SUN YAT SEN 
 
 AND THE 
 
 AWAPCENING OF CHINA 
 
 JAMES CANTLIE 
 
 AND 
 
 C. SHERIDAN JONES 
 
1 ' • 
 
 D’visiuQ ^S*7 7 3 
 SectloQ • C 3) S 
 
 ■>iy< 
 
Digitized by the internet Archive 
 in 2016 
 
 https://archive.org/details/sunyatsenawakeni00cant_0 
 
SUX VAT SEX 
 W’itli Autograph 
 
SUN YAT SE 
 
 AND THE AWAKENING OF CHINA 
 
 / By 
 
 JAMES CANTLIE, M. A., M.B., F. R. C. S. 
 
 Dean of the College of Medicine, Hong Kong (1889-1896) 
 
 AND 
 
 C. SHERIDAN JONES 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 New York Chicago Toronto 
 
 Fleming H. Revell Company 
 
 London and Edinburgh 
 
Copyright, 1912, by 
 
 FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 
 
 New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
 Chicago: 125 N. Wabash Ave. 
 Toronto: 25 Richmond St., W. 
 London: 21 Paternoster Square 
 Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 S EVERAL publishers within the last six 
 months have favored me with a request 
 that I should write an account of Sun 
 Yat Sen and his work. I felt honored by 
 their doing so, but being diffident of my 
 ability to accomplish the task, and not having 
 sufficient time at my disposal, I most reluc- 
 tantly had to decline, and it was not until 
 there was promised me the valuable help of 
 Mr. C. Sheridan Jones that I was able to 
 entertain the idea. 
 
 To the excellent chapters contributed by 
 Mr. Sheridan Jones I have only been able 
 to add my personal experiences, and to tell 
 something of the character and career of 
 Sun Yat Sen, and the nature of the arduous 
 struggle in which he engaged. For twenty- 
 five years my wife and myself have had the 
 privilege of a close and intimate acquaintance 
 with Sun. With the passing of years the ties 
 of friendship have increased, and we have 
 
 3 
 
4 
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 learned more than ever to appreciate his 
 strength of character, his earnestness of pur- 
 pose, his modesty of mind, and to understand 
 the secret of his power, whereby he was en- 
 abled to bring to a successful issue the great 
 work of his life. 
 
 My chief regret is that I have been able 
 to paint so meagre a picture of a truly noble 
 character. 
 
 James Caxtlie. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 I. Introductory 9 
 
 II. Sun Yat Sen: the Man and His Work 22 
 
 III. The Rise of a Great Tyranny . 66 
 
 IV. The Last of the Manchus . . 86 
 
 V. The Struggle . . . . .108 
 
 VI. A Graceful Tribute to the Mings 
 
 VII. 
 
 — The Reform Movement 
 The Flag of the New Republic 
 
 . 127 
 
 . 139 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Things Chinese . 
 
 • 
 
 . 149 
 
 IX. 
 
 The Fight with Opium 
 
 
 . 204 
 
 X. 
 
 The Future of China 
 
 
 . 214 
 
 6 
 
i 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Sun Yat Sen, with autograph . . Frontispiece 
 
 The Great Wall at Nankow Pass . . .18 
 
 Sun Yat Sen and His Son in 1911 ... 22 
 
 Mrs. Sun Yat Sen with Her Son ... 60 
 
 Sun Yat Sen while President of the Republic 
 of China . 64 
 
 Market Place in Full Blast .... 80 
 
 A Typical Ancestral Temple . . . .100 
 
 Worshipping at the Ancestor’s Grave . .128 
 
 The National Flag of the Chinese Republic . 140 
 
 Confucian and Buddhist Temples . . .150 
 
 A Gate of Peking 164 
 
 Sun Yat Sen’s Two Daughters . . . .174 
 
 The Pantagramme 196 
 
 Scheme of the Constitution of Man . . .198 
 
 An Anatomical Figure According to Chinese 
 Conception . . ..... 200 
 
 Opium Smokers 205 
 
 Outline Section Map of China .... 222 
 
 Heads and Tails 236 
 
I 
 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 I T was in the autumn of 1896 that the 
 world first heard of Dr. Sun Yat Sen. A 
 Chinese refugee had been kidnapped — 
 kidnapped in London ; and Englishmen 
 rubbed their eyes as they read how he had 
 been seized in broad daylight, and was being 
 held a prisoner in the Chinese Embassy, his 
 liberty denied him, his very life in danger. 
 Who does not remember the sensation the 
 story caused, the tense excitement as to 
 the man’s fate, the wild conjectures as to the 
 mode of his delivery! For a day or so the 
 town, the whole country, talked of little else. 
 And then, suddenly, Britain intervened ! 
 Within a few days Sun was released. Al- 
 most as speedily, for the excitement soon sub- 
 sided, he was forgotten. 
 
 But a decade and a half later the public 
 recalled the strange event. For, on Decem- 
 ber 29, 1911, they read with something like 
 amazement the message from Reuter’s Nan- 
 king correspondent telling the world that this 
 
 9 
 
10 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 same refugee, who had been hunted out of 
 his own land and pursued even in ours, had 
 lived to be proclaimed First President of the 
 Chinese Republic and, quite obviously, was 
 master of the unprecedented situation which 
 had been created in that land of mystery. 
 YThat had happened in the interval to give 
 him this unique authority? How had this 
 man, poor, obscure, unaided, achieved so 
 wonderful a sway over the countless millions 
 of his fellow-Celestials, usually deemed the 
 most elusive of mankind? In what lay the 
 secret of his power? To answer these ques- 
 tions, so that the public may see Sun Yat 
 Sen and the Chinese Revolution in their true 
 perspective, is to describe a career that, alike 
 for sheer romance and historical importance, 
 has never been surpassed. 
 
 For twenty years Sun Yat Sen has devoted 
 every day and almost every hour of his life 
 to one single object — the overthrow of the 
 Manchu rule in China and the establishment 
 of such representative Government as will 
 insure the people elementary justice, free- 
 dom from the extortions of cornipt man- 
 darins, a free press, and facilities for edu- 
 cation. He has risked death and torture on 
 innumerable occasions. He has travelled on 
 foot throughout a large part of the four mil- 
 lion square miles of China, and, under vari- 
 
INTRODUCTORY 
 
 11 
 
 ous disguises, he has penetrated to almost 
 every nook of his native country and left 
 representatives in almost every town, build- 
 ing up, with matchless skill and patience, an 
 organization whose network has gradually 
 spread over the whole of that vast Em- 
 pire. 
 
 More, he has drawn upon the huge reserve 
 of Chinese scattered in thousands all over 
 the world, and to his countrymen in America, 
 Honolulu, Japan, the Malay Peninsula and 
 the Straits Settlements he has carried the 
 message of revolt against the Manchu dy- 
 nasty — the dynasty that every Chinese 
 hates instinctively. He has visited these 
 exiles repeatedly, gaining with each visit 
 some new recruit or gleaning information 
 that made possible some further avenue of 
 activity inside the Flowery Land. He has 
 bought arms in Europe to smuggle them 
 through under the very nose of the authori- 
 ties. He has made friends at many Euro- 
 pean Embassies, and — hardest task of all — 
 he has induced the Powers, through their 
 representatives, to hold their hands whilst 
 China worked out her own salvation. 
 
 All this he has done, aided at first by only 
 a few devoted friends, without resources of 
 his own, and with his life and safety per- 
 petually menaced by the ubiquitous Manchu 
 
12 
 
 SUN YAT SEX 
 
 agents, who have left no stone unturned to 
 destroy him or his influence. 
 
 That he has succeeded so far as to bring 
 China within sight of deliverance stamps 
 him as one of the most remarkable men of 
 our time. We have only to reflect for a 
 moment upon the magnitude of his task, to 
 recall the almost overwhelming obstacles 
 confronting him, to realize how great a part 
 he has played in the world’s history. 
 
 For if ever there was a countiy that of- 
 fered difficulties to the organizing of a 
 revolution, that surely was China. First, 
 there is the almost overwhelming magnitude 
 of the territory. To say that China has an 
 area of 4,218,201 square miles is only to con- 
 fuse the mind. But when we remember that 
 the Empire is one-third larger than all 
 Europe, that it is bigger than the United 
 States, with Alaska and Great Britain thrown 
 in (it is, in fact, a fourth of the habitable 
 globe), we get some idea of its immensity. 
 To arrange for men to act in concert over 
 an area so great as this, or any large portion 
 of it, is to overcome a difficulty that seems 
 almost insuperable. Then consider the tem- 
 perament of the people. They have been de- 
 scribed as moving less in centuries than 
 Western people do in decades.” ‘‘For 
 nearly five thousand years,” says Dr. Arthur 
 
INTRODUCTORY 
 
 13 
 
 J. Brown in his book, New Forces in Old 
 China,’’ they have lived apart, sufficient 
 unto themselves, cherishing their own ideals, 
 plodding along their well-worn paths, igno- 
 rant of or indifferent to the progress of the 
 Western world, mechanically memorizing 
 dead classics, and standing still compara- 
 tively amid the tremendous onrush of mod- 
 ern civilization.” The very resources of 
 their own land they have allowed to lie 
 neglected. Baron von Richthofen estimates 
 that they have 419,000 square miles under- 
 laid with coal, of which 600,000,000,000 tons 
 are anthracite, and that the single province 
 of Shen-si could supply the entire world 
 with coal for a thousand years. Add to this, 
 apparently inexhaustible quantities of iron 
 ore, and we have, of course, the two products 
 on which material greatness largely depends. 
 But the coal and iron are both unworked! 
 It is not so very long ago since the Chinese 
 Government acquired the first railway con- 
 structed in China. It ran from Shanghai to 
 Wu-sung, and great was the excitement of 
 the populace ; but no sooner was it completed 
 than the Government bought it, tore up the 
 road-bed and dumped the engines into the 
 river — pour encourager les autres! To-day 
 the great bulk of the population of China 
 are as untouched by railways as they are by 
 
14 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 modern thought or literature. Books on 
 politics/’ said Sun Yat Sen, are not al- 
 lowed; daily newspapers are prohibited in 
 China; the world around, its people and 
 politics, are shut out ; while no one below the 
 rank of a mandarin of the seventh rank is 
 allowed to read Chinese geography, far less 
 foreign. 
 
 The laws of the present dynasty are 
 not for public reading; they are known only 
 to the highest officials. The reading of books 
 on military subjects is, in common with that 
 of other prohibited matter, not only forbid- 
 den, but is even punishable by death. No 
 one is allowed, on pain of death, to invent 
 anything new, or to make kno^vn any new 
 discovery. In this way are the people kept 
 in darkness, while the Government doles out 
 to them what scraps of information it finds 
 will suit its own ends.” 
 
 That Government’s own decrees are elo- 
 quent of the benighted condition of the peo- 
 ple and of the almost incredible apathy that 
 has fallen upon them. Take, for instance, 
 the edict issued by the late Empress Dowager 
 in November, 1906, in which she complains 
 that officials and people are separated by 
 the employment of forms and ceremonies so 
 as to make all matters neglected. These 
 officials do not pay attention to the welfare 
 
INTRODUCTORY 
 
 15 
 
 or troubles of those under them, and often 
 to such an extent are they inditferent and 
 corrupt that relatives and secretaries are 
 permitted to browbeat and oppress the 
 masses, while the gate-keepers and runners 
 of the Yamens prey upon and devour the 
 substance of the people. In such circum- 
 stances can any one expect these local gov- 
 ernments to flourish? How can the spirits 
 of the people, moreover, be elevated under 
 such a state of atfairs? Dwelling upon this 
 point makes us feel very indignant indeed.’’ 
 Can we imagine such a confession of im- 
 potency being addressed to a European peo- 
 ple without exciting the promptest and most 
 stimulating of replies? But the Chinese 
 grins and bears it, or rather he did until a 
 few months ago. 
 
 The fact is that long ago there descended 
 upon him the paralyzing blight of spiritual 
 pride, and until very recent days its fetters 
 have hung heavily on his soul. When the 
 rest of the world was sunk in barbarism, 
 China had a great, a splendid civilization of 
 her own. Her people had created great 
 buildings while Europeans had no better 
 shelter than caves, her astronomers made 
 accurate observations two hundred years be- 
 fore Abraham left Ur. They used fire- 
 arms,” says Dr. Brown, at the beginning 
 
16 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 of the Christian era; they first grew tea, 
 manufactured gunpowder, made pottery, 
 glue, and gelatine; they invented printing in 
 movable types five hundred years before that 
 art was known in Europe; they discovered 
 the principles of the mariner’s compass 
 without which the oceans could not be 
 crossed, conceived the idea of artificial water- 
 ways, and dug a canal six hundred miles 
 long; they made mountain roads which, in 
 the opinion of Dr. S. Wells Williams, ‘ when 
 new, probably equalled in engineering and 
 construction anything of the kind ever built 
 by the Eomans ’; and they invented the 
 arch to which our modern architecture is so 
 greatly indebted.” 
 
 It is not surprising, therefore, that with 
 triumphs and achievements such as these 
 to their credit, and with no rival, no com- 
 petitor in civilization, near their throne, the 
 Chinese became wedded to the idea that other 
 nations were negligible quantities, barbari- 
 ans who did not count, that they alone were 
 the people, and wisdom would die with them. 
 The obsession has remained nearly to our 
 own day, and when Lord Napier proceeded 
 to Canton, empowered by an Act of Parlia- 
 ment to negotiate with the Chinese regard- 
 ing trade “ to and from the dominions of the 
 Emperor of China, and for the purpose of 
 
INTEODUCTORY 
 
 17 
 
 protecting and promoting sucli trade,’’ the 
 Governor of Canton explained that he could 
 not possibly receive a letter from the said 
 barbarian, i.e., Lord Napier. Said he: 
 << There has never been such a thing as out- 
 side barbarians sending a letter. ... It is 
 contrary to everything of dignity and de- 
 corum. The thing is most decidedly impos- 
 sible. . . . The barbarians of this nation 
 (Great Britain) coming or leaving Canton 
 have, beyond their trade, not any public 
 business; and the commissioned officers of 
 the Celestial Empire never take cognizance 
 of the trivial affairs of trade. . . . The some 
 hundreds of thousands of commercial duties 
 yearly coming from the said nation concern 
 not the Celestial Empire to the extent of a 
 hair or a feather’s dovm. The possession 
 or absence of them is utterly unworthy of 
 one careful thought.” 
 
 It is this temper of mind that any one 
 bent on creating a revolution in China 
 would find himself most emphatically “ up 
 against ” — an insular complacency that re- 
 fuses even to consider outside events, and 
 accepts its own surroundings as quite ‘‘ the 
 best in the best of all possible worlds.” 
 Can one imagine a greater obstacle to any 
 projected reform, based necessarily upon the 
 experience of other nations f 
 
18 
 
 SUN YAT SEX 
 
 Yet one such obstacle confronted Sun Yat 
 Sen. Greater than China’s immensity, 
 greater even than the apathy which has 
 fallen upon her citizens, was the hideous, 
 ceaseless pressure of the Manchu tyranny. 
 Nothing quite like it has ever before been 
 known. In the days of European autocracy, 
 the power of the Crown was always liable to 
 effective challenge, first by the nobles, later 
 by Parliament. But in China there is no 
 Parliament and all the nobles are Manchus, 
 jealous of their special prerogatives and all 
 despising the Chinese, while every officer of 
 state, from the governor of a province down 
 to a policeman, is in favor, and for very 
 obvious reasons, of maintaining the despot- 
 ism at its height. YThy is this? Again to 
 quote from Sun Yat Sen: “ English read- 
 
 ers are probably unaware of the smallness of 
 the established salaries of provincial mag- 
 nates. They will scarcely credit that the 
 Viceroy of, say. Canton, ruling a country 
 with a population larger than that of Great 
 Britain, is allowed as his legal salary the 
 paltry sum of £60 a year; so that, in order 
 to live and maintain himself in office, ac- 
 cumulating fabulous riches the while, he re- 
 sorts to extortion and the selling of justice. 
 So-called education and the results of 
 examinations are the one means of obtain- 
 
THE GREAT WALL AT NAXKOW LASS 
 
INTRODUCTORY 
 
 19 
 
 ing official notice. Granted that a young 
 scholar gains distinction, he proceeds to seek 
 public employment, and, by bribing the Pe- 
 king authorities, an official post is hoped for. 
 Once obtained, as he cannot live on his sal- 
 ary, perhaps he even pays so much annually 
 for his post, license to squeeze is the result, 
 and the man must be stupid indeed who can- 
 not, when backed up by Government, make 
 himself rich enough to buy a still higher 
 post in a few years. With advancement 
 comes increased license and additional fa- 
 cility for self-enrichment, so that the clever- 
 est ‘ squeezer ’ ultimately can obtain money 
 enough to purchase the highest positions.^ 
 This official thief, with his mind warped 
 by his mode of life, is the ultimate authority 
 in all matters of social, political, and crimi- 
 nal life. It is a feudal system, an imperium 
 in imperio, an unjust autocracy, which 
 thrives by its own rottenness. But this sys- 
 tem of fattening on the public vitals — the 
 
 ’ See how this system worked out as regards the individual 
 Chinese. An English lady, resident near Canton, had for 
 many years an excellent servant in her employ — veracious and 
 reliable. He applied for leave of absence to inspect some coal- 
 mines in which his savings had been invested. He would be 
 absent only a few days, he said. Alas ! he was absent some 
 months, and returned an emaciated wreck. He had been 
 seized by a mandarin — imprisoned, beaten, tortured, and made 
 to surrender his shares in the mines. 
 
20 
 
 SUX YAT SEX 
 
 selling of power — is the chief means by 
 which the Manchu dynasty continues to ex- 
 ist. With this legalized corruption stamped 
 as the highest ideal of government, who can 
 wonder at the strong undercurrent of dissat- 
 isfaction among the people? ’’ 
 
 Thus has the Manchu dynasty been main- 
 tained! It may be said, even so, was it not 
 still open to wise and patriotic Chinese to 
 make some organized effort to instruct the 
 people ? 
 
 That is a question natural for any West- 
 erner to ask. To a Chinese it appears too 
 extravagant to answer, because there is an 
 obstacle to the execution of such a project, 
 which would be present to his mind the mo- 
 ment it was proposed. 
 
 At first blush there is something wildly 
 incredible about the idea of a single clan 
 able to exercise espionage over an entire 
 empire, and that empire the vastest in the 
 world. But what are the facts? The Man- 
 chus have only kept their hold upon China 
 by a system of terrorism and spying. The 
 eye of the Emperor is everywhere — in the 
 most humble cottage of the most remote vil- 
 lage; in the crowded workroom; at the fac- 
 tory gate; in the railway carriage; at the 
 domestic fireside; everywhere! China has 
 been honeycombed by an army of spies — 
 
INTEODUCTORY 
 
 21 
 
 spies who report a word, a hint of sedition, 
 who act silently and swiftly, and whose 
 superiors strike ruthlessly; spies who betray 
 the confidences of relatives, the secrets of 
 friends, who are without compunction, whose 
 very identity is unsuspected and from whose 
 inquisition nothing is hidden. Let a stranger 
 come to a village in China, and within a 
 few hours the authorities are informed; let 
 a man whisper treason, and his life is for- 
 feit. The very interior of the palace itself 
 is infested with agents and eunuchs whose 
 ears are strained to catch the faintest whis- 
 per of the hated word ‘‘ reform,” and who 
 spy even upon the secret councils of their 
 master, so that when, twelve years ago, 
 Kuang Hsii, the reforming Emperor, dared 
 to contemplate some mitigation of the Man- 
 chu prerogatives, he was seized, conveyed a 
 prisoner to an island palace, and relegated 
 to the nothingness of harem life.” 
 
 But where the Emperor failed. Sun Yat 
 Sen succeeded. He has triumphed over 
 three obstacles to revolution that seemed in- 
 superable. First, an empire chaotic and im- 
 mense; secondly, a people steeped in con- 
 temptuous ignorance; lastly, a despotism 
 that stood armed at all points between the 
 people and every avenue of knowledge. Let 
 us see how he contrived to overcome them. 
 
n 
 
 SUN YAT SEN: THE MAN AND HIS 
 WOBK 
 
 I N 1894 Dr. Sim Yat Sen joined a society 
 in Canton of some eighteen prominent 
 members whose object was the mending 
 or ending of the Manchn monarchical power. 
 In 1912 this great work was accomplished. 
 Of the eighteen members seventeen were be- 
 headed shortly after the inception of the 
 idea, and Sim was the only member of the 
 original conspirators ” left to carry on 
 the great upheaval. On February 12, 1912, 
 the Manchu Emperor abdicated and Sun Yat 
 Sen’s purpose and life-work was accom- 
 plished. Others have helped him, others 
 have granted him sympathy and advice, 
 others have given freely of their substance 
 to carry on the work, but as the inceptor, 
 the organizer, and the focus of aU this great 
 work Sun Yat Sen stands alone, ffistory 
 will assign him his proper place, but to the 
 onlooker of to-day it is difficult to anticipate 
 fully the tribute of credit which will be his. 
 
 22 
 
SUN YAT SEN AND HIS SON IN 1911 
 
THE MAN AND HIS WORK 23 
 
 The modern world professes to dislike 
 heroes and heroics ; everything tends to 
 strangle heroes ’’ in these later times, and 
 Sun Yat Sen would have been strangled in 
 fact on many occasions had not a power 
 which may well be termed supernatural pre- 
 served him through storm and strife to ac- 
 complish his destiny. Not only did his own 
 countrymen set a price on his head and make 
 many attempts to silence him for ever; not 
 only have the official foreign representatives 
 in Peking held his name and his aims in con- 
 tempt, passing him by with contumely as but 
 a loud-tongued demagogue, but certain im- 
 portant newspapers, even when the whole 
 world hung on his decisions concerning 
 China’s future, hesitated to print his very 
 name, or to refer to his being, hoping there- 
 by no doubt to minimize his influence and 
 if possible to obliterate his power. What 
 could this man, born of humble parents in 
 an out-of-the-way Chinese village, know of 
 sovereigns, of principalities, and powers? 
 What could he do to upset an established 
 dynasty and to uproot an ancient form of 
 government which had held sway in China 
 for centuries and controlled the destinies of 
 some 400,000,000 people? 
 
 He was declared to have neither influence, 
 money, nor the training considered neces- 
 
24 
 
 SUN YAT SEX 
 
 sary to organize a revolt, the magnitude of 
 which has never been surpassed. He was at 
 best a poor doctor who by a struggle gath- 
 ered sufficient money together to keep him 
 alive whilst yet he learned the rudiments of 
 science and acquired a knowledge of medi- 
 cine. A poor training, it would seem, for his 
 life’s work, but one which helped him to at- 
 tain his ends and to bring salvation to his 
 fellow-countrymen. Sun, however, had a 
 greater power than either position, money or 
 education could give him. 
 
 Though deep-seated discontent simmered 
 in the land, it seemed impossible to develop 
 a master-mind in China fitted for the great 
 task of reform from amongst the rich, the 
 powerful, the families of ancient lineage, or 
 the philosophic literati; so Providence se- 
 lected a man from the humbler classes, a 
 man endowed with gifts which money can- 
 not buy, nor all the learning of East or West 
 produce. What were these gifts? Accord- 
 ing to Christian doctrines they may be 
 summed in the words. Faith, Hope, and 
 Charity — a firm faith in the belief that was 
 within him; hope for the speedy regenera- 
 tion of China, and charity towards neighbors. 
 Charity in the true sense of the word is 
 Sun’s outstanding characteristic. An unkind 
 thought, far less an unkind word, is foreign 
 
THE MAN AND HIS WOKK 25 
 
 to his nature ; a keen regard for the feelings 
 of those around him is apparent in his every 
 word and deed ; unselfishness to a degree un- 
 dreamt of amongst modern men ; a living ex- 
 pression of the Sermon on the Mount. Such 
 are some of the gifts of this extraordinary 
 man; gifts which command success, which 
 bind his friends to him with hoops of 
 steel,” and have, not only amongst his coun- 
 trymen, but also amongst the few Europeans 
 and Americans who know Sun Yat Sen as he 
 is, found men willing to devote their ener- 
 gies, their time, their very lives to forward 
 his aims, not alone for the cause he has at 
 heart, but also for the man himself. The 
 secret of his success is unselfishness — seeking 
 only his country’s good, not his own advance- 
 ment; a patriot indeed with no axe to grind, 
 no place seeker, willing to rule if called upon, 
 ready and anxious to stand aside when the 
 interests of his country are to be benefited 
 thereby. 
 
 Why was he listened to by his astute 
 countrymen, when all others had failed in re- 
 generating China? Why? The transparent 
 honesty of the man; his manifest patriotism; 
 the simplicity of his character ; the readiness 
 to endure all for his country’s sake, even tor- 
 ture and death. Persecuted, imprisoned, 
 slighted, a price set on his head, stamped 
 
 1 
 
26 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 as an outcast and turned out of home and 
 country, refused shelter now by one nation, 
 now by another, until the \sdde world seemed 
 to afford no place of safety where he could 
 find rest. Neither in fact nor in fiction, 
 neither in history nor in the ideals of ro- 
 mance has any author dared to endow the 
 heroes of his creation with persecutions such 
 as his; for under no flag was he safe; nor 
 in the uttermost parts of the earth, for a 
 period of well-nigh twenty years, could he 
 feel that a cruel death was not imminent. 
 
 The idea of getting rid of the Manchus 
 was no modern idea in China. A powerful 
 and widespread body, The Triad Society,’’ 
 had existed almost ever since the Manchus 
 ascended the throne, but it consisted of men 
 of philosophic ideas without the capability 
 or courage to put their ideas into practice. 
 It was not until Sun Yat Sen came to the 
 front that the idea was given concrete shape 
 and brought to practical issue ; the old Triad 
 Society, however, gave little direct help dur- 
 ing the recent crisis, the members being 
 afraid of action, for they well knew what 
 failure meant. In China the death penalty 
 was ever at hand when reforms were even 
 whispered, and it was only when Sun took 
 his life in his hand and boldly declared his 
 intentions that any one was found cour- 
 
THE MAN AND HIS WOEK 27 
 
 ageous enough to denounce the Throne 
 openly. 
 
