1 ASIA :J I gj H • Q it- 'ii : ! 1 ; 1 1 1 K jm H 1 -W>S' A>, HfoVS* •y-jy- > *r fciSf y^?*' CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY THE WASON CHINESE COLLECTION Cornell University Library DS 721. Y54 China and Japan :their similarities and 3 1924 023 507 662 Date Due *Y d* 23233 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023507662 CHINA and JAPAN THEIR SIMILARITIES AND DISSIMILARITIES by T. YOKOI Ex-Member House of Representatives and late President of the Doshisha University AAA From a paper read before the Japan Society of London May 9, 1917 Reprinted and distributed by Japan Society of New York 165 Broad-way New York (OK KM I I UN I VI. KM 1 Y l'l,H;AKY \0 OtA £ \ A W^$t>2- 1 CHINA AND JAPAN THEIR SIMILARITIES AND DISSIMILARITIES By T. Yokoi. Since coming to this great city of London — in which a small colony of few hundred people from Eastern Asia are so to speak submerged in a sea of Caucasian humanity — I have been more than ever reminded of the physiognomical similarities between the Chinese and the Japanese. Only the other day I was asked by an Englishman, sitting next to me in an underground car, if I was not Mr. Wang ! And from what he told me I gathered that he kept a coaching school preparing young men for Universities and that by mistake he took me for a friend of one of his Chinese students. That same day I happened to drop in a Chinese restaurant, where, sitting next to me at the same luncheon table, I saw two young men whom I took without a shadow of doubt for people hailing from the Middle Flowery Land. What was my surprise therefore when a moment later I heard them talking to each other, with faultless accent, in my own language. They were Japanese. So you see an Englishman who associated much with Chinese students took me for a Chinese and I, who ought to know, mistook these countrymen of mine for Chinese. Out there in Tokyo I used to think that in nine cases out of ten I could tell Chinese stu- dents — of whom there are many thousands — from their Japanese schoolmates. Certain minor peculiarities, as for instance the habit of keeping their hair long or of wearing their trousers short, invariably helped to mark them out. But here in London, no such distinctions are available, since the nationals of both countries equally follow the same English fashions, or even if any such distinctions exist, they are far too insignificant to attract attention in view of the broad back- ground of European surroundings. In an English work on geography I find the Chinese people described as follows: "The stature is below the average and seldom exceeds 5 feet 4 inches, except in the north. The head is brachycephalic and round horizontally, the forehead low and narrow. The face round, mouth large and the chin small and receding. The cheek bones are prominent, the eyes almond-shaped, oblique upwards and outwards, and the hair coarse, lank and invariably black. The beard appears late in life and remains generally scanty. The eyebrows are straight and the iris of the eye is black. The nose is generally short, broad and flat. The hands and feet are disproportionally small and the body early inclines to obesity. The complexion varies from an almost pale yellow to a dark brown, without any ruddy tinge. Yellow however predominates." Now this characterization, for all it is applied to the Chinese, may just as well be applied to the Japanese people. Whatever theories we may hold as to the original stock to which the Chinese and Japanese should trace their descent or as to the later immigrations which have helped to build up those peoples as they are to-day, there is no question whatever that there runs through them both a common type of physiog- nomy, stamping on them the sure mark of an undoubted consanguinity. As in physiognomy, so in language, food and costumes, as well as in ideas, the two nations are run through by a bright red line of common thread, showing a remarkable sameness in all the essentials. As regards language, though the principles of syntax are different in the two languages, the common use of several thousands of the same ideographs makes them at least in their written form one and same for all intent and purposes. The sentences from the one language can be turned into those of the other by a simple process of transposi- tion of words. I have been told by men who have travelled extensively in China, that younger Chinese journalists are now making a very wide use of Japanese literature in their professional work, for the current Japanese writings which are mostly inspired as to style by Chinese classical essayists, but as to matter are infused with modern ideas, can be easily transliterated into good Chinese. As to costumes, the time-honoured court dresses of Japan were, it is well known, modelled originally after those of the Chinese court of the T'ang period, and there is no doubt that the every day clothing of the people of the island empire has been influenced in the course of its development largely by that of their more civilized neighbours. Only the later adoption by the Chinese of the tight jacket and trousers of their Man- churian conquerors has made it somewhat difficult to trace a resem- blance between the two forms of national costumes. In the matter of food the two peoples apparently differ much, as those who have tasted both kinds of food probably know. The Chinese cuisine seems on the first view to resemble more the European. But the universal use in both China and Japan of soy, a thick piquant sauce made from beans and wheat, and of rice, make the two systems of cookery essen- tially one, just as the invariable use of butter and bread make Euro- pean food essentially one, whether it be cooked in English, French or Russian style. But it is when we touch on the ruling systems of philosophy of conduct and statecraft