
 Company employs 800 men chosen by competitive 
 examination. Customers throng these stores, often 
 as many as 10,000 in a day. They come from the 
 city and country, rich and poor, men and women. 
 There is no haggling over prices, for all the prices 
 are fixed. At night the department stores are bril- 
 liantly illuminated with electricity. Every evening 
 from the windows of my home I can see the city, 
 although two miles distant, and the electric display 
 on the roof of the Wing On store which would 
 cause many of the elaborate designs on upper 
 Broadway in New York to pale beside it. 
 
 One of the World's Greatest Markets 
 
 The scale of living is rising in China. Day labor- 
 ers' and servants' wages are in many places two or 
 three times what they were formerly, and it is 
 not altogether because prices are higher. People 
 are beginning to live better. A few years ago 
 it was very rarely indeed that one saw in the inter- 
 
ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL CHANGES 129 
 
 ior, whether it was in a city or village, any other 
 light than the tiny flame made by a wick floating 
 in a small vessel of vegetable oil. Now lights like 
 this are becoming scarce, while electricity, acety- 
 lene, or kerosene lamps are taking their places. The 
 agents of the Standard Oil Company and the Asi- 
 atic Petroleum Company (British) have penetrated 
 everywhere, and carry on a lucrative business. The 
 whir of the American sewing-machine is heard in 
 the most out-of-the-way places. While visiting 
 recently in an inland city quite oiif the beaten route, 
 I was surprised to see above the doorway on one 
 of the busy streets this sign, " Organ Repair 
 Shop," showing not only that there were organs in 
 this rather small city but enough to make a repair 
 shop a convenience! 
 
 China is destined to be one of the great importing 
 countries of the world. Last year she imported 
 $300,000,000 worth of cotton cloth alone, and be- 
 cause, owing to war conditions, more could not be 
 had from abroad, hand weaving was revived and the 
 thud of the hand loom was heard as it had not been 
 in many a day. As her industrial development 
 continues, China is becoming yearly more of a 
 market for machinery, including machine tools, 
 sewing machines, and electrical apparatus. The 
 demand did not fall off during the years of the 
 war, notwithstanding the scarcity of foreign goods, 
 high prices, and lack of shipping. However, the 
 impossibility of securing all the machinery needed 
 
130 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 from abroad, forced the Chinese to turn their at- 
 tention to its manufacture at home, which may be 
 the beginning of an important native industry. 
 
 China's exports will keep pace with her imports. 
 Not only the merchandise and products hitherto 
 exported, and with which the West is most familiar 
 will go out from her shores; but, as a writer on 
 economics in China recently pointed out, there is 
 no reason why there should not be in time far 
 heavier exports of beef, Mongolian mutton, espe- 
 cially sweet-savored and delicate pork, poultry, and 
 eggs. With intelligent and skilful management 
 the productiveness of China could be increased ten- 
 fold. 
 
 The country's resources are practically illimit- 
 able. She has enough wealth stored away under 
 ground to enrich the world for a millennium. Be- 
 cause of the unsettled condition of the country, 
 capitalists have been afraid to invest their money in 
 commercial and industrial enterprises, and, instead, 
 have kept it in the bank. But, when peace is re- 
 stored within her borders and a firm hand rests on 
 the nation's helm ; her international prerogatives 
 secured, and just and friendly relations established 
 with her next-door neighbor, there is every reason 
 to believe that the possibilities of China's economic 
 and industrial development will prove great be- 
 yond calculation. 
 
VI 
 
 THE VITALIZING POWER OF CHRISTIAN 
 EDUCATION 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE VITALIZING POWER OF CHRISTIAN 
 EDUCATION 
 
 From time immemorial no people in the world 
 have revered learning like the Chinese, but with a 
 single exception China is the most illiterate coun- 
 try in the world. The statements sound paradoxi- 
 cal, yet both are true. Aristocracy in China de- 
 pends not on money but on scholarship. A man- 
 may be so poverty-stricken that he can hardly keep 
 soul and body together, but if he is a scholar he 
 stands on the top rung of the social ladder. 
 
 Not only is the scholar respected, but writtea 
 and printed characters are reverenced as symbols 
 of learning. If a boy were to tear up a sheet of 
 paper on which Chinese characters are printed or 
 written and throw the pieces away, he would be 
 severely condemned, but if as he walks along the 
 street, he carefully picks up out of the dust or mud 
 such bits of paper, he is storing up merit. The 
 approved way to dispose of waste paper is to burn 
 it, not leave it to be trampled under foot. 
 
 The Supreme Position of the Scholar in Old China 
 
 With all this high regard of the Chinese for 
 learning, it has until recently been a luxury re-^ 
 
 133 
 
134 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 served only for the favored few. Every family, no 
 matter how poor, cherished the ambition, which 
 was not always realized, of being able to send one 
 child to school. A missionary once asked a cart 
 driver how many children he had. " Five mouths 
 and a scholar," was his answer, meaning that one 
 child out of his six was being educated. 
 
 Only a small percentage of the boys sent to 
 school continued their studies until they were pre- 
 pared to go to the renowned Examination Hall in 
 their district or province for the competitive gov- 
 ernment examination. The highest degree in the 
 gift of the government was the Hanlin. If it was 
 an honor for a family to have a son who could 
 recite a few pages from the classics, it was honor 
 enough for an entire clan to be able to point in 
 their genealogical tables to the name of one mem- 
 her who had risen to the rare distinction of a 
 Hanlin. No youth was allowed to enroll for the 
 government examinations who had not a clean 
 record behind him, not necessarily as to character, 
 but the fact had to be established that for four 
 generations there had been no barbers or chair- 
 coolies among his progenitors. 
 
 The goal of very student's ambition was politi- 
 cal preferment, but no one was eligible for public 
 office who had not successfully passed the govern- 
 ment examination. If the candidate failed to pass, 
 the calling of teacher was always open to him. The 
 old-style Chinese teacher could recite the Chinese 
 
THE POWER OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 13S 
 
 classics by the hour and write a good style, using 
 some thousands of the characters, but his practical 
 knowledge was a negligible quantity. Some one 
 has said, " The Western child of ten years knew 
 more about the earth, the universe, and the immut- 
 able laws of nature than the average Hanlin." 
 Often a scholar would surprise a newly-arrived 
 foreigner by asking him such a question, as " Did 
 you come here in a cart?" or "Have you rivers 
 and the five kinds of grain in your country?" 
 
 A scholar was above stooping to any kind of 
 manual labor. For this reason he cultivated very 
 long finger nails to show that his work was to 
 handle books and not tools. I had a language 
 teacher who, if I dropped my handkerchief in his 
 presence, would point his long, slender forefinger 
 at it with the remark, " Tai-tai- nina ti shou chuan 
 taio la," " Lady, you have dropped your handker- 
 chief." I suppose if he had dropped his own he 
 would have had to pick it up, but he certainly 
 would have refrained from such an ignoble act had 
 there been a servant around to do it for him. 
 
 Modern Education Spells Progress 
 
 China's contact with Western nations, and the 
 introduction of Western education into the country 
 by missionaries, sounded the death knell of the old, 
 effete educational system. A well-known British 
 educator has said, " The true focus of every great 
 
136 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 educational movement is a vision of a new way of 
 life." China had her vision, and though not clearly 
 seen at first, it brought in time a new way and a 
 new life. Instead of atrophy and stagnation, which 
 were synonyms for the old system, modern educa- 
 tion stands for movement, uplift, progress. 
 
 In 1898 the Emperor Kwanghsu instituted re- 
 form measures which vitally affected education, 
 but the conservatism at that period was too great 
 to be overcome and they came to naught. It was 
 not until after the Boxer Rebellion that in 1901 
 the Empress Tzuhsi, impelled by a fast moving tide 
 she could no longer resist, ordered all Examination 
 Halls turned into colleges where both Chinese and 
 Western learning should be taught. Edict after 
 edict pertaining to sweeping educational reforms 
 fallowed in quick succession; but most of them 
 were dead letters, and it was soon found that the 
 new learning could not be successfully grafted on 
 to the old. More drastic changes were necessary. 
 
 In September, 1905, an edict went forth entirely 
 abolishing the old system of education that for 
 more than twelve hundred years had swayed the 
 intellectual and official life of the Chinese people. 
 It is easy in a few words to write about the promul- 
 gation of that historic edict, but when we try to 
 realize what it was destined to mean to China and 
 to Christianity, we are overwhelmed by its tre- 
 mendous import. The old Examination Halls 
 now began to be torn down and modern colleges 
 
THE POWER OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 13T 
 
 and university buildings erected in their stead- 
 But not all the Examination Halls have beea 
 destroyed and let us hope that at least one or twa 
 will be allowed to stand as relics of a noble, albeit 
 worn-out system of education. What memories, 
 like ghosts of an almost forgotten past, haunt these 
 ancient Halls ! Each had three doors, one of which 
 was called the " death door " and only opened 
 when, during an examination, the dead were car- 
 ried out. This was not an uncommon occurrence, 
 for many a student, weakened by previous study 
 culminating in the prolonged and racking final test,, 
 utterly succumbed; or, finding that he was going 
 to fail, and too proud to return with " loss of face " 
 to his chagrined and disappointed family, took hi& 
 own life. 
 
 Schools of Many Types 
 
 In the years following the edict of 1905 changes 
 succeeded each other rapidly, and as a Chinese edi- 
 tor wrote, " Schools sprang up like mushrooms alJ 
 over the country." In 1909 there was opened in 
 Peking Tsing Hua College, or as it is more often 
 called, " The Indemnity School," because it was 
 made possible by the American government which 
 remitted a large part of its share of the Boxer 
 indemnity in order that Chinese students, women 
 as well as men, might be prepared through a com- 
 petitive examination to continue their studies in* 
 
138 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 the United States. The Chinese government now 
 hopes to induce the European Powers to whom 
 indemnity payments are still due, to remit the bal- 
 ance and apply it to promoting education in China. 
 
 The Revolution of 191 1 greatly accelerated the 
 reform educational movement. If in preceding 
 years schools had sprung up like mushrooms, it is 
 hard to find a comparison for the way they now 
 multiplied. 
 
 Under the old system, education was left largely 
 to the people to organize and promote; the only 
 connection the government had with it being 
 through its competitive examinations. To-day the 
 framework of the system of government adminis- 
 tration is very complete. The ministry of educa- 
 tion through its minister of education and his asso- 
 ciates, supervises national educational interests. 
 Each province has an educational commissioner; 
 each district its board of education, while gentry 
 are appointed to supervise the schools in towns and 
 villages. There are also national, provincial, dis- 
 trict, and local school inspectors. Government 
 schools are of all grades, from the great university 
 in Peking and the universities in other cities down 
 to the kindergarten, embracing institutes of tech- 
 nology, provincial technical schools, national nor- 
 mal colleges, provincial normal schools, middle 
 schools, equivalent to Western high schools, upper 
 and lower primary or elementary schools. It will 
 be years before China's educational facilities are 
 
THE POWER OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 139- 
 
 adequate, but she has achieved a hopeful beginning 
 in providing the various types of schools on which 
 her new system is to be built. 
 
 Ancient Classics and Modern Toothbrushes 
 
 Suppose we make an imaginary visit on a winter 
 morning to two lower primary schools, one of the 
 old type and the other of the new. We will put 
 them on opposite sides of the same street and call 
 first at the old-style school. Schools like this are 
 still seen in the country though they are fast dis- 
 appearing. The room we enter is dark, cheerless, 
 and bitterly cold, with mud floor and bare walls. 
 As the boys arrive they bow first before the tablet 
 of Confucius, then to the teacher and take their 
 seats on rude stools in front of equally rude tables ; 
 the two articles of furniture having been brought 
 from the homes of the individual pupils. Opening 
 their paper-covered books, and straining their eyes 
 in the dim light to see, each child begins shouting 
 at the top of his voice this sentence from the clas- 
 sics, " Gems unwrought can never be useful, and 
 untaught persons will never know the proprie- 
 ties ! " Over and over the characters are repeated 
 in hoarse voices to the rhythm of swaying little 
 bodies encased in padded garments, till the sen- 
 tence, not its meaning, finds lodgment in the 
 child's brain. The sallow-faced teacher, his bamboo 
 ferrule beside him, sits at his desk unmoved by it 
 all, even peacefully dozing when not engaged in 
 
140 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 ■dealing promiscuous blows upon a " stupid " pupil 
 too congealed with cold to memorize well. The 
 children go home twice a day to eat and then come 
 right back again to remain until night-fall. There 
 is no recess during the day; no holiday on Satur- 
 day or Sunday. 
 
 The other school is light, sunny, and well-ven- 
 tilated. Bamboo curtains at the windows are ar- 
 ranged to shut out the glare. The walls are hung 
 with colored prints and maps. Beneath them is a 
 l)lackboard. In the center of the room stands a 
 large cage containing live rabbits. Against the 
 rear wall hangs a row of little toothbrushes and 
 below them another row of enamelled mugs, each 
 tagged with the child's name. As the scholars 
 'Come in, girls as well as boys — for the modern sys- 
 tem permits boys and girls under twelve years of 
 age to study together — the day starts with a vigor- 
 ous and simultaneous attack on the teeth. This 
 over, one of the women teachers seats herself at 
 the baby organ, and while the pupils stand at their 
 desks, they join in singing in good time and tune, 
 the national anthem. An hour or two passes in 
 -quiet study and recitation, — no loud shouting in 
 this school ! At a given signal, the pupils march 
 in an orderly manner to the back of the room 
 "where they secure the materials necessary for clay 
 modeling and the next period is spent at this task. 
 The school which I have just described is the prac- 
 tise school of a large provincial normal school. Not 
 
THE POWER OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 141 
 
 all schools are up to its standard of equipment and 
 program, but the significance of such a progressive 
 institution is apparent. 
 
 Each province has several normal schools for 
 both men and women. Their students pay nothing 
 for board or tuition, and in some schools uniforms 
 and books are also provided and a bonus added of 
 ten Mexican dollars a month. There are six higher 
 normal schools, or national normal colleges for 
 men, and one, which is in Peking, for women. In 
 point of efficiency the normal college in Nanking 
 probably heads the list; it has 700 students, in- 
 cluding those in the practise school. With the 
 exception of the Chinese Department, the heads of 
 departments are returned students, all carefully se- 
 lected men, and each one an expert in his own line. 
 Workshops in connection with the department of 
 mechanics have just been added. At first, the boys 
 did not take kindly to manual labor, — they were 
 possessed with the old idea that a scholar must 
 not soil his hands ; but it was not long before they 
 found keen enjoyment in it. The principal of this 
 college and his wife are Christians. In a number 
 of the normal schools where the principal is a non- 
 Christian, permission is given the missionaries to 
 hold Bible classes. The teachers in the Tientsin 
 normal school for girls are especially favorable to 
 Christianity and considerable Christian work is 
 carried on there by the Young Women's Christian 
 Association. 
 
142 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 The Thoihas Arnold of China and His Rugby 
 
 In all China there is not a better government 
 school of any grade than the Nankai High School 
 for boys in Tientsin. It started with a handful of 
 boys twenty years ago in the home of a Mr. Yuen 
 who was the first Chinese gentleman to advise abol- 
 ishing the old educational system. The school has 
 grown steadily until it has now more than one 
 thousand students, fine grounds and buildings, an 
 auditorium with a seating capacity of 1,200, a 
 social hall, glee club, school periodicals edited by 
 the students, an athletic field, a college band, a 
 social service club, and a live Young Men's Chris 
 tian Association. 
 
 Just inside the entrance to the main building of 
 this school is a mirror, and above it a wooden tab- 
 let on which are written in large characters some 
 terse admonitions as to character and conduct. No 
 boy passing through the hall can very well help 
 seeing his reflection in the mirror, and the instant 
 he does so his eyes involuntarily turn to the tablet. 
 As truly as Thomas Arnold made Rugby has Chang 
 Po-ling, its founder and principal, made Nankai 
 High School. No name is better known throughout 
 China and no Christian is more trusted and beloved. 
 Whenever it is announced in a school, be it govern- 
 ment or mission, that Mr. Chang is in town and 
 will address the students, all conflicting engage- 
 ments are cancelled and every boy is in his place 
 
THE POWER pP CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 143 
 
 at the appointed time. When he was converted 
 eight years ago this educational leader went at once 
 to the school directors in Peking and resigned his 
 position, saying, " I am now a Christian." But the 
 board of directors would not release him, and he is 
 continuing his work, a tower of strength and a 
 fearless witness to the Truth. 
 
 A high school at Kaifeng, the capital of Honan, 
 has a unique interest because the students' bed- 
 rooms are some of the " stalls " of the old Exam- 
 ination Hall, which was so large it could accommo- 
 date 18,000 students at once. The principal of this 
 school, a non-Christian, himself, spent nine days in 
 one of these very stalls while taking the govern- 
 ment examination. Though an old-time scholar, 
 he has present-day ideas and has made the school 
 a great success. When the school opened several 
 years ago, a competitive examination was held to 
 admit 120 boys. From all over the province they 
 swarmed, arriving on donkeys, in wheelbarrows, on 
 foot, and by train! — 1,200 to compete for 120 
 places ! A missionary in Honan says of the two 
 hundred students now in this school, " Many of 
 them are the salt of the Chinese earth, and salt is 
 dear in China," 
 
 The New Opportunities for Chinese Women 
 
 The abolition of the old system of education 
 caused a mighty impulse to be given to the educa- 
 tion of women. Educated husbands began teach- 
 
144 NEW LIFE CURRENTS__IN CHINA 
 
 ing their illiterate wives. Even as long ago as 
 1910, every day hundreds of women students 
 passed through the streets on their way to and 
 from the government schools. The next year I 
 visited a girls' normal school in Nanchang where a 
 young man teacher was giving a class some simple 
 lessons in physical training. The cautious way in 
 which the girls stepped about, although they wore 
 ordinary shoes, showed that their feet had been 
 recently unbound. Several men in this school 
 were teaching without salary because of their in- 
 terest in the education of women. In Canton, 
 girls going to and from school through the 
 crowded streets, wear a small metal badge, which 
 not only designates them as school girls but tells 
 the particular school to which they belong. The 
 police have strict orders to protect schoolgirls. 
 When a policeman not long ago ventured to ad- 
 dress a girl familiarly, he was severely flogged and 
 only allowed to keep his office by apologizing to 
 the girl's parents. 
 