 Sun Yat Sen was born in 1867 in the 
 province of Kwang-tung, in a remote village 
 situated between the city of Canton and the 
 Portuguese colony of Macao, some thirty 
 miles south of Hong Kong. His father was 
 a convert to Christianity, and was employed 
 as a missionary agent by the London Mis- 
 sionary Society. An English lady connected 
 with the mission interested herself in the 
 young lad, and by her help Sun was well 
 grounded in English. At the age of eighteen 
 Sun became attached to the hospital of the 
 Anglo-American Mission in Canton, then 
 under the direction of a surgeon of consider- 
 able repute. Dr. Kerr. He became deeply 
 interested in medicine and surgery, and when 
 twenty years of age he came to Hong Kong 
 to prosecute his studies in the newly, opened 
 College of Medicine. 
 
 It was in Hong Kong in 1887 I first met 
 Sun Yat Sen; he came as a student to the 
 College of Medicine for Chinese established 
 in October of that year. I conceived the idea 
 of establishing a college of the kind on my 
 way out to China, and from the time I landed 
 there in June, 1887, until October of that 
 year I followed up the idea and found ready 
 help from Dr. (now Sir) Patrick Manson, 
 
28 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 Dr. Wm. Hartigan, Dr. Jordan, Mr. (now 
 Sir) Janies Stewart Lockhart, Governor of 
 Wei-hai-wei, and perhaps most important of 
 all. Ho Kai (now Sir Ho Kai), M.D., Aber- 
 deen, and barrister-at-law. Ho Kai, in lov- 
 ing memory of bis wife, Alice, an English 
 lady, founded a hospital in Hong Kong, un- 
 der the auspices of the London Missionary 
 Society, and styled it the Alice Memorial 
 Hospital.’’ There the College of Medicine 
 held its classes, and within its walls the 
 students were given instruction in practical 
 medicine and surgery. The college flourished 
 largely owing to the exertions of Dr. J. C. 
 Thomson, and several of the medical and 
 scientific men in Hong Kong have devotedly 
 continued the work without payment or re- 
 ward of any kind. The College of Medicine 
 is now merged in the University of Hong 
 Kong, and what should be, and what will 
 become, if properly supported, the nucleus 
 of the greatest centre of Western teaching 
 for China, was thus brought unpretentiously, 
 but none the less effectively, into being. 
 
 After five years’ study Sun obtained the 
 diploma to practise medicine and surgery 
 from the College of Medicine. He was the 
 first graduate of the College; and shortly 
 afterwards he commenced to practise his 
 profession in the Portuguese colony of 
 
THE MAN AND HIS WORK 29 
 
 Macao. He was tempted thither from the 
 fact that Macao was adjacent to the village 
 in which he was born, and because he had 
 many friends in the district. In a large, well- 
 built hospital Chinese patients were treated 
 according to native methods. Sun impressed 
 upon the Chinese governors of the hospital 
 the importance and benefits of Western medi- 
 cine; the future emancipator of China com- 
 mended himself to these old-world-bred men 
 by his honesty and unselfishness, as he did 
 later to the whole mass of his countiymen. 
 He persuaded them to open the portals of 
 the hospital to admit him with his newly 
 acquired knowledge. With a largeness of 
 mind characteristic of the Chinese the gov- 
 ernors said, Certainly, we will devote this 
 wing of the hospital to European methods, 
 and the other to Chinese practice, and we will 
 judge the results.” Is there another people 
 in the world who would have answered thusi 
 I doubt it. It was the action of large- 
 minded, broad-viewed, high-principled, un- 
 prejudiced men; an action characteristic, to 
 those who know the Chinese, a people en- 
 dowed with lofty ideas and willing to act 
 upon them when thoroughly convinced of 
 their possible benefits. 
 
 The Chinese are ready students, earnest 
 in their endeavor, quick to understand, re- 
 
30 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 tentive of memory. It was perhaps the last- 
 named feature that astonished one most. In 
 Chinese schools everything is given over to 
 training the memory. Knowledge, as we 
 understand it, is quite a secondary factor in 
 the so-called education given in Chinese 
 schools. Moreover, no real instruction is 
 permitted to be given to the people accord- 
 ing to Manchu laws. Eepetition, unceasing 
 repetition, is the essence of school-life in 
 China. The mind is stored with words and 
 sounds often wholly unintelligible to the 
 scholar nor understood by the teacher. The 
 effect of this constant repetition and memo- 
 rizing is to develop a retentiveness of memory 
 to a degree unbelievable to those who have 
 not come into contact with Oriental students. 
 A good example of the surprising extent to 
 which memory can be cultivated occurred at 
 one of the professional examinations for the 
 diploma of the College of Medicine. The 
 questions were answered perfectly, but on 
 comparing the papers it was found that the 
 answers were identical. Paragraphs, sen- 
 tences, full stops, and commas were so placed 
 that it did not matter which of the papers 
 was looked at. The wording was the same. 
 The examiners, new to Chinese methods of 
 instruction, insisted on another paper being 
 set, as they believed the students had by 
 
THE MAN AND HIS WORK 31 
 
 some means copied from each other. A fresh 
 paper of five questions was set, and a careful 
 watch kept during the examination. Again 
 the answers were correct and identical in 
 every point, and it was only when the text- 
 book recommended to the class was referred 
 to that an explanation was forthcoming. 
 They knew the large text-book of some five 
 hundred pages by heart, and could answer 
 any question put them word for word from 
 the book. 
 
 Sun commenced practice, and I encouraged 
 him especially in surgical work. When ma- 
 jor operations had to be done I went on sev- 
 eral occasions to Macao to assist him, and 
 there, in the presence of the governors of the 
 hospital, he performed important operations, 
 requiring skill, coolness of judgment, and 
 dexterity. It was a goodly journey to Macao 
 by sea, and took me away a considerable time 
 from my daily routine of work. Why did I 
 go this journey to Macao to help this man! 
 For the reason that others have fought for 
 and died for him, because I loved and re- 
 spected him. His is a nature that draws 
 men^s regard towards him and makes them 
 ready to serve him at the operating-table or 
 on the battlefield ; an unexplainable influence, 
 a magnetism which prevails and finds its ex- 
 pression in attracting men to his side. 
 
32 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 Surgical work is not conducted in China 
 with the privacy that attends similar work 
 with us. At Sun’s operations the lay com- 
 mittee of the hospital came and seated them- 
 selves near the operating-table, and the rela- 
 tives and friends of the patient stood around 
 watching the proceedings attentively. Es- 
 pecially did the manipulations in cutting for 
 stone interest the onlookers. It was an 
 operation that appealed to most men in that 
 part of the country, for stone was not an 
 uncommon ailment in the neighborhood. The 
 necessary incisions to reach the stone re- 
 quired a good deal of “ fanning ” on the part 
 of the onlookers to keep them from fainting 
 — every man carries a fan in the south of 
 China; but when the stone was produced 
 their qualms were forgotten, and the rejoic- 
 ings and “ Hi-yas ” of astonishment showed 
 they were amply rewarded for the trying 
 ordeal they had gone through. 
 
 There is much publicity in illness in China, 
 and the doctor’s attendance is often made 
 almost a public function. A foreign doctor’s 
 visit is of great interest, especially in the 
 country districts and villages. He is fol- 
 lowed by all and sundry to the house, and 
 amongst a group of friends around the 
 patient, with the villagers peering round the 
 doorway and occupjdng every point of van- 
 
THE MAN AND HIS WORK 33 
 
 tage, he has to proceed to diagnose the nature 
 of the illness or treat a surgical defect. 
 
 That the Chinese medical students are no 
 mere hookworms, as their examination pa- 
 pers would appear to show, but endowed with 
 a practical sense of their duties was brought 
 to light when plague broke out in Hong 
 Kong in 1894. For work in the plague hos- 
 pital under the control of the Alice Memorial 
 Hospital, with which the College of Medicine 
 was affiliated, the students readily and spon- 
 taneously volunteered for duty in the wards. 
 This may seem a small matter to-day, but in 
 1894 epidemic plague was an unknown dis- 
 ease for some two hundred years in either 
 China or Europe, and the only accurate ac- 
 count of its ravages was gathered from de- 
 scriptions of the Great Plague of London 
 in the seventeenth century, when exposure 
 to infection meant death. 
 
 Yet with the terrors of the disease before 
 them, when many of their friends and rela- 
 tions were dead or dying of the disease, and 
 the population fleeing from the plague- 
 stricken city, these students took up their 
 duties in the wards, as clerks, dressers, and 
 even nurses — awards in which every patient 
 attacked died. A more noble example of 
 faithfulness to their profession and heroic 
 devotion has never been recorded. Prowess on 
 
34 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 the battlefield, fighting in the stir of strife, 
 is one thing, but to fact death in a plague 
 hospital, or a cholera camp, when all around 
 are dying, and to continue calmly at work 
 day after day, night after night, and week 
 after week, requires courage of another or- 
 der. Gordon may have been proud of the 
 valor of his Chinese troops, but those of us 
 who saw the work the Chinese students did 
 during that epidemic of plague are willing to 
 bestow upon them a higher meed of praise 
 than ever was acclaimed to the soldiers of 
 Genghis Khan, before whose very name the 
 continents of Asia and Europe trembled. 
 The work of these students shows that China 
 has men within its fold capable of the high- 
 est courage and devotion to duty. 
 
 One of the first diversions which I insti- 
 tuted for the students from hospital work 
 and lectures was the formation of a military 
 ambulance company. After getting the stu- 
 dents proficient in first aid and ambu- 
 lance drill and providing a suitable uniform, 
 I offered my company to the commandant of 
 the Hong Kong Volunteer Artillery. The 
 offer was accepted, and for years the Chinese 
 students acted as the Ambulance Department 
 of the Corps. I had just given up the com- 
 mand of the Volunteer Medical Staff Corps, 
 now the K.A.M.C. (T.F.), in London, and 
 
THE MAN AND HIS WOEK 35 
 
 found that the Chinese students compared 
 quite favorably with the London medical 
 students in their aptitude and efficiency. I 
 also induced the students to play cricket, and 
 several of them, Sun included, gave promise 
 of becoming good all-round cricketers, an 
 accomplishment which in English eyes will 
 at once commend the young men to favorable 
 consideration. 
 
 In Macao, Sun first heard of The Young 
 China Party,” a legend we have become 
 familiar with in relation to the Young 
 Turkish Party.” Had there been a Sun Yat 
 Sen in Turkey the revolution of that party 
 would have been a success ; there are in Tur- 
 key revolutionists in plenty, but few true 
 patriots, otherwise she would now be on the 
 high road to success and liberty. Sun, how- 
 ever, had to quit Macao, because, under Por- 
 tuguese regulations, no one not possessing 
 a Portuguese diploma could legitimately 
 practise there, and so he removed to Can- 
 ton to work. The activities, however, of the 
 reform party became so pronounced, and Sun 
 became so prominent amongst his colleagues, 
 that he found little time for any work except 
 political. How the attempt to capture Can- 
 ton and its arsenal failed is told later on; 
 how of all the prominent reformers Sun was 
 the only one to escape alive is well known. 
 
36 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 With Sun’s many escapes my wife and my- 
 self have been made, from time to time, fully 
 acquainted, but it was not my intention to 
 relate them until given permission to do so 
 by Sun himself. In the Strand Magazine y 
 April, 1912, Sun gives an account of several 
 of these. His first escape was soon after he 
 came to Canton after giving up his practice 
 in Macao. He had enrolled himself as a mem- 
 ber of the Young China Party, and in 1894 
 formed a branch of the Kao-lao-hui in Can- 
 ton. Knowing that the Emperor Kuang 
 Hsu had serious intentions of introducing re- 
 forms in governmental methods. Sun for- 
 warded a petition signed by many of his 
 adherents to the Emperor. All was quiet 
 until the war with Japan w^as settled, when 
 the imperious Dowager-Empress reassumed 
 the direction of atfairs and denounced the 
 intentions of the Emperor and all reformers. 
 With the cessation of hostilities against 
 Japan, a number of the disbanded soldiers 
 in Canton became riotous owing to want of 
 pay and employment. The Canton police at 
 the same time, owing to their pay not being 
 forthcoming, took to looting the shops in the 
 city. A meeting of indignant citizens was 
 held, an unheard-of proceeding, and a depu- 
 tation five hundred strong presented them- 
 selves at the house of the Governor of the 
 
THE MAN AND HIS WOKK 37 
 
 city. After hearing their demands the Gov- 
 ernor regarded their presumption in the light 
 of a rebellion and arrested the ringleaders. 
 Sun had the good fortune to escape, but de- 
 termined forthwith to rescue his companions 
 who had been seized. That was his first 
 escape. 
 
 His second was more precarious. In the 
 city of Swatow, some hundred and fifty miles 
 north of Canton, something like a rebellion 
 had prevailed for some time. Sun and his 
 colleagues approached the revolutionaries 
 and found them willing to join forces with 
 him. The bold plan was then formed of seiz- 
 ing the city of Canton as the only means 
 whereby they could get what they considered 
 their just claims conceded. Rifles, pistols, 
 ammunition, and even dynamite were col- 
 lected from every possible source, and a re- 
 cruiting agent was sent to Hong Kong to 
 enlist men and to purchase arms. 
 
 The plot so far succeeded, but when all 
 seemed ready news came from Swatow that 
 the men could not move, as information con- 
 cerning the rising had leaked out and the 
 Government had the Tartar garrisons under 
 arms and ready for action. Without the 
 Swatow force nothing could be accomplished ; 
 and telegrams were sent to Hong Kong to 
 stop the sailing of the contingent. The men. 
 
38 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 some four hundred strong, were on the quay 
 at Hong Kong ready to go aboard the steamer 
 for Canton. Several barrels containing pis- 
 tols had been already shipped when the offi- 
 cer in charge of the contingent received a 
 telegram telling him not to proceed to Can- 
 ton and to disband the men. The officer, 
 however, unfortunately misread the telegram 
 and allowed the men to embark, with the re- 
 sult that they were captured in a body on 
 reaching Canton. Thereupon, the Central 
 Reform Committee broke up their head- 
 quarters in Canton, burnt their papers, hid 
 their arms, and escaped from the city as best 
 they could. 
 
 Sun gained a friend’s house; at night he 
 was let down over the city wall and sought 
 refuge on the canal banks to the south of 
 the city. Here he wandered on towards 
 home, now travelling in canal boats, now 
 seeking the shore when soldiers came to 
 search the boats for refugees, and finally 
 reaching Macao, where he was hidden by 
 friends. Macao, however, became too dan- 
 gerous, and he went from thence to Hong 
 Kong, then to Kobe and from there to 
 Honolulu. 
 
 It was not until fully a year after the Can- 
 ton affair, when on my way home from China, 
 via Honolulu across America, that I knew of 
 
THE MAN AND HIS WORK 39 
 
 his whereabouts. The vehicle in which I was 
 driving with my wife, and a Japanese nurse 
 in charge of my son, through the streets of 
 Honolulu was stopped by a man, apparently 
 a Japanese, looking very trim in European 
 dress and with a moustache of respectable 
 dimensions, who proffered his hand, raised 
 his hat, and smiled affably. We all regarded 
 him with astonishment; the Japanese nurse 
 addressed him in J apanese, but he shook his 
 head in response, and it was some time before 
 we recognized it was Sun minus his cue and 
 Chinese dress. A cordial greeting ensued 
 and a visit to us in London was arranged. 
 
 The resemblance of the Chinese to his 
 Japanese neighbor when he is got-up ’’ in 
 the same way is most marked; so identical 
 do the two appear, that when we visited a 
 shop in Honolulu the shopman addressed 
 Sun, who was with us, in Japanese, and 
 would not believe his repeated statement that 
 he was not Japanese, but Chinese. Should 
 the Chinese follow the example of the Japa- 
 nese and lay aside their national dress, the 
 identity of each will possibly disappear, and 
 even the two peoples will not be able to recog- 
 nize by their appearance to which nationality 
 they belong. A pity in many ways, yet evi- 
 dently an inevitable result of the modern- 
 izing of both China and Japan. 
 
40 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 Sun gives the following account of his ex- 
 periences, about this time ; he savs : 
 
 ‘‘ At Hong Kong my safety was hardly moie as- 
 sured, and on Dr. Canthe’s advice I went to see 
 a lawyer, Mr. Dennis, who told me that my best 
 protection was instant flight. 
 
 ‘‘ ‘ Peking’s arm, though weaker, is still a long 
 one, ’ he said, and in whichever part of the world 
 you go, you must expect to hear of the Tsung-h- 
 Yamen.’ 
 
 “ Fortunately, friends provided me with funds, 
 and here I must mention the constant fldehty of 
 well-wishers to the great cause I have aU these 
 years endeavored to promote. They have never 
 faded me. But then, fortunately, apart from trav- 
 elling, my wants are few. I have often for weeks 
 together hved on a little rice and water, and I have 
 journeyed many hundreds of miles on foot. At 
 other times I have had difficulty in refusing the 
 large sums placed at my disposal, for some of my 
 countrraen in America are very rich, generous, 
 and patriotic. 
 
 ‘‘ At Kobe, whither I fled from Hong Kong, I 
 took a step of great importance. I cut off my 
 cue, which had been growing aU my life. For 
 some days I had not shaved my head, and I al- 
 lowed the hair to grow on my upper hp. Then I 
 went out to a clothier’s and bought a suit of mod- 
 em Japanese garments. When I was fully dressed 
 I looked in the mirror, and was astonished — and a 
 good deal reassured — by the transformation. Na- 
 ture had favored me. I was darker in complexion 
 
THE MAN AND HIS WORK 41 
 
 than most Chinese, a trait I had inherited from 
 luy mother, for my father resembled more the reg- 
 ular type. I have seen it said that I have Malay 
 blood in my veins, and also that I was born in 
 Honolulu. Both these statements are false. I am 
 purely Chinese, as far as I know; but after the 
 Japanese War, when the natives of Japan began to 
 be treated with more respect, I had no trouble, 
 when I had let my hair and moustache grow, in 
 passing for a Japanese. I admit I owe a great 
 deal to this circumstance, as otherwise I should 
 not have escaped from many dangerous situations. 
 
 “ A similar experience befell me in Honolulu, 
 where I spent six months after leaving Japan. I 
 found many of my countrymen there, and they 
 received me with open arms. They knew all about 
 my exploits, and they also knew that a big price 
 was placed on the head of the notorious ‘ Sun 
 Wen.’ In the town of Honolulu I held a sort of 
 levee every day, and I received letters and reports 
 from my friends, the members of the Reform 
 Party, the Kao-lao-hui. Thence I went to San 
 Francisco, and enjoyed a sort of triumphal jour- 
 ney through America, varied by reports that the 
 Chinese Minister to Washington was doing his ut- 
 most to have me kidnapped and carried back to 
 China, where I well knew the fate that would be- 
 fall me — first having my ankles crushed in a vice 
 and broken by a hammer, my eyelids cut off, and, 
 finally, be chopped to small fragments, so that none 
 could claim my mortal remains. For the old 
 Chinese code does not err on the side of mercy to 
 political agitators. 
 
42 
 
 SUX YAT SEX 
 
 I sailed for England in September, 1896, and 
 on the eleventh of the next month I was kidnapped 
 at the Chinese Legation in Portland Place, Lon- 
 don, by order of the Chinese Ambassador. The 
 stor>^ of that kidnapping is already known fully to 
 the world. It is enough to say here that I was 
 locked up in a room under strict surveillance for 
 twelve days, awaiting my transportation on board 
 ship, as a lunatic, back to China, and that I should 
 never have escaped had not my old friend and 
 master, Dr. Cantlie, been then Ihdng in London. 
 To him I managed, after many failures, to get 
 through a message. He notified the newspapers, 
 and the police and Lord Salisbury intervened at 
 the eleventh hour and ordered my release.” 
 
 ■Many inquiries have been sent to me, 
 
 How did you get information that Sun was 
 imprisoned in the Legation? ’’ As usual, a 
 woman came to the rescue. The wife of one 
 of the English servants in the Legation heard 
 from her husband of the piteous plight of 
 the imprisoned Chinese and sent me the fol- 
 lowmg letter. “ There is a friend of yours 
 imprisoned in the Chinese Legation here 
 since last Sunday; they intend sending him 
 out to China, where it is certain they will 
 hang him. It is very sad for the poor man, 
 and unless something is done at once he will 
 be taken away and no one will know it. I 
 dare not sign my name, but this is the truth, 
 so believe what I sav. Whatever you do 
 
THE MAN AND HIS WOKK 43 
 
 must be done at once, or it will be too late. 
 His name is, I believe. Sin Yin Sen.’^ The 
 note reached my house at 11:30 p.m. on the 
 night of Saturday, October 17, 1896. A ring 
 at the door-bell brought me from my bed. I 
 found no one at the door, but observed and 
 picked up the letter, which had been pushed 
 in below the door. It was this woman who 
 started the machinery for Sun’s release. 
 Had this humble woman failed in her pur- 
 pose the regeneration of China would have 
 been thrown back indefinitely, for the last of 
 the reformers would have lost his life and the 
 Manchus would be still in power. 
 
 I went to the head of the Marylebone police 
 and thence to Scotland Yard the moment I 
 received the information of his whereabouts. 
 The chief difficulty was to get any one to be- 
 lieve the story. The police even at Scotland 
 Yard said it was none of their business, and 
 that I had done my duty when I reported the 
 matter to them, and that I ought to go home 
 and keep quiet. My visit was at 1.30 a.m., 
 and they told me the next day, when I called 
 with Sir Patrick Manson, that a man had 
 called in the middle of the night with the 
 same statement, and that the inspector on 
 duty could not make out whether he was 
 drunk or a lunatic. I told the inspector now 
 on duty I was the same man, and again he 
 
44 
 
 SUN YAT SEX 
 
 gave me the advice to go home and keep quiet 
 and that they conld do nothing in the matter 
 as it did not concern them. When asked to 
 whom I should report the matter, I was told 
 I had done my duty by reporting the matter 
 to them, and that was enough. 
 
 The want of initiative amongst the men 
 ‘‘ on duty at Scotland Yard it is needless 
 to comment upon. Had I got in touch with 
 those in higher authority the matter might 
 have been different ; but it taught me the les- 
 son so often preached, namely, that the dif- 
 ference between the classes ” of men is the 
 presence or absence of initiative. It was 
 not until I got in touch with a member of 
 the clerical staff at the Foreign Office, quite 
 at the eleventh hour, that the matter was 
 taken up and dealt with. Had I not been 
 fortunate enough to meet a man accustomed 
 to take initiative, ‘‘ the dangerous lunatic ” 
 at the Chinese Legation would, twenty-four 
 hours later, have been shipped to China to 
 be punished in the way all Sun’s colleagues 
 had already been — namely, by decapitation. 
 Emissaries of the Chinese Government 
 haunted Sun’s footsteps in Japan, in China, 
 in Annam, and wherever he went. The 
 enormous price set upon his head induced 
 desperate men readily to undertake either 
 his capture or his death. 
 
THE MAN AND HIS WORK 45 
 
 Of his experiences after the kidnapping 
 episode Sun writes : 
 
 After some time spent in travel and study in 
 London and Paris, I felt that the time had come 
 to return to China. My country, I felt, needed 
 me, and I arrived to find everything in a state of 
 ferment. The whole world knows the story of the 
 Boxer troubles. During that terrible time I was 
 speaking and writing and lecturing — more con- 
 fident now than ever that nothing could stave off 
 the inevitable revolution. Daily I carried my life 
 in my hand, for I began to have enemies now 
 amongst the extremists, men who hated Europeans 
 and European civilization, and wished to expel the 
 ‘ foreign devils ’ from China. 
 
 ‘ ‘ It was now that another important event hap- 
 pened to me. I was speaking to a company of 
 my followers, when my eye fell on a young man 
 of slight physique. He was under five feet high; 
 he was about my age; his face was pale, and he 
 looked delicate. Afterwards he came to me and 
 said : 
 
 ‘ I should like to throw in my lot with you. 
 I should like to help you. I believe your propa- 
 ganda will succeed.’ 
 
 “ His accent told me he was an American. He 
 held out his hand. I took it and thanked him, 
 wondering who he was. I thought he was a mis- 
 sionary or a student. I was right. After he had 
 gone I said to a friend: 
 
 “ ‘ Who was that little hunchback? ’ 
 
 “ ‘ Oh, that,’ said he, ^ is Colonel Homer Lea, 
 
46 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 one of the most brilliant — perhaps the most bril- 
 liant military genius now alive. He is a perfect 
 master of modern warfare.’ 
 
 I almost gasped in astonishment. 
 
 “ ‘ And he has just offered to throw in his lot 
 with me.’ 
 
 The next morning I called on Homer Lea, 
 now General, and the famous author of the 
 ‘ Valor of Ignorance.’ I told him that in case 
 I should succeed and my countrymen gave me the 
 power to do so, I would make him my chief mili- 
 tary adviser. 
 
 ‘‘ ‘ Do not wait until you are President of 
 China,’ he said. ‘ You may want me before then. 
 You can neither make nor keep a Government 
 without an army. I have the highest opinion of 
 Chinamen as troops when they are properly 
 trained. ’ 
 
 “ Most of the modern army — the troops trained 
 in European tactics — are patriots and reformers, 
 but until they seized the arsenal at Hanyang they 
 were without ammunition. Blank cartridges were 
 all that was ever served out to them.” 
 