that we find a still deeper identity between the two peoples. Confucianism and Buddhism are the two dominating forces which have moulded the life of both of them, although not without the aid of a third cult different in each country, Taoism in the case of China and Shintoism in Japan. As the result of these influences, benevolent paternalism has come to rule both in the state and the family. Most of the fetes and festivals — New years days, Festivals of lanterns, Feast of the full moon, etc. — which form landmarks so to speak in the annual routine of the social life are practically the same in both countries. Such in broad outlines are the similarities between the two peo- ples. But these consist, it will be noted, either in outward appearances or in elements contributing to the life of the peoples. They touch closely the life no doubt but are not the life itself. As to the actual life itself, individual, social or national, — the very mentality of the two peoples — we must say that no two nations are more different from each other. There is a wide gulf of separation in tempera- ments, tendencies and sentiments, which it would seem almost im- possible to bridge over. If Japan may be compared to a young man of sanguine temperament and virile energy, China must be regarded as an elderly gentleman full of life's experience, full of prudence and not without a marked tinge of pessimism. Many foreign observers, noticing only the similarities and failing to mark this difference, often jump at the conclusion that what is possible with the one, can not but be possible with the other. They imagine that, since Japan has suc- ceeded in reorganizing herself in so short a time, China ought also to succeed in similarly regenerating herself. She will no doubt, as these men say, become one day a strong state, reorganized on the modern basis. But her method of working, the steps she will have to take and the process she will be obliged to go through in order to complete the work of refashioning herself, will be essentially different from what Japan had to go through, while the time she requires will be very much longer. This will not be, as is commonly suggested, solely on account of her stupendous size and the complexity of her national life, but chiefly because of her peculiar mental workings, which differentiate her altogether from the Japanese. This^act makes it impossible to take either of these two people as identical with each other although they belong to the same race. You miss in the Chinese the sanguine temperament and virile energy of the Japanese, which in recent years has caused the latter again and again to be electrified so to speak toward making drastic reforms from the pressure of certain grave events taking place around them. The events I refer to are for instance the coming to the Far Eastern waters of Europeans with steamers and long-range guns, the progress of liberal politics in Eng- land, the completion of the great Russian-Siberian railway with its terminus at Vladivostock, the Manchurian adventure, bringing the Russian menace to the very back door of Southern Japan, the success, particularly in China of Germany's welt-politik, etc., etc. Now all these events which have so profoundly impressed the Japanese with the necessity of reform seem to have made scarcely any impression on the mind of the Chinese at the time though their country was bound to be affected by most of these events, indeed even more so than Japan, and they have finally been shaken up to realize the fact that they were completely left behind by almost all the world. But do you suppose that they will therefore be able now to take over-rapid steps in order to catch up with the rest? Though they will no doubt do so in time, it will probably be neither in the way Japan made up for lost years, nor with the same rapidity. China will, we trust, settle her outstanding troubles — constitutional, financial and international — but it will be in her own way and in her own time. The rest of the world must be patient with this nation of 300 millions, who have forty centuries' history behind them, with all their accumulated stock of experience, and who on account of their self- sufficiency both in men and material are almost a world by themselves. If sometimes they appear to be too self-satisfied, too self-confident, or too conservative, if they move slowly and are inevitably held back by a sort of all-powerful inertia, though making now and then a sudden infuriated but short-lived attempt at reform, we must not blame them too harshly. The conditions in which China is now placed are not the same as those under which the modern nations of the world all move and have their being. A Chinese gentleman in London may dress to the height of European fashion, but when he goes to his own home in China, he would most likely resume his own national habits — not as with us Japanese in similar circumstances, as a mere matter of per- 6 sonal convenience — but because of his consciousness that one-fourth of the population of the globe will be with him. Thus it will be seen that, while in so many things they are prac- tically alike, the Chinese and Japanese differ profoundly in their mentality. What is the reason of this great difference? If they are racially so much alike, if the civilizing influences which have been brought to bear on them, in the form of religion, ethics and arts, are also practically the same, what are the causes which have produced this almost fundamental difference in their mental life? No doub| certain geographical reasons, one of these peoples having their home in the islands, while the other live in the great central plain, will go far by way of an explanation. But this and other considerations will never give the whole truth, unless we take also into consideration at the same time the fact that