 The late Dr. W. A. P. Martin, for sixty-six years 
 a missionary in China, once said, " Woman, ignor- 
 ant, has made China Buddhist; will not woman, 
 educated, make China Christian? " Christian 
 Chinese women teachers to-day have opportunities 
 that are well-nigh unparalleled for spreading the 
 gospel and very many are making noble use of 
 them. 
 
 A Mt. Holyoke graduate just back from Amer- 
 
THE POWER OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 145 
 
 ica said to some of her friends as she passed 
 through Shanghai on her way to her work in Can- 
 ton, " Pray for me, that I may give my girls the 
 right ideals and lead many to Christ." A year 
 later when I was in Canton, I saw this young 
 teacher, and learned, not from her, for she was too 
 modest a Christian to tell me, but from mission- 
 aries, what a power for good she is and how many 
 souls have been led into the kingdom through the 
 quiet influence of her life and work. 
 
 ' Christian Churches Grow from Christian Schools 
 
 There passed through Shanghai recently a 
 Chinese young woman who enjoyed the distinc- 
 tion of being the first woman from the Far East 
 to receive a degree from London University. She 
 was planning to take up educational work, and 
 her relatives and friends in Shanghai urged her to 
 settle here. But she said, " No, this is too easy 
 a field, and, besides, it already has many Christian 
 teachers. My ancestral home in the interior needs 
 me more." A few months ago she opened her 
 school in Changsha, Hunan. One of her cousins, 
 who was a bitter opponent of Christianity, has 
 recently asked for baptism, saying, " The life, the 
 love, and power of my cousin have made me feel 
 that I must have the same power to overcome sin 
 and rise above difSculties. I, too, want Christ in 
 my life." 
 
 Two years ago a young woman accepted a posi- 
 
146 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 tion as teacher in a school where there were five 
 Christians among sixty pupils. In that school the 
 number of students has increased to one hundred 
 and fifty, of whom seventy are Christians. A 
 teacher in a government normal school let it be 
 quietly understood among the pupils that during 
 the recess period of ten minutes she would gladly 
 teach the Bible to any one who came to her room. 
 In four months thirty had accepted the Christian 
 faith. One of these girls, on graduating, became 
 the head of a government normal school in another 
 city. She has held her new position for a com- 
 paratively short time but she has led to Christ 
 thirty-four out of the entire student body of 
 ninety. 
 
 Exchanging Long Finger Nails for Calloused Palms 
 
 Under the old educational system, as I have al- 
 ready said, there were just two things for which 
 a scholar was fitted, to fill a public office or to 
 teach. With all its advantages, the Chinese soon 
 came to see that modern education was not furn- 
 ishing enough practical courses; the school was 
 not sufficiently related to the life of the people; 
 so they have been of late laying great stress on 
 industrial and vocational education. Much of the 
 poverty in China is the result of unskilled labor. 
 The government has instructed technical schools 
 to open workshops where their students can have 
 practical training, and many are doing so. An 
 
THE POWER OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 147 
 
 interesting example is the miniature but perfectly- 
 equipped cotton-mill which is run in connection 
 with the large textile school at Nantungchow on 
 the Yangtsze River. 
 
 Not long ago some wealthy Chinese in Malaysia 
 and the Philippines made it possible to open a 
 vocational school in Shanghai which is the first 
 of its kind in China. This school, as the Commis- 
 sioner of Education explains, is not to teach poor 
 boys with little book learning how to make a liv- 
 ing. It aims higher and gives scientific vocational 
 training to boys of good family and education. 
 The students iare not taught simply the mechanical 
 art of making a chair, but the excellencies or de- 
 fects of the wood, varnish, and pattern. In cotton 
 weaving a study is made of cotton ; in the foundry, 
 of iron and steel. Opportunity, too, is afiforded for 
 the boys to develop whatever inventive skill they 
 may possess. To this school the government is 
 handing over the twelve hundred wooden chests 
 which contained the burned opium to be used in 
 making furniture. Who would not like to own a 
 piece of furniture made with the wood from one 
 of these chests ! 
 
 Industrial work for girls is not omitted. There 
 are numerous strictly industrial schools, govern- 
 ment and private, or schools where half a day is 
 given to books and the other half to industries. 
 Nearly all of the normal schools have a course in 
 domestic science and other vocational branches. 
 
148 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 A description of the work done at the normal 
 school in Nanking, which is one of the best, will 
 serve as a sample. The two hundred students 
 are taught plain sewing, besides various kinds of 
 fancy work, the making of straw hats and bamboo 
 chopsticks, gardening, poultry raising, home book- 
 keeping, and cooking. A small building with four 
 rooms, parlor, dining-room, bed-room, and kitchen, 
 is set aside in which to teach housekeeping. Four 
 students in relays occupy it a week at a time and 
 do all the work that pertains to a home, marketing, 
 cooking, dish-washing, and entertaining. 
 
 The students have adopted a little girl whose 
 tuition in the kindergarten of the adjoining prac- 
 tise school is paid for out of their pin money. 
 They take entire charge of the child and a happier, 
 healthier little tot it would be hard to find. Once 
 when visiting this school the teacher who showed 
 me around happened to mention that one of the 
 branches she taught was etiquette. 
 
 "Any particular kind of etiquette?" I asked. 
 
 " Well," she replied with a smile, " to-day I lec- 
 tured to the class on ' How to treat a husband '." 
 
 Last summer the principal of a girls' school in 
 Shanghai was appointed by the Minister of Educa- 
 tion to spend several years studying vocational 
 education in Japan, America, and Europe. She 
 was the first Chinese woman to receive such a 
 commission. 
 
THE POWER OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 149 
 
 Is Compulsory Education Possible in China? 
 
 The world war has had a most stimulating effect 
 upon education in China. In the words of one of 
 its college presidents, the Chinese are convinced 
 anew after what has happened in Russia, " that 
 universal education which insures the moral and 
 mental strength of all the people is the chief source 
 of a nation's strength." Unfortunately, during the 
 political upheavals of the past year government 
 funds that should have gone into educational work 
 have been curtailed or diverted to other purposes, 
 while many schoolhouses have been forcibly oc- 
 cupied by the soldiers, and schoolbooks and furni- 
 ture wantonly destroyed. But the Peking govern- 
 ment has ordered that restitution be made both of 
 school buildings and school money. Education in 
 China is not yet compulsory; it is to be one 
 of the chief subjects of discussion at the next 
 annual meeting of the National Educational As- 
 sociation. 
 
 As we consider the constant vigilance that is 
 necessary to enforce the school laws in America, 
 it does not require much imagination to realize 
 the tremendous difficulties in the way of introduc- 
 ing compulsory school attendance in China. Com- 
 pulsory education in its very essence demands a 
 stable government capable of exercising the com- 
 pulsion. Over large sections of the country local 
 authority is not sufficiently well-organized to carry 
 
ISO NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 out such a policy, even though a national assembly 
 might decree it. The prime obstacle to any such 
 scheme of education is to be found, of course, in 
 the economic conditions that have been sketched 
 in earlier chapters. Not only would the burden of 
 taxation necessary for the support of an adequate 
 number of schools be very grievous, but the labor 
 of the children is urgently required by their 
 families. Little boys and girls begin to work al- 
 most as soon as they can walk. 
 
 How can the parents be brought to see that 
 education of the children will mean in the end 
 still greater resources and a better country for 
 all? Such support on the part of the people is 
 necessary to the success of any plan for enforc- 
 ing school attendance, and yet it will readily be 
 seen that public opinion cannot be reached in China 
 as it can be in Western lands. Public opinion can 
 scarcely be said to exist. 
 
 Another question to consider in this connection 
 is the extent to which the educational program is 
 adapted to the needs of China. Is it so related to 
 the conditions of the country and so well-suited to 
 give the training Chinese life demands, that the 
 authorities may hope to win as far as possible the 
 backing of the nation for compulsory school laws? 
 These are, in brief, a few of the far-reaching prob- 
 lems that Christian educators are trying to help 
 China to solve as she attempts to give her people 
 larger educational opportunities. 
 
THE POWER OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 151 
 
 Nation-wide Planning for Christian Education 
 
 Now a few words about missionary educational 
 work. It is hard to realize in these days with so 
 many students clamoring for admittance at the 
 doors of the mission schools as to make necessary 
 a selective process, that there could ever have 
 been a time when it was hard to get pupils. Little 
 girls had to be paid to attend, even hair oil being 
 furnished free in at least one school! The policy 
 of union is more and more followed in the higher 
 institutions. Besides a number of strong denom- 
 inational universities and colleges, there are now 
 five union universities : they have been established 
 at Peking and Tsinanfu in the North; Chengtu in 
 the far West; Nanking in Central China, and Foo- 
 chow in southern China. Two union colleges for 
 women, The North China Union Woman's College 
 in Peking, and Ginling College, which is younger, 
 in Nanking, have exceeded the hopes of their most 
 ardent supporters. In June, 1919, Ginling College 
 will graduate its first class of girl graduates. Six 
 young women are looking forward to definite work 
 for the uplift of their race. 
 
 For a time missionary education threatened to 
 be rather top-heavy, the lower schools, which were 
 to be the feeders of the higher, not being propor- 
 tionately strong and numerous. But this fault is 
 being corrected. Day-schools are at last receiving 
 the attention they deserve. It used to be thought 
 
152 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 that any sort of a place was good enough to house 
 a little day-school, and if mission funds were short, 
 and some work had to suffer, it was usually the 
 day-school. But there is now a better understand- 
 ing of relative values, and we have come to see 
 that the once almost despised little day-schools 
 are the foundation of our whole educational 
 system, and if they are not strong the edifice will 
 fall. Day-schools in good buildings, well lighted 
 and ventilated, sanitary, with a capable, trained 
 teacher in charge, — this is the rule now. Only a 
 short time ago graduates of grammar schools 
 would have turned away in disdain at the idea of 
 teaching a day-school, but now most of them are 
 cnly too glad to get such a position. In Nanchang 
 every day-school teacher but one is a high school 
 :graduate. 
 
 Why Mission Schools? 
 
 It may occur to some to ask, since Chinese gov- 
 ernment schools are so good, what justification is 
 there for mission schools? Two very important 
 reasons why they are needed may be named. Tak- 
 ing the population of China at one of the lowest 
 figures given, only one tenth of those of school age 
 are in school, 4,000,000 instead of 40,000,000. If 
 a law for compulsory education was enforced to- 
 morrow, China would need at once 1,000,000 
 more schools, and 1,500,000 additional teachers. 
 
THE POWER OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 153. 
 
 Where would she get them? If there is a short- 
 age now what then would be her condition? 
 
 Mission schools are needed because of their 
 Christian influence. Ethics are taught in non- 
 Christian schools but as a Baptist missionary 
 teacher well says, " Giving all credit to the ethical 
 standard set before the students by Confucius, 
 where can they get the mental concept of absolute- 
 purity, truthfulness, and righteousness except as 
 we all must, from the Man of Galilee? " Through, 
 the daily chapel exercises, the weekly religious, 
 meetings, the special evangelistic services held 
 from time to time, and, above all, the influence of 
 the life and character of the missionary teachers,, 
 seed is sown that cannot fail to yield a rich harvest. 
 
 Shall China's young people go to Western coun- 
 tries for their college education? As I have trav- 
 eled about China I have everywhere sought the 
 opinion of Chinese and foreigners regarding this- 
 much discussed matter. Without a single excep- 
 tion as far as I can recall, the unhesitating reply- 
 has been, " Do not send under-graduates. When 
 the schools in China were fewer and not so good 
 it was necessary, but that time has past. Give 
 students the best that they can get at home, then, 
 those who show promise of becoming leaders and 
 whose habits and character are established, may go 
 to foreign universities for post-graduate work and 
 the broadening effect of travel." The prevailingj- 
 opinion is that students who go West in their 
 
154 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 youth forfeit a thorough grounding in the Chinese 
 language; they come back foreignized and out of 
 touch with things Chinese. 
 
 A Foreign-Mission Task at Home 
 
 It is a sad fact that too often the young Chinese 
 who have been educated from childhood in mission 
 schools, slip their moorings when they go to 
 America or Europe. But how many could be 
 saved if more Christian families would open their 
 doors in friendly hospitality to these homesick 
 boys and girls ! Probably nine out of ten of the 
 young men and women who return to China sound 
 in the faith, if asked what steadied them in the 
 midst of the distractions and temptations of the 
 New World, would reply, " The influence of the 
 Christian home where I was entertained." 
 
 The Christian people of North America may 
 well consider it a highly important part of their 
 foreign missionary task to seek out the foreign 
 students who are living in their communities and 
 to give them the helpful friendship of which so 
 many of them are in need. Too often the only 
 influences that have touched these young men and 
 young women have come from those forces in our 
 western civilization of which we are least proud. 
 To make sure that the best influences reach them 
 — the church and all that the church stands for — 
 is the kind of intelligent hospitality demanded. 
 
THE POWER OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 155, 
 
 In view of the opportunities that these young peo- 
 ple will have in the positions of far-reaching re- 
 sponsibility that they will fill on their return home^ 
 such an interest during their sojourn abroad is ex- 
 tremely important. 
 
 How are returned students going to link up with 
 life and conditions in China, after years, perhaps,. 
 spent abroad? Many come back with too radical, 
 revolutionary views, expecting, as one phrased it, 
 " to turn China upside down within a year." Some 
 who meet with discouragements in their efforts 
 at reform, according to another, are too easily 
 " crumpled up." Others are tempted to regard 
 themselves too highly and are not satisfied with 
 humble beginnings. The students are the hope 
 and expectation of the China that is to be. From 
 them will come most of her future leaders; but we 
 need not be anxious, the returned students are 
 finding themselves. Last March in Peking there 
 was held a two-day conference of the Western 
 returned students of North China. They did not 
 come together to have a good time. No one was 
 asking, "How can I make the most money?" or 
 " How can I get the most pleasure out of life? " but 
 "How can I use my education to help China?" 
 The conference members were determined to set 
 in motion forces which, as Mr. David Yui, General 
 Secretary of the Young Men's Christian Associa- 
 tion put it, " Will cause the people of China to hear 
 the voice of the returned student echo throughout 
 
3S6 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 the land as a voice that is able and willing to lead." 
 Plans are already made for a national alliance of 
 all the returned students in China, and when the 
 host unites for action it will speak in such re- 
 sounding tones that the whole nation will be com- 
 pelled to listen ! 
 
 Fewer Letters and Fewer Illiterates 
 
 The crowning recent achievement in the educa- 
 tional world of China is the new system of phonetic 
 writing. One cause of the illiteracy is the great 
 difficulty of learning to read and write. Authori- 
 ties diflfer as to the number of characters which 
 the Chinese language contains. There are prob- 
 ably about twenty-five thousand characters which 
 are really sanctioned by good usage. In order to 
 read standard works a knowledge of 10,000 separate 
 characters is required; while for the ordinary pur- 
 poses of life it is necessary to know 3,000 or 4,000. 
 Not only are the characters numerous, but they 
 are complex in form. Three years ago the minis- 
 try of education invited a committee of sixty 
 Chinese to Peking to consider the matter of sim- 
 plified writing. After numberless unworkable 
 schemes had been brought forward and rejected, 
 all finally agreed on a phonetic system of writing 
 with an alphabet of thirty-nine letters. By this 
 method the illiterate can learn to read in a few 
 -weeks or at the most a few months. The blessing 
 
Courtesy of Mrs. Frederick G. Mead. 
 
 The first class of graduates from Ginling College. 
 The procession of Ginling College Students on Founders Day. 
 
THE POWER OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION IS7 
 
 this will be in a country where not over ten per 
 cent, of the men and one per cent, of the women 
 can read, and still fewer can write, may be guessed. 
 To take advantage properly of the opportunity 
 which opens before the educational leaders of 
 China as a result of the perfecting of the phonetic 
 system is a task of great proportions. Practically 
 no literature exists in which this system is em- 
 ployed. Translations and new manuscripts are 
 needed in abundance. Calls for more literature of 
 high standard have come from many mission fields 
 in recent years. Such a call now comes from China 
 with peculiar urgency because of the possibilities 
 that this latest development opens up. We can 
 scarcely comprehend what it will mean in the 
 evangelization of China. Dr. G. H. Bondfield, of 
 the British and Foreign Bible Society in China, 
 says that at a high estimate only forty per cent, of 
 the Chinese Christians can now read the Bible, 
 while with the new phonetic writing fully ninety 
 per cent, will be able to read it. 
 
VII 
 THREE SOCIAL TRANSFORMATIONS 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THREE SOCIAL TRANSFORMATIONS 
 
 Perhaps no system of education developed by 
 any nation has ever been more successful in ac- 
 complishing its purpose than the old Chinese sys- 
 tem which was outlined in the preceding chapter. 
 Its aim was the maintenance of the established 
 social order without change, just as it had come 
 down from the days of the ancient sages whose 
 works were studied and whose precepts were fol- 
 lowed to the exclusion of all else. Stability — in 
 the family, in the state, in the religious life — this^ 
 was the end for which the huge structure 
 of Chinese classical scholarship existed. Then 
 there came the influences of the new ideals in edu- 
 cation as we have noted. Advance toward hitherto 
 unrealized aspirations for the future, education as 
 training for service in behalf of the nation — these 
 are the aims young China is setting for herself in 
 her new system. In this chapter we are to observe 
 somewhat more in detail than we have been able 
 to do before, several of the outstanding social move- 
 ments that indicate the degree of success which 
 is attending the recent efforts in modern education. 
 What is being accomplished in an age whose 
 watchword is progress instead of stability? 
 
 I6l 
 
i62 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 Reaching the Nation's Mind 
 
 First, we may well consider the pressing and 
 fundamental need for the creation of public opin- 
 ion. At present there can scarcely be said to be 
 any, certainly none of a national character. If it 
 existed, nine tenths of China's troubles would dis- 
 appear like mist before the rising sun. But a 
 change is coming; it started some years ago, but 
 China is big and populous, and it takes time for 
 reforms to register results. The voice of the peo- 
 ple is soon going to be articulate, and when it is 
 once heard in the land, selfish, unprincipled politi- 
 cians will awake to the realization that their un- 
 disputed rule has reached an end. 
 