 After his release from the Chinese Em- 
 bassy in London in October, 1896, Sun 
 stayed with us for some time before 
 leaving for the Far East. His narrow 
 escape did not check his intentions, but sent 
 him forth more fully determined than ever 
 to achieve his purpose. In Japan he 
 found asylum, and from there he trav- 
 
THE MAN AND HIS WORK 47 
 
 elled incognito in various disguises wliich I 
 even now do not feel justified in disclosing. 
 He visited many parts of the interior of 
 China, the Straits Settlements, the Malay 
 Peninsula, the United States, and wherever 
 Chinese had emigrated he preached reform 
 and the necessity for strenuous endeavor. 
 What did he preach? A bloodless reform, 
 a reform by peaceful measures; convincing 
 arguments were his weapons. The foe he set 
 out to crush was the prevailing apathy and 
 the political ignorance of his countrymen and 
 their terror of declaring their real feelings. 
 To raise troops of soldiers from amongst the 
 floating population of China ready to fight for 
 pay and to drive the Manchus from Peking 
 would have been a light task compared to 
 the work Sun set himself to do. He resolved 
 that the people of China should rebel in 
 the true sense of the word ; but how was this 
 to be done? As Sun did it. 
 
 In the interior of China, in a guise which 
 defied the penetration of the officials, he 
 preached the tenets of his belief. To the 
 villagers on the banks of the mighty Yang- 
 tse he brought tidings of liberty from its 
 mouth in the China Seas to far Sze-chuen on 
 the borders of Thibet; on the Pearl River 
 he drew crowds to listen to him, and through- 
 out the Kwangsi and Kwang-tung provinces 
 
48 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 established centres of influence and gained 
 able and enthusiastic supporters as his ad- 
 herents. As a spectacled pedlar with knick- 
 knacks in his wallet he travelled through the 
 Malay Peninsula and the Straits Settlements, 
 attracting not only the laboring coolies in the 
 plantations but the masters as well. The 
 well-to-do merchants in Penang and Singa- 
 pore gave him their support and contributed 
 sums of money to further the campaign he 
 had in hand. In Honolulu, in San Francisco 
 and other cities and centres of the United 
 States, Sun converted men to his standard 
 and gained their confidence by his convinc- 
 ing honesty and unselfish patriotism. A 
 simple talent apparently, but one that has 
 served to bring light and hope to human 
 beings before now, has stirred men to the 
 highest efforts and founded the greatest of 
 all the religions of the world. 
 
 How did he preach? Was Sun the blatant, 
 loud-tongued demagogue his European de- 
 tractors would have us believe? Far other 
 were the measures he adopted. In a recently 
 published article, a well-known author gives 
 an account of an address he heard delivered 
 by Sun to a large meeting of Chinese in 
 San Francisco. For three hours did he 
 speak, quietly, seriously, without once pitch- 
 ing his tones in passionate appeal or ever 
 
THE MAN AND HIS WOEK 49 
 
 raising his hand to enforce his arguments. 
 A simple sermon, during which his hearers 
 neither applauded nor gave sign of dissent — 
 a spellbound audience listening to a message 
 which had been denied them for centuries. 
 A message of hope to escape from a thral- 
 dom compared with which the monarchical 
 and religious tyranny of the Middle Ages in 
 Western Europe appears as comparative 
 freedom, for in China the people have no say 
 whatever in the management of Imperial, 
 national, or even municipal affairs ; the man- 
 darins or local magistrates have full power of 
 adjudication, from which there is no appeal. 
 Their word is law, and they have full scope 
 to practise their machinations with complete 
 irresponsibility, and to fatten on the people 
 with impunity. Extortion by officials is a 
 recognized institution, the means by which 
 the official lives and thrives. Appointments 
 are procured by bribery, and once obtained 
 the holder has complete license, and the 
 higher the position he acquires the greater 
 additional facilities are afforded for aggran- 
 dizement and self-enrichment; these officers 
 are the ultimate authority in all matters af- 
 fecting social, political and criminal life. 
 
 The so-called education of the masses un- 
 derwent a change when the Manchus came to 
 rule the country; these uneducated, rude, and 
 
50 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 uncultivated people, “ outer barbarians,” as 
 the Chinese called them, by a stroke of suc- 
 cess in battle found themselves masters of 
 the situation and seized the throne. Utterly 
 ignorant of literature of any kind, they found 
 to their surprise that the Chinese were an 
 educated people, almost every coolie in the 
 land could read, write, and count to somd 
 extent, and many were scholars of attain- 
 ment in the Chinese sense ; the Manchus were 
 alarmed at the state of affairs, and believing 
 that education was a present danger to them, 
 they sought to stamp it out. This they found 
 impossible ; so some clever men amongst them 
 set to work to evolve a system of teaching 
 which would count for nothing, whilst at the 
 same time they humored the people by allow- 
 ing them to prosecute study of a kind. The 
 writings of Confucius and other sages were 
 curtailed; all parts relating to the criticism 
 of their superiors were carefully eliminated, 
 and only those parts were published for pub- 
 lic reading in schools which taught complete 
 obedience to authority. 
 
 To keep the masses in ignorance was the 
 deliberate purpose of the Manchus ; the books 
 they allowed to be published contained mere 
 idioms, what we would term ‘‘ copy-book ” 
 texts. Of instruction these books afforded 
 none ; their reading conveyed no knowledge — 
 
THE MAN AND HIS WOEK 51 
 
 proverbs in poetic language devoid of infor- 
 mation, reasoning in a circle which led to 
 nothing. The boys (for girls were not al- 
 lowed to be educated) were no better in- 
 formed when they finished than when they 
 began. Nothing in history parallels this 
 sham learning; the people demanded educa- 
 tion, and their rulers gave them trite sayings 
 to read, and kept them in total ignorance. 
 Sun Yat Sen, in his appeal to his country- 
 men, had to begin at the very root of reform. 
 
 It was not merely a change of dynasty, of 
 altering or amending laws, nor an extension 
 of freedom, for none existed. The reform 
 had to start from complete darkness; not 
 even from chaos to cosmos, for there were 
 not present even the very elements which go 
 to form chaos. There had to be, as it were, 
 a new heaven and a new earth; a complete 
 submersion of the past, and a fresh resur- 
 rection if freedom was to be obtained. No 
 man ever attempted a task so huge, yet has 
 it been accomplished by an unpretentious in- 
 dividual with nothing to help him but hon- 
 esty, unselfishness, ability and a readiness 
 to lay down his life for his country’s sake. 
 
 Other escapes from what seemed inevitable 
 death were many. For safety Sun frequently 
 lived on board junks on the river as he trav- 
 elled in the interior of China. Once at Nan- 
 
52 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 king a man entered Sun’s cabin on board a 
 junk and announced that he had been offered 
 $5,000 to effect his capture. Sun reasoned 
 with the would-be captor, with the result that 
 the man fell at his feet in an agony of re- 
 pentance and implored pardon. The man 
 desisted. Why? Sun’s personality merely, 
 for he was not armed. No one who has 
 come in close touch with Sun Yat Sen but 
 has felt the magic of his presence. Honesty 
 and patriotism endow him with an “ atmo- 
 sphere ” that convinces his opponents to his 
 views and serves to turn aside the assassin’s 
 knife and the betrayer’s purpose. The be- 
 trayer in this instance did as another be- 
 trayer did, went and hanged himself, as he 
 could not face the world again after having 
 even thought of giving Sun up to his enemies. 
 
 Once, when hiding in a fisherman’s cabin 
 outside Canton, soldiers were sent to watch 
 the cabin and to shoot Sun at sight ; the fish- 
 erman got to know of their presence and 
 kept Sun indoors for two days, until, in fact, 
 he was relieved of their attentions by some 
 friend shooting the soldiers themselves. 
 
 Once, in the island of Hainan, owing to the 
 house he occupied being watched, he never 
 moved out of the compound for six months, 
 and only by a clever ruse did he manage to 
 get on board a boat and escape. 
 
THE MAN AND HIS WORK 53 
 
 One of the most serious attempts on his 
 life was made by two young Government 
 officials, attended by a dozen soldiers, in Can- 
 ton. They entered Sun^s room late one even- 
 ing. The position was desperate, for his cap- 
 ture or death would mean promotion and 
 high rewards to these officers. Even then 
 did Sun’s calmness effect his safety. Ap- 
 prised of their advent, he took up one of the 
 sacred books on the table beside him and 
 read aloud. The would-be captors listened 
 and then began to ask questions. Sun en- 
 tered into conversation with them, and in two 
 hours’ time the officials with their attendant 
 soldiers departed. Sun’s personality again 
 told; the officials who came to arrest were 
 themselves arrested by the magnetism of this 
 extraordinary man, who wins all to his cause 
 and sends his captors away happy that they 
 failed in their enterprise. 
 
 Thus for some seventeen years — from 1895 
 to 1912 — has death by violence threatened 
 him. More than once has a hired assassin 
 entered the room he occupied; spies have 
 watched him in almost every country, in- 
 cluding England and America; a large sum, 
 at one time amounting to $500,000, was of- 
 fered for his capture, and only now can he 
 be said to be beyond attempts on his life. 
 How did Sun regard these? Latterly with 
 
54 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 indifference, formerly with some apprehen- 
 sion for the cause he had in hand. 
 
 His host in San Francisco told me of his 
 conversation with Sun on this subject. Sun 
 had just spoken to an audience in that city 
 in February, 1911, and when he rose to go 
 his friend proposed accompanying him to his 
 lodging. Sun remonstrated and said there 
 was no occasion for that. His host said that 
 it was very unsafe, seeing that a price was 
 on his head, to go at night through the 
 Chinese quarter of the city. At this Sun 
 smiled, and said that there was no fear. His 
 friend enforced the necessity by saying that 
 it would be the ruin of the cause he had at 
 heart were he to be killed. Yliereat Sun 
 again smiled and said, Oh no, the cause 
 will not be mined by my death; everything 
 is in order, my death will not affect it, the 
 whole scheme is worked out to the most 
 minute detail; the leaders are appointed, the 
 generals are ready, the troops are organized, 
 and nothing that can happen to me will make 
 any difference. A few years ago, my death 
 would have been a misfortune, but not now.'' 
 Eegardless of everything except the welfare 
 of his country, he had no thought of self and 
 refused to be protected. He always spoke in 
 this fashion concerning the dangers he ran. 
 During his many visits to London, although 
 
THE MAN AND HIS WOEK 55 
 
 when he left our house he was conscious he 
 was followed, he regarded the matter with 
 indifference. 
 
 When he accompanied us to dinner at a 
 friend’s house, there was the inevitable spy 
 or detective following us, and when we 
 started to come home we were made aware of 
 being watched and followed. My wife and 
 myself were also honored” in this fashion 
 on several occasions even when Sun had left 
 the country, and our friends were at times 
 alarmed that we might be punished for our 
 friendship with Sun. Our being followed, 
 however, was no doubt merely due to the fact 
 that Sun had disappeared, and, having lost 
 touch with his whereabouts, the authorities 
 had us shadowed in the hope we were going 
 to visit him at his lodgings, and thereby un- 
 wittingly reveal his address. 
 
 The early necessity for obtaining the ^ ^ sin- 
 ews of war ’ ’ and his appreciation of his own 
 people Sun has briefly expressed in the 
 following : 
 
 At the close of the Boxer rebellion I returned 
 to America. There was one thmg I wanted more 
 than troops and arms — without which I saw I 
 could have neither, and that was money. Not the 
 money in quantities I had been receiving — here 
 and there — but at least half a million sterling. 
 Anything less than this would be failure. Now 
 
56 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 began a new role for me — a canvasser for political 
 funds. In this capacity I travelled in every city 
 in America, and I visited all the leading bankers 
 in Europe. Emissaries sent by me penetrated into 
 all quarters. Some professing to act for me and 
 in my name proved faithless. But I prefer not to 
 speak of these — although one man is now uni- 
 versally denounced as a traitor to the cause for 
 having appropriated a huge sum of money en- 
 trusted to his care. He will meet with his due 
 reward. 
 
 “ All over the world, and particularly in Amer- 
 ica, the legend has grown up that Chinamen are 
 selfish and mercenary. There never was a greater 
 libel on a people. Many have given me their 
 whole fortune. One Philadelphia laundrj’man 
 called at my hotel after a meeting, and, thrusting 
 a linen bag upon me, went awaj^ without a word. 
 It contained his entire savings for twenty years. 
 
 In this sketch of Sun Yat Sen I know how 
 completely I have failed to depict the char- 
 acter of this extraordinary man. My respect 
 and regard for him may appear to have 
 warped my judgment and directed my j^en 
 in too narrow a channel. Let there be no 
 mistake in this matter, however; I have re- 
 strained, not exaggerated, my feelings to- 
 wards him. I have never knovm any one like 
 Sun Yat Sen; if I were asked to name the 
 most perfect character I ever knew, I would 
 unhesitatingly say Sun Yat Sen. In our 
 
THE MAN AND HIS WOEK 57 
 
 house he was the most welcome of visitors; 
 children and servants alike conceived a deep 
 regard for him; his sweetness of disposition, 
 his courtesy, his consideration for others, his 
 interesting conversation, and his gracious de- 
 meanor attract one towards him in an in- 
 describable fashion, and have led me to think 
 of him as a being apart, consecrated for the 
 work he had in hand. 
 
 And what could be more genuinely self- 
 revealing, as regards the absence of selfish 
 ambition and as indicating the devoted 
 patriotism by which the man is consumed, 
 than these paragraphs from his own pen : 
 
 So far it has all happened as I foretold, only 
 the crisis has come a little more hurriedly. I ex- 
 pected Yuan-Shih-Kai would have been able to 
 hold out longer. I was so full of this belief that 
 when a year ago Yuan sent for me I distrusted his 
 messenger. I thought he was playing false, but 
 he was really in earnest. He wished to remove 
 the ban from my life and act openly in concert 
 with me. But I said to his messenger : 
 
 ‘ Go back to your master and tell him I have 
 not labored fifteen years and suffered so many 
 perils to be tricked so easily. Tell his Excellency 
 I can wait.’ 
 
 If I had trusted Yuan’s messenger the revolu- 
 tion would have happened sooner, and I should 
 now be in Peking. For I can count upon mil- 
 
58 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 lions of followers. They will follow me to the 
 death, as they have long followed my teachings. 
 
 # # # # # 
 
 Whether I am to be the titular head of all 
 China, or to work in conjunction with another, 
 and that other Yuan-Shih-Kai, is of no importance 
 to me. I have done my work; the wave of en- 
 lightenment and progress cannot now be stayed, 
 and China — ^the country in the world most fitted 
 to be a republic, because of the industrious and 
 docile character of the people — will, in a short 
 time, take her place amongst the civilized and 
 liberty-loving nations of the world.” 
 
 As a further instance of Sun’s all-pervad- 
 ing courtesy and kindliness, I would men- 
 tion an occurrence, insignificant in itself no 
 doubt, but under the circumstances interest- 
 ing. He came to my house in November, 
 1911, and the maid who opened the door, and 
 who had knovm him for many years, gave 
 him a smiling welcome. The chosen head of 
 400,000,000 of people, carrying in his pocket 
 a telegram just received asking him to be 
 President of the Chinese Eepublic, shook 
 hands with her and cordially returned the 
 greeting. 
 
 The story of this telegram is also of in- 
 terest. It was sent from Canton and ad- 
 dressed to Sun Wen, London. Sun lYen is 
 
THE MAN AND HIS WORK 59 
 
 Sun’s official name, Sun Yat Sen his family 
 name. Most Chinese have three or even four 
 names. One the name his parents give him 
 at birth; another the name his schoolmaster 
 bestows upon him when he enters school; a 
 third the young man selects for himself when 
 he reaches adult years; and yet again he 
 bears the name under which he is entered in 
 the official records. The Chinese puts his 
 family name, what we term the surname, 
 first; and it is only the latter part of the 
 name, which stands for our first or Chris- 
 tian name, which varies. 
 
 ‘‘ Sun Wen, London,” was rather a vague 
 address, but the Post Office officials wrote 
 across the envelope, Try Chinese Lega- 
 tion.” Thither the telegram was evidently 
 sent, but when it was read it was forwarded 
 on to my house with a message asking 
 whether the person to whom it was ad- 
 dressed was residing there. I was not at 
 home, but my wife, luckily, was. Many tele- 
 grams had been coming for some weeks be- 
 fore Sun arrived in London, and we had in- 
 structions to open them. This telegram was, 
 of course, already open; the communication 
 was in cipher, and after each ciphered word 
 a Chinese character was evidently recently 
 written. Sun had not reached our house 
 when the telegram arrived, although we were 
 
60 
 
 SUN YAT SEX 
 
 almost hourly expecting him, so Mrs. Cantlie 
 was able to reply that Sun Wen was not with 
 us. Her difficulty was what to do in the mat- 
 ter; this might be a most important message, 
 and one which Sun ought to be acquainted 
 with. Yet to acknowledge Sun’s advent 
 might lead to trouble, for the Ambassador 
 was still representing the Manchus, and he 
 might have had instructions to secure Sun at 
 all hazards for all we knew to the contrary. 
 How was the difficulty to be got over? Mrs. 
 Cantlie copied the cipher from the telegram, 
 Chinese characters and all, and returned it 
 by the messenger. 
 
 When Sun came in some two hours after- 
 wards, with the scores of letters and tele- 
 gi'ams awaiting him, Mrs. Cantlie handed 
 him the cipher telegram referred to ; he read 
 it, smiled, and put it in his pocket. Xaturally 
 we were anxious to know what was in this 
 telegi’am; but we never, in all our intimacy 
 with Sun, asked him anything that we con- 
 sidered might be private, and we always 
 begged him not to tell us anything in the 
 nature of a secret concerning the work in 
 which he was engaged. It was not until next 
 day that Mrs. Cantlie referred to the tele- 
 gram and told him its history; he asked who 
 copied the Chinese characters, and was 
 astounded, almost to unbelieving, that Mrs. 
 
MRS. SUN YAT SEN IN A JINRICKSHA, WITH HER SON 
 
THE MAN AND HIS WOEK 61 
 
 Cantlie could have written the characters so 
 exactly with a pen. When asked if the news 
 was secret, Oh no,’’ he said, didn’t I tell 
 you! It was asking me to he President of 
 the new Eepublic.” 
 
 Would any other man have received the 
 news in the manner Sun did? I believe not. 
 When we asked him if he would accept the 
 presidency, he answered, after a little reflec- 
 tion, Yes, for the time being, if no one else 
 can be found better in the meantime. ’ ’ Probe 
 his thoughts as we might, there never was 
 any semblance of self-seeking. The fact that 
 the destinies of China were in his keeping 
 never seemed to quicken the pulse of his 
 thoughts or disturb his equanimity. The 
 benefit of his country was his only considera- 
 tion; nothing else mattered. Neither honors, 
 place, position, nor reward were dreamt of, 
 far less considered. The presidency might 
 come and go, he cared not; his country’s re- 
 generation was before all. Not that the prin- 
 ciple he held sacred ever found expression in 
 words ; the commonplace florid oratory of the 
 demagogue acclaiming the people’s rights 
 had no place in the category of Sun’s speech 
 or methods. Confident of success, belief in 
 the capabilities of the men he had selected 
 to fill the important offices of state, complete 
 reliance upon the character of the Chinese 
 
62 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 people to work out their own salvation, and 
 implicit trust in Yuan-Shih-Kai were the key- 
 notes of Sun’s endeavor. 
 
 ***** 
 
 The consistent simplicity and amiability 
 of Sun Yat Sen’s character will be gathered 
 from the following three letters recently re- 
 ceived from him, and reproduced in facsimile. 
 
THE MAN AND HIS WORK 63 
 
 ^ m m & m ^ 
 
 REPUBLIC OF CHINA 
 
 THE PRESIDENT’S OFFICE^ 
 
 January 8lBt/i012. 
 
 My Dear Dr. and ure.'Cantll©* 
 
 It will be your pleasure to 
 hear from me tnat 1 nave assumed the Presidenoy of the 
 Provisional Republican Government In China, which 1 accept- 
 ed with disinterested fervour In order to render myself an 
 Instrumentality to rescue China with Its four hundred 
 million population from environment of Impending perils 
 and dishonour. I ought to have written you much earlier, 
 but something or other always prevented me from doing so , 
 having been kept exceedingly busy since 1 arrived here and* 
 especially so since 1 occupied my present post, as you may 
 well Imagine and fairly forgive. It malces me feel more 
 grateful to you when from the present position 1 look back 
 on my past of hardships and strenuous toil, and think of 
 your kindnesses shown me all the while that 1 con never nor 
 will forget. I can say so far that the state of things 
 
 here in Hanking is improving rapidly with a well founded 
 prospect of future promise. 1 may not write you as often 
 as 1 wish, but you may learn from the newa-papere what I am 
 doing from time to time. Kindly convey ray beat compliments 
 to all my friends In London whom you know and happen to meet, 
 emd oblige. 
 
 Kith best wishes and kindest regards, 1 seijiain 
 lours very sincerely. 
 
64 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 m ^ m & m 
 
 REPUBLIC OF CHINA 
 
 THE PRESIDENT’S OFPlCE, 
 
 March srd/1912. 
 
 My dear Doctor cantlle* 
 
 1 have your very icind and 
 
 Interestlr^ letter which gives ce a great deal of pleasure. 
 
 1 am well. How that I have resigned In favour 
 of Yueui Shl-kal, since ay work of revolution le coopleted, 
 
 1 hope to be relieved of office soon. But, I fear, things 
 rsay yet take a leas favourable turn and require my service 
 a little longer. No doubt you have seen In the last two 
 days’ papers about the riot in Peking, this calls for the 
 greatest attention and needs lanedlate action to prevent it 
 to spread further. I hope however everything will resuoe 
 its noroal course before long. 
 
 Yours sincerely. 
 
SUN VAT SEN, WHILE PRESIDENT OJ' THE REPURLIC, PEEING SALUTED 
 
 BY SOLDIERS 
 
THE MAN AND HIS WORK 65 
 
 S g I? 
 
 REPUBLIC OF CHINA 
 
 THE PRESIDENT'S OPFJCE, 
 
 KWCH a2th/19X2. 
 
 sear Mrs. Oantllo»^ 
 
 Your welcome letter of February 18th 
 afforded me great pleasure » and It Is Indeed a delight to 
 eee the familiar hand-writing again. 
 
 It Is true that the Tal Ching dynasty la **a 
 thing of the pant" but the dethronement of the lianchua 
 does not mean the complete salvation of China. Re have an 
 enormous amount of work ahead of us, and It must be accom- 
 plished In order that ehe may be ranked as a great power 
 among the family of nations. 
 
 I thank you for your earnest prayers offered In 
 my behalf. 1 am glad to tell you that we are going to have 
 religious toleration In China, and l*m sure that Christian- 
 ity will flourish tinder the new regime. 
 
 I am going to Canton shortly and there try to 
 convert the old city Into a new and modern one. 
 
 My family Is in Nanking with me. My eon will 
 return to America for his education, and I am contomplatlng 
 Bending my elder daughter along with her brother for the 
 same purpose. If they should come to England 1 shall ask 
 them to make it a point to call on you and the doctor. 
 
 I close this letter with my kindest regards and 
 best wishes to you and Dr. Cantlle,' I remain. 
 
 Yours sincerely. 
 
m 
 
 THE EISE OF A GEEAT TYEANIsT 
 
 / 
 
 T O understand aright the Chinese E ev- 
 olution — the most remarkable event 
 surely of our time — we must realize 
 the nature of the forces opposing Sun Yat 
 Sen and his supporters. We must find out, 
 in fact, upon what the Manchus based 
 their apparently impregnable despotism. 
 The story is a fascinating one — almost as 
 fascinating as it is sinister. In nothing is it 
 more remarkable than this: that while the 
 Manchus, once upon the Chinese throne, pro- 
 fessed to be opposed inexorably to change, 
 and determined to preserve intact and at all 
 costs the institutions of the country, and 
 while to all appearance they succeeded in 
 doing so, yet in actual fact they contrived, 
 all unsuspected, to transmute the whole char- 
 acter of China ’s government and civilization. 
 In this single fact we have the key to a 
 dominion as mysterious as it was powerful 
 — the dominion of a barbaric Tartar clan 
 over an ancient empire. That their Manchu 
 
 66 
 
EISE OF A GREAT TYRANNY 67 
 
 rulers were foreigners was always keenly 
 felt by the Chinese. Most wisely, therefore, 
 did the Manchus show all the deference 
 proper in foreigners to Chinese forms of gov- 
 ernment, but none the less did they change 
 the spirit of that government as completely 
 as if they had thrown everything into the 
 melting-pot. It is no exaggeration to say 
 that the Empire Sun Yat Sen has overthrown 
 was more alien to that of his forefathers 
 than the Republic he has established, and 
 the great achievement of the Revolution has 
 been to restore China to her true, her normal 
 self. 
 
 It is easy to explain this paradox. Con- 
 sider for a moment the working of the normal 
 Chinese autocracy in the pre-Manchu days. 
 It was absolutely different to all the despot- 
 isms of the East. Such a thing, for instance, 
 as the sudden elevation by the Emperor of 
 grooms and barbers to high official posts was 
 as unknown to China as it was familiar, say, 
 to Turkey or Persia. The Chinese had found 
 out the competitive examination, and in the 
 old days it was only by hard and successful 
 study that a Chinese could climb from the 
 lowest step of the official ladder to the higher 
 rounds. The principle that good government 
 consisted in getting the services of the best 
 men, of the “ heen nang ” — the worthy 
 
68 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 and talented,” the good and able ” — was 
 firmly rooted in the Chinese mind; which 
 reasoned that, although there could be no 
 degrees, no bachelorships, no doctorates of 
 virtue, yet, as there was an intimate con- 
 nection between moral and intellectual eleva- 
 tion, so the competitive examination afforded 
 the best available test of the fittest men to 
 govern. The test may have been imperfect, 
 crude even, but at least it was honestly ad- 
 ministered, and behind it lay the idea that 
 government to be effective must be entrusted 
 to the fittest, that no pains must be spared 
 to discover and reward these, and that, once 
 found, the power and responsibility must be 
 theirs. The Chinese were free from the de- 
 lusion that the qualities which make a capable 
 administrator or a wise governor are heredi- 
 tary. Never did they hold that the control 
 of the Empire should be vested largely in 
 the members of one class. Fitness, not birth, 
 was the essential, and, as the only method 
 of discovering fitness was by the competitive 
 examinations, immense importance attached 
 to these functions. Thousands of candidates 
 attended them, representing every class of 
 the community. The very office of Emperor, 
 it should be noted, was by no means heredi- 
 tary. The pure theory of succession was that 
 the best and wisest man in the Empire should 
 
EISE OF A GREAT TYRANNY 69 
 
 be nominated. This became so far modified 
 in practice that the Emperor selected his 
 ablest son, taking no account of priority of 
 birth, whilst if the said son failed to show 
 conspicuous qualities for governorship, his 
 deposition was not very difficult to arrange. 
 The military and police maintained were suf- 
 ficient to crush merely factious risings, but 
 quite inadequate to put down a general rising 
 on the part of an indignant people. In a 
 word, Chinese government was probably the 
 most scientific attempt ever made to secure 
 government by aristocracy — using the word 
 in its pure sense, af)iaro<;, the best. 
 