China and Japan are fundamentally differ- ent in age, that while one of them is undoubtedly an old, a very ancient country, the other is new, not any older than England, France or Germany. For it is this difference in age, it seems to me, which is mainly responsible for their different characteristics. The beginnings of Chinese history are practically synchronous, if we may trust the chronologies, with those of Babylon and Egypt. At least we know that in the fifth century before the Christian era there flourished the great sage Confucius, and a century later Mencius, who carried on his famous discussions on the principles of Ethics and government as based on the system of his great predecessor. It is interesting to note that these men who constitute great landmarks in the history of the mental life of Eastern Asia, such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle in the West, were, roughly speaking, their contemporaries. And as the rise of such men necessarily presupposes a highly developed state of civilization, in the midst of which alone they could flourish, there can be no question whatever that China is a very old country, cer- tainly going back to the times of Ancient Greece and Rome, even if we care not to put too much trust in her earlier chronology. Now by the side of this ancient country Japan is a mere up-start. The Japan- ese Chroniclers of the eighth century A.D., who compiled the Nihongi or Chronicles of Japan, put down dates regarding the accession to the throne of ancient Emperors, and the present Imperial chronology which makes the first Emperor, Jimmu Tenno, ascend the throne in 660 B.C., has been calculated since on the basis of these dates. And it must be said that this Japanese chronology is about as valuable or MM-valuable — whichever view you take of it — as Bishop Usher's Bibli- cal chronology which placed the creation of our first parents at 4,000 B.C. ; to anybody endowed with common sense it must seem something very remarkable indeed that from this beginning of tffe Imperial reign to the time of the 14th Emperor Chuai, who was succeeded by his widow Jingo-Kogo as regent for her infant son, there is a space of some 800 years, with scarcely any event of importance, the only things recorded being the names of successive Emperors and Em- presses and the dates of their birth, marriage, accession or death. Otherwise year after year of the Japanese chronology at this period is a total blank, without any mention of events whatever. The historical period of Japan commences, as a matter of fact, somewhere in the third or fourth century of the Christian era, which is even later than the beginnings of history in the typical modern nations of Europe, e.g. : France and England. The Japanese therefore must be regarded as a new people, belonging to the category of the so-called modern nations of the world, as distinct from Egypt, Babylonia, Greece and Rome, among whom China has her place. It is in fact a remarkable coincidence that at a period when Roman civilization and Roman Christianity were being introduced into France, England and other countries of Northern Europe, there were being introduced into Japan, Chinese Buddhism and Chinese civilization. For it was at the Court of Emperor Kim-mei, in the thirteenth year of his reign (552 C.E.) that Buddhist images, with sutra and teachers were received for the first time as presents from the Korean King of the day. And this great event in Japanese history took place 56 years after Clovis, King of the Franks, was baptised (in 496), and 45 years before the arrival (in 597) of Augustin, a Roman abbot, with his band of monks, carrying a silver cross, in Canterbury, at the Court of King Aethelbert of England. . Doubtless there was Christianity preached before this in Gaul and Britain, as there had already been introduced into Japan something of Korean or Chinese culture. But these dates mark the beginnings of a definite step taken by these new nations in the path of progress and enlightenment. Now commenced, in the case of Japan, an era of temple building. Magnificent piles rose in the neigh- bourhood of Nara, which not long after became the fixed capital of the country — the first architects and carvers of images being either Chinese or Koreans. Learning of Buddhist scriptures and Chinese classics were encouraged. Hosts of missionary priests from Korea, China and India were welcomed. A multitude of Japanese young men went over to China for study. In 604 the Crown Prince Shotoku, the Constantine of Japanese Buddhism, promulgated the Fundamental 8 Law of the Realm in seventeen articles. Thus, there now dawned in Japan — in the middle of the sixth century and almost contemporary with France and England — the light of learning and civilization. If this fact, that Japan is a young nation, as distinguished from China which is a very ancient country, was firmly grasped, it would cut at one blow the Gordian knot of a puzzle which often stands in the way of many Western observers of Far Eastern affairs. Before Japan had proved her ability by successful wars and industrial growth, many of these good people said that all the talk about her reforms was humbug, sure to be blown off like a bubble. For they based their ideas of Japan on their observations of things in China. What was not possible in that country, could not be possible in Japan — so they said. But when they saw Japan's marvellous transformation they ran into the other extreme and said that China's uprising as a strong state was a question of a very short time. They even began to talk of the "yellow peril." For in their view what was possible with Japan was necessarily possible with China or any other old country. I believe therefore that a fundamental difference in the mentality of these two nations is of very great practical importance, for this