 The development in China of the chief agency 
 in forming public opinion, the public press, has 
 been phenomenal. There are now between 400 
 and 500 newspapers, although 200 hardly deserve 
 the name. These have been started, as a Chinese 
 editor said, " for the sole object of furthering the 
 interests of some official or airing the views of a 
 political party." Of the rest, some that are very 
 creditable have barely one hundred subscribers; 
 while the subscription list of others runs up to 
 2,000. A few of the Chinese dailies have gained 
 a well-earned reputation and are excellent sheets. 
 Among these the Shun Pao, published in Shang- 
 hai, is one of the oldest and best. It prints 30,000 
 copies a day; 9,000 being circulated in Shanghai, 
 
THREE SOCIAL TRANSFORMATIONS 163 
 
 and the rest distributed very widely over the coun- 
 try. The Shun Pao recently moved into new- 
 quarters, a handsome, four-story building with a 
 roof garden in the heart of the business section of 
 the city. The plant is thoroughly equipped with 
 the most approved presses and a complete photo- 
 graphic outfit; indeed, with everything that an 
 up-to-date newspaper ought to have to make it 
 efficient. Its editor is a Christian. 
 
 In the summer of 1918, the Committee on Public 
 Information of the United States sent a representa- 
 tive to China, Mr. Carl Crow. Mr. Crow opened 
 an office in Shanghai and began sending world- 
 wide wireless news daily to 251 newspapers all 
 over China, It was blazing a new trail, for up to 
 this time few if any papers, outside of several of 
 the large cities, published foreign news. 
 
 Mr. Crow's work did not end there. He has 
 fully five hundred American agents scattered over 
 China. Through these agents he has secured the 
 names of 15,000 prominent men — the list will 
 eventually be augmented to as many as 50,000 — 
 civil and military officials, members of Chambers 
 of Commerce, merchants, educators, old-time 
 scholars, and students. To these people from time 
 to time is sent news that does not get into the 
 papers. Mr. Crow now proposes to further 
 broaden his work by adding to the political news 
 furnished to the Chinese dailies, items on public 
 Jiealth, industrial development, popular science 
 
i64 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 and education, also a correspondence course. To 
 help popularize the new simplified writing, some 
 of the articles will be written in the phonetic char- 
 acters, which will make it necessary for newspaper 
 compositors to learn them. 
 
 The Influence of Christian Literature 
 
 A strong factor in the creation of public opinion 
 in China is the Commercial Press, the largest pub- 
 lishing house in the Far East. The story of the 
 beginning, growth, and present achievements of 
 this remarkable concern is one of absorbing in- 
 terest. Founded by three Christian men, it has un- 
 questionably done more to influence thinking and 
 encourage modern education than any other secular 
 agency. Its school primers are sold at a low price 
 to bring them within the easy reach of all. It was 
 the Commercial Press that published President 
 Wilson's principal war addresses in a neat little 
 volume which quickly became one of the best sell- 
 ing books in China. Mr. Crow bought 15,000 to 
 send gratis to his constituency. 
 
 In addition to schoolbooks and general literature 
 with which it floods the country — as many as 
 1,000,000 copies of some of its text-books are sold 
 annually — the Commercial Press publishes eleven 
 magazines, the latest on the list being the Indus- 
 trial Monthly, whose first number appeared in Jan- 
 uary, 191 9. One of its periodicals is a magazine 
 
THREE SOCIAL TRANSFORMATIONS 165 
 
 for women, a Chinese Woman's Home Journal, 
 which was for a year edited by a woman. It re- 
 ceives many contributions from women, and dis- 
 cusses all the practical subjects that are of special 
 interest to women. 
 
 Frequent debates in the schools — government 
 and mission — on live current topics, are not only 
 stimulating the students' interest in national and 
 world movements, but teaching them to form and 
 express an opinion. I have heard educators say 
 that the study of civics should begin in the primary 
 schools. 
 
 Christian literature, in the way of books, tracts 
 and periodicals, has a powerful influence in affect- 
 ing not only religious thought, but the secular life 
 and opinions of the people. The publications of 
 the Christian Literature Society, which are more 
 particularly for the scholar class, had much to do 
 in shaping the liberal policy of the progressive 
 party before and after the Boxer Rebellion. Two 
 denominational magazines, the Woman's Messenger 
 and Happy Childhood, count among their warmest 
 friends many non-Christians, who feel China's 
 need of just such broadening, helpful literature. 
 A high official in Peking wrote the editor of 
 Happy Childhood, " Make me a subscriber for thirty 
 copies. I should like to see the magazine in thou- 
 sands of homes." A merchant prince said of the 
 Woman's Messenger, " I read it as regularly as do 
 my wife and daughters." 
 
i66 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 For Others Instead of for Merit 
 
 Another of the striking movements in Chinese 
 life to-day is the organization of constructive 
 social service activities in many parts of the coun- 
 try. This work assumes such a variety of forms 
 and is conducted under the auspices of so many 
 different agencies that it is not possible to attempt 
 a complete treatment of this fascinating subject. 
 Only a few typical illustrations can be given. 
 
 Many cruelties are practised in China, yet the 
 heart of the Chinese is naturally kind. Last year 
 when there was a wreck on the Yangtsze River 
 and hundreds of Chinese drowned, some poor crea- 
 tures who managed to reach the shore were pricked 
 with the bayonets of soldiers waiting to rob them 
 of their jewels and money. In contrast to this, a 
 Chinese family living near the scene of the disaster 
 opened their doors to succor the refugees. Among 
 them came a foreigner, whose wet clothing was 
 exchanged for dry garments — even shoes were pro- 
 vided — from the scant family store; food and 
 hot tea were given, and a board bed made for him 
 in the living-room. No remuneration was ex- 
 pected or desired. The old idea in China in con- 
 nection with the dispensing of alms was to store 
 up merit. Christian workers are teaching the 
 New Testament command, to do good for the love 
 of God and humanity; the quick response of the 
 Chinese has been heart-warming, and the practise 
 
THREE SOCIAL TRANSFORMATIONS 167- 
 
 of Christian social service is already exercising a 
 transforming influence upon society. Many mis- 
 sion schools of all grades and classes are making^ 
 social service an important part of their schedule. 
 Day- and night-schools are run; industrial vi^ork 
 carried on; reading-rooms and playgrounds 
 opened; entertainments provided, and Sunday ser- 
 vices for old and young conducted. 
 
 Helpful Service for Flood Sufferers 
 
 The floods last year in North China gave stu- 
 dents an opportunity to render a unique service. 
 The floods came in the fall, but for many months 
 it was necessary to care for the helpless refugees. 
 In the spring a call for help was sent from southern 
 Chihli to the students of the North China Union 
 Bible Institute of Peking. At once many young^ 
 men hastened to answer it. Soon another call 
 went out to the women in the Peking Union Wo- 
 man's Training School. Not many weeks were 
 left before commencement. To sacrifice those 
 precious weeks of study and the long-anticipated 
 joys of commencement day, meant a great deal to 
 the graduating class, but every one of the fourteen 
 volunteered for service. The work awaiting these 
 men and women was not easy. In the midst of 
 great hardships they kept accounts; gave out 
 stores; superintended industries; taught school; 
 nursed the sick; cared for children, and held ev- 
 
i68 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 angelistic meetings. Instead of two months, they 
 stayed five, and when they did finally return to 
 Peking, missionaries have said there was a new 
 light in their faces and a new purpose in their 
 hearts. The sacrifice had brought its reward. 
 
 The students of the North China Union Wo- 
 men's College asked to have forty refugee chil- 
 dren sent to them in Peking. A suitable house for 
 lodging the waifs was rented near the college, and 
 for nine months the students took charge of it, 
 doing all the work and bearing the entire expense 
 themselves. They learned economy, for accounts 
 had to be kept and ends made to meet. They had 
 many practical lessons in child culture while caring 
 for their little charges. They were taught the 
 value of the minutes, for their studies could not be 
 neglected. Best of all they came to know the 
 blessedness of leading souls to Christ. 
 
 The New Interest in Child Welfare 
 
 China in the past has had her charitable in- 
 stitutions, and in most of the large cities there 
 could be found at least three of these : a home for 
 old men, a home for old women, and a refuge for 
 foundlings. With scarcely an exception such 
 places were miserably cheerless, dirty, and un- 
 sanitary. Money in abundance was in many cases 
 subscribed for their maintenance, but a large part 
 of it went into the pockets of a host of unscrupu- 
 
THREE SOCIAL TRANSFORMATIONS i6c> 
 
 lous interinediaries. Under the inspiration of the 
 new spirit of service, public and private philan- 
 thropies are taking on an entirely different complex- 
 ion. Orphanages, industrial schools for the poor, 
 a refuge for kidnapped children, free hospitals, 
 free day-schools, and similar institutions are 
 springing up in many places; they are nearly al- 
 ways clean, comfortable, and well-managed. Some 
 of these institutions are under Christian influences ; 
 those that are not at least give an ethical teaching 
 and so their moral influence is good. A few years 
 ago young men came to Shanghai from sixty dif- 
 ferent districts in the province of Kiangsu to take 
 a four months' course in physical culture. They 
 took this training in order that when they went 
 back to their homes they might open playgrounds 
 and direct the play of the children intelligently. 
 
 The Boy Scout movement is very popular in 
 China. In the summer of 191 7 nearly two hun- 
 dred primary teachers from Kiangsu province at- 
 tended a three weeks' course for scoutmasters in 
 Shanghai. Not long ago I had a practical illustra- 
 tion of the good results of scout training. I was 
 on the street trying to get a kodak picture for 
 this book. I was carrying my kodak-case, um- 
 brella, gloves, and purse, which I could not put 
 down on the ground, of course; so I was having 
 a hard time in securing my picture. Just then 
 some boy scouts chanced my way; they instantly 
 grasped the situation and before I could raise my 
 
170 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 head they were at my side ofifering their help. 
 They held my things, kept oflf the curious bystand- 
 ers, and in giving their aid they acted like little 
 gentlemen. It would never occur to the average 
 Chinese boy to run to the assistance of any one 
 without being called. 
 
 A Better Chance for Prisoners 
 
 One of the most radical changes of the present 
 day is prison reform. The prisons of the past 
 century are described as so bad that the English 
 equivalent of the name which the Chinese gave 
 them was hell. It was a current saying that who- 
 ever went in at the front door was carried out at 
 the back, where there was a square hole just large 
 enough for a cofifin to slip through. Several years 
 ago I visited a prison in Nanchang. The prison- 
 ers were herded together like cattle in small, filthy 
 cells, with no occupation, no change, and no hope 
 for the inmate apparently. While in Nanchang 
 recently I wanted to visit that prison again, but 
 found that it had been torn down since the new 
 one was built. 
 
 Old-style prisons still exist in China but every 
 capital city now has its model prison, and they are 
 to be found in some smaller cities also. Peking 
 and Tientsin lead oflf with the largest and finest. 
 Most of the new prisons were built after the Re- 
 volution in 191 1 which brought in its train so 
 
THREE SOCIAL TRANSFORMATIONS 171 
 
 many needed reforms. Cleanliness, sanitaticra, 
 discipline with mildness, light and air, plain but 
 abundant food, facilities for bathing and frequent 
 changes of clothing, daily out-door exercise, — and, 
 above all, ample provision for healthful and varied 
 occupation, — are some of the marks of the modern 
 prison. Sentences are commuted for good be- 
 havior, and small sums are paid for work done in 
 the shops. This money is divided each month and 
 half the amount is kept to be given to the prisoner 
 on his release ; the other half is sent to his family. 
 A serious defect in the new prison system, but 
 one which is sure to be corrected, is the lack of 
 adequate employment for women. The prisons 
 in Peking and Tientsin are the only ones, as far 
 as I know, that furnish it to any appreciable ex- 
 tent. In Hangchow I found ten or twelve women,, 
 some of them with nursing infants, crowded into 
 a cell measuring not more than twelve by four- 
 teen feet. They had no employment. The crime 
 which sends very many of the women to prison 
 is kidnapping young children to sell as slaves; or, 
 if the children taken are boys, they sell them to 
 families who have no sons. Missionaries are al- 
 lowed access to most of the prisons. In Peking- 
 Chinese pastors from the different missions hold 
 services in the several prisons once or twice a 
 week. The last time I visited the new prison I 
 saw Chinese Bibles and hymn-books in a number 
 of the cells. The warden stated frankly that 
 
172 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 though a Buddhist priest held a service in the 
 prison every Sunday he was not able to interest 
 the men. 
 
 Improved Conditions Among Industrial Workers 
 
 The life of employees and apprentices in China 
 has been a proverbially hard one. Long hours, 
 which might mean eighteen or even twenty out of 
 the twenty-four, and harsh if not cruel treatment, 
 were their portion. More than once in passing 
 along the street I have been arrested by piercing 
 screams, and discovered that some child was being 
 beaten unmercifully by the man to whom he was 
 apprenticed. But here again, old conditions are 
 gradually but surely giving way to new and better 
 ones. The change is most marked in many of the 
 large business houses and industrial plants, where 
 particular attention is paid to the social welfare 
 of the employees. In connection with the Han- 
 yang Steel and Iron Works there is a library, club 
 house, hospital, tennis courts, athletic field, and 
 schools for the children of the employees. The 
 Yangtsze Engineering Works, in addition to the 
 above features, employs a graduate Chinese nurse, 
 a mature woman of most winning personality, who, 
 besides superintending the day-schools for the em- 
 ployees' children, visits the homes of employees; 
 conducts mothers' meetings, and makes herself 
 generally beloved and useful. 
 
THREE SOCIAL TRANSFORMATIONS 173 
 
 A factory in Hankow, in which eggs are desic- 
 cated for export, was recently visited by a govern- 
 ment factory expert from Great Britain. This 
 gentleman commented on the cheerful, intelligent 
 faces of the women employees and compared them 
 with the less-favored appearance of the unem- 
 ployed. He added that he had seen only one 
 factory in England where the " hands " could 
 compare with these in cleanliness, neatness, and 
 seemly behavior. 
 
 The Commercial Press, which was one of the 
 first establishments to introduce social welfare, be- 
 sides day and night schools, is especially consider- 
 ate in its treatment of women employees, and from 
 time to time receives as beneficiaries boys from 
 the Deaf and Dumb School in Chefoo and from 
 the Reformatory in Shanghai to train as appren- 
 tices. 
 
 All the large department stores furnish free 
 medical attendance to their employees; pay for 
 their dentistry; provide coffins for the dead, and 
 share in the expense of the funeral. But it is 
 not only the large corporations which are interest- 
 ing themselves in social service. The pro- 
 prietor of a modest business house in Tientsin, who 
 has accepted Christianity, not only looks after the 
 welfare of his employees, but has taken twenty 
 boys of the flood refugees under his care. He 
 sends them to school in the morning; gives them 
 a good meal at noon ; and in the afternoon, dressed 
 
174 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 in neat uniforms which he provides, they go out 
 with trays of notions to sell, receiving a commis- 
 sion on the profits. 
 
 The Needs of the Mill Workers 
 
 There are thousands of employees in the great 
 cotton-mills where the noise of the throbbing en- 
 gines never ceases day or night. Most of the mill- 
 hands are women and children yet, strangely 
 enough, less is being done for their social better- 
 ment than for any other class of employees. Until 
 the law for compulsory education in the lower 
 schools is enforced, and while the struggle to earn 
 a livelihood is so great, there is not much prospect 
 that child labor will be discontinued. I never see 
 the brilliantly lighted windows of the mills Along 
 the river front in Shanghai without pity filling my 
 heart for the wide-eyed little ones watching the 
 spindles who ought to be enjoying the dreamless 
 sleep of childhood. 
 
 I am well acquainted with the owner of a very 
 old mill, a man of noble spirit, who is one of the 
 best Christians I ever knew either in China or 
 any other country. He opens his doors to shelter 
 homeless boys; makes his beautiful lawn a play- 
 ground for poor children; gave land on which to 
 build a free school in his neighborhood; yet, when 
 it comes to his mill-hands, much as he longs to 
 help them, he seems baffled by difficulties which 
 
THREE SOCIAL TRANSFORMATIONS 175 
 
 he sees no way at present of surmounting. He 
 told me a short time ago that he was planning to 
 change the twelve-hour shift to one of eight hours, 
 making three shifts instead of two during the 
 twenty-four hours. " But when I do that," he 
 said, "one of the shifts will come in the middle 
 of the night and women and children cannot go to 
 and from the mill then. I must build homes for 
 them in the vicinity of the mill, but where shall 
 I get the land? There is not the smallest plot for 
 sale in my neighborhood." This employer is eager 
 to help the workers. The labor question is one of 
 many problems in China as elsewhere. 
 
 It hurts one most of all to see little girls in the 
 silk filature mills, standing hour after hour wash- 
 ing cocoons in basins of boiling water. Their faces 
 are blanched and dripping with perspiration from 
 the excessive heat which is necessary in the apart- 
 ments where the fine silk is spun. Women and 
 children who go at nightfall with depleted vitality 
 from a temperature of 118 or 120 F. into the pene- 
 trating chill of a Shanghai winter easily contract 
 colds which end in tuberculosis. The National 
 Young Woman's Christian Association of China is 
 hoping in the near future to bring out a social 
 worker from America to start work among the 
 women and children in the Shanghai mills. 
 Chinese women are already in training for it, for 
 this is a work, that to be successful, must be 
 largely in the hands of the Chinese. 
 
176 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 The Protection of Family Life 
 
 China has her national social reformers and one 
 of the best known is Mr. Yung Tao, of Peking. 
 Mr. Yung inveighs against three evils, immorality, 
 concubinage, and gambling. He began his public 
 work in 191 5 just after Japan had made her notori- 
 ous Twenty-one Demands on China. Mr. Yung 
 was convinced that most of China's troubles could 
 be traced to her moral weakness, and with utter 
 fearlessness, in public and in private, wherever 
 and whenever he could get a hearing, he attacked 
 vice in high places and low. As might have been 
 expected he soon found himself in prison, from 
 which he was finally released through the efforts 
 of foreign friends. Mr. Yung later took up his 
 residence in Tientsin where my husband and I saw 
 him one morning. 
 