 Then came the Manchus. The last repre- 
 sentative of the Ming dynasty had not been 
 a success. Probably he was in his own per- 
 son a disproof of the adequacy of the aris- 
 tocratic theory of government, for he has 
 been denounced as being given over to 
 sensual indulgence and as inattentive to the 
 affairs of state. In any case he was not 
 popular. Rebellion raged, and the victorious 
 rebel leader, Le Tsze Ching, at last entered 
 Peking at the head of his conquering army — 
 to find that the Ming Emperor, deserted and 
 unsupported, had committed suicide. And 
 then occurred one of the tragedies of his- 
 tory. One of the Ming Generals, a certain 
 iWoo San Kwei, was then on the borders of 
 
70 
 
 SUX YAT SEX 
 
 China endeavoring with indifferent success 
 to keep off an invasion of the Manchu Tartar 
 clans. It was harder apparently to Woo 
 San to submit to his rebel countryman than 
 to the foreign invader. In any case, he 
 sought the Manchu ’s aid to oust the usurper. 
 It was given. Seven years’ war followed — 
 seven years compared to which, one authority 
 says, the Seven Years’ Prussian War was 
 a trifle ! At the end the rebels were crushed 
 — and the reign of the Manchus began, and 
 with it the decadence of the Chinese Empire. 
 
 We have said that the Manchus were 
 scrupulous to observe the forms of the 
 Chinese Government. More, they made no 
 attempt to impugn its theory. The admin- 
 istration of the country by the best and best- 
 trained men was still, they agreed, desirable. 
 The competitive examinations to discover 
 who these were continued to be held “ under 
 distinguished auspices.” There was one 
 trifling difference, however. The Manchus 
 found themselves under the necessity of 
 • maintaining a huge standing army. Eevolt 
 was still smoldering, and had to be put down 
 with an iron hand. A huge Tartar garrison 
 was massed at Peking. Smaller garrisons 
 were appointed at nine of the provincial cap- 
 itals and ten other important points. The 
 very sight of these garrisons has been for 
 
EISE OF A GREAT TYRANNY 71 
 
 ovei two hundred years a reminder to the 
 Chinese that they were under the heel of a 
 foreign dominion, and has served to exacer- 
 bate them over and over again. That by 
 the way^ however. The point is that the 
 garrisons proved, with their numerous prog- 
 eny, very costly to maintain, and then there 
 grew up the system which has since developed 
 to a fine art — the sale of public offices. The 
 students still competed and held their exam- 
 inations, but, if afterwards they desired any 
 considerable appointment, they had to pay 
 for it. Thus did the Manchus raise their 
 revenue ! Corruption spread throughout the 
 whole of the Civil Service of China till there 
 was no one to corrupt. And with corruption 
 came another change. The ancient govern- 
 ment of China was marked by a high degree 
 of centralization. There was a constant re- 
 vision by the Emperor and his ministers of 
 the acts of all the military, fiscal and judicial 
 services. Governors and mandarins were re- 
 movable at his pleasure, and each and all of 
 them knew that, at any moment, they might 
 be called upon to give an account of their 
 stewardship. But with the Manchu ascend- 
 ancy this system of centralized control gave 
 way to a corrupt feudalism. There ceased 
 to be any real check upon the mandarins. 
 Huge provinces were at the mercy of some 
 
72 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 grasping governor, who had only bought his 
 appointment to “ squeeze the people, and 
 
 was, therefore, entitled to squeeze them 
 
 as hard as he could. For the onlv official 
 remuneration worth thinking of was, as we 
 have seen, that which the officials themselves 
 blackmailed from the public. Under the 
 Manchus, in fact, the Court sold the right to 
 squeeze ’’ to all scholars who would pay 
 for it, and the old Chinese Government, 
 which, with all its crudities and imperfec- 
 tions, was yet animated by the guiding im- 
 pulse of a great idea, was utterly destroyed 
 for ever. With the increase of the Manchu 
 race, the necessity of providing for them be- 
 came apparent. Accordingly they had the 
 refusal of the most lucrative appointments 
 and were put in control of the most impor- 
 tant provinces, with the most populous cities 
 and fertile lands. From their decisions there 
 was no effective appeal. In a thousand ways 
 they bled the people and practised extortion 
 at every possible opportunity. As the cor- 
 ruption intensified, so did the standard of 
 competence fall, until at last, as the whole 
 land passed under the Manchus, the Chinese, 
 taught by centuries of custom and religion 
 to revere the law and its officers, found that, 
 while their idol remained outwardly the 
 same, fair seeming and good to look upon. 
 
EISE OF A GREAT TYRANNY 73 
 
 its heart had changed to that of a devil. 
 They struggled hard against the Manchus, 
 and in spirit never accepted them. South- 
 East China, where the present revolution 
 took its rise, was ever bitterly anti-Manchu. 
 
 For about forty years,’’ says Mr. Taylor 
 Meadows, after the advent of the Manchu 
 dynasty was proclaimed at Peking, the moun- 
 taineers and coastlanders of South-Eastern 
 China never felt themselves completely and 
 hopelessly under its sway ; and from that date 
 to the present day — during a period of 170 
 years — this very portion of China has been 
 the great seat of a formidable political so- 
 ciety, best known as the ‘ San Ho Hwuy ’ — 
 the Triad Society — the express object of 
 which has been the expulsion of the barbarian 
 conquerors of their country.” 
 
 All that time Fan Tsing fuh Ming ” re- 
 mained their motto (“ Overthrow the Man- 
 chus, re-establish the Mings ”). But the 
 Manchus were too strong. They had seized 
 the throne at a moment when China was di- 
 vided and weakened by long and bitter civil 
 war. They kept it by an outward compliance 
 with Chinese custom, adroitly altered to suit 
 their own policy, and they backed their posi- 
 tion with such a military force as the poor 
 Chinese were unable to dispute. 
 
 One signal advantage the early Manchus 
 
74 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 possessed. Their first Emperors were men 
 of real ability — able if unscrupulous, realiz- 
 ing to the full that much depended ui?on their 
 own sagacity and conduct. But as time 
 brought a deeper sense of security, a new 
 type of ruler appeared — arrogant and idle, 
 given over to the trivialities of fife, openly 
 contemptuous of the people who acknowl- 
 edged his sway. This is not surprising. 
 The Chinese Emperor, it must be remem- 
 bered, is, or rather he was, the ‘‘ Son of 
 Heaven,’^ the Supreme Euler,” the Au- 
 gust Lofty One,” the Celestial Euler,” the 
 Solitary Man,” the Buddha of the Pres- 
 ent Day ”; and, in adulatory addresses, he 
 was often hailed the ‘‘ Lord of Ten Thousand 
 Years.” 
 
 In harmony with these lofty attributes, 
 his subjects,” says Sir E. K. Douglas in ‘‘ So- 
 ciety in China,” when admitted into his 
 presence, prostrate themselves in adoration 
 on the ground before him, and on a certain 
 day in the year he is worshipped in every 
 city in the Empire. At daylight, on the day 
 in question, the local mandarins assemble in 
 the city temple, where, in the central hall, a 
 throne is raised on which is placed the im- 
 perial tablet. At a given signal the assem- 
 bled officials kneel thrice before the throne, 
 and nine times strike their heads on the 
 
RISE OF A GREAT TYRANNY 75 
 
 ground as though in the presence of the Su- 
 preme Ruler.” 
 
 ‘ ^ With the exception of those immediately 
 about his person, his subjects are not allowed 
 to gaze upon his face. When he goes abroad 
 the people are compelled to fall on their faces 
 to the ground until his cavalcade has passed 
 on, and on all occasions he is to them a mys- 
 tery. ’ ’ 
 
 The palace, as befitting the abode of so 
 exalted a personage, is so placed as effectu- 
 ally to cut off its occupants from the rest of 
 the Empire. Situated in the ‘ Forbidden 
 City,’ it is surrounded with a triple barrier 
 of walls. Beyond the inner and arcane en- 
 closure is the imperial city, which is en- 
 closed by a high wall topped with tiles of the 
 imperial yellow color ; and outside that again 
 is the Tartar city, which forms the northern 
 part of the capital. Strict guard is kept 
 night and day at the gates of the Forbidden 
 City, and severe penalties are inflicted on all 
 unauthorized persons who may dare to enter 
 its portals.” Only on rare occasions, and 
 those almost exclusively occasions of cere- 
 mony, does the Emperor pass out of the 
 palace grounds. These no doubt present a 
 microcosm of the Empire. There are lakes, 
 mountains, parks, and gardens in which the 
 imperial prisoner can amuse himself, with 
 
76 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 the boats which ply on the artificial water, 
 or by joining mimic hunts in miniature for- 
 ests ; but it is probable that there is not one 
 of the millions of China who has not more 
 practical knowledge of the Empire than he 
 who rules it. Theoretically he is supposed 
 to spend his days and nights in the affairs of 
 state.’^^ As Sir Eobert Douglas observes: 
 ‘‘It is only men of the strongest will and 
 keenest intellects who would not rust under 
 such conditions, and these qualities are pos- 
 sessed as rarely by Emperors as by ordinary 
 persons.’’ 
 
 And with the Manchus, once the stimulus 
 of their accession had worn off, those quali- 
 ties became rare indeed. Vigilance gave 
 way to sensual sloth. Stories of vicious de- 
 pravity upon the part of Emperor after Em- 
 peror became common gossip through China. 
 More and more, the central authority slack- 
 ened and the mandarins waxed fat as their 
 extortions increased. If rebellion was at- 
 tempted it was crushed with pitiless force. 
 The people were forbidden knowledge. 
 Whereas under the old dispensation complete 
 copies of the law could be cheaply and easily 
 procured, a time came when the laws were 
 to be known only to the highest officials and 
 forbidden to public eyes. In fact, as 
 * “Society in China,” by Sir R. K. Douglas. 
 
EISE OF A GREAT TYRANNY 77 
 
 the central power relaxed, as decadent Em- 
 peror succeeded decadent, so the grip of the 
 mandarins upon the people tightened, until 
 the vast and complicated machinery of the 
 Chinese Government became one great en- 
 gine of oppression, whose officers had but one 
 idea — the squeezing ” of the common 
 
 people. 
 
 There is a certain story, gruesome yet fas- 
 cinating, by Edgar Allan Poe, which illus- 
 trates vividly the conditions into which the 
 Manchu despotism gradually fell. A man 
 sick unto death is hypnotized, and while hyp- 
 notized and sitting erect in his chair, dies. 
 Hours pass and the watchers see no change, 
 till they go to rouse him, and find that he is 
 dead — dead in the same attitude as when the 
 hypnotist commanded him to sit up. It was 
 much like this with the Manchu Empire. 
 Looking back upon the history of that dy- 
 nasty now, it is easy to see that decay had 
 set in long ago, and that, though to all out- 
 ward appearance strong and erect, its springs 
 of action had long since dried up, so that 
 the end in fact was not far off. But there 
 was this difference between the Manchus and 
 Poe’s hypnotized man. When the shock of 
 outside reality came to the Manchus, they at 
 least had sufficient vitality to pull themselves 
 together for one last desperate effort — an 
 
78 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 effort that came within an ace of succeed- 
 ing. 
 
 And the shock was the aggression of Eu- 
 rope. As the nations became more and more 
 convinced of the magnitude of the Chinese 
 market, they sent envoys to the Celestial 
 Empire in the hope of creating a good un- 
 derstanding. The good understanding did 
 not follow. There ensued instead intermina- 
 ble delays, refusals to negotiate, and insane 
 restrictions; until at last came the war with 
 Great Britain, and British artilleiw crashed 
 into the consciousness of the sleeping Chi- 
 nese, who was galvanized into a sudden ac- 
 tivity. The blow to the Manchus was stag- 
 gering. Their provincial garrisons were de- 
 feated and almost destroyed with an ease 
 that shook their confidence in the prowess 
 and destiny of their great race, and smashed 
 its prestige to pieces. They were disgraced 
 before their conquered subjects ; but the blow 
 saved them, at any rate for a time. The 
 Court of Peking was roused as it had not 
 been for two hundred years. A season of 
 feverish activity followed; inquiries were in- 
 stituted as to the condition of the country. 
 The Emperor gave frequent audiences to the 
 mandarins. There is on record the report of 
 an examination by the Emperor Tao-Kuang, 
 so full of interest and throwing so valuable 
 
EISE OF A OEEAT TYRANNY 79 
 
 a light upon the Chinese point of view, that 
 we set it out in full: — 
 
 Audience on the 11th Day, 
 
 Emperor, Do you think from the appear- 
 ance of things at Kwang-tung that the Brit- 
 ish barbarians or any other people will cause 
 trouble again? 
 
 Answer. No. Britain itself has got noth- 
 ing, and when the British barbarians rebelled 
 in 1841, they depended entirely on the power 
 of the other nations, who, with a view to 
 open trade, supported them with funds. In 
 the present year the (here follow two words 
 which do not make sense with the context, 
 ‘‘ teen te,’’ literally laws and territory 
 probably ‘‘ subject territories ” were the 
 words used) of Britain yield her no willing 
 obedience. 
 
 Emperor. It is plain from this that these 
 barbarians always look on trade as their chief 
 occupation, and are wanting in any high pur- 
 pose of striving for territorial acquisitions. 
 
 Answer. At bottom they belong to the 
 class of brutes (dogs and horses) ; it is im- 
 possible they should have any high purpose. 
 
 Emperor. Hence in their country they 
 have now a woman, now a man as their prince 
 (wang). It is plain they are not worth at- 
 
80 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 tending to. Have they got like us any fixed 
 time of service for their soldier’s head? 
 
 Answer. Some are changed once in two 
 years, some once in three years. Although 
 it is the prince of these barbarians who sends 
 them, they are in reality recommended by 
 the body of their merchants. 
 
 Emperor. "What goods do the French 
 trade in? 
 
 Answer. The wares of the barbarians are 
 only camlets, woollen cloth, clocks, watches, 
 cottons, and the like. All the countries have 
 got them good or bad. 
 
 Emperor. YThat country’s goods are 
 dearest? 
 
 Answer. They have all got both dear and 
 cheap. There is no great difference in their 
 prices (of similar articles) ; only with res^Dect 
 to the camlets, the French are said to be the 
 best. 
 
 Emperor. China has no want of silk 
 fabrics and cottons; what necessity is there 
 for using foreign cottons in particular? For 
 instance, wrappers can be made of yellow or 
 pale yellow (for the palace), and people out- 
 side could see Nanking clock colored, or blue 
 ones. This would look simple and unaf- 
 fected; but lately foreign flowered cottons 
 have come into use which look very odd. 
 Others use foreign cottons for shirts. Now 
 
MARKET PLACE IN FULL BLAST 
 IN MARKET-TOWN OF LAI-PU-SUA NEAR KITYANG 
 
EISE OF A GREAT TYRANNY 81 
 
 observe me — the highest of men — my shirts 
 and inner garments are all made of Corean 
 cottons. I have never used foreign cottons. 
 
 Answer, Foreign cotton cloth has no sub- 
 stance (literally bone), it is not good for 
 clothing. 
 
 Emperor, And it does not wash well. 
 
 Answer, Yes, Sire. 
 
 Emperor, I suppose opium is bought and 
 sold quite openly in Kwang-tung. 
 
 Answer, I should not dare to deceive 
 your Majesty — people do not dare to buy and 
 sell it openly, but there is no small quantity 
 bought and sold secretly. 
 
 Emperor, It appears to me that in this 
 matter too there must be a flourishing period 
 and a period of decay. Even if I were to 
 inflict severe punishments, I might punish 
 to-day and punish again to-morrow, and all 
 without benefit. If we wait for two or three 
 years — for five or six years — it will of course 
 fall into disuse of itself. 
 
 Answer, Certainly, Sire. 
 
 Emperor, How is it with the levying and 
 payment of the taxes in Kwang-tung? How 
 do matters stand as to deficiencies in the dis- 
 trict treasuries? 
 
 Answer, In Kwang-tung the fixed regu- 
 lar land tax is paid up annually; as to the 
 miscellaneous taxes — I do not dare to deceive 
 
82 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 your Majesty — there must have been some 
 appropriated for public purposes. 
 
 Emperor, Can these appropriations not 
 be avoided then? You will do very well for 
 a superintendent of finances. To-morrow 
 present your name for an audience. 
 
 Audience on the 12th Day. 
 
 Emperor. In your opinion is opium 
 dearer or cheaper now than in former years ? 
 (Smiling.) You don’t smoke it — I fear you 
 cannot tell. 
 
 Answer. The local gentry and literati of 
 whom I have inquired state that opium is 
 very cheap at present. 
 
 Emperor. Indeed. TThy is it cheap? 
 
 Answer. Because its quality is not equal 
 to what it was formerly. 
 
 Emperor. This, now, is an example of 
 prosperity and decay! How could heaven 
 and earth long endure an article so destruc- 
 tive to human life? So, in the consumption 
 of tobacco the Kwang-tung leaf being strong 
 tasted, the Siugtsze weak, those who have 
 accustomed themselves to the strong do not 
 of course like the weak. Do you think that 
 in future the British barbarians in Hong 
 Kong will go on quietly or not? 
 
 Answer. The British barbarians have 
 
RISE OF A GREAT TYRANNY 83 
 
 gone to great expenses in building bouses 
 with the view of permanently residing there, 
 and living in quiet. Besides, the people of 
 Hong Kong and its neighborhood took at an 
 early period an aversion to these barbarians; 
 and local bandits have long been waiting, 
 their mouths watering for the place. The 
 barbarians are therefore constantly in dread, 
 fearing they may lose it. 
 
 Emperor. So they have added to their 
 troubles by giving to themselves another in- 
 ternal care. However, notwithstanding this, 
 they have always got their own country for 
 a haunt (literally, nest and den, expressions 
 frequently applied to the capitals of foreign 
 sovereigns). 
 
 Answer. Yes, Sire. 
 
 Emperor. Have the Governor-General 
 and the Governor any difference of opinion 
 or not! 
 
 Answer. Your slave intreats your Maj- 
 esty to set your sacred mind at rest — the 
 Governor-General and the Governor not only 
 transact their business in strict good faith, 
 but in all cases without disagreement. 
 
 Emperor. That is well. What is wanted 
 is agreement; frequently the Governor-Gen- 
 eral and the Governor in the same province 
 are at variance. 
 
 Answer. Your slave, during the many 
 
84 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 years he has been in Kwang-tung, has never 
 witnessed so much concord between the Gov- 
 ernor-General and the Governor. 
 
 Emperor, They are both in their best 
 years, just the time for exertion; they ought 
 to do their utmost physically and mentally. 
 It is right, too, that you and the criminal 
 judge, their immediate subordinates, when 
 you learn anything of which you fear they 
 may not be thoroughly informed, should tell 
 them all you know. Are you acquainted with 
 the newly appointed judge, Ke shuh tsaou! 
 
 Answer. No, Sire. 
 
 Emperor. He is a very honest, sincere, 
 and unaffected man, as you will know after 
 you have passed half a year in the same place 
 with him. You can make ready for your de- 
 parture. How long will you be on the jour- 
 ney? 
 
 Answer. Upwards of two months. 
 
 Emperor. I reckon that you will arrive 
 about the end of the 11th or the beginning 
 of the 12th month.- Or, allowing a few days 
 more, you will reach Canton about the middle 
 of the 12th month. 
 
 Thus far had the Manchu intelligence 
 evolved in the middle of the last century. 
 Ludicrous as the Emperor’s comments ap- 
 pear, they yet mark a distinct advance on 
 
EISE OF A GEEAT TYEANNY 85 
 
 his previous attitude, for the curiosity and 
 apprehension he evinced was more hopeful 
 than the blank and utter indifference it suc- 
 ceeded. But, as will be easily understood, 
 the statecraft of such a ruler was not equal 
 to the needs of the situation — a situation that 
 increased in difficulty and complexity. For 
 there followed the most formidable rising the 
 Manchus had been called upon to face — the 
 famous Taiping Eebellion, and then, close 
 upon its heels, the war of 1861, with the 
 ceding to Britain of the adjacent peninsula 
 of Kowloon — events that call for more than 
 passing notice, for they both contributed in 
 a marked degree to the revolution that has 
 recently startled the world. 
 
IV. 
 
 THE LAST OF THE MANCHUS 
 
 T he Taiping Eebellion broke out in 
 1850. Not till 1864 was it subdued. 
 During twelve of the intervening six- 
 teen years, Nanking, the capital of Southern 
 China, was in the hands of the rebels. Over 
 a dozen provinces were devastated, hundreds 
 of cities were captured. In a score of pitched 
 battles the imperial troops suffered defeat. 
 Quite obviously Manchu generalship was 
 wholly unequal to the task before it. The 
 rebels,’’ wrote an officer, “ increase more 
 and more ; they are powerful and fierce, their 
 regulations and laws being rigorous and 
 clear. Our troops, the more they fight, the 
 more they fear! They have not a tincture 
 of discipline. Eetreating is easy to them, 
 advancing difficult.” Small wonder that the 
 cry, “Exterminate the Manchus!” — a cry, 
 by the way, raised during this very revolu- 
 tion, and silenced only by the authority of 
 Sun Yat Sen — began to penetrate into the 
 palace of Peking, and broke upon the startled 
 
 86 
 
THE LAST OF THE MANCHUS 87 
 
 ear of the Emperor with a new signifi- 
 cance. 
 
 Aid was yet to come to the Manchus, how- 
 ever, and from a strange quarter. While the 
 rebellion still raged and threatened, war 
 broke out, and once again Britain and France 
 determined to punish China — this time per- 
 haps not in so righteous a cause. The armies 
 that could not hold their own against the 
 Taipings offered but a feeble resistance to 
 the Allies, who swept all before them, 
 marched on Peking, from whence the Court 
 had fled, burnt to the ground the famous 
 Summer Palace, and, in a word, humbled 
 China to the dust. 
 
 It is not surprising that at this juncture, 
 with the rebellion rife, with the capital in 
 the hands of the foreigner, and the Emperor 
 himself a weak debauchee, upon the point 
 of death, the view gained ground among the 
 literati and writers that the dynasty was 
 doomed, or, as they put it, with admirable 
 politeness, It had exhausted the mandate 
 of heaven.” The fortunes of the Manchus 
 looked desperate indeed. Their armies 
 broken, their prestige shattered, exiled from 
 their own Court, their very lives were in con- 
 stant danger. It was at this crisis that a 
 new personality made itself felt amongst 
 them — a personality destined to exercise a 
 
88 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 decisive influence on the fortunes of the 
 country. 
 
 Upon the death of the Emperor Tao- 
 Kuang in 1850 — he whose engaging conver- 
 sations we have recorded in the last chapter 
 — his eldest surviving son, aged nineteen, as- 
 cended the throne under the reign-title of 
 Hsien-Feng. The period of mourning over, 
 a decree was issued constituting the Em- 
 peror’s harem. All beautiful Manchu maid- 
 ens were to present themselves at the Im- 
 perial Household office with a view to a fi.rst 
 selection being made. The Chinese, it will 
 be noted, were exempt from contributing to 
 the choice, owing to the fact that the royal 
 race persistently intermarried — an offence 
 they held in abhorrence. Among those who 
 came in tripping obedience to the nuptial 
 command was the young Yehonala, the 
 daughter of a cadet branch of the royal fam- 
 ily. The inner economy of the Manchu 
 household decrees that the mother of the Em- 
 peror should select her son’s consorts, and 
 Yehonala found favor with the old lady. She 
 was appointed a concubine of the rank of 
 Kuei Jen, or ‘‘ honorable person and, 
 launched on her career at Court, she did her 
 utmost to gain the goodwill of every one who 
 could ser^^e an ambition that was already in- 
 ordinate. 
 
THE LAST OF THE MANCHUS 89 
 
 She had not long to wait. The Emperor 
 was childless and known to be in broken 
 health, and when, therefore, she presented 
 him with a son, the event was one of national 
 importance. The authority she obtained as 
 mother of the heir apparent was instantly 
 felt. Her colleague, the Empress Consort 
 (who was of course the Emperor’s official 
 wife), took little or no active interest in the 
 business of government. The Emperor, 
 stricken with paralysis, soon broke down 
 completely, and Yehonala became the real 
 ruler of the Chinese Empire. All the busi- 
 ness of the imperial city and of the Empire 
 came to depend upon her word, and in a 
 country where no woman is supposed 
 to rule, a young girl of twenty-two was 
 paramount. 
 