fact if rightly kept in view will greatly simplify matters in all discussions of Far Eastern questions. But I should be sorry to leave you with the impression that I look upon the Chinese as a nation in the last stage of decay. For she is not, as in recent years many proofs of virile energy have been shown, for instance by the revolution of 1911-1912. Decayed and worn-out nations, like Babylon, Egypt, Greece or Rome have had their day, but it is not sure that China's day is gone. Nay, it is not possible to think that China, with so much intelligence in her leaders and so many resources in men and material, shall not become sooner or later a reformed modern nation. She has shown on man)? a recent occasion a power of latent resistance — e. g. boycotting of Japanese goods — against what was regarded as a foreign domination, which makes it an exceedingly perilous policy for any foreign country to try to govern her from the outside. What then is the real state of things we see before us in China? She is not certainly a new virile nation, like Japan, or like England or France. She is not an old, decayed nation like Egypt, Babylon, Greece or Rome once came to be. Now this very singular phenomenon of a very old nation still retaining a certain vigour of life, which is apparently sufficient to save her from national death, becomes explicable when we remember that the Chinese people throughout the long course of their history have been con- stantly rejuvenated and reinvigorated by injections of young fresh blood due to the invasion, settlement and assimilations^>f various barbarian tribes or of young nations coming from beyond their fron- tiers. Outwardly in many respects China's history reads very much like the history of Rome. If in the sonorous phrase of the great historian, Gibbon, "the Empire of Rome comprehended the fairest part of the earth and the most civilized portion of mankind," so did the Empire of China. In fact the Chinese have always called their country the "Middle Flowery Land" — the land of civilization and enlightenment. Only in the case of one the old civilization was finally submerged by the great .tide of barbarian invasion, while in the case of the other the barbarian elements were absorbed by the inexhaust- ible civilized numbers. In the case of Rome, the barbarians which invaded her during the first four centuries of the Christian era were sufficiently numerous to be masters for ever. In the case of China, the invaders from the north who have kept coming ever since the second century B.C. have never been over numerous, owing no doubt to the fact that the lands outside the Chinese northern frontiers were one immense expanse of deserts, forbidding the growth of large popu- lations, while the people of China, occupying a great delta plain extending in length for 700 miles from Peking in the north to Hang- chow in the south and between 150 miles and 500 miles in width, could always assert their superiority in number and civilization. These in- vaders, who at times showed themselves particularly in force, on several occasions — as for instance, in the fifth and sixth centuries, in the tenth century, in the thirteenth century, and in the seventeenth century — set up independent rival kingdoms or, as in the last two cases above men- tioned, set up a universal sway over all China, but invariably they have all ended by being absorbed by the Chinese, contributing so to speak a dash o'f new blood into an old body politic. Italy could never be a home for a large population as the great delta basin of China could, while deserts on the north and west of China could never make homes for a multitude of independent kingdoms as the physically much varie- gated Europe could. In Europe, owing to favourable geographical conditions, the new nations severally went their own way in the road of progress, while in the Far East they all entered as if by fate into the sole fertile central plain, to be in time absorbed by the Chinese, the solitary exception being Japan. The Japanese people owing to their fortunate geographical situation did not enter that "central plain" — the great burying ground of countless tribes and nations — 10 and thus found themselves able to preserve their independent exist- ence. In other words, the modern Chinese nation is the product of this unparalleled state of things obtaining in Eastern Asia, where an immense delta plain, practically shut off from other civilized lands, gave rise to an early civilization and where tribe after tribe, nation after nation, in the course of their migrations or invasions found their home, only to become all mixed up and to give rise to a nation of 300,000,000, as we see them to-day. They are an old people, but an old people constantly renewed in mental and bodily life by new blood. But old blood remains. And though the process of decadence has been held back and kept in check to a certain extent, they have never been able to regain the freshness and full vigour of youth. Nobody will deny that China suffers to-day from the burden of her long his- tory. It is all very well for a Napoleon, leading his brave legions, to call upon forty centuries to witness his great exploits. But it is alto- gether another matter to have an immense long line of your ancestors looking down upon you to see that you tread on the right path of time- honoured traditions. Let us be sympathetic therefore with the people of China for the tremendous difficulties against which they are working to uplift themselves. That they may succeed, be it in their own way and in their own time, in reorganizing themselves, restoring order to their much troubled national life, and thus may become an immense asset for the peace of the world, is, I am sure, the sincere prayer of every one of us here to-day. ifi£*k£'*: i ■* .-w ». ■ '■ ■* .art i ►# £fl£ >: Vj. > 4- v