 " I am waiting here. For the present my hands 
 are tied," he said with a sad smile. Abruptly 
 changing the subject, he continued, " I am just 
 moving. My neighbor across the way has twelve 
 concubines besides his legal wife. Every night he 
 brings ' Singing Girls ' to the house, and this 
 neighborhood has become so unpleasant I must 
 leave it." 
 
 We remained silent while Mr. Yung gazed 
 thoughtfully out of the window. Presently he 
 spoke again, 
 
 " The strength of a nation is in the family life 
 
THREE SOCIAL TRANSFORMATIONS 177 
 
 and it is very corrupt in China. We must cut away 
 the weeds before the good grass will grow." 
 
 I thought of a sweet girl, educated in a mission 
 school, who was forced to marry the youth to whom 
 she had been betrothed in childhood, and com- 
 pelled to live in a family where there was a mother- 
 in-law and seven concubines, really eight mothers- 
 in-law. One of her schoolmates saw the girl a 
 year or two later and asked if she was enjoying 
 her new home. The young wife looked for an 
 instant silently into her friend's face and then al- 
 most hissed her answer, " It is hell! " 
 
 The New Woman in China 
 
 No social change during the past fifty years can 
 compare in magnitude and importance with the 
 growth of Chinese womanhood into a position of 
 independence and influence such as was never 
 dreamed of in China. Woman's emancipation has 
 brought its attendant dangers, especially since the 
 Revolution. The frail bark of the New Woman 
 of China is sailing between Scylla and Charybdis ; 
 between prison bars on one side and unbridled 
 liberty on the other, and only as she commits her 
 life to the care of the Divine Pilot can she be sure 
 of reaching in safety her desired haven. 
 
 The changes that the years have brought aflect 
 a girl from the time of her birth. Much used to 
 be said about the destruction of Chinese baby 
 
178 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 girls. It may be many are still killed. But I have 
 traveled quite extensively over China during the 
 past ten years and have seen only a single " Baby 
 Tower," and that a local missionary assured me 
 was used chiefly as a depository for the bodies of 
 infants who had died a natural death. A few years 
 ago in Nanchang I noticed small oblong boxes 
 painted blue nailed here and there to walls at the 
 side of the streets. I was told that they were 
 public receptacles for babies. At once I looked 
 at them with new interest and all sorts of sad 
 scenes presented themselves to my imagination. 
 
 " I suppose that the little things die very soon 
 after they are placed in the box? " I remarked pen- 
 sively to the longtime missionary who was my 
 companion. 
 
 " It is not likely that a living baby is ever left 
 in one of these boxes. No, nor a baby that has 
 been put to death," she said, anticipating my next 
 question. " It is not customary to buy coffins for 
 infants, so the little dead bodies are laid in these 
 boxes to be carted away and buried by the city." 
 
 When in Nanchang recently I looked in vain for 
 the baby boxes. They had all disappeared. 
 
 I had a neighbor some time ago a non-Chris- 
 tian man who was the father of six little daughters 
 and one baby boy. As each successive girl was 
 born, the man's sister, who was childless, tried 
 hard to induce him to give her the child. The 
 father's invariable reply was, "Why should I? 
 
THREE SOCIAL TRANSFORMATIONS 179 
 
 I love her ! " Non-Christian fathers like this may 
 be counted by the thousand in China. 
 
 A few Sundays ago I met for the first time in 
 our Cantonese church a man who was surrounded 
 by little folks and who held a baby in his arms. 
 As I put my hand on the soft baby cheek, I asked, 
 ■"A boy?" "No, a girl. I am the happy father 
 of six girls," and the man smiled broadly as he 
 glanced affectionately around at his flock. This 
 was a Christian father. 
 
 " If as many girl babies were destroyed in 
 China as some of our Western friends seem to 
 think, I wonder where China would get her moth- 
 ers," observed an eminent missionary doctor with 
 dry humor. 
 
 ■" Golden Lily " Feet \Are Beginning to be Unpopular 
 
 Foot-binding is by no means a thing of the past. 
 In many sections, especially in the interior, it is 
 still in existence and it may continue to be prac- 
 tised for many years to come. But there is a 
 strong sentiment against it which is constantly 
 spreading. In the large port cities there are in- 
 creasing numbers of young men who would not 
 consent to marry a girl with bound feet. I cannot 
 recall ever seeing a child in a government school 
 with bound feet, though they may have been but 
 recently unbound, and, of course, there are no 
 bound feet in mission schools. The popularity of 
 
i8o NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 physical training is making bound feet impossible. 
 Imagine a girl with " Golden Lilies " trying to 
 engage in a game of volley ball or tennis ! 
 
 The old idea, which originated with Confucius, 
 that a girl must not be taught to read and write 
 because learning would unfit her for her sole 
 avocation in life, which was to marry and bear 
 children, is getting so out of date as to be some- 
 thing of a curiosity. It is still met with at times 
 and in most unexpected places. Not long ago a 
 Tientsin gentleman, himself a scholar and ap- 
 parently a fond father, assured his American 
 callers, politely but firmly that he could not think 
 of sending his daughters to school as education 
 was not intended for girls. Girls whose conserva- 
 tive fathers refuse to give them an education often 
 find warm champions in their brothers, who insist 
 that their sisters shall have a modern training and 
 send them to school at their own expense. 
 
 It is interesting to see how the advanced Chinese 
 student of to-day, after the manner of her sisters 
 in the West, iy beginning to specialize in certain 
 favorite subjec:s, it may be in biology, history, 
 literature, or music. It is quite common for star 
 pupils in music to give a recital just before their 
 graduation. A young bride, now in Tientsin, 
 shortly before her marriage gave a recital in aid 
 of the North China flood sufferers. She acquitted 
 herself most creditably and netted a good sum of 
 money from her large and appreciative audience. 
 
THREE SOCIAL TRANSFORMATIONS i8i 
 
 Western Marriage Customs Not Wanted 
 
 It would perhaps be too much to say that the 
 custom of child betrothal is dying out, yet it is 
 not nearly as general as it was a few years ago. 
 Heartbreaking cases still occur occasionally where 
 young people, Christian, educated and refined, are 
 forced into unhappy marriages because of early 
 betrothal. But parents are becoming more en- 
 lightened and lenient, and their sons and daughters 
 are rising up in defense of their own rights in a 
 way that cannot be disregarded. 
 
 When it comes to a discussion of the manner of 
 courtship thoughtful Chinese are of but one opin- 
 ion. " The customs of the West will not fit the 
 Far East, at least, not now," they say. " Give 
 our young people an opportunity to get acquainted 
 under proper chaperonage, but let the marriage 
 contract be arranged by a go-between." The 
 mother of a gifted young daughter, a returned 
 student, who herself spent a year recently in New 
 York City, expressed her views on this subject to 
 me when I saw her in Canton. 
 
 " In America young men and women lightly 
 plight their troth and lightly break it. In China 
 betrothal is as binding as marriage. Among 
 Christians in China I should like to see betrothal 
 made a sacred ceremony. Let the young man go 
 to the home of the girl he wishes to marry, and in 
 the presence of as many as ten witnesses, declare 
 
i82 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 his love and produce the engagement ring. Then 
 in order to show that the event is sacred, let the 
 contract be sealed with a pra)'er." 
 
 At another time Mrs. L. said to me : " It grieves 
 me to see that many of our young people, in their 
 desire to copy the vi^ays of the West, are beginning 
 to talk very flippantly about divorce. They call it 
 ' stylish.' There is an old Chinese adage which 
 should never be forgotten : ' No grass will grow on 
 the spot where a decree for divorce has been 
 signed '." 
 
 In some of the more enlightened circles a girl is 
 no longer required to marry against her will. If 
 she chooses to remain single and be independent 
 and self-supporting, she may do so with honor. 
 There are many such young women in China to- 
 day; Christian women engaged in religious and in 
 secular work, and humanly speaking, we cannot 
 see how they could be spared from the places they 
 fill so well. But China needs Christian homes; 
 she needs them more than almost anything else, 
 and when I see a new Christian home set up, I 
 sing a little song of praise. In many non-Christian 
 homes there is genuine affection and respect be- 
 tween husband and wife, and parents and children. 
 But such a home does not rest on a sure founda- 
 tion. A man who has been a very kind husband 
 may suddenly decide to bring into the family a 
 secondary wife, and thus sow the seeds of discord 
 and unhappiness. 
 
THREE SOCIAL TRANSFORMATIONS 183 
 
 The Spirit of Christian Home Life 
 
 The tender, unashamed consideration shown by 
 many a Christian husband for his wife is one of the 
 most beautiful developments of these later years. 
 " I don't enjoy going out unless I have Margaret 
 with me," declared one. " Isn't Jennie a wonder- 
 ful little business woman? I don't know how I 
 ever got along without her!" said another. "I 
 always stay away from the office Saturday after- 
 noon in order to take my family to the park," con- 
 fided a Peking editor, and on the next day I saw 
 him returning home with his wife and children; 
 his wife in the first ricksha, sitting at ease — the 
 orthodox way is for the husband to lead — and at 
 the end of the little procession was the editor 
 holding the baby. 
 
 A young husband returning to China after sev- 
 eral years of post-graduate study in America, 
 passed through Shanghai on his way to his home. 
 " I suppose you are anxious to see your wife and 
 children," I remarked to him. To my surprise he 
 pulled his watch out of his pocket and holding it 
 before me said with an unmistakable ring in his 
 voice, " I am almost counting the minutes before 
 I shall see them ! " A husband was being con- 
 gratulated by a foreign friend on a degree he had 
 just received from an American university. 
 " Thank you," he said, " but I keep wishing my 
 wife could have had my opportunities. She is 
 
i84 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 much brighter than I am and would have made so 
 much more of them." The honest look in the 
 young man's face as he said the words made it im- 
 possible to doubt their sincerity. 
 
 Chinese women can do many things well. I 
 have seen them with modest womanliness but 
 poised and self-possessed address audiences largely 
 composed of men; I have heard them charm with 
 their singing; I have watched them preside over 
 meetings and conduct religious services; I have 
 listened to a woman address the members of a 
 city Chamber of Commerce on temperance and 
 speak with such conviction that every man present 
 afterward expressed a desire to sign the pledge. I 
 noted how at a banquet given in honor of this 
 temperance leader by a group of officials' wives, 
 she kindly but firmly declined the wine cup, al- 
 though she knew that as she was the guest of 
 honor Chinese etiquette made it impossible for 
 any one else to drink at that feast. Best of all, I 
 know Chinese women as loving, devoted mothers, 
 bringing their children up in the fear and admoni- 
 tion of the Lord. What gracious hostesses they 
 can be, piquant in conversation, winsome, and 
 meeting whatever emergency may arise with ever 
 ready tact! 
 
 Do not get the idea that all the attractive homes 
 are in the cities and among the student class. Some 
 of the very happiest and best I know are hidden 
 away in distant parts of the interior, where the 
 
THREE SOCIAL TRANSFORMATIONS 185 
 
 members of the family have not been out of China 
 or even very far away from where they live. 
 
 The Christian homes of China are evangelizing 
 centers whose influence cannot be estimated. A 
 young couple in Hangchow conduct a Sunday- 
 school for street children in their own home. 
 
 " You aren't afraid these children will injure 
 some of your pretty things? " I asked them. 
 
 " Oh, no," was the smiling answer. 
 
 " I am sure that you are a great help to your hus- 
 band in this work," I said, turning to the wife. 
 
 " It is my wife's work. I help her ! " corrected 
 the husband laughingly. 
 
 A woman, whose husband is manager of a large 
 industrial plant, began long ago to mother the 
 young apprentices who were away from home. She 
 keeps two living with her family all the time and 
 invites in eight or ten others for every week-end. 
 A dormitory has been added to the house for their 
 special use. On Saturday evenings, she told me, 
 they have music and games or she reads to the boys 
 or her husband gives them a simple talk on hygiene 
 and health. They fitted up a room in their house 
 for a chapel and hold a service there every Sunday 
 morning. After dinner it is understood by the 
 boys that their hostess is ready for a quiet, personal 
 talk with any one who wishes to see her. They tell 
 her their troubles and secrets and receive sympathy 
 and advice. " Do you have any conversions among 
 these boys?" I asked her once. "Yes, indeed! 
 
i86 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 Every one of these young people who have come 
 into our home has accepted Christianity, and a 
 number are doing Christian work." 
 
 The Widening Horizon of Chinese Womanhood 
 
 Too much cannot be said in praise of all that 
 is being done for women by the Young Women's 
 Christian Association through its religious, educa- 
 tional and physical work, by means of its social 
 institutes, patriotic clubs, its lectures, and enter- 
 tainments. It is constantly discovering latent tal- 
 ents, developing leaders, and placing before the 
 women new ideals of the Christian life and Chris- 
 tian service. 
 
 A few years ago the government normal school 
 for girls in an inland city had a Field Day with a 
 very elaborate program. The last number was a 
 pageant which represented the development of the 
 women of China. A long procession moved slowly 
 around the grounds in front of the spectators, show- 
 ing women, appropriately costumed, in all ages 
 from the most primitive times down to the present. 
 But what held the rapt attention of the audience 
 was the presentation of the women of the future, 
 for there were not only doctors, nurses, and teach- 
 ers, but mail-carriers on bicycles, judges, news- 
 paper editors, and aviators. It was a marvelous 
 pageant and will long be remembered. 
 
 Christianity, too, has its dreams and visions. 
 
THREE SOCIAL TRANSFORMATIONS 187 
 
 Here comes another procession and the audience is 
 the world. As the women draw near we see that 
 they move with difficult, uncertain steps, their 
 shoulders bent, their eyes lusterless. Some have 
 scars on their flesh and wear an expression of 
 fright and pain. But soon we observe a change in 
 the younger women. They walk more easily and 
 their faces shine with gladness. Troops of little 
 children skip merrily beside them. Presently the 
 number of happy ones increases to a great company 
 and among them we distinguish evangeHsts, doc- 
 tors, nurses, teachers, writers, social workers, and 
 wives and mothers with babies nestling in their 
 arms. One in their midst holds aloft a banner on 
 which is emblazoned a cross and as with uplifted 
 faces they swing along with firm but elastic tread, 
 we catch the words of their swelling chorus, 
 
 " Behold we come, our womanhood is waking, 
 Before us break and fall the rusting bars ; 
 We stand at last where fadeless morn is breaking, 
 Our feet upon the stars. 
 
 " Before our eyes undreamed horizons widen, 
 The shadows vanish and the vapors shift; 
 And from the mists where we have long abiden, 
 We Chinese women claim the perfect gift ! " 
 
VIII 
 THE CONQUERING CHURCH IN CHINA 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 THE CONQUERING CHURCH IN CHINA 
 
 During an anti-opium meeting held in Martyrs' 
 Memorial Hall in Shanghai, I chanced to sit next 
 to the wall on which were the brass tablets bear- 
 ing the names of the Christians who perished 
 in the Boxer Rebellion. I had often seen these 
 tablets before, but on that afternoon, for some rea- 
 son, they held my gaze in a peculiar way. One 
 tablet is inscribed with the names of foreigners, 
 231 men, women, and children; the others bear the 
 names of nearly two thousand Chinese martyrs, 
 but the list is not complete because none but God 
 will ever know how many lost their lives during 
 that awful summer of bloodshed and horror. As I 
 studied the tablets it was borne in upon me with 
 fresh conviction that never again would Chinese 
 believers be called " Rice Christians." Their stead- 
 fastness in the face of death when in most cases 
 recantation would have saved them has made for- 
 ever impossible the opprobrious epithet. 
 
 There lives in Shanghai a man whose father, 
 mother, sister, and brother suffered martyrdom in 
 their native village. He was at the time a young 
 theological student in Peking. When ready to go 
 
 191 
 
193 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 out to preach he asked to be sent to his home vil- 
 lage. The missionaries were astonished. 
 
 " Surely not there," they expostulated, " after 
 all that has happened ! " 
 
 " Yes, it is there I wish to go," was his quiet 
 answer. " I want to preach Christ to the murder- 
 ers of my family." 
 
 So this brave young student went, and many 
 souls in that place were added to the kingdom. It 
 is typical of what is happening all over China. The 
 spirit of the man who wanted to preach to those 
 whom he might have treated as enemies is a spirit 
 running through the Christian churches of China. 
 It is furnishing the power for one of the great 
 religious movements of modern times. 
 
 The " Open Door " of China's Religious Life 
 
 Christianity at first made slow progress among 
 the Chinese. Robert Morrison labored seven years 
 before baptizing his first convert. In Foochow it 
 took ten years of preaching to bring a single soul 
 to Christ. But at last the tide turned. A short 
 time ago I asked a Presbyterian missionary, who 
 has been long in China, what he considered the 
 most promising sign of the times. With scarcely 
 a moment's hesitation he replied, " The changed 
 attitude of the people toward missionaries and their 
 message. It is only a few years ago that whenever 
 we went on the street, ' Foreign Devil ! Foreign 
 
THE CONQUERING CHURCH IN CHINA 193 
 
 DAYBREAK IN CHINA 
 
 V " 
 
 am 
 
 ■■■■k. *■■■■■■» 45?' 
 
 _^^mi!«BIHil 
 
 ■■■■■■■■BBB§;.:!SBS9iamannB 
 
 mmmmmmmmmawius^i 
 ni 
 
 nnuuBi 
 
 aia«M— ■■■■■■ —— ■MMg 
 
 •BBT ^BBBBBB'^^'" 
 
 3 = Total Protestant Christiaa Coostttueney iSiiiSi 
 (Commuaicaats 3)2,970). 
 
 I = One Million Persons 
 From China Mission Year Book, 1918. 
 
194 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 Devil ! ' was shouted at us. Now the words are 
 hardly ever heard even in the most unfrequented 
 parts of the interior. The Chinese gladly listen to 
 the preaching of the gospel and are singularly 
 receptive and open-minded." 
 
 On Sherwood Eddy's visit to China in 1918, he 
 said, " Never was there a time in China when 
 things looked so dark politically or so bright reli- 
 giously; so dark for the government or so bright 
 for the Christian church," 
 
 Is it not significant that some of the strongest 
 political leaders, the heads of many of the large 
 business corporations, prominent newspaper edi- 
 tors, principals and teachers in government schools, 
 and influential doctors are out and out Christians, 
 while numberless others are sympathetic in their 
 attitude? 
 