 It is strangely interesting to watch the first 
 manifestations of the fierce spirit that for 
 sixty years was to control the destinies of 
 China. At once she arrested the downward 
 course of things. She stopped, always of 
 course in the Emperor’s name, the negotia- 
 tions for peace with Britain and France, and 
 issued the most vigorous edict which had pro- 
 ceeded from the Manchu throne for years. 
 It explained that : — ^ ‘ Any further forbear- 
 ance on our part would be a dereliction of 
 our duty to the Empire, so that we have now 
 
90 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 commanded our armies to attack them — i.e., 
 the barbarians — with all possible energy, and 
 we have now directed the local gentry to or- 
 ganize trained bands, and with them either 
 to join in the attack or to block the bar- 
 barians’ advance. Hereby we make offer of 
 the following rewards: For the head of a 
 black barbarian 50 taels, and for the head of 
 a white barbarian 100 taels; for the capture 
 of a barbarian leader, alive or dead, 500 
 taels; and for the seizure or destruction of a 
 barbarian vessel 5,000 taels. The inhabitants 
 of Tientsin are reputed brave. Let them 
 now come forward and rid us of these pesti- 
 lential savages, either by open attack or by 
 artifice. We are no lovers of war, but all 
 our people must admit that this has been 
 forced on us.” 
 
 ‘‘ The barbarians’ superiority,” another 
 edict explained, ‘‘ lies in their firearms, but 
 if we could only bring them to a hand-to-hand 
 engagement they will be unable to get their 
 artillery to bear, and thus shall our victory 
 be assured. The Mongolian Manchu horse- 
 men are quite useless for this kind of war- 
 fare, but the men of Hupei and Ssii-ch’uan 
 are as agile as monkeys and adepts at the 
 use of cover in secret approaches. Let them 
 but surprise these bandits once, and their 
 rout is inevitable . . . for bravery and 
 
THE LAST OF THE MANCHUS 91 
 
 good service there will be great rewards. A 
 most important decree.” 
 
 Shortsighted and futile as these decrees 
 appear, there breathed in them a new spirit 
 of resolution and of purpose that had an im- 
 mediate effect upon the Chinese tempera- 
 ment, and raised their real author high in 
 official estimation. True, they were followed 
 by an inglorious surrender and an almost 
 abject peace — an inevitable result that states- 
 men would have foreseen. But it is not al- 
 ways statecraft and a wide vision of affairs 
 that impresses Eastern, or for the matter of 
 that Western, peoples, so much as tenacity 
 and pluck. Yehonala soon gave plenty of 
 evidence of both these qualities. At Jehol, 
 where the Emperor lay dying, affairs had 
 fallen somewhat under the dominion of 
 Prince Yi, with whom were associated as 
 Grand Councillors the Prince Tuan Hua and 
 the imperial clansman Su Shun. These three 
 noblemen, recognizing that the Emperor’s 
 end was near and that a Eegency would be 
 necessary, determined on securing that power 
 for themselves. Prince Yi was nominally the 
 leader of this conspiracy, but its instigator 
 was Su Shun. Su Shun had an immense for- 
 tune. It had been at his instance that the 
 Secretaries of the Board of Eevenue had been 
 cashiered on a charge of making illicit profits. 
 
92 
 
 SUX YAT SEX 
 
 Upon tliis accusation he had obtained the 
 arrest of over one hundred notables and rich 
 merchants, and kept them in custody of no 
 gentle kind until they had been ransomed 
 with enormous sums. It was thus that there 
 was founded a fortune so enormous that, as 
 we shall see, it survived even the extrava- 
 gance of the Chinese Court for over half a 
 century. 
 
 There can be no doubt that Su Shun’s 
 possession of this vast fortune was no incon- 
 siderable factor in shaping the conduct of 
 Yehonala. Apparently she made no effort 
 to combat the influence of the three con- 
 spirators on the dying Emperor, but she 
 thoughtfully abstracted the seal which, kept 
 in the personal custody of the Emperor and 
 bearing the characters “ lawfully trans- 
 mitted authority,” is absolutely necessary 
 to establish the authenticity of the first edict 
 of a new reign, confident that, when the death 
 of the Emperor came, the advantage would 
 remain with her. When the Emperor passed 
 away, Su Shun and his friends found them- 
 selves saddled with another dilemma. Either 
 as Eegents they had to escort the royal bier 
 back to Peking or to outrage etiquette and 
 opmion by leaving it to take care of itself 
 and hurrying back to the capital. They 
 shrank from this course, which would have 
 
THE LAST OF THE MANCHUS 93 
 
 ranged against them both Chinese and Man- 
 chu feeling. This gave Yehonala her chance. 
 The funeral cortege necessarily made slow 
 progress. Hers was rapid. She reached the 
 capital some days before the Kegents, and 
 at once busied herself with the task of giving 
 them a warm reception, enlisting very readily 
 the help of Pince Kung, the Emperor’s uncle, 
 whom, as she ascertained, the conspirators 
 intended to execute. When Su Shun and his 
 friends arrived at Peking they found Yeho- 
 nala in possession. The troops, the nobles, 
 the officials, all were on her side. They were 
 seized and imprisoned. Pince Yi and Prince 
 Yuan were permitted to commit suicide,” 
 and Su Shun was decapitated. Thus did Ye- 
 honala inaugurate her reign — nominally, 
 that of her son — of All-Pervading Tran- 
 
 quillity! ” 
 
 At first the words seemed not ill-chosen. 
 Peace was concluded with the Allies. The 
 Taipings were defeated and finally crushed 
 by Gordon, who lent his services to the 
 Chinese Government. A wise ruler would 
 have seized the opportunity to inaugurate 
 some of those reforms that, it was even then 
 glaringly apparent, China stood in urgent 
 need of. But the Empress Dowager recked 
 little of reform. She was a typical Man- 
 chu, bold, alert, resourceful, but knowing lit- 
 
94 
 
 SUX YAT SEX 
 
 tie and caring less for foreign ideas or West- 
 ern notions. She was on the throne of China, 
 mistress of the vastest empire in the world. 
 To cement her power she had the vast for- 
 tune of Su Shun, some of whose millions, it 
 is said, still lie in the vaults at the palace.^ 
 Little by little her authority grew, until it 
 transcended the power of any of the Manchu 
 Emperors of the past. It became a danger- 
 ous matter to oppose her will. Those who did 
 so were one by one removed. Prince Kung 
 was the first to feel her displeasure. The 
 incident is thus related by Messrs. Bland and 
 Backhouse in their “ China under the Em- 
 press Dowager.’^ In a moment of absent- 
 mindedness or bravado Prince Kung ven- 
 tured to rise from his knee during an audi- 
 ence, thus violating a fundamental rule of 
 etiquette originally instituted to guard the 
 Sovereign against any sudden attack. The 
 attendant eunuchs promptly informed their 
 Majesties ’’ (who, it should be noted, spoke 
 to their ministers from behind a curtain), 
 
 whereupon the Empress Dowager called 
 loudly for help, exclaiming that the Priace 
 was about to execute some evU treachery 
 against the person of the Eegents. The 
 
 ^ They were, at all events, found there on the return of 
 the Court to Peking in 1900, after the flight following the 
 Boxer rebellion. 
 
THE LAST OF THE MANCHUS 95 
 
 guards rushed in and Prince Kung was or- 
 dered to leave the royal presence.’’ Later 
 he was suspended from his high office, be- 
 cause,” said the edict, his rebellious 
 and usurping tendencies must be sternly 
 checked.” Others were less fortunate than 
 Prince Kung. The Empress Tzu An, her co- 
 Eegent, yielding and conciliatory to a degree, 
 yet lived to incur the Empress Dowager’s 
 displeasure. She fell ill of a sudden and 
 mysterious sickness. Her death was gen- 
 erally attributed to poison, and no one had 
 any doubts as to the poisoner. 
 
 Blacker deeds than poison have been es- 
 tablished against the Empress Dowager. 
 Her son, when he attained his majority, thus 
 ending the Eegency, refused to submit state 
 documents for her inspection. There were 
 serious differences — and an early death of 
 the Emperor. All commentators,” say 
 Messrs. Bland and Backhouse, agree that 
 the Empress Dowager encouraged the youth- 
 ful Emperor’s tendencies to dissipated hab- 
 its, but when these had resulted in a serious 
 illness she allowed it to work havoc with his 
 delicate constitution without providing him 
 with such medical assistance as might have 
 been available.” Worse remains. The 
 young Emperor left a wife, A-lu-te, who at 
 the time of his death was enceinte. Now, in 
 
96 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 the event of the Emperor’s child succeeding 
 his dead father, the Empress Dowager’s 
 power would have been gone, because the 
 Empress A-lu-te would have then become 
 Empress Dowager and would have secured 
 the Begency. Accordingly, the Dowager 
 Empress insisted on the election of another 
 infant Emperor at all costs and in ^dolation 
 of the law of dynastic succession. The infant 
 son of Prince Ch’un was selected for the 
 throne. A-lu-te, her own child born, com- 
 mitted suicide, and the Old Buddha,” as 
 Yehonala had come to be called by the peo- 
 ple, was left in supreme authority. 
 
 But, jealous as she was of power, there 
 were those who obtained enormous influence 
 over her and through her on the Empire. 
 One of the grossest evils of Chinese govern- 
 ment — an evil that under the Empress Dow- 
 ager obtained dreadful dimensions — is the 
 demoralizing influence of the eunuch system 
 on the Court and its immediate entourage. 
 There has scarcely been a reformer in China 
 who has not placed first the abolition of this 
 system, now swept away at last with the 
 dynasty on which it battened. It is difficult, 
 nay impossible, to say how much mischief 
 has been caused in the past by these irre- 
 sponsible advisers of the Throne. It is said 
 
THE LAST OF THE MANCHUS 97 
 
 that the Boxer risings, and the support given 
 them by the Empress Dowager, were both 
 dictated by the part which her favorite eu- 
 nuch, Li-Lien-Ying, played in fomenting 
 opinion against the foreigners. Who can 
 tell? But the power of the eunuchs, ubiqui- 
 tous and insistent, with their constant access 
 to the person of the Sovereign, their intimate 
 knowledge of that Sovereign’s tastes and 
 moods, was no doubt immense, and through- 
 out the Empress Dowager’s reign, while she 
 remained utterly irresponsive to representa- 
 tions from outside the Forbidden City, while, 
 for instance, she could not be moved by the 
 earnest appeal of men so capable as Li- 
 Hung-Chang or Yuan-Shi-Kai, yet to the 
 whispers of the palace eunuchs she lent a 
 ready ear. 
 
 The inner history of the Celestial Empire 
 and of the Manchu dynasty is inextricably 
 bound up with the eunuchs and their far- 
 reaching intrigues. During the half-century 
 of the Empress Dowager’s rule, the power 
 behind the throne, literally a power of dark- 
 ness in high places, was that of her favorite 
 chamberlains. There were not wanting obvi- 
 ous explanations of their influence. It was 
 said that the chief eunuch, Te Hai, only nom- 
 inally answered to that description, and 
 that, in fact, the Empress Dowager had had 
 
98 
 
 SUN YAT SEX 
 
 a son by him — a son whose birth pamphle- 
 teers record with much detail — who is said 
 to be still abroad in the land. More, strange 
 and dreadful stories of nameless depravities 
 committed in the palace spread through 
 Southern China. The licentious festivities 
 of the Court were the subject of many a 
 rival ballad. Tales of wild orgies began to 
 be circulated. No one can doubt that the 
 Empress Dowager, now she felt her position 
 established, surrendered herself to a life of 
 unrestrained excesses, tempered only by such 
 attention to affairs as was necessary to re- 
 tain her own supremacy. Eemonstrance 
 proved vain. The cynical and selfish woman 
 who sat upon the throne of China was an 
 adept in misleading opinion, and to the mem- 
 orials of the Censor she replied by edicts 
 impressive only to those who did not know 
 the facts. “ At a time like this,” she wrote, 
 when rebellions are still raging, and our 
 people are in sore distress, when our treas- 
 uries are empty, and our revenues iusufficient 
 for the needs of government, our hearts are 
 heavy with sorrowful thoughts, and must be 
 so, especially as long as His late Majesty’s 
 remains have not yet been borne to their final 
 resting-place. How, then, could we possibly 
 permit such a state of things as the Censor 
 describes? ” 
 
THE LAST OF THE MANCHUS 99 
 
 And so tlie solemn farce went on. In ad- 
 mirable language the Empress enjoined vir- 
 tue, and continued to practise the most 
 flagrant vice. And outside the Forbidden 
 City millions of impoverished Chinese 
 worked their fingers to the bone that they 
 might minister to her depraved pleasures. 
 For those pleasures the public services were 
 drained of money; the very Navy itself was, 
 on the advice of the chief eunuch, starved 
 for years in order that the Empress might 
 continue the building of her Summer Palace, 
 and once again the arms of China had to 
 suffer dishonor — this time by Japan — to 
 gratify the luxurious whims of a woman, the 
 price of whose self-indulgence was the degra- 
 dation of her people. 
 
 And all the time the tigress was on the 
 pounce, quick to scent hostility to herself and 
 unsparing in her measures to suppress it. 
 She had that indescribable quality which in- 
 spires blind steadfast obedience in others, 
 and she was an excellent judge of men, cool 
 in danger and never deceived by adulation. 
 Add to this the fact that the great masses of 
 China were still sunk in fathomless igno- 
 rance, without leaders, with no clue to the 
 reason of their own impoverishment and 
 misery, unconscious indeed of anything be- 
 yond, and it becomes less miraculous that this 
 
100 
 
 SUX YAT SEN 
 
 indomitable woman sat secure on her throne 
 — the last of a doomed dynasty. 
 
 But keen as was her vision, its range was 
 narrow and restricted, and the Old Buddha 
 did not perceive that there were at work in 
 China forces that could not be disregarded 
 with any safety. First, there was a new 
 movement stirring among the choked popu- 
 lace of Canton, a movement that was charged 
 with all the old hostility to the Manchus, but 
 tinged also with broad democratic ideas that 
 went far beyond the restoration of another 
 dynasty. It has been that movement which 
 Dr. Sun Yat Sen, the Carnot of the revolu- 
 tion, has guided to victory. Essentially dem- 
 ocratic in its character, it saw no deliverance 
 for China unless the people were roused. 
 
 Far removed from it in sympathy, but yet 
 of unmistakable significance, was the grow- 
 ing feeling among men of a different stamp 
 that if the partition of China was to be pre- 
 vented, the time for reorganization had ar- 
 rived. It was apparent, woefully apparent, 
 even to Viceroys so cautious as Li-Hung- 
 Chang or Yuan-Shi-Kai, that the reforming 
 hand was needed, not only so far as the Army 
 and Navy were concerned, but even more 
 as regards China’s educational services; and 
 as they found all their plans defeated and 
 their influence checkmated by the intrigues of 
 
A TYPICAL ANCESTRAL TEMPLE at Ihm Lou, near Swatow 
 
V 
 
THE LAST OF THE MANCHUS 101 
 
 the palace eunuchs, or when they were 
 snubbed for their pains by the Empress, still 
 unyielding and undiscerning, they asked 
 themselves, in despair of the ancient regime, 
 if the time had not come for a Limited Mon- 
 archy and Kepresentative Government. By 
 degrees the number of dissatisfied officials 
 increased. All that was vital, all that was 
 patriotic in the Chinese bureaucracy ranged 
 itself on the side of reform. A time had 
 come when its urgency could no longer be 
 denied, and the ablest and most trusted serv- 
 ants of the Executive besought the Throne 
 to put its house in order. 
 
 What was the result? Merely this: that 
 they were marked men to be got rid of at 
 the first opportunity; and the last state of 
 that bureaucracy, in which only the effete and 
 the decadent could succeed, was worse than 
 the first. The Eeform Party it was who 
 gained what officialdom lost. 
 
 But though the Empress remained deaf to 
 all appeals, that party found an enthusiastic 
 and powerful convert. 
 
 Kuang Hsu, the son of Prince Chffin, had 
 come to the throne, and at one moment of 
 his reign it seemed as if there were at long 
 last to be some relief for the parched mil- 
 lions of China, some hope again for the lost 
 grandeur of the Middle Kingdom. For the 
 
102 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 young Emperor lent an ear to those who in- 
 sisted that it was only by change, drastic 
 and immediate, that the deplorable state of 
 the country and her defences could be 
 amended. Kuang Hsii has been described, 
 for some strange reason, as a decadent, per- 
 haps because that word is a convenient term 
 of opprobrium to describe those whose aims 
 we dislike. The policy he initiated, however, 
 smacked little of decadence. Its faults were 
 those of youth, of inexperience, of an energy 
 that recked too little of consequences and 
 that despised its enemies too heartily to 
 measure their strength. 
 
 For ten long years after his accession, and 
 although the Empress Dowager had gone 
 through the pretence of resignation, she still 
 held the reins in her hands. True, she did 
 not consult either ministers or scholars. Her 
 Court came to consist only of eunuchs, a few 
 Manchus, and one or two ministers of the 
 imperial household. The most serious study 
 she engaged in was that of private theat- 
 ricals, for which she had a passion. But she 
 still pulled the wires, and her veto continu- 
 ally blocked the way. All the ministers of the 
 first and second degree were her nominees; 
 all were feeble and aged men, dreading the 
 idea of change, which would end their posi- 
 tions, and bent only on putting difficulties in 
 
THE LAST OF THE MANCHUS 103 
 
 the way of reform. The Emperor, in fact, 
 had no power. At every step he was check- 
 mated. He saw his country humiliated again 
 and again. Port Arthur, Ta-Lien-Wan and 
 Formosa were lost in succession. The Em- 
 press Dowager was unconcerned. The Sum- 
 mer Palace and her pleasures were left her 
 and for the rest she was indifferent. But 
 as it happened, the Emperor did care. I 
 will never be the ruler of a perishing em- 
 pire,’’ he declared. If I have no power, 
 I had better abdicate.” First, however, he 
 determined he would make one etfort for his 
 people while there was yet time. 
 
 He reasoned that if he allowed things to 
 take their course, the ruin of the Empire was 
 inevitable. A bold policy might save the sit- 
 uation. Even if it failed, the attempt would 
 be worth making and might arouse the peo- 
 ple. There is something infinitely pathetic in 
 the struggle of this young man, surrounded 
 on all sides with the hostile agents of the 
 Empress Dowager, with his ministers thwart- 
 ing him at every step, his very servants 
 spying on his conversations, able only to take 
 counsel with his friends by stealth and at 
 odd moments, with scarcely one honest and 
 responsible minister ready to help him, and 
 with the whole Court ready to betray him at 
 the first false step. Despite all, he persisted. 
 
104 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 He was under no illusions as to the probabil- 
 ity of his own defeat, but he was resolved to 
 take the risk. 
 
 ‘‘ Let the farce of ruling go,’’ he wrote; 
 
 let poison, let assassination come. With 
 death, I shall deliver up my imperial charge. 
 With death, I shall report myself to my an- 
 cestors. With death, I shall be worthy of my 
 400,000,000 subjects. I would rather be as- 
 sassinated and have my will made known to 
 the people, than be a prince under a foreign 
 yoke, or have my life saved to serve as a 
 menial, and bear the disgrace of a lost em- 
 pire. From the time I was made to rule ten 
 years ago, I have secretly been longing all 
 the time for an opportunity to act. I hated 
 the idea of losing Annam. Again, I was in- 
 dignant at the idea of being shorn of Man- 
 churia and Formosa, and a third time I was 
 indignant at being shorn of Kiaochow and 
 Port Arthur. My mind being full of indigna- 
 tion, I deeply pondered over all the circum- 
 stances, and I saw no other course but to 
 risk my life on behalf of the Empire. ’ ’ 
 
 The Emperor, in a word, staked everything 
 on reform. Once determined, he acted with 
 vigor and with almost open defiance of the 
 Empress Dowager. He abolished the old ex- 
 amination system, which had been in force 
 since the days of the Sing dynasty, and sub- 
 
THE LAST OF THE MANCHUS 105 
 
 stituted papers on practical subjects, includ- 
 ing a knowledge of the history of other coun- 
 tries and of contemporary politics. He 
 sought to provide for the reorganization of 
 the effete Manchu troops of the metropolitan 
 province and for the founding of colleges and 
 high schools in the provinces to correspond 
 to the University at Peking. More, he ar- 
 ranged for the publication of official gazettes 
 all over the Empire. These gazettes were 
 to be official newspapers, and their object the 
 diffusion of general knowledge. Abuses were 
 to be exposed by their means, and opinions 
 freely expressed, and the Government were 
 to subsidize the organs. Nothing, in fact, 
 would suffice for the long-imprisoned energy 
 of the Emperor. Eailway and mining bu- 
 reaus were to be established in Peking. A 
 Translation Department was inaugurated to 
 publish standard works in foreign languages 
 on Political Economy and Natural Science. 
 The Navy was to be thoroughly overhauled 
 and brought up to date. All that China under 
 the Manchus had despised and rejected, all 
 that China had to learn from Western na- 
 tions, all that she stood most in need of, 
 was at last to be placed within her reach. 
 And for a moment the reformers dared to 
 hope. But alas ! they reckoned without their 
 host. The Old Buddha, when she heard of 
 
106 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 these reforms, was en retraite at her SummeT 
 Palace. She uttered not one word against 
 them. 
 
 Secretly she expressed her approval of 
 them to the Emperor, and as secretly organ- 
 ized opposition to them, checkmating the 
 young enthusiast wherever possible by play- 
 ing on the prejudices of antiquated officials, 
 by ridiculing the new plans, and by organiz- 
 ing against them all the vested interests that 
 they threatened to end for the common good. 
 The Manchus, alarmed beyond expression at 
 some of the proposals, besought her to return 
 and again conduct the Government. 
 
 The time was not yet, she told them — they 
 must wait. At last came a decree abolishing 
 a number of sinecures and useless Govern- 
 ment posts, and the indignation at the Em- 
 peror’s action rose to boiling-point. He be- 
 came aware, bitterly aware, of the storm 
 threatening him, and determined on bold 
 measures. He realized that so long as the 
 Empress Dowager remained in the field 
 against him he would, at the best, find his 
 policy negatived; at the worst, he would be 
 supplanted. He determined to seize the Em- 
 press Dowager and to kill Jung Lu, her chief 
 agent and favorite eunuch, who was conspir- 
 ing against him. It is said that the plan was 
 overheard by another eunuch, who betrayed 
 
THE LAST OF THE MANCHUS 107 
 
 it to the enemy. Who can tell? The Em- 
 peror himself, to the day of his death, and on 
 his very death-bed, blamed Yuan-Shi-Kai, 
 with whom he entrusted the arrangements, 
 and who betrayed him instantly to the Em- 
 press. 
 
 It is urged that the betrayal can, as a mat- 
 ter of policy, be justified: that the Emperor 
 had gone too far, and that the Manchus 
 would have had the Old Buddha back in any 
 case. Perhaps there is a case to be made 
 out in defence of Yuan’s action on these lines, 
 though the Reform Party in China have 
 never ceased to execrate the act. In any case 
 it ruined the Emperor. He was seized, im- 
 prisoned, and virtually made to abdicate. 
 The Empress Dowager was back on the 
 throne, and the chance of reform from within 
 went by for ever, and with it the last hope of 
 preserving the Manchu dynasty. 
 
V 
 
 THE STKUGGLE 
 
 T he present reform movement, altliough 
 simmering for many years, found con- 
 crete expression in 1895 by the forma- 
 tion of a “ Young China Party in Canton. 
 Sun Yat Sen was an early adherent, and 
 speedily became a prominent member ; a 
 peaceful reform was desired; letters couched 
 in temperate terms were forwarded to the 
 Throne pointing out the serious state of mind 
 of the people, and stating what was required 
 to insure good government. The essence of 
 the movement was the establishment of a 
 form of constitutional government to sup- 
 plement the corrupt and worn-out system 
 under which China was being ruled. These 
 petitions were taken no notice of for a time. 
 The Government were at the moment en- 
 gaged in warding otf the advance of the 
 Japanese upon Peking, and it was only after 
 the Japanese question was settled that the 
 petitioners for reform were denounced as 
 traitors and their suppression commanded. 
 
 108 
 
THE STRUGGLE 
 
 109 
 
 It was evident that force would be the only 
 means by which the Manchu rulers could be 
 brought to terms, and as soon as this deci- 
 sion was arrived at men and money were to 
 hand. A large number of disbanded soldiers, 
 after the war with the Japanese, were in Can- 
 ton. The reformers enlisted these men in 
 their service, and upon a certain day in 
 October, 1895, a plan was arranged for the 
 capture of Canton, and the disposal of the 
 authorities, but without bloodshed if pos- 
 sible. Arms, ammunition, and dynamite 
 were accumulated ; soldiers were posted ready 
 to fall upon the city, and a strong force of 
 some four hundred men were to join them 
 from Hong Kong. 
 
 The reform committee were assembled on 
 the afternoon of the day before that chosen 
 for the rising, when news came that the in- 
 tentions of the reformers were discovered. 
 Some of the soldiers fled, others were caught, 
 the committee escaped as best they could; the 
 contingent from Hong Kong were arrested 
 on reaching Canton by steamer, and Sun, 
 after many vicissitudes, reached Macao ; 
 thence he proceeded to Hong Kong and left 
 for Honolulu, as related before. Since then 
 several armed risings eventuated. The great 
 desire of the reformers was to obtain pos- 
 session of an arsenal; the reason being that 
 
110 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 although they could buy arms, guns, and am- 
 munition, the ammunition was soon ex- 
 hausted, and there was no ready means of 
 replenishing the store. More than one of the 
 risings collapsed from this cause; and, just 
 when victory was in sight, the news that there 
 was no more ammunition available where- 
 with to carry on the conflict caused the re- 
 formers’ army to desist, retreat and dis- 
 band. 
 
 In another carefully planned rising, 
 “ Black Flag ” troops were collected and 
 assembled in a valley surrounded by a cir- 
 cle of hills, inland from Macao, and within 
 striking distance of Canton; the passes in 
 the hills were seized and held by the rebel 
 soldiers, whose presence was prevented being 
 noised abroad by neither entrance nor exit 
 being allowed to any one. Here the troops 
 awaited their leader and his officers. The 
 officers consisted of trained soldiers from 
 
 1 may not yet say from whence they 
 
 came. The contingent of officers, to the 
 number of forty, assembled in Hong Kong, 
 and Sun set out to join them, but to his 
 chagrin and the discomfiture of his plans he 
 was not allowed to land. Whilst on board the 
 boat in Hong Kong harbor, however, he got 
 the news that two of his trusted intimate 
 supporters (his acting secretary and treas- 
 
THE STRUGGLE 
 
 111 
 
 urer), travelling by an earlier steamer, bad 
 been prevented landing in Hong Kong and 
 taken on to Singapore, where they were 
 arrested and found to have a large sum of 
 money upon them (really the reformers’ 
 treasury). Sun had to go on to Singapore, 
 and after long and patient interviews he 
 succeeded in proving that the money was for 
 commercial purposes and got it returned to 
 him. The delay, however, was fatal to the 
 projected expedition. 
 