 There is now a considerable group of men of 
 prominence who are presenting Christ boldly to 
 their countrymen. Among these, for example, is 
 a leading member of the Southern government, 
 and former Minister of Justice in the North, who 
 proclaims everywhere that Jesus Christ alone can 
 save China. This man teaches each Sunday a large 
 Bible class composed of members of Parliament, 
 professional men, and scholars. 
 
 A Southern parliamentary leader, and vice- 
 speaker of the first Senate, said before a large 
 gathering of foreigners and Chinese, " China needs 
 Christ, and the best contribution we can give to the 
 rebirth of the nation is to bring Jesus Christ to the 
 
THE CONQUERING CHURCH IN CHINA 195 
 
 people. There is a growing sense among our lead- 
 ers all over the country of their powerlessness to 
 make the country stronger and better." Then who 
 can count the host of silent believers, timid souls 
 that have not dared to confess their faith? The 
 principal of a government normal school suddenly 
 leaning toward the missionary sitting beside her in 
 the train whispered so as not to be overheard, 
 " More of us are Christians in heart than you 
 dream of ! Sometime you will see ! " 
 
 The Christian Approach to the Educated Classes 
 
 At one period in the history of China, when 
 Jesuit influence was strong in the capital, it looked 
 from the human side as if only a small circum- 
 stance kept the whole empire from becoming Chris- 
 tian. Many now believe that China is on the eve 
 of a religious awakening such as has never been 
 known before. Men like Dr. Eddy predict that she 
 may be one of the great Christian countries of the 
 world. The idealism of the Chinese makes them 
 peculiarly susceptible and responsive to spiritual 
 influences. The past century of seed sowing has 
 done its work and the magnitude of our God-given 
 opportunities is almost appalling. How are we to 
 meet them? 
 
 At the time of the Eddy evangelistic campaign 
 in 1916 the largest buildings were too small to 
 accommodate the crowds. In each case follow-up 
 
196 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 meetings were held when again the halls were 
 packed. It is safe to say that never before in 
 China had Jesus Christ and his gospel been so 
 much talked about, thought about and written 
 about. The audiences were made up chiefly of 
 officials, scholars, gentry, and students. Many 
 accepted Christianity and thousands signed cards 
 to join classes for the study of the Bible. It was 
 a wonderful campaign. Yet neither Dr. Eddy 
 nor the missionaries were satisfied. It was after- 
 ward found that scores of those who signed cards 
 had done it to be " polite," and had given a false 
 address so that they could not be located. More- 
 over, the dearth of trained leaders of Bible classes 
 made it impossible always to care properly for the 
 hundreds who did attend them. 
 
 In 191 8 the campaign was conducted on differ- 
 ent lines. Instead of being detached, it was related 
 to the churches and carried on under the direction 
 of local, permanent workers. Crowds might easily 
 have been secured again but they were not sought 
 or wanted. The appeal was not to the non-Chris- 
 tian masses but to those who had been under Chris- 
 tian teaching and influence and were prepared to 
 make a decision. The fruit gathered this time was 
 to be ripe and hand-plucked. Rev. Frank Buch- 
 man, of the Hartford School of Missions, came to 
 China months in advance of Dr. Eddy to stress 
 personal work and help organize classes for train- 
 ing personal workers and Bible class teachers. 
 
THE CONQUERING CHURCH IN CHINA 197 
 
 When the campaign opened it was understood 
 that every personal worker should take to the meet- 
 ings one non-Christian friend, sit beside that per- 
 son, and when the opportunity was given encourage 
 him to make a decision and afterward steady him 
 in the new life. Intensive work followed that left 
 its burning impress on the heart of every one en- 
 gaged in it. The Chinese teacher of a large Bible 
 class rose one Sunday morning at early dawn, and 
 for hours poured out her soul in an agony of 
 prayer for the conversion of her scholars. Later in 
 the day she had the joy of seeing twelve of them 
 accept Christ, A book could be filled with similar 
 incidents. 
 
 Christianity and Family Life 
 
 The campaign of 1918 differed in another respect 
 from those that had preceded it. Its objective was 
 not so much unrelated individuals as families. In 
 the campaign of 1916 great mass meetings had 
 been held for women and many joined Bible 
 classes. But usually the women converts and the 
 men converts were from different families. A care- 
 ful canvass of the Christians in Shanghai has re- 
 vealed the startHng fact that only thirty per cent, 
 of the Christians are women. This means that 
 though a father may be a Christian his children are 
 brought up non-Christians by their non-Christian 
 mother. Women in China are harder to reach 
 
rgS NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 than men. They cling more tenaciously to their 
 old beliefs, and their old superstitions. But let 
 their feet once be firmly planted in the new way 
 and, as a rule, they can be counted on to follow it 
 unswervingly. I know of many men who have 
 dropped out of the church because of non-Christian 
 wives, but I have yet to hear of a Christian wife 
 losing her faith because of a non-Christian husband. 
 
 Christian workers realize that it is on the family 
 the church of China must chiefly rely for its 
 strength and permanence. So, while the recent 
 campaign for men was in progress, a simultaneous 
 campaign for women on the same intensive plan 
 -was conducted by Miss Ruth Paxson, National 
 Student Evangelistic Secretary of the Young 
 Women's Christian Association, and Mrs. Eddy. 
 The leaders of both campaigns worked in conjunc- 
 tion to link up families. If a man was converted, 
 every endeavor was put forth to save his wife. 
 When a woman accepted Christ, prayer and effort 
 were concentrated on her husband. A woman who 
 overheard her husband telling a neighbor that he 
 Avas going to join a Bible class exclaimed eagerly, 
 " I, too, want to be a Christian ! I would have stood 
 up to-day in the meeting when the invitation was 
 given if I had not been afraid that you would be 
 angry." The next day, this woman, her husband, 
 and mother-in-law all confessed faith in Christ, and 
 a new Christian home was established. 
 
 No campaign, however fruitful and inspiring, can 
 
THE CONQUERING CHURCH IN CHINA 199 
 
 take the place of continuous evangelism. As Dr. 
 Eddy himself said before leaving China last year, 
 " The meetings were only a passing incident, while 
 the personal work and steady efforts of Chinese 
 Christians to win their friends to Christ are the 
 important factors." 
 
 The Forward Evangelistic Movement 
 
 It was in the spring of 1913 that Dr. John R. 
 Mott came to China, and organized, as an after- 
 math of the Edinburgh Missionary Conference, the 
 China Continuation Committee. This interna- 
 tional and interdenominational Committee, which 
 is a rotating body of about sLj^ty members, foreign 
 and Chinese, meets annually to discuss nation- 
 wide missionary interests, evangelistic, medical, 
 and educational. It created the Forward Evan- 
 gelistic Movement Committee to do just what the 
 name indicates, give a new impulse to aggressive 
 evangelism. The times demanded it. The life of 
 the Church was sluggish and its growth slow. Too 
 many Christians were content to sit with folded 
 hands and drink in without giving out. They 
 lacked the energizing power of deep-rooted con- 
 victions and high-souled purpose, A spiritual bap- 
 tism was needed to rouse the Church from its 
 lethargy, and it came with the quest for souls. 
 
 The Forward Evangelistic Movement Commit- 
 tee, in addition to urging continuous evangelism 
 
20O NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 upon the churches, proposed that the work cul- 
 minate annually in a special week of evangelism, 
 when all the Christian forces should mobilize for a 
 united eflFort. The week immediately following 
 the China New Year, which comes in February, 
 was suggested as the best time for this work as 
 then the schools would be closed and the students 
 free. The date was left open to change wherever 
 local conditions made it desirable. There was at 
 once an encouraging response from the churches. 
 All China is feeling the onward and upward sweep 
 •f the movement. 
 
 In Training to Win Others 
 
 Careful plans are made each year in advance for 
 the great week. Normal classes and personal 
 workers' groups are formed, church members, who 
 have never known what it was to lead a soul to 
 Christ, are patiently instructed; cottage meetings 
 are held; special music is practised; literature to be 
 distributed is sorted and studied; and, above all, 
 unceasing prayer ascends to God for his blessing. 
 The morning after New Year's day the workers in 
 each center gather, a final petition is offered and 
 then the flood gates are thrown open ! Meetings 
 are held in chapels, shops, temples, on the streets 
 and in private houses. Personal interviews are 
 sought; tracts and Bibles sold. The aim is to put a 
 Bible in every house, or as one of the evangelists 
 
THE CONQUERING CHURCH IN CHINA 201 
 
 expressed it, " The British and American Tobacco 
 Company have taken as their aim, 'A cigaret in 
 the hands of every man, woman, and child in 
 China ! ' why can't we make ours, ' A Bible in the 
 hands of every man, woman, and child? ' " 
 
 The workers' watchword is, " Every church 
 member, young and old, a soul-winner," — if not 
 in a large way, at least among one's own kindred 
 where the only training necessary is a genuine heart 
 experience. Personal workers have it constantly 
 impressed upon them that they must seek first to 
 win to Christ the non-Christian members of their 
 families. When an Episcopal deaconess in China 
 was asked by her bishop what examination she 
 would suggest giving to some catechists wha 
 wished to be advanced, she promptly replied, " An 
 examination on their families ! " She meant that 
 the real test of efficiency was the kind of evangel- 
 istic work the catechists had been doing in their 
 homes. 
 
 Many boarding-school students return to their 
 home villages or towns for the Week of Evan- 
 gelism and in this way the gospel message is car- 
 ried to places where it would not otherwise be 
 heard. Thrilling reports are sent back of hungry 
 souls listening spell-bound to the story of Jesus, 
 begging for " more " and still " more," till it is 
 often one and two o'clock in the morning before 
 they reluctantly disperse. 
 
 Charles Kingsley has said that " Action paves 
 
202 
 
 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 the way for motive almost as much as motive for 
 action." If any begin the Week of Evangelism a 
 little half-heartedly, and there are always some 
 who do, they quickly catch the contagion from 
 Spirit-filled lives; the work itself does the rest. 
 
 PROGRESS OF THE CHINESE CHURCHES 
 During years 1914-1917 
 
 Ordatued Pastors ceach section— 1,000) 
 
 «0 
 S<4 
 
 IS,I94 
 
 30.460 
 21.753 
 23,345 
 
 253.310 
 2«S,6S2 
 293,139 
 312.970 
 
 Communicant members teacn section -10.000) 
 
 ^ 
 
 Simdav Suhooi Scholars (•acta section— 10.000) 
 — BH 
 
 From China Mission Year Book, ip/5. 
 
 Only the Chinese Can Evangelise China 
 
 China is going to be won for Christ — gloriously 
 won. But ultimately it must be through her own 
 people. Even if it were conceivable that enough 
 
THE CONQUERING CHURCH IN CHINA 203 
 
 missionaries could be sent to China to evangelize 
 400,000,000, foreigners are hampered and handi- 
 capped in countless ways . 
 
 In the most critical stage of the meetings which 
 Dr. Eddy held in Nanking, in 1916, he was taken 
 sick. The leaders were dismayed. Mass meetings 
 had been advertised for every afternoon and even- 
 ing. They could not be given up. But what was 
 to be done? It was finally decided to ask several 
 Chinese in Shanghai and Hangchow to help out. 
 They were telegraphed for and came. The crowd 
 at night gathered as usual and packed the building. 
 One after another the Chinese spoke, telling the 
 story of their own conversion and pleading with 
 impassioned earnestness for their hearers to accept 
 Christ. The audience fairly held its breath to 
 listen ; the place was stirred as by a mighty, rush- 
 ing wind, and scores expressed a desire to study 
 the Bible. That meeting was a revelation to the 
 foreigners. 
 
 Once while I was on an evangelistic trip with an 
 American and a Chinese, we stopped in a town at 
 sunset to hold an out-door meeting. The people 
 gathered around us, shopkeepers, policemen, cool- 
 ies, teachers, and mothers with babies in their arms. 
 The foreigner spoke first. She was a gifted, ex- 
 perienced evangelist; she threw her whole soul 
 into her message, and the crowd listened with deep 
 attention. Then the Chinese woman stepped for- 
 ward. She was so short she had to stand on a 
 
204 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 table to see and be seen. Hardly had she uttered 
 her first sentence before a new light broke over 
 the faces around her and the people pressed closer 
 so as not to lose a word. Presently a man said 
 aloud, " She is one of us! She is Chinese! " 
 
 Yes, that was just it, she was Chinese. And 
 missionaries, though they may have lived long in 
 China, may understand the people well, and speak 
 the language fluently, are in the end still — 
 foreigners. 
 
 The Development of a Chinese Church 
 
 " The Conquering Church in China," I have 
 called this chapter because that is the church's 
 mission and character, conquering and to conquer. 
 It has many elements of strength; it has some 
 defects. But the church is young and because it is 
 young it is plastic. God grant that in these critical 
 times, when, as a Chinese scholar expressed it, 
 " The atmosphere is aquiver with the spirit of 
 change," the church may be set in the right mold ! 
 
 The trend of the church is more and more away 
 from foreign control and toward an independent 
 organization, self-supporting and self-governing. 
 This is not because of a dislike for foreigners, but 
 it springs from a conviction that the time has now 
 come when the Chinese are in a position to move 
 forward and assume larger leadership. The call 
 is for an indigenous church, not one imported; for 
 
A group of the clergy at the consecration of Bishop Tsae Seng 
 Sing of the Anglican Church. This first Chinese bishop is the 
 son of a clergyman and the father of three missionaries. 
 
THE CONQUERING CHURCH IN CHINA 205 
 
 a religious life adapted to the psychology of the 
 Far East. Dr. C. Y. Cheng, Chinese Secretary of 
 the China Continuation Committee, splendidly 
 voiced the general thought in a paper he read last 
 summer at a missionary conference. " Christianity 
 in China," he said, " will become Chinese Chris- 
 tianity. We are to present Jesus Christ to the 
 people not as a Jewish Messiah, or a European 
 Christ, but as a real Chinese Savior." 
 
 There are in China a few congregations, of com- 
 paratively recent date, known as the " Chinese 
 Christian Church." Some speak of them as the 
 " Independent Church." The Chinese say this 
 name is misleading inasmuch as foreigners are wel- 
 comed in the councils of these churches in an 
 advisory capacity. Nor do they like another term 
 sometimes used, the " National Church," for as the 
 leaders explain, " While we sincerely hope for a 
 truly indigenous church free from foregin control, 
 every believer in Christ, no matter of what nation- 
 ality, has a right in the Chinese Church." This 
 group of churches has attracted to it many of the 
 best and most influential men and women in North 
 China. In Tientsin the present church building has 
 grown too small for the congregation and a new 
 and more commodious one is to be erected. Many 
 Chinese believe that these churches will lead the 
 movement for a thoroughly indigenous Chinese 
 church. 
 
 The self-supporting and self-governing churches 
 
2o6 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 in central and southern China in most cases retain 
 their denominational connections with the bodies 
 which keep their western names — Anglican, Bap- 
 tist, Presbyterian, Methodist, and Lutheran. In 
 October, 1918, in the Episcopal " Church of our 
 Savior " in Shanghai, the first Chinese bishop was 
 consecrated. It was a most impressive service; 
 the laying on of hands being by seven foreign 
 bishops, English, Canadian, and American ; the 
 sermon was preached by a Chinese. The ne.v 
 bishop is the son of a clergyman and has two sons 
 in the ministry, and one who is a missionary doctor. 
 
 The Chinese Church Will Be a Missionary Church 
 
 Whether the Chinese church of the future is to 
 be denominational or interdenominational, that is, 
 composed of several denominations whose church 
 affiliations naturally draw them together, only time 
 can determine; but it is certain to be self-organiz- 
 ing, self-supporting, and self-governing. The ques- 
 tion to-day of vital moment is, "Will it be self-propa- 
 gating? That can be best answered by asking 
 another question — Will it be permeated with the 
 evangelistic and missionary spirit? From all the 
 present signs we can unreservedly answer, " Yes ! " 
 
 In mission churches where foreign influence is 
 still largely felt more of the work is being relegated 
 to the Chinese. At first it was necessary for mis- 
 sionaries to carry it, and the Chinese were content 
 
THE CONQUERING CHURCH IN CHINA 207 
 
 to let them, but of late they have been growing 
 restive under overmuch foreign supervision. Mis- 
 sionaries cannot be spared. Never were they so 
 indispensable as now to give encouragement, ad- 
 vice, and loving sympathy. As a mother whose 
 little child is learning to walk stands near with 
 outstretched arms ready to catch it if it starts to 
 fall, so missionaries must be on the alert to give 
 help when needed but keep their hands ofif if the 
 infant church can walk alone. 
 
 A new emphasis must be put on self-support. 
 The Chinese are generous givers, even the poor. 
 Non-Christians contribute without stint to their 
 heathen worship and Christians are just as ready 
 to give to the support of the church. It is merely 
 a matter of training. Only very recently a promi- 
 nent Chinese layman said to me, " We are grateful 
 to our foreign friends for contributions to our work, 
 but we like to feel that the responsibility for its 
 support rests upon us. That is what gives our 
 people a genuine interest in it." I have been told 
 by some Chinese that they refrained from joining 
 a mission church for fear if they did their motive 
 would be misconstrued and they be taken for rice 
 Christians. 
 
 The Training of Christian Leaders 
 
 The church needs an educated ministry. The 
 time was, when any Christian man who expressed 
 a willingness to preach was gladly welcomed by 
 
2o8 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 the missionaries. Many of these poor fellows, with 
 little education and less theological training, stum- 
 bled along blindly doing perhaps the best that they 
 could, but sometimes making pretty sorry work of 
 their calling, I once listened to a singular address 
 by the pastor of a large church in an inland city. It 
 was on the occasion of a Sunday afternoon meeting 
 for men and the building was crowded to the doors 
 with a fine, intelligent-looking audience. I ex- 
 pected a strong, evangelistic appeal, but, instead, 
 this is the substance of what I heard : " Foreign- 
 ers have brought many useful things to China, the 
 telegraph, the telephone, the railroad. These are 
 all good. The foreigners have also brought the 
 Western religion and that, too, is good. How many 
 of you will accept it? " It was not surprising that 
 the response was small. 
 
 China has Bible institutes for training students 
 with a moderate education to be preachers and 
 evangelists, and men of this class will always be in 
 demand for country churches. There are theolog- 
 ical seminaries whose course is fuller and entrance 
 requirements considerably higher. Plans are now 
 being made further to raise the standards in the- 
 ological training so as to have some schools which 
 admit college graduates only, and offer as complete 
 a course as any similar institution in the West. 
 While a short time ago not many of the well- 
 educated and promising young men were drawn to 
 the ministry, now some of the best are joining its 
 
THE CONQUERING CHURCH IN CHINA 209 
 
 ranks. Training in the schools leads men to drop 
 the old-style, discursive harangue, and teaches 
 them how to drive the truth home in a direct, 
 practical Vi^ay. They are taught the social appli- 
 cation of Christianity, and this is a subject which 
 every student before going into the work should 
 thoroughly master, not only theoretically but by 
 practical experience. Hundreds of country pastors 
 and some city ones, think their duty is done when 
 they have held two services on Sunday and a mid- 
 week prayer-meeting. The idea of making their 
 field a force is utterly foreign to their conception. 
 A few city churches are beginning to take on insti- 
 tutional features. The Union Cantonese Church 
 (independent), of Shanghai, supports a day-school 
 for boys and girls; has a reading room, a kinder- 
 garten, a young men's club, and a small dispensary, 
 which is open on two afternoons a week. Some 
 mission churches have become active social cen- 
 ters. Social work is greatly needed in the country, 
 but not much can be done till more men and women 
 are trained to direct it. 
 
 Preparing Chinese Women for Christian Service 
 
 With some notable exceptions, the pastor's wife 
 as an influence for good in the parish is just begin- 
 ing to be felt. The number of bound-footed, illit- 
 erate, non-Christian wives, whom preachers mar- 
 ried because they had been betrothed to them in 
 
210 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 childhood, is rapidly lessening. The Bible study 
 and social service which are now to be found as a 
 part of the curriculum of every mission school are 
 instilling new ideals into the hearts and minds of 
 the girls who will be the ministers' wives of to- 
 morrow. 
 
 The other day I met a Bible woman who was a 
 high school graduate. Do you wonder what there 
 is strange about that? Well, the type is so differ- 
 ent from the average Bible woman of former days 
 that it makes the fact worth mentioning. A sort of 
 reproach used to attach to Bible women's training 
 schools because most of the women attending them 
 were old, ignorant, and uncouth, — Christians, of 
 course, but often without much else to recommend 
 them. Now students found in these schools are 
 far younger, brighter, and more capable. The very 
 name " Bible Woman," has been changed to " Bible 
 Evangelist." The two Union Bible training 
 schools, one In Peking and the other in Nanking, 
 which offer advanced courses in Bible study, enroll 
 among their pupils some of the finest and best 
 educated young women in China. 
 
 The literacy of the church is going to be raised. 
 I have spoken in a previous chapter of the new 
 phonetic system of writing and what it will mean 
 in the evangelization of China. Effort is now being 
 made to teach all illiterate Christians to read and 
 it is hoped that they in turn will teach the new 
 converts. 
 
THE CONQUERING CHURCH IN CHINA 211 
 
 Winning and Holding the Returned Students 
 
 An educated ministry and a less illiterate mem- 
 bership will help largely to solve the acute problem 
 of drawing into their church the students returned 
 from other countries. How is the church to 
 win and hold these splendid young people upon 
 whom depends to a great extent the future weal or 
 woe of China? China does not want class churches 
 but, on the other hand, educated men and women 
 are not attracted to churches where there is noth- 
 ing for them in the sermon and in which they find 
 no congenial social life. Then, too, there are the 
 Christian officials and gentry who are becoming 
 more and more an appreciable factor in the 
 churches, and whose interests must not be over- 
 looked. In some cities the returned students have 
 organized a Sunday Service League where an 
 afternoon service is held with an interesting 
 speaker and stirring music. This is good but it is 
 not an adequate substitute for membership in the 
 church. 
 
 The Christian church in China must be a united 
 church. This does not mean that the organic union 
 of all denominations is necessary, but that the sep- 
 arate branches shall be drawn into close fellow- 
 ship by the bond of great mutual interests. In 1917 
 when there was a strong movement in China to 
 make Confucianism the state religion, for the first 
 time in its history, the church took concerted ac- 
 
212 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 tion and sent three separate protests to parliament. 
 Political leaders said that no political party had 
 ever exerted such influence. The national evan- 
 gelistic campaigns and the special week of evangel- 
 ism have done much to draw the churches together. 
 
 A New Chinese Missionary Movement 
 
 A movement which was begun in 1918 promises 
 to cement the bond as probably nothing else could 
 do. Lily Valley, nestling among the mountains of 
 Central China, is the Northfield or Silver Bay of 
 China. During the three years that Lily Valley 
 has been opened, many inspiring gatherings have 
 been held there, but of them all none will be remem- 
 bered like the Personal Workers' Conference of 
 1918. At that gathering, with the political state 
 of the country at low ebb, and the hearts of the 
 Chinese heavy with forebodings, it was borne in 
 upon the conscience of the Conference members 
 that the church had a very real duty to perform 
 in influencing national public opinion and arousing 
 patriotism. A committee of Chinese was appointed 
 to raise annually a large fund to be used in educat- 
 ing the Christian community in their civil respon- 
 sibilities and in appealing to all classes to put the 
 interests of the nation before their private interests. 
 
 That was a notable forvirard step, but there was 
 another equally important thing done at this con- 
 ference. A little group of Chinese women were 
 one afternoon praying together when it suddenly 
 
THE CONQUERING CHURCH IN CHINA 213 
 
 came to them as if it were the voice of God speak- 
 ing, that while trying to save the souls of those in 
 their immediate vicinity, they must not forget the 
 unevangelized provinces in the distant parts of 
 China. They brought the matter up at the next 
 meeting of the Conference. The immediate and 
 heartfelt response vv^as evidence that the thought 
 had been divinely inspired. A committee was at 
 once appointed to consider ways and means of 
 starting work. When it brought in its report the 
 enthusiasm rose to white heat. The following plan 
 was finally adopted : Missionary work was to be- 
 gin in the province of Yunnan in the southwestern 
 part of the country, an enormous territory without 
 one ordained Chinese preacher or a single foreign- 
 trained Chinese doctor. Two small volunteer 
 bands, one of men and one of women, were to start 
 for Yunnan in February, spend a year studying the 
 field, the people, and the best means of approach; 
 then return to report upon the work. After that a 
 National Missionary Society of China would be 
 organized and missionaries be regularly appointed 
 and sent out. One earnest girl, a graduate of the 
 North China Union Woman's College, has already 
 asked to go. The Committee reporting, volun- 
 teered for a year to be financially responsible for 
 the Evangelistic Commission, and accepted as its 
 challenge, " That it is yet to be seen what God can 
 do in and for and with and through a ' group ' com- 
 posed of individuals wholly consecrated to Him." 
 
J3I4 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 A PIONEER HOME MISSIONARY 
 ENTERPRISE 
 
 The Province of Yunnan 
 
 "Where Chinese Christians are beginning their first missionary 
 
 work. 
 
 JEach square represents loo.cwo population. . , j- 
 
 The white cross indicates total Christian constituency mcludisg 
 non-communicants. 
 
 From China Mission Year Book, 1918. 
 
THE CONQUERING CHURCH IN CHINA 215 
 
 Looking Toward the Closed Lands Beyond 
 
 The report of what was done at the Conference 
 soon spread far and wide till it seemed as if all 
 China was talking about " The Yunnan Missionary- 
 Movement! " It was a work initiated by the Chi- 
 nese for the Chinese, and it instantly enhsted the 
 sympathy of the Chinese everywhere. The spirit- 
 ual life of the Church was sensibly quickened. In 
 one meeting sixty-nine young women, doctors and 
 teachers, consecrated themselves to Christian work, 
 either in Ytinnan, at home, or wherever they might 
 be called. Funds for the work began to be col- 
 lected, — not from foreigners, but Chinese. One 
 young woman quickly raised $1,900. A woman 
 who is interested in Christianity but whose hus- 
 band will not allow her to go inside a church, 
 brought two dollars to one of the collectors; soon 
 she returned with all her carefully hoarded savings, 
 one hundred dollars. Several government school 
 teachers earning sixty dollars a month plan to live 
 on ten and give the rest. Schoolgirls are walking 
 to and from school and saving their ricksha money 
 for their mite boxes. One thousand mite boxes 
 were distributed at a single meeting in Canton. 
 The boxes are empty cigaret tins neatly covered 
 with printed paper which explains their use. On 
 the upper side is a picture of the cross. 
 
 In a few weeks the little band of seven, four 
 women and three men will start on their long 
 
2i6 NEW LIFE CURRENTS IN CHINA 
 
 journey. Hardships lie before them, and perhaps 
 danger. When this book is being read by its first 
 readers, the missionary pioneers will just be return- 
 ing to tell of their labors. May the churches in 
 western lands be much in prayer for these and for 
 their work! It is the promise and prophecy of 
 more wonderful victories yet to come. Already 
 the cry is sounding forth, " On to the conquest of 
 Tibet! " God has set his seal upon the movement 
 and we believe he is going to " open the windows 
 of heaven and pour out such a blessing that there 
 shall not be room enough to contain it." 
 
 A few months ago I stood beside the grave of 
 Robert Morrison on the island of Macao, off the 
 southern coast of China. On a near-by eminence, 
 almost overshadowing the grave, there rose gaunt 
 against the blue sky the facade of a great cathe- 
 dral surmounted by a cross. All the rest of the 
 building was gone, — destroyed by fire long ago. 
 As I gazed on this cross, the first object to rivet my 
 attention on approaching the island, the last on 
 leaving it, the words repeated themselves to me 
 almost as if spoken audibly, " And I, if I be lifted 
 up, will draw all men unto me." The crucified and 
 risen Christ has been uplifted in China. Many 
 have beheld him and live. But vast multitudes, 
 millions pressing upon millions, have not seen, and 
 do not know his truths. Never has there come to 
 them the glad hope which is in him who said, 
 
 " I CAME THAT THEY MAY HAVE LIFE AND MAY 
 HAVE IT ABUNDANTLY." 
 
APPENDIX A 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 China in General 
 
 China an Interpretation, J. W. Bashford. 1916. Abingdon 
 Press, New York. $2.50. 
 
 The Democratic Movement in Asia, Tyler Dennett. 1918. Asso- 
 ciation Press, New York. $1.50. 
 
 The Gateway to China, Mary Ninde Gamewell. 1916. Fleming 
 H. Revell Company, New York. $1.50. 
 
 Men and Manners of Modern China, J. MacGowan. 1912. 
 
 Dodd, Mead & Co., New York. $3.50. 
 Drugging a Nation, the Story of China and the Opium Curse, 
 
 S. Merwin. 1908. Fleming H. Revell Company, New York. 
 
 $1.00. 
 Fanners of Forty Centuries, F. H. King. 191 1. F. H. King, 
 
 Madison, Wisconsin. $2.50. 
 Intellectual and Political Currents in the Far East, P. S. 
 
 Reinsch. 191 1. Houghton Miflflin Company, New York. $2.00. 
 Foreign Financial Control in China, T. W. Overlach. 1919. 
 
 Macmillan Company, New York. $2.00. 
 
 Women Workers of the Orient, Margaret E. Burton. 1918. 
 
 The Central Committee on the United Study of Missions, 
 
 West Medford, Mass. 42 cents. 
 China and Her People, 2 vols. Hon. Charles Denby. 1906. 
 
 L. C. Page Company, Boston. $3.00. 
 Camps and Trails in China, Roy Chapman Andrews and 
 
 Yvette Borup Andrews. 1918. D. Appleton & Co., New 
 
 York. $3.00. 
 China and the World War, W. R. Wheeler. 1919. Macmillan 
 
 Company, New York. $1.75. 
 The Fight for the Republic in China, B. L. Putnam Weale 
 
 (pseud.), 1917. Dodd, Mead & Co., New York. $3.50. 
 China from Within, C. E. Scott. 1917. Fleming H. Revell 
 
 Company, New York. $1.75. 
 The Changing Chinese, E. A. Ross. 1912. The Century Com- 
 pany. New York. $2.40. 
 
 217 
 
2i8 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Sun Yat Sen, James Cantlie and C. Sheridan Jones. 1912. 
 
 Fleming H. Revell Company. New York. $1.25. 
 The Chinese at Home, J. Dyer Ball. 1912, Fleming H. Revell 
 
 Company, New York. $2.00. 
 
 Changing China, Rev. Lord William Gascoyne-Cecil and Lady 
 
 Florence Cecil. 1912. D. Appleton & Co., New York. $2.00. 
 Glimpses of China and Chinese Homes, Edward S. Morse. 
 
 1903. Little, Brown & Co., Boston. $1.50. 
 Ancient Peoples at New Tasks, Willard Price. 1918. Missionary 
 
 Education Movement, New York. 75 cents. 
 China and the Far East (Clark University Lectures). Edited 
 
 by Geeorge H. Blakeslee. 1910. Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., 
 
 New York. $3.00. 
 Chinese Characteristics, Arthur H. Smith. 1894 Fleming H. 
 
 Revell Company, New York. $2.00. 
 Contemporary Politics in the Far East, Stanley K. Hornbeck. 
 
 1916. D. Appleton & Co., New York. $3,00. 
 
 The Lore of Cathay, W. A. Martin. 1901. Fleming H .Revell 
 Company, New York. $2.50. 
 
 Village Life in China, Arthur H. Smith. 1899. Fleming H. 
 Revell Company, New York. $2.00. 
 
 China's New Day, I. Headland. 1912. The Central Committee 
 on the United Study of Missions, West Medford, Mass. 50 
 cents. 
 
 Whe New Era in Asia, Sherwood Eddy. 1913. Missionary Edu- 
 cation Movement, New York. 50 cents. 
 
 Notable Women in China, Margaret E. Burton. 1912. Fleming 
 H. Revell Company, New York. $1.25. 
 
 Foreign Magic, Jean Carter Cochran. 1919. Missionary Educa- 
 tion Movement, New York. $1.50. 
 
 China Inside Out, George A. Miller. 1917. The Abingdon Press, 
 New York. $1.00. 
 
 The Chinese Revolution, Arthur J. Brown. 1912. Student 
 Volunteer Movement, New York. 75 cents. 
 
 Religions 
 
 Religion in China, J. J. M. De Groot. 1910. MacmiUan Com- 
 pany, New York. $1.50. 
 
 The Religions of China, James Legge. 1881. Charles Scribner's 
 Sons, New York. $1.50. 
 
 Historical Development of Religion in China, W. J. Clennel. 
 
 1917. E. P. Button & Co., New York $2,00. 
 
 Nestoiian Movement in China, P. Y. Saeki. 1916. E. S. Gorham, 
 New York. $4.20. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 219- 
 
 Three Religions of China, W. S. Soothill. 1913. George H. 
 Doran Company, New York. $1.50. 
 
 Education 
 
 The Chinese System of Education, P. W. Kuo. 1915. Teachers 
 
 College, Columbia University, New York. $1.50. 
 Education of the Women of China, Margaret E. Burton. 191 1. 
 
 Fleming H. Revell Company, New York. $1.25. 
 Students of Asia, Sherwood Eddy. 1915. Student Volunteer 
 
 Movement, New York. 50 cents. 
 The Educational Conquest of the Far East, Robert E. Lewis.- 
 
 1903. Fleming H. Revell Company, New York. $1.00. 
 
 Medical 
 
 Medicine in China. 1914. China Medical Commission of the- 
 Rockefeller Foundation, 61 Broadway, New York. Gratis. 
 
 Breaking Down Chinese IValls, E. J. Osgood. 1908. Fleming 
 H. Revell Company, New York. $1.00. 
 
 Life, Letters, and Journals of the Rev. and Hon. Peter Parker,. 
 G. B. Stevens and W. F. Markwick. 1896. Congregational 
 Sunday School Publishing Company, Boston. $1.50. 
 
 A Crusade of Compassion for the Healing of the Nations, com- 
 piled by Belle J. Allen, M.D. Edited by Caroline Atwater 
 ^ Mason. 1919. The Central Committee on the United Study 
 of Missions, West Medford, Mass. So cents. 
 
 Missions 
 
 China Mission Year Book, igi8. Missionary Education Move- 
 ment, New York. $2.50. 
 
 The Uplift of China, A. H. Smith. 1912. Missionary Educa- 
 tion Movement, New York. 50 cents. 
 
 Mission Problems and Mission Methods in South China, J. C.- 
 Gibson. Flemuig H. Revell Company, New York. $1.50. 
 
 Calvin Wilson Mateer, D. W. Fisher. 191 1. Westminster 
 Press, Philadelphia. $1.50. 
 
 The Emergency in China, F. L. Hawks Pott. 1913. Missionary 
 Education Movement, New York. 75 cents. 
 

 APPENDIX B 
 
 
 
 Area and Population 
 
 
 The i8 Provinces 
 
 Area: 
 English 
 
 Population 
 
 Capital 
 (Seat of 
 Tutuh) 
 
 of China Proper 
 
 square 
 miles 
 
 (Estimated) 
 
 Chihli 
 
 115,800 
 
 22,970,000 
 
 Tientsin 
 
 Shantung 
 
 55,970 
 
 25,810,000 
 
 Tsinan 
 
 Shansi 
 
 81,830 
 
 9,420,000 
 
 Tyuen 
 
 Honan 
 
 67,940 . 
 