 When Sun returned to Hong Kong he 
 found the officers had departed, that the sol- 
 diers were still cooped up in the retreat in 
 the hills, and as he could not join them, 
 being carefully watched, he had instead to 
 send a message to the troops to the effect 
 that they were to march straight across the 
 country and join him out on the coast farther 
 north — a march of many hundreds of miles. 
 These adventurous men did so, brushing 
 aside several attacks upon them, and met 
 Sun at the appointed place on the coast. 
 The troops were then disbanded for the time 
 being, and went away ‘‘ resolved to meet 
 some other day.” 
 
 Another military expedition took place 
 from the south, some three years ago, from 
 the Annam border, when the reformers’ 
 troops spread over Kwang-si and Kwang- 
 
112 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 tung provinces and threatened Canton, again 
 in the hopes of gaining possession of an 
 arsenal. Success at first crowned their ef- 
 forts; the inhabitants welcomed them every- 
 where, but the same nemesis overtook them, 
 for the ammunition gave out as Canton was 
 just within their grasp. 
 
 The last great effort was in 1911. The 
 outbreak occurred at Wu-chang, on the Yang- 
 tse river, just above Hankow, with the result 
 we know. The outbreak occurred in conse- 
 quence of an attempt to disaim the regular 
 troops, a circumstance which requires some 
 explanation. The foreign-drilled troops of 
 China had increased in numbers, in equip- 
 ment, and efficiency during late years under 
 the able direction of Yuan-Shih-Kai until 
 they numbered, in the beginning of the year 
 1911, some 130,000 men. That these men 
 were well trained is admitted everywhere, 
 and their courage and efficiency were put to 
 an early test during the Boxer Eising, when 
 they were attacked by the naval contingent 
 of mixed European troops in their attempted 
 march from Tientsin to Peking. 
 
 The Chinese soldiers put up so good a 
 fight that the foreign troops had to retire; 
 before superior numbers it is true, but all 
 the foreign officers were impressed with the 
 valor and intelligence with which the Chinese 
 
THE STRUGGLE 
 
 113 
 
 fought. Had the foreign-drilled army con- 
 tinued to be content with Manchu rule, the 
 hopes of the reformers to gain their ends 
 would have been hopeless. Sun Yat Sen’s 
 doctrine of freedom had, however, prevailed 
 with the officers even in the highest ranks; 
 and as long as three years ago he was aware 
 that well-nigh half the foreign-drilled army 
 were ready to support his cause, and by 
 January, 1911, three-fourths of the army 
 were pledged to help the reformers. The 
 Government authorities, well informed al- 
 ways, had come to know of the changed tem- 
 per of the troops, and began to disarm and 
 disband the suspected regiments. This was 
 successfully done at Nanking and elsewhere. 
 At Hankow and Wu-chang two regiments 
 were also disarmed, but a third refused to 
 give up their arms, and the fight began. The 
 rebellion broke out some nine months before 
 the selected date; Sun Yat Sen was abroad 
 in America, much to his chagrin. He could 
 not reach China by way of the Pacific, as he 
 was being carefully watched. So he found 
 his way surreptitiously to New York and 
 thence to London, accompanied by General 
 Homer Lea, the well-known author of The 
 Valor of Ignorance,” who had become so de- 
 voted to Sun and his cause that he left his 
 home, although in delicate health, determined 
 
114 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 to proceed to China and assist in the organi- 
 zation of the reformers’ army. Whilst in 
 London Sun saw statesmen, soldiers, sailors, 
 bankers, and other influential men, with re- 
 sults which will be kno^vn in the near future. 
 He left London for Paris November 20, 
 1911. In Singapore he met with an enthu- 
 siastic reception from his fellow-countrymen, 
 and more important still, perhaps, his coun- 
 trywomen. In Hong Kong, forbidden terri- 
 tory to him for many years, he was allowed to 
 land, and proceeded from thence to Shang- 
 hai, where again he was afforded a hearty 
 welcome. The Provisional Eeform Govern- 
 ment set up in Nanking invited him to be- 
 come their President, a position he at first 
 declined, but ultimately, to the great joy of 
 the people, reluctantly consented to accept. 
 The subsequent doings of this party are com- 
 mon knowledge to-day, and the forbearance, 
 the patriotic spirit in which the temporary 
 Eepublican Government, under Sun’s direc- 
 tion, has conducted affairs has gained the 
 approbation and admiration of the whole 
 world. At the moment of writing Sun has 
 retired from the presidency. Three times 
 did he press upon Yuan-Shih-Kai to take up 
 the position in his stead, and at last suc- 
 ceeded in persuading him to do so. The vice- 
 presidency is announced to have been offered 
 
THE STEUGGLE 
 
 115 
 
 to, and accepted by, General Li-Yuan-Hung. 
 This gallant soldier led the Eepublican 
 troops to victory after victory in the fight- 
 ing around Hankow and established their su- 
 periority in the field. General Li, by his 
 moderation, his protection of the lives and 
 property of non-combatants, his avoidance 
 of reprisals upon his enemies, as much as 
 by his skilful generalship, has gained uni- 
 versal respect and esteem. Sun’s friends 
 and well-wishers, in other words most of the 
 civilized world, are anxiously asking: What 
 about Sun I What is his position to be? To 
 those who know him intimately his behavior 
 is what was expected of him. Self-seeking 
 is foreign to his very nature ; publicity plays 
 no part in the life of this extraordinary man. 
 Although he has visited and declared his be- 
 lief before many audiences in many coun- 
 tries, Sun’s desire is, and always has been, 
 to be left out of the picture. He loves his 
 neighbor more than himself, and he puts his 
 country before all. 
 
 Sun considers his life’s work accom- 
 plished, and he leaves his country to be gov- 
 erned, as he himself affirms, by abler hands 
 than his. The acknowledgment of Sun’s 
 great work has been tardily admitted by the 
 “ authorities ” and the Press. By some of 
 these his very name was withheld from pub- 
 
116 
 
 SUX YAT SEX 
 
 lication as long as possible, and when men- 
 tioned by others it was mostly in terms of 
 something akin to amusement at his pre- 
 sumption. In conversation he was smilingly 
 alluded to as ‘‘ your troublesome friend.” 
 It is to be hoped that Sun’s forbearance is 
 for China’s good; that it is to his credit 
 all allow ; but the future alone can decide the 
 question of whether China will be more ably 
 conducted through her troubles without his 
 presence and control in the councils of the 
 country. That he may be called to high office 
 in the immediate future is more than prob- 
 able; that he will accept it if his country 
 calls is a foregone conclusion; but it will be 
 necessity and not choice that will induce him 
 to resume the presidency he has just re- 
 signed. 
 
 The chief reason of Sun Yat Sen being 
 held up to something approaching ridicule 
 by the Legations, the officials of the Imperial 
 Maritime Customs, the Consuls, the Old 
 China hands, and the “ authorities ” on 
 
 things Chinese,” who advised the Press in 
 Europe, was that a republic in China was an 
 impossibility, and that any man who could 
 think of such a thing must be a dreamer, a 
 faddist, and a danger to China. When the 
 revolution broke out in Xovember, 1911, the 
 idea that it was serious was ridiculed by 
 
THE STEUGGLE 117 
 
 those whom the Press consulted in the mat- 
 ter. 
 
 These ‘‘ authorities ’’ stated that a revolu- 
 tion of the kind in China occurred every 
 fifty years, that one was now due, that the 
 present outbreak was merely a recurring 
 row,’^ and that the men concerned in it, and 
 Sun Yat Sen in particular, were of no im- 
 portance in the eyes of the Chinese Govern- 
 ment, the foreign Legations, the Customs 
 officials, and the bankers, etc., in China. The 
 true reason of this belief was that the rep- 
 resentatives of the Press consulted men 
 whose experience of China was confined to 
 Government ways and doings or to the as- 
 sertions of foreigners in China in touch with 
 officials. Another almost universally stated 
 and credited opinion was that the Chinese, 
 saturated with worship of a throne and re- 
 spect for its edicts, could never become a 
 republic. Moreover, that they were not 
 ready for a republic, being wholly uneducated 
 in the ways of government. A titular sov- 
 ereign, a haloed ’’ being hidden away from 
 them and rendered powerless to rule, was 
 what the Chinese wanted in the opinion of 
 
 Old China hands.’’ There has been a being 
 of the kind in China for many a day. The 
 Emperor has been a myth, a heavenly 
 body ” that could not be looked upon, far 
 
118 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 less approached. When drawing up the con- 
 stitution of the College of Medicine in Hong 
 Kong, and being at the time quite new to 
 China and the ways of the people, I sug- 
 gested that Queen Victoria and the Emperor 
 of China should be asked to be patrons. My 
 suggestion was received with laughter by my 
 more experienced colleagues, and I was in- 
 formed that ‘‘ I might get Queen Victoria, 
 but the Emperor of China was a god, and 
 you would have to write to heaven to get 
 the Emperor nominated.’^ In the earlier 
 days my wife and myself used to deprecate 
 a republic when discussing the matter with 
 Sun. Living as we do under the sway of a 
 “ crowned democracy,’’ we could imagine no 
 more perfect form of government, and tried 
 to persuade Sun to the same. 
 
 Many a long discussion was held trying 
 to turn Sun from his purpose, but gradually, 
 as years went on, we were persuaded that 
 a monarchy in China was an impossibility. 
 Even a titular monarch on the throne meant, 
 in accordance with Chinese custom, a dow- 
 ager empress or a mother-in-law at the head 
 of the house, with attendant eunuchs and all 
 the environment of princes of the royal clan. 
 A suggestion that the old Ming dynasty 
 might be revived Sun was able to cope with. 
 He had also thought of that; he had per- 
 
THE STEUGGLE 
 
 119 
 
 sonally investigated the conditions of the de- 
 scendants of the last Ming Emperor and 
 found them qniet work-a-day people, earning 
 their daily bread and totally unfit, as they 
 were unwilling, to take up the duties of a 
 throne or ruling a country. Mending ” 
 the Manchu being impossible, reinstating the 
 Mings being out of the question, ending ” 
 the reign of the Manchu completely was the 
 only alternative. Such being the case, the 
 one possible form of government left was a 
 republic, and, contrary to the opinion of both 
 Chinese and Europeans to commence with. 
 Sun has convinced his countrymen to his 
 view. 
 
 Not only so, but the few Europeans who 
 have come into intimate contact with Sun, 
 and listened to his carefully thought out 
 judgments, to his well-balanced arguments, 
 and to his at all times unprejudiced, logical, 
 and unbiased statements, were ‘driven to the 
 same conclusion. The Europeans who have 
 not had the opportunity of hearing the rea- 
 soned conclusions of China’s great leader 
 still continued to hanker after an emperor 
 of a sort, a muzzled monarch who would have 
 neither part nor power in the government of 
 the country. These conclusions are scarcely 
 logical. If the Chinese are capable of con- 
 ducting the country’s affairs without the 
 
120 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 Manchu even figuring in the play, why main- 
 tain a sovereign and his court, with the in- 
 evitable interference of the women and the 
 eunuchs of the royal household? It is said 
 these would be done away with. Well, the 
 eunuchs might be abolished, the women can- 
 not be, and the unfortunate interference of 
 the women around the monarch is as potent 
 to-day as it ever has been in Chinese history. 
 Still is the argument heard that a monarch 
 of a sort is a necessity, and that the Chinese 
 are neither ready nor fitted for a republican 
 form of government. Let us see. China has 
 existed for centuries as a federation of 
 states; a federal form of government has 
 been in existence for at least five hundred 
 5^ears. Of the eighteen provinces of the Mid- 
 dle Kingdom all have been ‘‘ self-contained ; 
 provincial autonomy well-nigh complete has 
 prevailed to a degree unknown in any re- 
 public in existence, and paralleled perhaps 
 only in the relations of the overseas domin- 
 ions in the British Empire to the Mother 
 Country. Even to the extent of defending 
 the country from foreign foes do the prov- 
 inces of China maintain their independence. 
 Not once, but many times, have certain 
 provinces in the south and west refused help 
 to the Peking Government. 
 
 The Chinese cannot, or could not in the 
 
THE STRUGGLE 
 
 121 
 
 past, understand the meaning of their coun- 
 try being in danger; an inroad of foreign 
 troops carried with it no meaning of inter- 
 national complications, for to the Chinese 
 there were no other nations; the world out- 
 side themselves consisted of subject States 
 and outer barbarians,’’ and if occasionally 
 these negligible communities gave trouble, it 
 lay with the authorities in the province or 
 provinces where the trouble existed to put 
 it down. How could people far distant from 
 the seat of disturbance be expected to take 
 an active part or interest in matters which 
 did not concern them? The Manchus at- 
 tempted to maintain the masses of China in 
 ignorance of foreigners and their ways, and 
 succeeded in a marvellous manner in doing 
 so. They dreaded the consequences of the 
 people becoming enlightened, believing that 
 only by keeping them in ignorance would 
 their existence as rulers be tolerated. The 
 adoption of belief in reform methods of gov- 
 ernment cost the last Emperor his life, and 
 the seal upon ancient methods of preserving 
 ignorance was once more set. 
 
 As an example of how ignorant the masses 
 of China were kept by the Manchus, a con- 
 crete example will suffice. During the late 
 war with Japan the people in the south of 
 China knew nothing of the trouble. Chi- 
 
122 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 nese living in Kowloon — the British territory 
 on the mainland of China which forms part 
 and parcel of the colony of Hong Kong — 
 during the height of the memorable struggle, 
 not only never heard of the war but they 
 had never even heard of the Japanese people. 
 The Government officials in the southern 
 provinces hesitated to send soldiers or ships 
 to the north to the aid of their confreres, on 
 the plea that they (the northerners) had got 
 into the trouble and they must get out of it 
 as best they could. There is nothing extraor- 
 dinary in this declaration to those who know 
 how independent these provinces are. The 
 relationship of the Chinese provinces to each 
 other and to the Throne is paralleled only 
 within the British Empire. Neither Canada 
 nor Australia is compelled to take part in a 
 war in which Great Britain is involved. 
 During the South African War Cape Colony 
 remained neutral ’’ whilst the Mother 
 Country was preventing the colony being 
 overrun by the Boers. Independence 
 is the keynote of the overseas dominions of 
 Britain to as marked an extent as is that of 
 the provinces of China to the central 
 authority. 
 
 The provinces of the Middle Kingdom are 
 merely a federation of states; Home 
 Kule ’’ has been their portion; their partici- 
 
THE STRUGGLE 
 
 123 
 
 pation in any national danger was optional 
 to a degree. The provinces have been ac- 
 customed to govern themselves, and there 
 need not be, and there will not be, now that a 
 republican form of government has sup- 
 planted a monarchical, any departure from 
 the old custom ” which has prevailed in 
 China for centuries. 
 
 The many letters which have within the 
 last few months appeared in the Press from 
 
 authentic ” and ‘‘ authoritative ’’ sources 
 are amusing reading in the light of to-day. 
 These letters are still further evidence, if 
 such were needed, of the “ cult ’’ w^hich pre- 
 vailed in Peking. 
 
 In the Strand Magazine, under the head- 
 ing of My Reminiscences, by Sun Yat 
 Sen,’’ it is mentioned that Yuan-Shih-Kai 
 approached Sun some considerable time ago, 
 and sent a messenger to interview him, and 
 to convey Yuan’s appreciation of what he 
 was doing, and offering to help him in his 
 campaign. My wife and myself knew of this 
 proceeding from Dr. Sun personally, shortly 
 after its occurrence, but kept the matter a 
 close secret, believing that it would do in- 
 finite harm were the circumstance published 
 abroad. When Yuan was sent for by the 
 Manchu Government to get them out of their 
 
124 
 
 SUN YAT SEX 
 
 troubles, had the fact of his relations with 
 Sun been told at the time, Yuan would have 
 been discredited as hunting with both the 
 hare and the hounds, and his influence would 
 have been warped, or altogether annihilated. 
 It w^as not intended to mention the matter in 
 this volume at all, considering it a subject 
 which, with several others told us by Sun, 
 would do harm to the cause ’’ if disclosed, 
 but since this secret ’’ is published for all 
 to read in the magazine referred to, there is 
 no necessity to keep silence in the matter any 
 longer. 
 
 For the immediate future of China the 
 message sent by Yuan to Sun augurs well. 
 Yuan was evidently not hide-bound in his 
 devotion to the Manchus. He had at least 
 a leaning towards reform, and he must have 
 a regard for Sun and his principles, other- 
 wise he would not have proffered help. Sun 
 in his turn has a respect for Yuan, and has 
 often spoken of his capability and his great 
 grasp of affairs. With the two great men 
 in China at the present moment therefore 
 thinking alike, there is hope for a speedy 
 coalition and for unanimity in i 3 ur[ 30 se. It 
 is well that Yuan’s leanings towards the re- 
 form movement were not known before ; now 
 the publication of the fact can only do good. 
 Yuan-Shih-Kai has behaved wisely and well. 
 
THE STRUGHLE 125 
 
 but in a way which the authorities do not, 
 or at any rate did not, know of. 
 
 Had the Manchu Government and foreign 
 representatives been aware of the fact 
 earlier, their attitude would not have been so 
 cordial, and Yuan’s name might not have 
 been lauded as it has been. Deserving of all 
 praise Yuan certainly is; but not quite in 
 the way his foreign advocates thought or de- 
 sired. The power and influence Yuan pos- 
 sesses has been dinned into my ears for 
 many a day — “ Yuan is the great power in 
 China, not Sun Yat Sen,” and that trou- 
 blesome friend of yours is only an agitator 
 that Yuan will soon settle,” and similar re- 
 marks by wiseacres who knew all about 
 China.” I have been compelled to hear this, 
 knowing all the time that Yuan had ap- 
 proached Sun. I had to be content to hear 
 my friend traduced as a man of no conse- 
 quence, and as a mere fly to be lightly 
 brushed aside. Yuan was the man, but not 
 in the way these authorities ” on things 
 Chinese ” believed. I knew from Sun that 
 Yuan was sympathetic,” and that Sun 
 would stand aside and invite Yuan to become 
 the President of China. A greater man than 
 Yuan was my informant, a man without 
 thought of self, seeking no honor but his 
 country’s, regardless of place or power; yet 
 
126 
 
 SUX YAT SEX 
 
 powerful withal, and with a determination 
 that nothing could move from the purpose 
 he had at heart : a patriot in the highest and 
 truest sense of the word; a meek man in all 
 but his country’s welfare. 
 
 After Sun’s release from the Legation in 
 London, 1896, a number of his friends in 
 Canton and Hong Kong sent me a large tab- 
 let with Chinese characters inscribed upon it. 
 Several Chinese scholars attempted to in- 
 terpret the characters, but it was not until 
 Sir James Stewart Lockhart saw the tablet 
 that the full meaning was divulged, when it 
 was found to be a line from the Sermon on 
 the Mount, ‘‘ Blessed are the merciful.” 
 Were I to return the compliment and present 
 a tablet to Sun, I would inscribe upon it a 
 verse preceding the one referred to as in- 
 terpreting Sun’s character: Blessed are 
 
 the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” 
 If Sun’s principles and men of his disposi- 
 tion and character are to prevail in China, 
 his country shall certainly inherit the earth, 
 and the ‘ ^ yellow peril ’ ’ will become a reality. 
 
VI 
 
 A GRACEFUL TRIBUTE TO THE MINGS 
 —THE REFORM MOVEMENT 
 
 A CEREMONY of entrancing interest oc- 
 curred on February 15, 1912, when 
 Sun Yat Sen, at the time Provisional 
 President of the United Republic of China, 
 proceeded to the sepulchre of Chu Yuan- 
 Chang, the founder of the Ming (Chinese) dy- 
 nasty, and informed the spirit of the Em- 
 peror that the alien Manchu Tartar had been 
 dethroned. The tomb or mausoleum where 
 the first of the Ming Emperors is buried lies 
 just outside Nanking, at that time the capital 
 of the Empire. 
 
 An imposing procession visited the tomb, 
 consisting of President Sun Yat Sen, the 
 members of his cabinet, the civic and military 
 officials, and a large escort of soldiers. 
 
 The ceremony is interesting in many ways. 
 The fact that the Manchus — the Eastern Tar- 
 tars as they were formerly styled — were 
 alien usurpers was prominently demon- 
 strated. That Sun Yat Sen was the spokes- 
 
 127 
 
128 
 
 SUX YAT SEX 
 
 man on the occasion is a circumstance 
 amounting to a romance, seeing that for fif- 
 teen years he has passed through toil and 
 strife, through dangers innumerable and un- 
 told hardships, to attain the great object of 
 his life, namely, the expulsion of the 
 Manchus. 
 
 But most interesting of all points in con- 
 nection with the dignified and solemn cere- 
 mony is the tone and exquisitely beautiful 
 language in which the prayer and announce- 
 ment was framed. The prayer is given in 
 the London Times of April 3, 1912, and al- 
 though the language loses something by the 
 fact that it is a translation into English, it 
 may be safely said the dignity and grandeur 
 of this prayer has seldom been surpassed in 
 either ancient or modern literature. In con- 
 fonnity with the Confucian principle of serv- 
 ing the dead as if they were present in the 
 flesh, the prayer, conveying information of 
 the important events in the history of a dy- 
 nasty, is always communicated to the spirit 
 tablet of the founder. The prayer was as 
 follows : — 
 
 ‘‘ Of old the Sung dynasty became effete, 
 and the Liao Tartars and Yuen dynasty 
 Mongols seized the occasion to throw this 
 domain of China into confusion, to the fierce 
 indignation of gods and men. It was then 
 
WORSHIPPING AT THE ANCESTOR’S GRAVE 
 
TRIBUTE TO THE MINGS 129 
 
 that Your Majesty, our founder, arose in 
 your wrath from obscurity, and destroyed 
 those monsters of iniquity, so that the ancient 
 glory was won again. In twelve years you 
 consolidated the Imperial sway, and the do- 
 minions of the Great Yii were purged of pol- 
 lution and cleansed from the noisome Tartar. 
 Often in history has our noble Chinese race 
 been enslaved by petty frontier barbarians 
 from the north. Never have such glorious 
 triumphs been won over them as Your 
 Majesty achieved. But your descendants 
 were degenerate and failed to carry on your 
 glorious heritage; they entrusted the reins 
 of government to bad men, and pursued a 
 short-sighted policy. In this way they en- 
 couraged the ambitions of the Eastern Tar- 
 tar savages, and fostered the growth of their 
 power. They were thus able to take advan- 
 tage of the presence of rebels to invade and 
 possess themselves of your sacred capital. 
 From a bad eminence of glory basely won, 
 they lorded it over this most holy soil, and 
 our beloved China ^s rivers and hills were 
 defiled by their corrupting touch, while the 
 people fell victims to the headsman’s axe or 
 the avenging sword. Although worthy 
 patriots and faithful subjects of your dy- 
 nasty crossed the mountain ranges into Can- 
 ton and the far south, in the hope of re- 
 
130 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 deeming the glorious Ming tradition from 
 utter ruin, and of prolonging a thread of the 
 old dynasty’s life, although men gladly per- 
 ished one after the other in the forlorn at- 
 tempt, Heaven’s wrath remained unappeased, 
 and mortal designs failed to achieve success. 
 A brief and melancholy page was added to 
 the history of your dynasty, and that was all. 
 
 ‘‘ As time went on, the law became ever 
 harsher, and the meshes of its inexorable 
 net grew closer. Alas for our Chinese peo- 
 ple, who crouched in comers and listened 
 with startled ears, deprived of power of 
 utterance, and with tongues glued to their 
 mouths, for their lives were past saving. 
 Those others usurped titles to fictitious 
 clemency and justice, while prostituting the 
 sacred doctrines of the sages: whom they 
 affected to honor. They stifled public opin- 
 ion in the Empire in order to force acquies- 
 cence in their tyranny. The Manchu des- 
 potism became so thorough and so embrac- 
 ing that they were enabled to prolong their 
 d}masty’s existence by cunning wiles. But 
 even so, rebellions occurred. In Yung 
 Cheng’s reign the Hunanese Chang Hsi and 
 Tseng Ching preached sedition against the 
 dynasty in their native pro\unce, while in 
 Chia Ching ’s reign the Palace conspiracy of 
 Lin Ching dismayed that monarch in his 
 
TRIBUTE TO THE MINGS 131 
 
 capital. These events were followed by re- 
 bellions in Sze-chuan and Shensi : under Tao- 
 Kuang and his successor the Taipings started 
 their campaign from a remote Kwangsi vil- 
 lage. Although these worthy causes were 
 destined to ultimate defeat, the gradual 
 trend of the national will became manifest. 
 At last our own era dawned, the sun of free- 
 dom had risen, and a sense of the rights of 
 the race animated men’s minds. In addition 
 the Manchu bandits could not even protect 
 themselves. Powerful foes encroached upon 
 the territory of China, and the dynasty 
 parted with our sacred soil to enrich neigh- 
 boring nations. The Chinese race of to-day 
 may be degenerate, but it is descended from 
 mighty men of old. How should it endure 
 that the spirits of the great dead should be 
 insulted by the everlasting visitation of this 
 scourge? 
 