 22,375,000 
 
 Kaifeng 
 
 Kiangsu 
 
 381,600 
 
 15,380,000 
 
 Nanking 
 
 Anhui 
 
 54,810 
 
 14,075,000 
 
 Anking 
 
 Kiangsi 
 
 69,480 
 
 16,255,000 
 
 Nanchang 
 
 Chekiang 
 
 36,670 
 
 13,950,000 
 
 Hangchow 
 
 Fukien 
 
 46,320 
 
 8,560.000 
 
 Foochow 
 
 Hupeh 
 
 71,410 
 
 21,260,000 
 
 Wuchang 
 
 Hunan 
 
 83,380 
 
 20,580,000 
 
 Changsha 
 
 Shensi 
 
 75.270 
 
 6,725,000 
 
 Hsian 
 
 Kansu 
 
 125,450 
 
 3,8ro,ooo 
 
 Lanchow 
 
 Szechuan 
 
 218,480 
 
 54,500,000 
 
 Chengtu 
 
 Kwangtung 
 
 99,970 
 
 23,700,000 
 
 Canton 
 
 Kwangsi 
 
 77,200 
 
 5,425,000 
 
 Kweilin 
 
 Kweichau 
 
 67,160 
 
 9,265,000 
 
 Kwei3rang 
 
 Yunnan 
 
 146,680 
 1,532,420 
 
 8,053,000 
 
 Yiinnan 
 
 Total 
 
 302,110,000 
 
 
 New Dominion : — 
 
 
 
 Tihuafu 
 
 (Urumchi) 
 
 Hsinchiang 
 Dependencies : — 
 
 550,340 
 
 2,000,000 
 
 Manchuria 
 
 363,610 
 
 5,830,000 
 
 
 Fengtien 
 
 Mukden 
 
 Kirin 
 
 
 5,350,000 
 
 Kirin 
 
 Heilungchiang 
 
 
 1,560,000 
 
 Tsitsihar 
 
 
 12,740,000 
 
 
 Mongolia 
 
 1,367,600 
 
 1,800,000 
 
 Urga 
 
 Tibet 
 
 463,200 
 3,913.560 
 
 2,000,000 
 
 Lhasa 
 
 Grand Total.. 
 
 320,650,000 
 
 
 220 
 
APPENDIX B 221 
 
 The figures of population on page 220 were published in the 
 Chinese Government Gazette, Feb. 27, 1911. Concerning them 
 the Statesman's Year Book for 1918 comments as follows : 
 
 " In 1912, Mr. Rockhill, formerly American Minister at Peking 
 — a recognized authority — after careful inquiry came to the con- 
 clusion that ' this document, though showing complete ignorance 
 of the methods now nearly universally followed in vital statistical 
 reports, throws considerable light on the question of China's 
 population, and seems entitled to more confidence than the 
 enumerations which have heretofore appeared.' He believed that 
 the population of China, Manchuria, and Chinese Turkestan, i.e., 
 the Chinese Republic exclusive of Tibet and Mongolia, appeared 
 to be in round numbers 350,000,000, new information having 
 confirmed the opinion reached by him in former studies of the 
 same subject that the population of China ' is much smaller than 
 we have been led to believe, and that in the last century it has 
 been increasing very slowly if at all '." 
 
222 APPENDIX C 
 
 IMPORTANT EVENTS IN MODERN CHINESE HISTORY 
 
 A.D. 
 
 1275 Marco Polo arrived at Court of Kublai Khan. 
 
 1516 Portuguese arrived at Canton. 
 
 157s Spanish arrived at Canton. 
 
 1580 Father Roger and Matteo Ricci entered Canton. 
 
 1622 Dutch arrived in China. 
 
 163s English arrived at Canton. 
 
 1660 Tea first carried to England. 
 
 1670 Beginning of trade with the East India Company. 
 
 1719 Beginning of commerce with Russia. 
 
 1784 First American merchant vessel left New York for China. 
 
 1834 Opium dispute begins. 
 
 1839 Beginning of war with Great Britain. 
 
 1842 August 29, treaty of peace signed at Nanking. 
 
 1844 July 3, first treaty between United States and China. 
 
 i860 October 13, British and French capture Peking. 
 
 1873 June 29, foreign ministers received by the Emperor. 
 
 187s Death of Emperor Tung Chi, and accession of Kuang Hsu. 
 
 1880 November 17, new treaty with the United States signed. 
 
 1887 February, assumption of government by the Emperor 
 
 Kuang Hsu. 
 
 1888 American exclusion acts against Chinese passed. 
 1891 Anti-foreign riots in the Yangtze valley. 
 
 1894 War with Japan, concluded in 1905. 
 
 1897 November, seizure of Kiaochow by Germany. 
 
 1898 March, Russia leases Port Arthur of China. 
 1898 Reform edicts by the emperor. 
 
 1898 Counter edicts by the Empress Dowager, and dethrone- 
 
 ment of the Emperor. 
 
 1899 Rise of the Boxer movement. 
 
 1900 June 17, capture of Taku forts by the allies. 
 
 1900 June 20, murder of the German minister. Siege of the 
 
 legations in Peking. 
 
 1900 August 14, relief of the Peking legations by allies. 
 
 1900 August IS, flight of the court to Sianfu. 
 
 1900 September 9, signing of the peace protocol. 
 
 1902 January, return of the court to Peking. 
 
 1904 February 8 to September S, 1905, war between Japan and 
 
 Russia. 
 
 1905 December, dispatch of two imperial commissions to 
 
 America and Europe to study constitutional govern- 
 ment. 
 
 1905 Adoption of Occidental system of education. 
 
 1906 Issue of imperial edict against opium. 
 
 1907 Extension of educational privileges to women. 
 
 1909 Introduction of Provincial Councils. 
 
 1910 Meeting of National Assembly. 
 
 191 1 Beginning of the Revolution. 
 
 1912 Imperial decree of abdication by Manchu clan. 
 
APPENDIX C 223 
 
 1912 January I, Sun Yat-sen became provisional President at 
 Nanking. 
 
 1912 February 12, China becomes a Republic. 
 
 1912 February 14, Sun Yat-sen resigned the provisional presi- 
 dency. 
 
 1912 March 10, Yuan Shih-kai took oath as provisional Presi- 
 
 dent at Peking, uniting North and South. 
 
 1913 April 8, National Assembly met to form a Constitution. 
 
 1913 October 6, Yuan Shih-kai elected President. 
 
 1914 August 5, China asks United States to keep viar from 
 
 spreading to Far East. 
 
 1914 September, opium banned from fourteen provinces. 
 
 1915 May, "Twenty-one Demands" presented by Japan. 
 
 1915 December 11, Council of State urged President to assume 
 
 throne and declare himself Emperor. 
 
 1916 January 27, Province of Kweichau declared its inde- 
 
 pendence. 
 1916 March, Kwangsi declared its independence, followed by 
 
 other provinces. 
 1916 April 24, all civil authority surrendered to the Secretary 
 
 of State and Heads of Departments. 
 1916 June 6, Death of President Yuan Shih-kai. 
 
 1916 June 7, Vice-President Li Yuan-hung assumed presidency. 
 
 1917 February, new Constitution drafted. 
 
 1917 March 14, diplomatic relations with Germany severed. 
 
 1917 June 9, Chang Hsun demanded dissolution of Parliament. 
 
 1917 July I, Manchu boy-Emperor, Hsuan Tung, placed on 
 throne by Chang Hsun. 
 
 1917 July 12, Chang Hsun's troops routed in Peking; Repub- 
 lican flag raised over " Forbidden City." 
 
 1917 July 17, Li Yuan-hung refused to resume presidency. 
 
 1917 August I, Feng Kou-chang, acting President, assumed the 
 presidency. 
 
 191 7 August 14, war declared on Germany and Austria. 
 
 1918 May 4, Extraordinary Parliament at Canton passes resolu- 
 
 tion in favor of joint government with the Southern 
 
 provinces. 
 1918 September 4, Hsu Shih-chang elected President. 
 1918 October 3, Dr. Sun Yat-sen formally assumes office as 
 
 one of the Directors Southern Military Government. 
 1918 October 3, Southern Government declares war against 
 
 President-elect Hsu Shi-Chang. 
 1918 October 28, Japan submits to the Allied governments a 
 
 proposal for Allied mediation in China. 
 1918 November 14, delegates appointed to Peace Conference m 
 
 Europe. 
 
 1918 November 21, official celebration of the Allied Victory. 
 
 1919 January 14, Government burns $12,000,000 worth of opmm 
 
 purchased from Opium Combine. 
 1919 February 20, North and South China Peace Conference 
 opens at Shanghai. 
 
APPENDIX D 
 
 Educational Statistics of the Work of the Protestant 
 
 Missions in China for the Years. 1916 and 1917 
 
 Christian Teaching Force 
 
 Foreign Men 640 583 
 
 Foreign Women 831 683 
 
 Chinese Men 6,812 7,954 
 
 Chinese Women 2,783 3,039 
 
 Non-Christian Chinese Teachers 677 854 
 
 Kindergartens 
 
 Schools IIS 755 
 
 Pupils 3,196 3,497 
 
 Lower and Higher Elementary Schools 
 
 Schools 5,851 5,906 
 
 Teachers 8,037 8,444 
 
 Boys 105,637 100,382 
 
 Girls 47,794 52,096 
 
 Colleges of University Standing 
 
 Institutions 28 29 
 
 Male Students I,43S 1,653 
 
 Female Students 64 ga 
 
 Normal and Training Schools 
 
 Institutions 156 136 
 
 Male Students 1,376 1,284 
 
 Female Students 2,280 2,183 
 
 Theological Schools 
 
 Schools 31 42 
 
 Students 985 1,060 
 
 Industrial Training Institutions 
 
 Institutions 40 32 
 
 Male Students '708 488 
 
 Female Students ^701 519 
 
 In other Christian Schools 20,470 3i,570 
 
 Total under Christian Instruction 184,646 194,624 
 
 Chinese contributions toward educa- 
 tional work: fees for tuition, stu- 
 dents' board, and running expenses 
 
 (Mex.) $1,163,985 $1,379,614 
 
 For detailed statistics see China Mission Year B»ek, 1918. 
 • Incomplete figures. 
 
 224 
 
APPENDIX E 
 
 Medical Statistics of the Work of the Protestant Missions 
 
 IN China for the Years of 1915 1916 1917 
 
 Foreign Physicians 
 
 Male 277 267 270 
 
 Female 106 93 81 
 
 Chinese Physicians 191 172 212 
 
 Chinese Medical Assistants . . . 504 591 377 
 
 Trained Nurses 
 
 Foreign 142 154 162 
 
 Chinese (male and female) 734 924 8^5 
 
 Hospitals 
 
 Buildings 330 372 320 
 
 Beds 13,453 13,85s I3,7i2 
 
 In-patients 104,418 120,110 119,097 
 
 Major operations 23,920 32,216 29,675 
 
 Dispensaries 
 
 Buildings 223 328 318 
 
 Individuals treated i,S3S.84i 1,524,301 1,440,461 
 
 Itinerating Circuits 90 131 65 
 
 Individuals treated 60,179 94,654 26,931 
 
 Chinese contributions toward 
 
 medical work (Mex.) $502,742 $633,773 $862,086 
 
 For detailed statistics see China Mission Year Book, 1918. 
 
 225 
 
APPENDIX F 
 CLASSIFICATION OF CHINESE WORKERS ' 
 
 EMPLOYED BY THE CfflNESE CHXTECH 
 OR THE MISSIONS 
 
 ITAHGELISTIC EDUCATIOHAl UEDICIL 
 
 M sg u n u M i;i 
 ANGLICANS 
 
 BAPTISTS 
 
 CONGREGATIONALISTS 
 
 LUTHERANS 
 
 METHODISTS 
 
 PRESBYTERIANS 
 
 CHINA INLAND MISSION 
 
 OTHER SOCIETIES 
 
 TOTAL 1915 
 TOTAL 1916 
 TOTAL 1917 
 
 " China Mission Year Book, 1918. 
 
 226 
 
APPENDIX G 
 RELATVE OCCUPATION OF MISSION FIELDS * 
 
 PROTESTANT MISSIONARIES 
 
 AFRICA... 5,365 
 
 CHINA 5,750 
 
 INDIA .5,465 
 
 JAPAN 1,123 
 
 MISSIONARIES PER MILLION OF POPULATION 
 
 AFRICA 39 
 
 CHINA 18 
 
 INDL^ 17 
 
 JAPAN 19 
 
 NATIVE STAFF PER MILLION OF POPULATION 
 
 AFRICA 213 I 
 
 CHINA 49 
 
 INDIA 124 
 
 JAPAN 54| 
 
 COMMUNICANTS PER 10,000 OF POPULATION 
 
 AFRICA 53 
 
 CHINA 8 
 
 INDIA 18 
 
 JAPAN 14 
 
 'Prepared By Rev. D. J. Fleming, New York City. China 
 Mission Year Book, 1918. 
 
 227 
 
INDEX 
 
 Afforestation, plans for, 112-113 
 Agriculture, demonstrations, 118; 
 
 isMprovements, Ji6-i2» 
 American Board College, 68 
 American Board of Foreign Mis- 
 sions, sent Dr. Peter Parker, 30 
 American Protestant Episcopal 
 
 Board, missionary from, 92 
 American Presbyterian Board, Dr. 
 
 John G. Kerr of, 51 
 American Shipping Board, 126 
 Anti-opium Association, 103 
 Armjr and Navy Hospital. 67 
 Asiatic Petroleum Company, 129 
 
 B 
 
 Satlie, Joseph, work of, 113 
 
 Selgium, population, 94 
 
 BiUe Institutes, 208 
 
 Bible women, called evangelists, 210 
 
 Bishop, first Chinese, 206 
 
 Blue Bird Society. 92 
 
 Bondfield, Dr. G. H., quoted, 157 
 
 Boxer Indemnity. remitted by 
 
 United States. 137 
 Boxer Rebellion, 9, 89, 136, 165, 
 
 191 
 Boy Scouts, activities, 169; Red 
 
 Cross parade, 19 
 British and Foreign Bible Society, 
 
 '57 
 Bubonic plague, rats bought, 85 
 Bockman, Rev. Frank, work of, 196 
 
 Central Hospital, 57-59, 67 
 Changsha, governor of, 93; hos- 
 pital S3; school, 14s 
 Chang Po-ling, work of, 142 
 Chefoo, Deaf and Dumb School, 173 
 Cheng, Dr. C. Y., quoted, 205 
 Chengttt, a clean city, 89; Univer- 
 sity. I SI 
 Child, betrothal, 177-1S2; labor, 150, 
 
 174-175; welfare, j68 
 China, ancient, 6; new influences, 8- 
 
 10 : part in world war, 16-26 
 China Continuation Committee, 199, 
 
 205 
 
 China Medical Board, 38, 44-53 
 
 China Medical Commission, 46 
 
 China Medical Missionary Associa- 
 tion, 39, 74, 96 
 
 Chinese, etiquette, 34, 36, 148, 184; 
 evangelists, 53, 210; fortitude, 31; 
 mind, 70; women doctors, 38; 
 women, 184-187 
 
 Chuan Shao Ching, work of, 68 
 
 Church of Our Savior, 206 
 
 City, employs beggars to clean 
 streets, 89; model sanitary, 93; 
 walls taken down, 89 
 
 College of Imperial Surgeons, 59 
 
 Commercial Press, 164, 173 
 
 Committee on Public Information, 
 163 
 
 Confucius, 139, 153, 180 
 
 Confucianism. 211^ 
 
 Convenience Hospital, 65 
 
 Cornell University, graduate, jj6 
 
 Cotton Growing Association, 118 
 
 Crow. Carl, work of, 163 
 
 Campaigns, agricultural, ijS-121; 
 Eddy, evangelistic, I9S-I99, 203; 
 united war work, 19-20; Y. M. 
 C. A. anti-opium, 103; Y. M. 
 C. A. health, 93-99 
 
 Camp Fire Girls, 92 
 
 Canton, Christian College, 119; 
 comparison, 114; Convenience 
 Hospital, 6s; department stores, 
 126-127; public park, 90; Refuge 
 for Insane, 51 ; scene of first 
 medical work, 29-33; schoolgirls 
 jM-otected, 144-145; seat of tov- 
 ernment in South, 4; sent Dr. 
 Mary Stone, 78 
 
 Deaf and Dumb School, 173 
 Department stores, 126-127 
 
 Eddy, Dr. Sherwood, campaigns, 
 Missionary Confere»ce, 
 
 194-195. 203 
 Edinburgh Mis 
 
 199 
 
 Education, old system, 143; not 
 
 compulsory. 149 
 Emperor, 11-13, 8, 136 
 Empress Dowager, 9-zi, 136 
 Examination Halls, 134, 136, 143 
 
 239 
 
230 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Famine, 121 , . ^ 
 
 Far Eastern Champianship Gaines, 
 100 
 
 Floods, 107, IIS, 167; cause of, 
 III; relief committee, 112 
 
 Foochow. Christianity at, 132; hos- 
 pital patient, 33; University, 151 
 
 Foot-binding, 179 
 
 Foreign Powers, 9, 'S. '7, lol. 138 
 
 Forward Evangelistic Movement, 199 
 
 France, coolies in, 21-24 
 
 Infant, abandonment of, 178; eare 
 
 of. 86-87, 95-96 
 International Settlement in Snang- 
 
 hai, 85 
 
 Japan, war with, 8; politicians, 14- 
 16; twenty-one demands, 176 
 
 Johns Hopkins University, gradu- 
 ates, 68, 96 
 
 Joint Council on Public Health, 96 
 
 Ginling College, graduates, 151 
 Greene, Mr. Roger, quoted, 48 
 
 H 
 
 Hackett Medical College, 38 
 Halls of Benevolence, 63 
 Hangchow, Grand Canal, 121; help- 
 ers from, 203; home in, i8s; 
 Manchu City, 89; medicine fac- 
 tory, 64; prison, 171 , _. . 
 Hankow, called Chicago of China, 
 
 126; factory, 173; fire in, 89 
 Hanlin, government degree, 134 
 Han River at Hanyang, 126 
 Hanyang Steel and Iron Works, 
 126 . , 
 
 Happy Childhood, publication, i6s 
 Harbin, plague hospitals, 91; pneu- 
 monia deaths, 72 . 
 Hartford School of Missions, 196 
 Harvard University, graduate, 96 
 Hospitals, Army and Navy,. 67; 
 Central, 57-S9. 67; Convenience, 
 65; Government Women's, 70; 
 isolation, 68, 91; Kung Ye, 68; 
 Kwang Hua, 66; Methodist 
 Woman's, 49; military, 104; mis- 
 sion, 32, 76; Municipal, 59! 
 Peking, 66; Red Cross, 104; Uni- 
 versal Benevolence, 32 
 Homes for cripples, si 
 Hongkong, department stores at, 
 