 Then did patriots arise like a whirl- 
 wind or like a cloud which is suddenly mani- 
 fested in the firmament. They began with 
 the Canton insurrection; then Peking was 
 alarmed by Wu Yiieh’s bomb (in 1905). A 
 year later Hsu Hsilin fired his bullet into the 
 vitals of the Manchu robber chief, En Ming, 
 Governor of Anhui. Hsiung Cheng-chi 
 raised the standard of liberty on the Yang- 
 tse’s banks; rising followed rising all over 
 
132 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 the Empire, until the secret plot against the 
 Eegent was discovered, and the abortive in- 
 surrection in Canton startled the capital. 
 One failure followed another, but other brave 
 men took the place of the heroes who died, 
 and the Empire was born again to life. The 
 bandit Manchu Court was shaken with pallid 
 terror, until the cicada shook off its shell in 
 a glorious regeneration, and the present 
 crowning triumph was achieved. The 
 patriotic crusade started in Wuchang; the 
 four corners of the EmjDire responded to the 
 call. Coast regions nobly followed in their 
 wake, and the Yang-tse was won back by our 
 armies. The region south of the Yellow 
 Eiver was lost to the Manchus, and the north 
 manifested its sympathy with our cause. 
 An earthquake shook the barbarian Court of 
 Peking, and it was smitten with a paralysis. 
 To-day it has at last restored the Govern- 
 ment to the Chinese people, and the five races 
 of China may dwell together in peace and 
 mutual trust. Let us joyfully give thanks. 
 How could we have attained this measure of 
 victory had not Your Majesty’s soul in 
 heaven bestowed upon us your protecting in- 
 fluence? 
 
 ‘‘ I have heard say that triumphs of Tartar 
 savages over our China were destined never 
 to last longer than a hundred years. But 
 
TEIBUTE TO THE MINGS 133 
 
 the reign of these Manchus endured unto 
 double, aye, unto treble, that period. Yet 
 Providence knows the appointed hour, and 
 the moment comes at last. We are initiating 
 the example to Eastern Asia of a Kepublican 
 form of government; success comes early or 
 late to those who strive, but the good are 
 surely rewarded in the end. Why then 
 should we repine to-day that victory has 
 tarried long? 
 
 “ I have heard that in the past many 
 would-be deliverers of their country have 
 ascended this lofty mound wherein is your 
 sepulchre. It has served to them as a holy 
 inspiration. As they looked down upon the 
 surrounding rivers and upward to the hills, 
 under an alien sway, they wept in the bitter- 
 ness of their hearts, but to-day their sorrow 
 is turned into joy. The spiritual influences 
 of your grave at Nanking have come once 
 more into their own. The dragon crouches 
 in majesty as of old, and the tiger surveys 
 his domain and his ancient capital. Every- 
 where a beautiful repose doth reign. Your 
 legions line the approaches to the sepulchre : 
 a noble host stands expectant. Your people 
 have come here to-day to inform Your 
 Majesty of the final victory. May this lofty 
 shrine wherein you rest gain fresh lustre 
 from to-day’s event and may your example 
 
134 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 inspire your descendants in the times which 
 are to come. Spirit ! Accept this offer- 
 ing! 
 
 Perhaps nothing will strike the historian, 
 who undertakes to write an account of the 
 Eeform -Movement in China of 1911-12, more 
 forcibly than the extraordinary care and the 
 scientific acumen with which the foundations 
 of the Republic were laid. Ditferent from 
 every other revolution we know of, that 
 which we have just seen completed in China 
 was not the result of an imbroglio, a mere 
 whirlwind of passion, nor yet the outcome 
 of a mob rising; even the fighting has been 
 but a small part of the revolutionary move- 
 ment — a side-issue which in every way pos- 
 sible it was hoped and intended to avoid. 
 For fifteen years Sun had been organizing 
 the great movement, and striving to place it 
 upon a firm basis. How did he do it? By 
 preparing men for the government of the 
 country under the new regime. Ten years 
 ago the Reform Party sent the most promis- 
 ing Chinese students in the country to be 
 educated abroad, so that they might be able 
 to fill important positions in the cabinet and 
 in the various departments of government. 
 In Europe and America several hundreds of 
 young Chinese were engaged in studies of 
 all kinds, with a view to becoming legislators 
 
THE REFOEM MOVEMENT 135 
 
 £nd councillors. The men were being trained 
 \\hilst yet the Manchus ruled and their hold 
 or the throne seemed secure. 
 
 A. preparation for occupying positions 
 wh'ch did not, and in the minds of many 
 woiild never, exist, would strike most men 
 as the product of a fantastic brain, and as 
 the mere dreams of an idealist. First create 
 the positions and then find the men is the 
 usual method adopted in undertakings of the 
 kind. When the revolution has been success- 
 ful it will be surely time enough then to think 
 of men to fill the vacant posts, is the short- 
 sighted plan of the empiricist. Not so in 
 Sun’s idea. He took advantage of the men 
 sent abroad by the late Emperor, whilst yet 
 he held the reins of government, to be trained 
 in modern methods of education and govern- 
 ment, and in addition to these the Reform 
 Party supplemented the number by nominees 
 of their own. During his visits to Europe 
 and America Sun saw these men, conferred 
 with them, and took them into his counsels. 
 That he was held in their high esteem was evi- 
 dent from the fact that whilst in Brussels (or 
 some other European capital) many of the 
 students in the different parts of Europe 
 came to meet him on the several occasions of 
 his visits. The proof that they actually did 
 meet Sun is testified by the evidence of 
 
136 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 photographs in my possession, in which, j 
 
 amongst a group of Chinese students. Sun ; 
 
 is given the place of honor in the centre, aid f 
 
 as a rule is seated whilst the others stand ' 
 
 around him. These men represent modern » 
 
 China to-day; they were chosen for trailing 
 abroad from amongst the best men to be 
 found, and some of them are members of the i 
 
 oldest and best families. Yuan-ShiYKai, ■ 
 
 when he made up his cabinet, said that it \ 
 
 vras composed of the best men China pos- i 
 
 sessed, and it is a fact that the highest posi- ^ 
 
 tions were given by Yuan to Sun’s foreign- i 
 
 educated proteges. I 
 
 It wdll be remembered also that many of j 
 
 these men nominated by Yuan to serve in his ; 
 
 cabinet refused to take up office under him, 
 and joined Sun’s cabinet in Nanking, so that, 
 according even to Yuan’s testimony, China’s 
 ablest men were in Sun’s cabinet. The most 
 recent published list of ministers is dated 
 Peking, March 30, 1912, and reads as 
 follows : — 
 
 Premier and Minister of Communications, ad 
 interim: Tangshaoyi. 
 
 Minister for Foreigji Affairs: Lu-Cheng-Hsian, 
 hitherto Chinese Minister in St. Petersburg. 
 
 Minister of Interior: Chao-Ping-Chun, who is 
 reappointed. 
 
 Minister of Finance: Hsuing-Hsi-Ling, a finan- 
 
THE EEFORM MOVEMENT 137 
 
 cier of moderate ability who has espoused the 
 revolutionary cause. 
 
 Minister of War: General Tuan-Chi-Jui, for- 
 merly Viceroy of Hukuang. 
 
 Minister of Marine: Liu-Kuan-Hsung (Progres- 
 sive.) 
 
 Minister of Education: Tsai-Yuan-Pei, leader of 
 the Southern delegates, a Progressive educationist. 
 Minister of Justice: Wang-Tsung-Hui. 
 
 Minister of Agriculture: Sun-Khia-Jen. 
 
 (The two last named were comparatively un- 
 known before the outbreak of the revolution.) 
 
 Minister of Commerce: Chen-Chi-Mei, a promi- 
 nent Shanghai revolutionary. 
 
 HIN-YUN GUIDE US. 
 
 The Chinese Song in Time op Revolution. 
 
 Freedom, one of the greatest blessings of Heaven. 
 United to Peace thou wilt work on this earth 
 Ten thousand wonderful new things. 
 
 Grave as a spirit, great as a giant 
 Rising to the very skies, 
 
 With the clouds for a chariot and the wind for a 
 steed. 
 
 Come, come to reign over the earth. 
 
 For the sake of the black hell of our slavery, 
 Come, enlighten us with a ray of thy sun. 
 
 White Europe. Thou art indeed 
 The spoiled daughter of Heaven. 
 
138 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 Bread, wine — thou hast everj'thing in abundance. 
 For me, I love Liberty as a bride. 
 
 Through the day in my thoughts, through the 
 night in my dreams 
 I survey the woes of my fatherland. 
 
 But the inconstant nature of Liberty 
 Prevents me from attaining her. 
 
 Alas, my brethren are all slaves. 
 
 The wind is so sweet, the dew is so bright. 
 
 The flowers are so fragrant, 
 
 Men are becoming all kings — 
 
 And yet can we forget what the people are 
 suffering ? 
 
 At Peking we must bow our head 
 Before the wolf of an Emperor. 
 
 Alas, Freedom is dead. 
 
 Asia the Great is nothing else 
 But an immense desert. 
 
 In this centurj^ we are working 
 To open a new age. 
 
 In this century, with one voice, all virile men 
 Are calling for a new making of heaven and 
 earth. 
 
 May the soul of the people rise to the peak of 
 Kwang-tung. 
 
 "Washington and Napoleon, you two sons of 
 Libertj^ 
 
 May you become incarnated in the people. 
 Hin-yun, our ancestor, guide us. 
 
 Spirit of Freedom, come and protect us. 
 
VII 
 
 THE FLAG OF THE NEW EEPUBLIC 
 
 T he five stripes on the Republican flag 
 of China bring home to ns the fact 
 that the Chinese Empire is a congeries 
 of peoples of Mongoloid type. The Chinese 
 have for so long a period been the predomi- 
 nant section of the Mongolian race that the 
 terms Mongol and Chinese have come to be 
 regarded as well-nigh synonymous. So much 
 so has this been the case that the Mongolian 
 invasion of Western Asia and Eastern 
 Europe is often termed a Chinese invasion, 
 whereas it was at least directed by the Mon- 
 golians or Western Tartars, as the Chinese 
 describe them. The ambition of all princes 
 and khans of the Mongolian race was to gain 
 possession of the throne of the Middle King- 
 dom. This was accomplished first by the 
 Mongolian or Western Tartars and subse- 
 quently by the Manchurian or Eastern Tar- 
 tars. The conquerors, however, became in- 
 corporated with the Middle Kingdom, and 
 their countrymen were spoken of subse- 
 
 139 
 
140 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 quently as Cliinese. No other empire quite 
 corresponds to that of China, the nearest 
 approach to it being the British, but in China 
 the several dominions are coterminous, 
 whereas the British Empire is widely flung 
 over seas. 
 
 The five component factors in the flag rep- 
 resent (1) The Chinese of the eighteen home 
 provinces, constituting the Middle Kingdom 
 — or China proper. (2) The Manchurian 
 people, styled the Eastern Tartars by the 
 Chinese, who occupy the district of Man- 
 churia, their ancient kingdom. (3) The 
 Mongolians, the Westeni Tartars, who have 
 from time to time proved so important an 
 element in the destinies of China. (4) The 
 Thibetans, a remote people upon whom the 
 hold of China has been lax at times and again 
 reasserted. (5) The Mahommedans who, al- 
 though possessing no nationality, are a pow- 
 erful religious sect within the widespread 
 domains. To understand aright the part 
 played by each of the groups represented 
 within the flag would involve an intimate 
 knowledge of Chinese history, which would 
 be beyond the purpose of this sketch. How- 
 ever, seeing that China will now occupy a 
 more prominent place in modem history, a 
 few notes are appended on the subject. 
 
 1. The red or upper stripe in the Eepub- 
 
FLAG OF THE NEW REPUBLIC 141 
 
 lican flag denotes tlie Chinese — the inhabi- 
 tants of the Middle Kingdom, the predomi- 
 nant Mongol people. 
 
 It is impossible to ascertain the origin of 
 the Chinese from recorded history. The race 
 at present dwelling in the Middle Kingdom 
 are believed to have originated near the sup- 
 posed cradle of the human race in that in- 
 definite area associated with the name of 
 Mesopotamia. A nomad people, they trav- 
 elled northeastward, carrying with them 
 ideas of settled government, a knowledge of 
 agriculture, of the production of silk, and the 
 value and use of the mulberry-tree. This 
 blackhaired race, as their neighbors styled 
 them, found what we now call the Chinese 
 Empire inhabited by fiery dogs ’’ in the 
 north, great bowmen ’’ in the east, 
 
 mounted warriors ’’ in the west, and un- 
 governable vermin ’’ in the south. The types 
 remain fairly well represented to-day: the 
 fiery Tartar to the north, Manchurian bow- 
 men to the eastward, Mongolian horsemen to 
 the west, and to the south the clever inhabi- 
 tants of the Kwang-tung (Canton), Kwangsi, 
 and Fokien provinces. 
 
 Amongst the yellow race, the Chinese, as 
 distinct from Mongols, Tartars, etc., have 
 preserved their intellectual, commercial, and 
 political superiority, and are therefore en- 
 
1 
 
 142 SUN YAT SEN , 
 
 titled to have their nationality represented as ( 
 
 the premier power in the federation. | 
 
 2. The second color in the flag — yellow — 
 represents the Manchurian or Eastern Tar- 
 tars, as they were formerly styled. 
 
 The Manchu dynasty, which has occupied 
 the throne since the year 1643, deserves the 
 second place in the Empire for more reasons 
 than one. 
 
 The inroads of the Eastern and Western 
 Tartars (Mongols and Manchus) had long 
 been a trouble and danger to the Chinese. 
 
 The Great Wall of China was built two thou- 
 sand years ago to keep them out. Extending 
 over hill and dale for 1,500 miles inland, from 
 the point where it touches the seacoast at 
 Shan-hai-Kwan on the shores of the Gulf of 
 Pechili, this stupendous structure, the great- 
 est monument to labor ever accomplished, J 
 
 may be termed China’s folly,” just as the 
 Yellow Eiver is styled China’s sorrow,” 
 and serves to show the dread with which 
 these Tartar hordes were regarded. It is jok- 
 ingly said the expense entailed in the build- i 
 
 ing of this wall was such that the Chinese 
 never got over it, but the Tartars did. When 
 the wall failed in its purpose bribes, conces- 
 sions, and payments in cash were tried in- j 
 
 stead, but the Eastern Tartars (Manchus) j 
 
 reduced the northern portion of China to 
 
FLAG OF THE NEW KEPUBLIC 143 
 
 vassalage and were in a position to seize the 
 throne. This they were prevented doing by 
 the advance of the Western Tartars (Mon- 
 gols) nnder the famous Kublai Khan, who 
 not only drove out the Eastern Tartars 
 (Manchus) but seized the country and styled 
 themselves Emperors of China. Kublai 
 Khan, the first of the Yuen dynasty, favored 
 Buddhism, which has never flourished in 
 China as it did under the Mongol Tartar rule. 
 Peking, originally a Tartar encampment, was 
 designated the capital. Gradually, how- 
 ever, luxurious living developed effeminacy 
 amongst the Tartars, and so effete did they 
 become that in a.d. 1366 the Chinese drove 
 them from the throne and founded the Ming 
 or Chinese dynasty. 
 
 The Mings, as seemed to be the case with 
 every succeeding dynasty in China, gradually 
 became so effete that they at last drove their 
 own Chinese countrymen into revolt. The 
 leader of the rebellion was so successful that 
 in 1643 he invested Peking, and rather than 
 submit to capture the last of the Ming Em- 
 perors committed suicide. All China seemed 
 at the feet of the rebel leader, the only force 
 in existence loyal to the Mings being an 
 army near to the Manchurian border; and 
 they were reduced to such straits that they 
 invoked the aid of the Eastern Tartars 
 
SUX YAT SEX 
 
 144 
 
 (Manclius), who readily accepted the invita- 
 tion, and after defeating the Chinese rebels, 
 the Manchu king entered Peking and seized 
 the throne. Thus did the Manchus or East- 
 ern Tartars enter China and assume the 
 sovereignty, which they held until 1912, when 
 a republic was declared with Dr. Sun Yat 
 Sen as the first President. 
 
 3. The third or blue color in the fiag rep- 
 resents the TTestem Tartars or Mongolians. 
 The color is reminiscent of the “ blue wolf,’^ 
 from which the Mongol sovereigns are 
 mythically held to be descended.” The 
 Mongolians had long been a trouble to the 
 Middle Kingdom folk, and their audacity cul- 
 minated when, under the greatest soldier of 
 his day, Kublai Khan, they invaded the coun- 
 try and established their rule at Peking. 
 However, in the short period of eighty years 
 Kublai Khan’s descendants had to flee the 
 country and seek refuge amongst the East- 
 ern Tartars (Manchus), where they inter- 
 married with the ruling family, so that the 
 Manchu princes claim to have the blood of 
 the Mongolian Emperors in their veins. 
 
 4. Thibet is represented in the Eepubli- 
 can flag as the fourth section of the State 
 by the white stripe. The tenacity with which 
 China has adhered to the possession of the 
 barren region of Thibet may be ascribed 
 
FLAG OF THE NEW REPUBLIC 145 
 
 largely to the fact that the Grand Lama re- 
 sides at Lhassa, the Rome and Mecca of 
 China in a religions sense. 
 
 Buddhism is tolerated in China, as are all 
 other religions which do not interfere with 
 the State religion of Confucianism. Five 
 religions at least have their followers in 
 China — Confucianism (the State religion), 
 Buddhism, Taoism, Mahommedanism, and 
 Christianity. It may be safely said all Chi- 
 nese are primarily Confucians. Buddhism 
 has no hold on the people; it is confined al- 
 most entirely to an exercise of ritual prac- 
 tised in temples and monasteries by priests. 
 The language in which the form of worship 
 is conducted is that of a bastard Hindustani, 
 which is not only not understood by the 
 Chinese, but even the priests who perform 
 the ceremonies are for the most part wholly 
 ignorant of the meaning of the words they 
 use. The words are, in fact, mere sounds 
 which convey nothing to either priest or wor- 
 shippers. 
 
 Taoism, a religion of reason, has degener- 
 ated from the ideals originally given it by 
 Tao, the founder. This philosopher, who 
 taught about the same time as Confucius, 
 preached and practised a doctrine of inac- 
 tivity, a neglect of the world and its concerns, 
 loving neither fame, pleasure, nor business. 
 
146 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 At present, however, the professed Taoists 
 are for the most part jugglers and necroman- 
 cers, who claim intimate relationship with de- 
 mons. In some temples are found effigies of 
 ‘‘ the three pure ones,^’ indicating a Triad 
 fraternity — an imitation, no doubt, of the 
 Buddhist Triad. Alchemy, a search for the 
 elixir of longevity, magic, and a form of the 
 healing art of the nature of the Christian 
 Science of to-day, are traits of Taoism which 
 now are foDowed only by the most ignorant 
 of the people. 
 
 5. The Mahommedans within the Chinese 
 Empire are represented by the black stripe 
 in the Eepublican flag. In their wide 
 range of conquests the Mongols overcame 
 many Mahommedan peoples, and their con- 
 quests — more especially in Syria and in 
 Baghdad, where Genghis Khan overthrew 
 the famous Caliphate — brought them into 
 close contact with Mahommedanism. Many 
 diverse sects, tribes and communities are 
 scattered throughout the Chinese Empire, 
 and even within the Middle Kingdom itself 
 Mahommedans are found who represent some 
 of the most warlike of its peoples. 
 
 Christians are not represented in the Ee- 
 publican flag, although ever since the first 
 century of the Christian era Christianity has 
 found supporters now with the Mongol rul- 
 
FLAG OF THE NEW EEPUBLIC 147 
 
 ers, now with the Chinese Emperors, and 
 many of the people of both countries have 
 followed its tenets. Nestorians carried the 
 Gospel to the Far East and incorporated 
 many of its doctrines into several forms of 
 worship in Central Asia and China. Jesuits 
 and Dominican priests found favor with the 
 Emperors in Peking for several centuries, 
 but when it was found out that the Pope and 
 not the Emperor was the controlling agent in 
 directing religious affairs, Roman Catholi- 
 cism fell into disfavor, being renounced by 
 the governing class, whilst many of its ad- 
 herents were killed. Of late years many sec- 
 tions of the Christian Church have sent mis- 
 sionaries to China, and so long as they do 
 not interfere with the political affairs of the 
 country as the Jesuits did, so long will they 
 be allowed to preach the Gospel and to found 
 churches. It is significant that the Taiping 
 Rebellion, although headed by Christians, 
 was put down by the help of Christian na- 
 tions, and the first President of the Republic 
 of China, Sun Yat Sen, is a Christian by 
 birth, education, and profession. The tol- 
 erance of all forms of religious belief in 
 China is a tribute to the broadmindedness 
 of the Chinese, and that form of Christianity 
 will succeed which is based upon the will of 
 the people and refrains from attempting to 
 
148 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 interfere with the philosophic teaching of 
 Confucius, the State religion (so-called) of 
 China. 
 
 The Christians, although fairly numerous, 
 are scattered throughout the land, and their 
 influence in the history of China is not 
 deemed worthy of a stripe in the national 
 flag, a fact perhaps all in favor of future 
 success. 
 
 A Chinaman may be a Confucian and yet 
 a sound Christian, Buddhist, Taoist, or Ma- 
 hommedan. Confucianism is a philosophy, 
 not a religion, and its acceptance no more 
 hinders a Chinese being a Christian than 
 does a belief in Darwinism prohibit an En- 
 glishman being a devout Churchman. 
 
VIII 
 
 THINGS CHINESE 
 
 T O attempt a history of China, even to 
 give an outline of an empire founded 
 and its people civilized before Greece 
 rose to eminence or Home was heard of, 
 would be the task of a lifetime. All that can 
 be attempted is to state a few, a very few, 
 of the more prominent characteristics of this 
 extraordinary people, their everyday beliefs 
 and ways. 
 
 Five thousand years ago at least the civ- 
 ilization of the Chinese was in an extraordi- 
 nary state of advance ; in fact, they were per- 
 haps the people of all mankind to be earliest 
 civilized, and their records would seem to 
 stamp them at that time as possibly but little 
 different from the Chinese of to-day. When 
 the Mongols entered Eastern Europe they 
 found a barbarous people, and the legend 
 Outer Barbarian ” remains with them as 
 a term for Europeans to this day in conse- 
 quence. 
 
 There is the account of the people of what 
 149 
 
150 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 is now the city of Dresden, when the Chinese 
 garrison was about to be withdrawn, petition- 
 ing the authorities to allow the Chinese gov- 
 ernor to remain, inasmuch as they had never 
 been so well governed. This Chinese was, 
 perhaps, the most highly civilized man and 
 possibly the first trained official they had ever 
 seen, and they were anxious for him to stay. 
 Should he leave they dreaded a relapse to the 
 old “ barbaric ’’ regime of government again. 
 Marco Polo, although in the history of China 
 the visits of this traveller are but as yester- 
 day, found difficulty not when he had entered 
 China, but in the countries he had to traverse 
 to reach the Chinese boundary. Once in Chi- 
 nese territory he found magnificent roads, 
 with inns and posting establishments at every 
 thirty miles’ interval on his way from the 
 Caspian to the capital of China. Order 
 reigned wherever the Chinese ruled and set- 
 tled government prevailed. Their literature, 
 their agriculture, their medical knowledge, 
 and several industries such as that of silk, 
 were in an advanced state before Moses was 
 cradled or Solomon built his temple. 
 
 We may well be asked why they have not 
 continued to advance. The reply may be 
 summed up as isolation due perhaps for the 
 most part to natural forces. The relapse of 
 Central Asia into a desert formed a barrier 
 
THE “FU-TSI-HIAO,” 
 or Confucian Temple at Nanking 
 
 BUDDHIST TEMPLE ON ISLAND OF PU-TL 
 The most sacred place in Chinese Buddhism 
 
THINGS CHINESE 
 
 151 
 
 between China and Western Asia which it 
 was quite impossible to contend with. The 
 desert has gradually encroached, and is still 
 encroaching, upon the western frontiers of 
 China. The desiccation of Central Asia has 
 obliterated many fertile lands, and it is only 
 a process of time until the capital shares a 
 similar fate. The sand is gradually encroach- 
 ing on Peking, and this should prove an addi- 
 tional reason for removing the capital from 
 Peking to Nanking. Southward advance into 
 India was thwarted by the Himalayas, for 
 mountains then, as now, present the greatest 
 difficulties to be overcome by armies; they 
 constitute the chief barriers also to the inter- 
 community of peoples, and debar effective 
 military occupations of remote territories. 
 When China became separated from the 
 West, her people, hemmed in by mountains 
 and cut off by impassable deserts, lost touch 
 with the rest of mankind, with the result 
 that they relapsed into a state of inborn con- 
 ceit, which led them to imagine that they were 
 the people, and that the rest of the world 
 remained as they had originally found them, 
 in a state of ‘ ^ utter barbarism. ’ ’ It was only 
 when ships of sufficient size were built by 
 Europeans to travel long distances that 
 China was again brought into contact with 
 the outer world. For about five hundred 
 
152 
 
 SUN YAT SEX 
 
 years at least they had been left to them- 
 selves, and it was not until the Portuguese, 
 some three hundred and fifty years ago, fol- 
 lowed by the Dutch and the English, reached 
 China by sea, that the Chinese had any 
 knowledge of the change which had occurred 
 amongst the inhabitants of Europe. For 
 some three centuries they held these visitors 
 in contempt and reluctantly tolerated them 
 at only a few of their ports. They took no 
 heed of these men who came thither in 
 their ships to barter goods for tea and 
 silk. 
 
 Gradually, however, the trade increased; 
 the \usits of these unwelcome “ foreign dev- 
 ils ’’ were tolerated at times, and again 
 thwarted by edicts promulgated by the Man- 
 chu rulers. One says the Manchu rulers ad- 
 visedly; for before the Manchu regime, whilst 
 China was governed by the Ming (or Chi- 
 nese) Emperors, foreigners were allowed to 
 enter and travel through the country unmo- 
 lested. As the British traders became more 
 and more persistent in their attempts to open 
 up trade in tea and silk, troubles arose which 
 led to several wars during the last century, 
 with the result that treaties and concessions 
 were insisted upon and some ports were 
 opened at which trade with the foreigner was 
 allowed. 
 