 126-127 
 Howard, Dr. Leonora, work of, <,2 
 Hsianfu, refuge of Empress Dow- 
 ager, 10 , J . 
 Hsu Shi Chang, ordered opaum 
 
 burned, 10 i 
 Hua To, work of, 60 
 
 Imperial College of Surgeons, 59 
 Enperial Grain, 122 
 Imperial Granaries, 67 
 Imperial Mausoleum, 11 
 Imperial Tile Works, 47 
 Industrial development, os, I2S, 
 163: magazine, 164; workers, 172 
 
 Kaifeng, Board of Health, 90; High 
 
 School, 143 
 Kerr, Dr. John G., work of, 51 
 Kerr, Mrs., visit with, 51 
 Kiangnan Dock and Engineering 
 
 Company, 126 
 Kingsley, Charles, quoted, 201 
 Kiukiang, traveling pharmacy at, 7S 
 Kung Ye Hospital, 68 
 Kwang Hua Hospital, 66 
 Kwangtung, secures woman docter, 
 
 78-79 
 
 Labor Battalions, 17-25 
 Lily Valley, conferences at, 212 
 Lockhart Hall, coeducational, 48 
 Lockhart, William, work of, 31 
 London Missionary Society, 31 
 London University, graduate, 14s 
 
 M 
 Malay Peninsula, Chinese ia, 25, 
 
 147 
 Manchuria, pneumonia plague in, 
 
 72 
 Manchus, city of, 89; dynasty _ef, 
 
 II, 60; palace of, 47: education 
 
 under, 97 
 Manila. Chinese in, 24 
 Martin, Dr. W. A. P., quoted, 144 
 Martyrs. Chinese, 191-192 
 Martyrs Memorial Hall, 191 
 Medicine, old idea, 33, 62-64; pre- 
 ventive, 84 
 Mesopotamia, coolies in, 17 
 Methodist Woman's Hospital, 49 
 Military Hospitals, 104 
 Minister of Education, 97 
 Mission, doctors, 32; hospitals, 3a, 
 
 76; nurses, 32; salaries, 77; 
 
 schools for blind, 51 
 Morrison, Robert, work of, 30, 31, 
 
 192, 216 
 Mott, Dr. John R., work of, 199 
 
INDEX 
 
 231 
 
 Mt. Holyoke, graduate, 144 
 Municipal Hospital, 59 
 
 N 
 
 Nanchang, baby boxes, 1 78 ; day- 
 school teachers, 152 ; Normal 
 School. 144; prison, 170 
 
 Nankai High School, 142 
 
 Nanking, Bible Training School, 
 210; Board of Health, 90; classes 
 for midwives, 70; Eddy Campaign, 
 194; Ginling College, 151; Normal 
 School, 141, 148; Victory Cele- 
 bration, 19; University, 119 
 
 Nantungchow, textile school at, 147 
 
 National Medical Education Asso- 
 ciation, 74, 96 
 
 National Missionary Society, 213 
 
 New Year, Chinese, 200 
 
 Nieh, Mr., reclaims land, zi8 
 
 Nin^o, coolie from, 18 
 
 North China Union Woman's Col- 
 lege, 151, 213 
 
 North Manchunan Plague Preven- 
 tion Service, 91 
 
 Nurses^ trained, 41-44, 49, 71; 
 training school in Pdcing, 42 
 
 Opium, burning, loi ; crops, 104; 
 
 examination of, loz; problem, 
 
 100; war, 7 
 Oregon pine, 112 
 
 Parker, Peter, first hospital, 32; 
 first missionary, 30; opened China, 
 52; if return, 83 
 
 Paxon. Ruth. Y. W. C. A, secre- 
 tary, 198 
 
 Peace Conference, 17 
 
 Peking, changes in, 90; colleges, 
 48, 137-138, 141. i43i 151. 167. 
 168, 210; conferences, 155; courts 
 10; seat of government in North, 
 4; hospitals, 66; prisons, 170-171; 
 siege of, 10; telephone, 16 
 
 Personal Workers Conference, 212 
 
 Peter. Dr. W. W., work of, 93 
 
 Phonetic writing, 156, 164 
 
 Pneumonia plague, 50, 72 
 
 Pootung, burning of opium at, 102 
 
 Powell, Miss, quoted, 49 
 
 Premium Iron and Steel Corpora- 
 tion, 126 
 
 President Wilson's War Speech, 164 
 
 Prison reform, 170 
 
 Public health, 90-99, 163 
 
 Public opinion, 162, 164 
 
 Public press, 162 
 
 Purple Mountain, barren wastes on. 
 
 R 
 
 Railroads. 10, 83, 112, 121 
 
 Red Cross Socie^, 4, 18, 20, 104, 
 
 ]09 
 Refuges, flood victims, 109; insane, 
 
 si; lepers, 51 
 Republic, birth of, 3, 11 
 Roads, upkeep of, 122-123 
 Rockefeller Foundation, 44-53 
 Revolution, 9-13, 89, 138, 170 
 
 Sammons, Mr. Thomas, American 
 
 Consul-General, 1 03 
 Sanitation, need of, 87-89, 90 
 Schools, government, 138; inspec- 
 tors, 138; mission, 152; normal, 
 141; old-style, 139; practise, 140; 
 technical, 146; vocational, 147 
 Shan|:hai, Boy Scouts, 19, 169; 
 China Medical Board, 46; Church 
 of Our Savior, 206; electric car 
 line, 89; International Settlement, 
 8s; leaders from, 203; Martyrs 
 Memorial Hall, 191; medical work, 
 31; mills, 175; newspapers, 162- 
 163; opium, loi; Union Cantonese 
 Church, 209; railroad, 125; Red 
 Cross Society, 18; reformatory at, 
 173; schools, 147-148; ships, 126; 
 Dr. Woo, center for work, 96 
 Shantung, laborers, 24; population, 
 
 94; roads, 123 
 Shun Pao. publication, 162-163 
 Sincere Company, store of, 127- 
 
 128 
 Smith. Dr. Arthur H., quoted, 3 
 Social Service, 166-167, 175 
 Soochow, scene of first dissection. 
 
 50; doctors, 75; nurses, 75 
 jtandard Oil Company, 129 
 Stone, Dr. Mary, work of, 78 
 
 Students, returned, 7-8, 91* i54-i56> 
 
 211 
 Sunday Service League, 211 
 Sun Yat-sen, Dr., resigned, 13 
 
 Tao, Mr., work of. 116 
 
 Temple of Heaven, 12 
 
 Tientsin. Chinese Church at, 205; 
 floods, 107, 111; massacre, 52; old 
 ideas, 180; opium, 103; prisons, 
 171-172; railroads, s. ^OJ reform- 
 ers of, 1 73, 1 76 ; schools, 141- 
 142; woman doctor, 36 
 
 Tsao, Dr., quoted^ 70 
 
 Tsinanfu, university at, 151 
 
 Tungchow, American Board Col- 
 lege at, 68_ . , X 
 
 Twenty-one Demands of Japan, 176 
 
233 
 
 INDEX 
 
 U 
 
 Union SiMe Training Schools, 3i6 
 Union Cantonese Church, 209 
 Union Woman's College, 49 
 United War Work, 119 
 University of Nanking, 119 
 
 Victory Celebration, 19 
 
 W 
 
 War, European, 16-26; Japan, 8; 
 
 opium, 7; President Wilson's 
 
 speech, 164 
 Water-ways, 121-122 
 Week of Evangelism, 200-202 
 Whangpoo River, opium kilns, 102; 
 
 ship-building, j 25 
 Wing On Company, store of, 127 
 IVoman's Messenger, publication 
 
 1 6s 
 Woman's Union Medical College, 39 
 }Vomen'5 Home Journalt publication 
 
 X65 
 
 Woo. Dr. S. M-, work oi, 06 
 
 Wu Lien Teh, Dr., work ef, 57, 91 
 
 Wusih, factories, 125 
 
 Yale-in>China Hospital, 5%, 6S 
 Yangtsze Engineering Works, 172 
 Yangtsze River, steel mills on, 126; 
 turbid waters of, z 1 1 : wreck in, 
 i6« 
 Yellow River, flood, no 
 Y. M. C. A., anti-opium campaign, 
 103 ;_ health campaign, 93-98; 
 physical training, 98; school or- 
 ganization. 142; secretary quoted, 
 i5S; work in war, 17, 22-23 
 Y. W. C. A., evangelistic campaign. 
 198; general work, 186; normal 
 school, 141; physical training, 
 98; social service, 175 
 Yuan Shih-Kai. president, 13 
 Yuen, Mr., work of, 142 
 Yui. Mr, David, quoted. 155 
 Yung Tao, Mr^ work of, 176 
 Yung Wing, Mr., work of, 7 
 Yunnan, missionary field, 213 
 
92° 94^ 96" 98° 100° 102° 104° 106° 108° 110° 112 
 
LIST OF MISSION BOARDS 
 AND CORRESPONDENTS 
 
 The Missionary Education Morement is conducted in behalf af tke 
 Foreign and Home Mission Boards and Societies of the United States aad 
 Canada. 
 
 Orders for literature on forei^ and home missions should be ad- 
 dressed to the secretaries representing those organizations, who are pre- 
 pared to furnish special helps to leaders of mission study classes and to 
 other missionary workers. 
 
 If the address of the secretary of the Foreign or Home Mission Board 
 or Society of your denomination is unknown, orders may be sent to the 
 Missionary Education Movement, All persons ordering from the Mission- 
 ary Education Movement are requested to indicate their denominations 
 when ordering. 
 Advedtt Chrxstxan — ^American Advent Mission Society, Rev. George E- 
 
 Tyler, i6o Warren Street, Boston, Mass. 
 Associate Reformed Presbyterian — Young People's Christian Union and 
 
 Sabbath School Work, Rev. J. W. Carson, Newberry, S. C. 
 Baptist (North)— American Baptist Home Mission Society, Rev. Charles 
 
 L. White, 23 East 26th Street, New York City. 
 American Baptist Foreign Mission Society, Rev. J. Y. Aitchison, Ford 
 
 Building, Boston, Mass. 
 The Woman's American Baptist Home Mission Society, Mrs. Katherine 
 
 S. Westfall, 29^9 Vernon Ave., Chicago, Illinois. 
 The Woman's American Baptist Foreign Mission Society, Mrs. W. A. 
 
 Montgomery, 144 Dartmouth St., Rochester, New York. 
 The American Baptist Publication Society, Rev. Gilbert N. Brink, 1701 
 
 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 
 Baptist (SoUTH)^Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Con- 
 vention, Rev. T. B. Ray, 8 North Sixth Street, Richmond, Va. 
 
 (Correspondence concerning both foreign and home missions.) 
 Baptist — Foreign Mission Board of the National Baptist Convention, Rev. 
 
 I*. G. Jordan, 701 South Nineteenth Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 
 Christian — The Mission Board of the Christian Cliurch: Foreign Missions, 
 
 Rev. M. T. Morrill: Home Missions, Rev. Omer S. Thomas, C. P. A. 
 
 Building, Dayton, Ohio. 
 Christian Reformed — Board of Heathen Missions, Rev. Henry Beets, 
 
 2050 Francis Avenue, S. E., Grand Rapids, Mich. 
 Church of the Brethren — General Mission Board of the Church of the 
 
 Brethren, Rev. J. H. B. Williams, Elgin, tllinois. 
 Congregational — Department of Missionary Education of Congregational 
 
 Education Society, Rev. Miles B. Fisher, Secretary, 14 Beacon Street, 
 
 Boston, Mass. 
 American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, Miss Mabel E. 
 
 Emerson, 14 Beacon Street. Boston, Mass. 
 American Missionary Aseociation, Rev. George L. C^dy, 287 Fourtli 
 
 Avenue. New York City. 
 The Congregational Home Missionary Society, Rev. William S. Beard, 
 
 287 Fourth Avenue, New York City. 
 
DisciPi.ES OF Christ — Foreign Christian Missionary Society, Rev. Bert 
 
 Wilson, Box. 884, Cincinnati, Oliio. 
 The American Christian Missionary Society, Mr. R. M. Hopkins, Carew 
 
 Building, Cincinnati, Ohio. 
 EvAHGELicAL ASSOCIATION — Missionary Society of the Evangelical Asso- 
 ciation, Rev. George Johnson, 1903 Woooland Avenue, S. E., Qeve- 
 
 land, Ohio. 
 Fbienss — American Friends Board of Foreign Missions, Mr. Ross A. 
 
 Hadley, Richmond, Ind. 
 Evangelistic and Church Extension Board of the Friends Five Years' 
 
 Meeting, Mr. Harry R. Keates, 1314 Lyon Street, Des Moines, Iowa. 
 German Evangelical — Foreign Mission Board, German Evangelical Synod 
 
 of North America, 1377 Main Street, Buffalo, N. Y. 
 Methodist Episcopal — Missionary Education in the Sunday School, Board 
 
 of Sunday Schools, 58 East Washington Street, Chicago, Illinois. 
 
 Address all other correspondence: Department Mission Study and 
 
 Christian Stewardship of the Epworth League, Dr. George F. Durgin, 
 
 740 Rush Street, Chicago, 111. 
 Methodist Episcopal (South) — The Educational Department of the 
 
 Board of Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Rev. 
 
 C. G. HounshelU 810 Broadway, Nashville, Tenn. (Correspondence 
 
 concerning both foreign and home missions.) 
 Methodist PeotestanT' — -Board of Foreign Missions of the Methodist 
 
 Protestant Church, Rev. Fred C. Klein, 316 North Charles Street, 
 
 Baltimore, Md. 
 Board of Home Missions of the Methodist Protestant Church, Rev. 
 
 Charles H. Beck, 507 Pittsburgh Life Building, Pittsburgh, Pa. 
 Moravian — The Deijartment of Missionary Education of the Moravian 
 
 Church in America, Northern Province, Rev. F. W. Stengel, Lititz, Pa. 
 The Norwegian Lutheran Church of America — Board of Foreign Mis- 
 sions of Lutheran Church of America, Rev. M. Saterlie, 435-429 S. 
 
 Fourth Street, Minneapolis, Minnesota. 
 Secretary of Home Mission Board, Rev. John Stenberg, 315 First 
 
 Avenue E., Duluth, Minnesota. 
 Presbyterian (U. S. A.) — The Board .of Foreign Missions of the Pres- 
 byterian Church in the U. S. A., Mr. B. Carter Millikin, Educational 
 
 Secretary, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City. 
 Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A., 
 
 Mr. E. Fred Eastman, Educational Director, 156 Fifth Avenue, New 
 
 York City. 
 Presbyterian (U. S.) — Executive Committee of Foreign Missions of the 
 
 Presbyterian Church in the U. S., Mr. John I. Armstrong, P. O. 
 
 Box 158, Nashville, Tenn. 
 General Assembly's Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the 
 
 U. S., Rev. S. L. Morris, 1522 Hurt Building, Atlanta, Ga. 
 Protestant Episcopal — The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of 
 
 the Protestant Episcopal Church in the U. S. A., Dr. W. C. Sturgis, 
 
 281 Fourth Avenue, New York City. 
 Reformed Church in America.— Board of Foreign Missions, Mr. F. M. 
 
 P»tter; Board of Domestic Missions, Mr. W. T. Demarest; Board 
 
 of Publication and Bible School Work, Rev. Abram Duryee, 25 East 
 
 Twenty-second Street, N. Y. C. 
 Reformed Church in the United States — Mission Study Department, 
 
 representing the Boards of Home and Foreign Missions, Rev. John 
 
 H. Poorman, 304 Reformed Church Building, Fifteenth and Race 
 
 Streets, Philadelphia, Pa. 
 United Brethren in Christ — Foreig[n Missionary Society, Bishop A. T. 
 
 Howard, 404 Otterbein Press Building, Dayton, Ohio. 
 Home Missionary Society, Miss Lyda B. Wiggim, Otterbein Press Build- 
 ing, Dayton, Ohio. 
 Young People's Work, Rev. O. T. Deever, Otterbein Press Building, 
 
 Dayton, Ohio. 
 United Evangelical — Home and Foreign Missionary Society of the United 
 
 Evangelical Church and Board of Church Extension, Rev. B. H. 
 
 Niebel, D. D., Evangelical Building, Harrisburg, Pa. 
 United Lutheran Church of America — Board of Foreign Missions, Rev. 
 
 Charles L. Brown, D. D., 21 West Saratoga Street, Baltimore, Mary- 
 land. 
 Board of Home Missions, Rev. H. H. Weber, D. D., York, Pa. 
 
United Presbyterian — Mission Study Department of the Board of Foreign 
 Missions of the United Presbyterian Church of North America, Miss 
 Anna A. Milligan, 200 North Fifteenth Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 
 Board of Home Missions of the United Presbyterian Church of North 
 America, Rev. R. A. Hutchinson, 209 Ninth Street, Pittsburgh, Pa. 
 
 Universalis! — Department of Missionary Education of the General Sunday 
 School Association, Rev. A. Gertrude Earle, Methuen, Mass. (Send 
 all orders for literature to Universalist Publishing House, 359 
 Boylston Street, Boston, Mass.) 
 
 CANADIAN BOARDS 
 
 Baptist — The Canadian Baptist Foreign Mission Board, 223 Church Street, 
 
 Toronto, Ontario. 
 Church of England — The Missionary Society of the Church of England 
 
 in Canada, Rev. Canon S. Gould, 131 Confederation Life Building, 
 
 Toronto, Ontario. 
 Congregational — Canada Congregational Foreign Missionary Society, Miss 
 
 Effie Jamieson, 23 Woodlawn Avenue, East, Toronto, Ontario. 
 Methodist — Young People's Forward Movement Department of the Mis- 
 sionary Society of the Methodist Church, Canada, Rev. F. C. 
 
 Stephenson, Wesley Building, 299 Queen Street, West, Toronto, 
 
 Ontario. 
 Presbyterian — ^Presbyterian Church ir Canada, Board of Foreign Missions, 
 
 Rev. A. E. Armstrong, 439 Confederation Life Building, Toronto, 
 
 Ontario. 
 
 Revised to 1919 
 

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