THINGS CHINESE 
 
 153 
 
 Tims gradually has China been made cog- 
 nizant of the civilization of the West, with 
 the consequences we know of to-day, when 
 the people have been aroused from their leth- 
 argy under the stimulating influence of Sun 
 and his colleagues. Had China had no tea 
 or silk to sell, she would have been left alone 
 much longer; there would have been no in- 
 ducement for the European to make the long 
 voyages, which in the days of sailing-ships 
 extended to more than a year, from Britain 
 to China and back. In this manner has China 
 passed through the phases of her develop- 
 ment — a change brought about by a natural 
 sequence of events partly geographical, 
 partly owing to the demand for the products 
 which she was alone able to supply to the 
 rest of the world. 
 
 The armies of the Chinese Empire in ear- 
 lier times penetrated far beyond the immedi- 
 ate confines of their home territories and 
 compelled submission and demanded tribute 
 from many tribes and potentates. Their ad- 
 vance across Western Asia and their pres- 
 ence in Eastern Europe came nigh to swamp 
 the Eurasian continents and establish a Mon- 
 goloid in place of an Indo-European people 
 in Europe and South-West Asia. They left 
 their mark in Eussia, and the phrase 
 
 Scratch a Russian and you will find a Tar- 
 
154 
 
 SUX YAT SEX 
 
 tar holds good to-day. Southward the 
 Mongolians crossed the Himalayas and left 
 the Xepalese — a Mongolian people — as a leg- 
 acy. They passed into Burmah and peopled 
 it. Siam, Annam, Cochin China, and Cam- 
 bodia had to bow before their might, and to 
 the present time most of these countries pay 
 tribute to China. The tribute may be noth- 
 ing more than a bowl of rice, a present of 
 flowers, a mere pepper-corn ” tribute, but 
 still it is tribute,” and neglect to forward 
 it is regarded as a slight to the suzerain and 
 a punishable offence. Asia and half Europe, 
 in the days of Genghis Khan and Kublai 
 Khan, were practically at their feet, and they 
 believed there were no more worlds ” to 
 conquer. Satiated with conquest, having ob- 
 tained the mastery of all around them, pos- 
 sessing a chdlization as superior in its form 
 to their neighbors’ as ours is to-day to that 
 of the court of Dahomey, it is scarcely to be 
 wondered at that they grew conceited and 
 wrapped themselves up in self-satisfaction. 
 Arms could achieve no more, and they came 
 to regard prowess on the field of battle an 
 unworthy calling for intellectual men to 
 follow. 
 
 With the world as they knew it paying 
 tribute, arms and armies seemed uncalled 
 for; their advanced civilization reached the 
 
THINGS CHINESE 
 
 155 
 
 stage whicli some Western Europeans wish 
 to see attained at the present day, namely, 
 the abolition of armies in favor of interna- 
 tional courts of justice, where all matters 
 in dispute between nations are to be adjudi- 
 cated. The Chinese attained this pinnacle of 
 super-civilization five hundred years ago. 
 The status of the soldier was depreciated and 
 regarded as a caste and calling of a low, 
 perhaps the lowest, degree. Only now is 
 Western Europe dreaming of such a state of 
 civilization; the Chinese not only dreamt of 
 it but acted upon it, and it has proved their 
 undoing. Super-civilization of the kind is 
 theoretically beautiful in its conception, and 
 would, no doubt, be possible of attainment 
 if there existed but one ruler or one pre- 
 dominant race in the world. The Chinese, 
 so far as they knew the world, were in that 
 position and could afford to convert their 
 swords into pruning-hooks. Unfortunately 
 for the fulfilment of their dream of peace, 
 there appeared barbarians from the outer 
 world, who desired not only commercial re- 
 lationship, but who had the presumption to 
 present petitions to the Throne, and refused 
 to allow their people to be judged or pun- 
 ished according to the law of China. This 
 led to trouble, to war, to loss of territory, to 
 humiliation, and to loss of face ’’ in the 
 
156 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 eyes of the world and in their estimation of 
 themselves. 
 
 China had no armed force wherewith to 
 withstand the inroads of these outer bar- 
 barians militarism as a profession was 
 
 held in contempt, and not all the edicts of the 
 “ Son of Heaven could drive the bar- 
 barians back to their dens. It might be 
 thought, and with a high degree of reason, 
 that a nation to whom fighting was abhorrent 
 and regarded as degrading would, in the 
 course of some five hundred years, find the 
 fighting instincts of the people blunted, and 
 that the men would have become effete and 
 would shrink from war and battle. 
 
 In this condition of unalloyed peace, the - 
 result of military prowess, China might 
 have continued indefinitely had she been left 
 alone. But it was not to be. The almost 
 complete isolation that had so long prevailed 
 became impossible as new modes of travel 
 both by sea and land developed. Foreigners 
 came to Chinese shores first in their large 
 ocean-going sailing-ships, attracted thither 
 by the desire for the tea, silk, camphor, &c., 
 which the Chinese produced and because they 
 found a ready market for rice, sugar, cotton 
 goods, and the thousand-and-one articles 
 which go to make up the merchandise of 
 
THINGS CHINESE 157 
 
 necessaries.” Not to be put off, foreigners 
 approached from all sides. 
 
 In the north and west the Russians and 
 Central Asian peoples closed in upon the 
 frontiers of the Middle Kingdom. The sea- 
 ports were visited by Europeans, and con- 
 cessions demanded at the point of the bay- 
 onet, which was occasionally thrust home. 
 The establishment of foreign embassies and 
 consulates was insisted upon, treaties were 
 enforced at the cannon’s mouth, and of late 
 years territory has been seized and held by 
 several Powers. The Chinese have, in fact, 
 been driven by force into becoming a mere 
 nation, whilst a century ago they were a 
 dominant people. The elephant amongst na- 
 tions, China has been pestered, worried, and 
 nibbled at by the rest of the world until she 
 has come to realize that her sway is not uni- 
 versal, that her boundaries are not illimita- 
 ble, and that she cannot nowadays compel 
 world-wide tribute. At first she regarded 
 the visits of these foreigners as a passing 
 phenomenon in her existence that would soon 
 cease; the people who came to her shores 
 claiming to be civilized she had formerly 
 known only as barbarians; compared with 
 China these modern nations were regarded 
 as creations of yesterday and of mushroom 
 growth — mere froth, which would bubble for 
 
158 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 a while and then fade away into the ocean 
 from whence it came. 
 
 It is the interference of the foreign Powers 
 that has made China a nation, and for the 
 first time for many centuries she has had to 
 buckle to and see to it that her frontiers 
 are respected, that her power is established, 
 and that her house is put in order. That 
 she can do it is beyond doubt, and that she 
 will do it the Chinese themselves are deter- 
 mined upon. Let the nations who have 
 brought this about look to themselves. These 
 are no barbarous people emerging into the 
 refulgence of an unaccustomed civilization, 
 but a people of high and ancient civilization 
 being narrowed down to become a nation. 
 Kesourceful, capable, and self-reliant, the 
 Chinese possess all the qualities and attri- 
 butes of greatness. It is said there are three 
 elements necessary to make a people great — 
 prowess in the field, diplomatic ability, and 
 commercial instincts. China has had, and 
 still has, all three and some of them in a 
 superlative degree. The first of these has 
 been in abeyance for some centuries but the 
 fighting instinct is there, and it wants but 
 to be organized to place it on a level of 
 excellence with the others. 
 
 The efficiency and superiority of the armies 
 of China reached a maximum of attainment 
 
THINGS CHINESE 
 
 159 
 
 in the days of Genghis Khan and Kublai 
 Khan. These great soldiers reduced well- 
 nigh all Asia to submission and conquered 
 in Europe wherever they appeared. So 
 firmly was the military superiority of China 
 established, that its very thoroughness 
 proved the undoing of the country, for, sa- 
 tiated with success, soldiering came to be 
 neglected, and organized armies passed out 
 of existence. No foemen worthy of their 
 steel were left, the sword was condemned to 
 rust, and the nation gave itself over to lit- 
 erature (unfortunately of a useless kind) 
 and to commerce. The Emperors ruled the 
 nation and kept the people in submission and 
 in darkness by a few regiments, and the fight- 
 ing instinct of the people was curbed and 
 scotched. That it was not destroyed, how- 
 ever, recent events have shown, and its con- 
 tinued existence has proved the salvation of 
 the country. Without it there would have 
 been no reform achieved ; the Manchus 
 would have continued their harassing rule 
 and kept the people of China in ignorance 
 and backwardness. 
 
 As examples of fortitude in the field we 
 have several modern instances. Take, for 
 example, Gordon’s testimony during the 
 Taiping Eebellion of the courage displayed 
 by the men in the ‘ ‘ Ever Victorious ’ ’ Army. 
 
160 
 
 SUX YAT SEX 
 
 Xot only did Gordon's men earn encomiums 
 from their leader, hnt their Taiping adver- 
 saries fought with a determination which 
 won the admiration of the foreign officers 
 who served in Gordon’s army. 
 
 Again, during the recent Boxer Rising the 
 officers of the allied European armies ac- 
 corded a high meed of praise to the capabil- 
 ity and bravery of the Chinese troops op- 
 posed to them, and on one memorable occa- 
 sion at least the allies had to retire before 
 their adversaries. In the recent fighting also 
 around Hankow a British surgeon relates 
 how keen the Chinese soldiers were. Seri- 
 ously wounded men, after their wounds were 
 dressed, could with difficulty be restrained 
 from returning to the fighting line; even 
 when so severely injured as to require to 
 be taken to hospital, it was no uncommon 
 thing to fiud on visiting the hospital in the 
 morning that wounded soldiers had escaped 
 during the night and again gone to the 
 front. That they did so was confirmed 
 by the fact that several of the previously 
 wounded men were brought again to hospital 
 suffering from further wounds which totally 
 incapacitated them. 
 
 This is evidence of valor worthy of the 
 bravest ; and affords abundant testimony that 
 
THINGS CHINESE 161 
 
 the fighting instincts and courage of the 
 Chinese have not been lost. 
 
 Along with the courage and readiness to 
 fight, the Chinese have occasionally resorted 
 to tactics now Fabian, now Machiavellian in 
 their type. Sometimes devices showing su- 
 preme genius characterized their efforts in 
 dealing with an enemy; examples of which 
 there are many. As an instance of the kind, 
 and at the same time showing how well the 
 Chinese could be kept in hand when neces- 
 sity demanded, the story of a rebel leader 
 will serve to illustrate. The supremacy of 
 the Manchu rulers was not universally 
 received throughout China when, in a.d. 1643, 
 they ascended the throne. 
 
 Many Chinese refused to shave their heads 
 in token of submission and to adopt the Tar- 
 tar fashion of a long plaited tress or cue. 
 A portion of the south remained unsubdued, 
 and under a maritime leader, Koshinga, re- 
 mained true to the Chinese, or Ming dy- 
 nasty, cause. Co-operating with adherents 
 on shore, Koshinga, with his headquarters on 
 the island of Formosa, not only enlisted the 
 Chinese fleet, but he also got together the 
 boat population of Formosa and of the China 
 coast, and led a predatory host to plunder 
 and sack one city after another along the 
 Chinese littoral. He swept over Canton, 
 
162 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 Amoy, Swatow, Foochow, Shanghai, &c., and 
 no place adjacent to the sea or the estuaries 
 of rivers was safe from his onslaught. The 
 authorities on the mainland were helpless; 
 they had no boats wherewith to attack, for 
 every fisherman, sailor and pirate with their 
 crafts had joined the rebels; there were not 
 sufficient troops in the country to garrison 
 the towns along 2,500 miles of sea-coast, and 
 no warning was ascertainable as to where 
 the next attack was to be made. For years 
 did this continue, and the authorities were 
 driven to despair. At last a plan of cam- 
 paign was devised which for ingenuity of 
 conception and enormity of detail has no 
 parallel. It was no other than that the en- 
 tire population of the sea-coasts of China 
 should retire inland, leaving the towns and 
 country bare. Not only did the people move 
 away from the shore, but animals of every 
 kind were removed; houses were emptied of 
 their effects; provender that could not be 
 carried inwards was destroyed, and the coun- 
 try for three leagues from the sea was 
 rendered a desert. When next the rebel 
 fleet attacked there was nothing to be 
 obtained. 
 
 One city after another told the same tale, 
 until at last want of supplies began to have 
 its effect ; the rough adherents began to quar- 
 
THINGS CHINESE 
 
 163 
 
 rel amongst themselves ; the scramble for food 
 became severe, and the delinquents reverted 
 to the Emperor. Finally the instigator of 
 the rebellion was compelled to deliver For- 
 mosa to the Government, and peace was re- 
 stored. A nation capable of devising and 
 carrying out so gigantic a co-ordination of 
 the masses — for some 30,000,000 of people 
 were affected by the removal — is a dangerous 
 one to encounter. 
 
 Again, the extraordinary persistency and 
 patience whereby an invading army from 
 Turkestan was driven back for some 700 
 miles across the desert district of Chinese 
 Tartary by the ‘‘ agricultural army ’’ in the 
 middle of last century showed a power of 
 resource and a genius of a kind peculiarly 
 Chinese. Unable to meet the enemy in an 
 open engagement, the Chinese troops, under 
 the crafty Tso-Tsun-Tau, encamped in the 
 neighborhood of the opposing force and held 
 a piece of ground which they cultivated, and 
 on it grew their food. Now they would 
 harass their opponents and cut off their sup- 
 plies, and so compel them to retire a certain 
 distance. The Chinese again followed them 
 up, cultivated the ground and had plenty of 
 food, whilst their enemy was almost starved, 
 or lived upon the victuals the Chinese chose 
 to sell them. Now the Chinese soldiers 
 
164 
 
 SUX YAT SEX 
 
 would actually appear in the enemy’s camp 
 selling food of all kinds which they had culti- 
 vated, and at the same time obtain knowl- 
 edge of the numbers and disposition of the 
 enemy’s forces. Then they would withhold 
 supplies, again loot convoys, and reduce the 
 enemy to the verge of stan^ation, and thus 
 compel another retirement. Again the Chi- 
 nese would follow them at a safe distance. 
 These tactics were repeated time after time 
 until the invaded territory was recovered 
 and incorporated once more in the Empire. 
 An enemy possessing so high a degree of 
 patience and fertility of resource is a trouble- 
 some one to meet in conflict. 
 
 War, however, we have seen, became a 
 despicable thing to the super-civilized Chi- 
 nese, and the way in which they latterly re- 
 garded their god of war was in consonance 
 with this attitude of mind. Every feature of 
 life in China and every occupation has its 
 presiding deity. Each god has to be propi- 
 tiated, but whilst lip sendee or physical 
 homage is given him the respect for his om- 
 nipotence is really but scant. The god of 
 war is supposed to watch over not only the 
 chances of war, but the munitions of war- 
 fare; the guns, the shot and shell, and even 
 the efficacy of charges of gunpowder are un- 
 der his protection and in his hands. 
 
A GATE OF PEKING 
 
 One of the sixteen double gates in the outer wall 
 
THINGS CHINESE 
 
 165 
 
 Yet do the people, under the war god’s 
 very nose,” as it were, steal the gunpow- 
 der and fill the vacancy with sand or saw- 
 dust ; cannon-shot is removed bodily, utilized 
 for making implements, and its place taken 
 by lumps of clay, shaped and painted to look 
 like metal shot; the mountings are stolen 
 from the gun carriages, so that the guns are 
 thereby rendered useless. Even the very 
 guns themselves are at times removed, as the 
 following account shows : When travelling to 
 Peking in 1894, on horseback from Tientsin, 
 as we approached Peking, the forts in the 
 walls loomed large and threatening. Ad- 
 dressing the Chinese guide, I remarked that 
 there was no fear of the Russians getting 
 into Peking with all these guns in the forts. 
 ‘‘ Oh, no,” laconically remarked the guide. 
 After a time he said: They no belong 
 
 proper guns ” These are not proper 
 guns ”). ‘‘Oh! what is the matter with 
 
 them? They look all right.” “ No,” he re- 
 marked, “ You look see, have makee paint 
 ’em guns.” I again looked, and could see the 
 mouths of many guns in the embrasures. 
 My further interrogations led to the state- 
 ment, “ Have steal ’em gun, what thing you 
 see belong piecee wood. ’ ’ Sure enough it was 
 so. The guns had been removed, pieces of 
 wood filled the embrasures, and a gun-mouth 
 
166 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 was carefully and exactly painted on the 
 wood. 
 
 I remarked that it was very foolish to do 
 this, ‘‘ What for makee fool pidgeon all the 
 same? Why do you condescend to such 
 foolish business? Oh/’ said the guide, 
 
 ‘ ‘ that war god he belong number one f ooloo ; 
 he thinkee that all the same proper guns.” 
 What he told me was that the war god is a 
 fool, and he (the god) believed that what he 
 saw was really guns — and consequently Pe- 
 king was quite safe. I, for the first time, un- 
 derstood something of the frame of mind in 
 which the Chinese regarded their idols. The 
 gods were necessary institutions, but they 
 could be easily cheated, and anything would 
 do to gain their protection, so long as even 
 a pretence of reverence was paid them. A 
 similar frame of mind obtains towards an- 
 other god — the sea god. All Chinese craft 
 have an eye painted on either side of the 
 prow of their boats, and many Chinese will 
 not travel by a foreign steamer unless they 
 see eyes painted on either side of the prow, 
 or over the paddle-boxes. They have framed 
 their belief after the manner of a syllogism 
 in regard to the matter as follows : — 
 
 “ Suppose no got eye, how can see; 
 
 No can see, how can savey; 
 
 No can savey, how can walkee? ” 
 
THINGS CHINESE 
 
 167 
 
 The opening statement is not confutable: 
 
 It is impossible to see without an eye ’’ — 
 real, artificial, or painted, is not in the ques- 
 tion. If there is no eye, it is not possible 
 for the boat to know (savey) what direction 
 to take (walkee).” This legend is a com- 
 monly quoted bit of ^ ^ pidgeon English, ’ ’ and 
 repeated to every visitor to China by old 
 Anglo-Chinese residents. Wishing to under- 
 stand the import of this arrant nonsense, I 
 interrogated a Chinese in the matter and 
 said, I cannot understand how a sensible, 
 practical people like the Chinese uphold such 
 beliefs as these. Why do they continue to 
 paint an eye on their ships? ” He replied, 
 ‘ ‘ That sea god he belong number one fooloo, 
 he thinkee that all proper eye.” They hu- 
 mored the god, but they did not honor him. 
 Our forefathers propitiated witches in the 
 same way; many at times invoked their aid; 
 others, though disbelievers to an extent, 
 would say nothing against the witches in case 
 some calamity might befall them. 
 
 Christianity did not do away with these 
 beliefs in our country. The traditions of our 
 ancient heathen gods came down to us as our 
 witches, kelpies, bogie-men, &c., and to-day 
 we frighten our children with them. The 
 Chinese still set up their gods and propitiate 
 them^ but all real belief in their powers has 
 
168 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 gone, and sacrifice to the gods has become 
 a mere mummery. We are not so far away 
 from the Chinese way of thinking after all. 
 
 The transition from the old to the new 
 China of to-day has been much in evidence 
 during the past few years, and in nothing 
 more markedly than in matters military. 
 The bow and arrow, the oflScial weapon of 
 China, has been supplanted by firearms; but 
 the transition died hard, and in several in- 
 stances presented comical features. Even so 
 late as 1894 the spectacle could be seen of 
 sentries armed with bows and arrows mount- 
 ing guard at the gates of the huge modern 
 arsenal at Tientsin and at the Taku Forts at 
 the mouth of the Peiho Eiver. Within were 
 Armstrong and Krupp cannon, modern quick- 
 firing guns, repeating rifles, and all the mu- 
 nitions of modern war; without, a sentry 
 carrying a bow and arrow. 
 
 But although armed ’’ with bows and 
 arrows, even these were viewed with sus- 
 picion by their rulers. No one who has seen 
 the Manchu soldiery practising with bow and 
 arrow at the targets can ever forget the ludi- 
 crous spectacle. No archer hit the target, 
 no archer dared to hit the target; it was as 
 much as his life was worth. The Manchu 
 authorities watched the proceedings care- 
 fully, never served out more than an arrow 
 
THINGS CHINESE 
 
 169 
 
 or two at a time, and care was taken that 
 the point would penetrate nothing harder 
 than a target of straw, rope, or canvas. They 
 sagaciously reasoned thus If a man can hit 
 the target, he can hit us.’’ In other words, so 
 little did the Manchus trust their own kins- 
 men that they were afraid of men who could 
 shoot straight, and at all times took care that 
 the weapon was incapable of causing a 
 wound. A good shot might turn the 
 weapon against his officer, and thereby wipe 
 oft old scores against the oppressor.” 
 The men, therefore, dared not exhibit any 
 skill, so the arrows went wide of the mark, 
 or fell a long way short of the target. 
 
 With the modern foreign-drilled soldiers 
 armed with rifles, blank ammunition was 
 served out to them as a rule when they went 
 to practise firing; this was partly no doubt 
 for economy’s sake, but partly to avoid the 
 danger to the rulers of placing effective 
 weapons in the hands of the soldiers. Even 
 in the recent fighting around Hankow blank 
 cartridges were supplied to the troops in 
 many instances, and the cannon-shot used 
 not infrequently consisted of wooden or clay 
 balls shaped and painted to look like real 
 cannon-shot. The practised economy in am- 
 munition was not always on the part of the 
 Government ; the officers in charge of the am- 
 
170 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 munition had to make their livelihood some- 
 how. As pay was small at best of times and 
 always uncertain in its bestowal, these officers 
 saw no way of earning a livelihood except by 
 deceit and fraud; hence the charges were 
 of sawdust or the bullets were abstract- 
 ed and their place taken by stones, clay, 
 wood, &c. 
 
 This disregard of efficiency was due partly 
 to the desire for economy and to the fear of 
 arming the people, but largely to the tradi- 
 tional disregard and contempt in which the 
 Chinese for hundreds of years have held 
 prowess in the field of battle. 
 
 Although China has her mythology in com- 
 mon with the early history of all nations, 
 there is no doubt as to her antiquity as a 
 great and civilized power. Before the Chow 
 d>Tiasty, which lasted for eight centuries and 
 terminated in 220 b.c., fable and fact are so 
 entwined that many are inclined to regard 
 the accounts of the Three Emperors as myth- 
 ical. One of these myths,” however — 
 Fohy — some 2,600 years before Christ, intro- 
 duced organized government, the arts of 
 music and numbers, astronomical observa- 
 tions, and all that we understand by civiliza- 
 tion in the home and in the national equip- 
 ment. The Five Sovereigns succeeded the 
 Three Emperors, and after the sovereigns 
 
THINGS CHINESE 
 
 171 
 
 came the period of the Shang tyrants ^ who 
 in turn were displaced by the Chow dynasty, 
 and with the Chow Emperors the definite his- 
 tory of China commences. The Chow rule 
 lasted for eight centuries, extending to the 
 year 220 b.c., and during that period Con- 
 fucius lived and wrote. After his death in 
 477 B.c. civil war prevailed, and it was not 
 until A.D. 220, when the famous Han rulers 
 came into power, that the contending na- 
 tions were again amalgamated as an empire. 
 The dynasty of Tsin commenced in 265 a.d., 
 and it is presumed that the name China, or 
 Tsina, was given to the Chinese by the people 
 of India from these rulers. The Chinese 
 never had a name for their empire : they were 
 
 THE people,’’ the only people of the world, 
 and all other nations they regarded as mere 
 dependents, they themselves being the pre- 
 dominant inhabitants of the globe. In a.d. 
 416 the Tsin rule terminated, and the country 
 was divided into two, the southern portion 
 with its capital at Nanking, and the northern 
 capital in Honan. 
 
 In A.D. 585 the north and south were 
 blended for the first time with the capital 
 in Honan. The Tang dynasty in a.d. 618 suc- 
 ceeded to the throne, but lost it in a.d. 897. 
 Civil war ensued, and it was not until a.d. 
 960 that the Soong (Sung) dynasty was 
 
172 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 raised to the throne. The Mongols, or West- 
 ern Tartars, under Knblai Khan, invaded 
 China and founded the Tuen dynasty, but 
 their excesses and vices led to complete de- 
 generacy, and the Ming (Chinese) Emperors 
 succeeded to power in a.d. 1368, and ruled un- 
 til the Manclms, the Eastern Tartars^ 
 usurped the throne in a.d. 1643, and only ter- 
 minated their occupancy of it on February 
 15, 1912, owing to the efforts of Sun Yat 
 Sen and his colleagues. 
 
 The Mongol or yellow race forms one of 
 the three great tyiDes of the human family, 
 and along with the Indo-European constitutes 
 the population of Europe and Asia, with the 
 exception of some of the negroid types in the 
 Archipelago. 
 
 The Mongoloid type is stamped by several 
 physical characteristics. The hair of the 
 head is oval, not round; the skin is endowed 
 with a less ample coating of hair than in the 
 case of the Indo-European ; the bridge of the 
 nose is less pronounced, with the result that 
 the skin of the upper eyelid forms a fold at its 
 inner side, giving what is known as the Mon- 
 gol type of face. It is usually said that the 
 eye is oblique, but this is not the case. The 
 fold of skin at the inner aspect of the upper 
 lid gives rise to the apparent obliquity, and 
 if the skin over the bridge of the nose is 
 
THINGS CHINESE 173 
 
 pinched up the fold, and so-called obliquity 
 of the eye, disappears. 
 
 All European babies are born with a low 
 or flat bridge to the nose and a fold at the 
 inner side of the eyelid; the bridge of the 
 nose gradually develops, until by the time 
 puberty is reached the bridge ’’ has risen 
 and the fold disappears. In the case of 
 Mongols, however, the bridge ” does not, 
 as a rule, develop; the eyelid fold remains, 
 and the apparent obliquity of the eyes con- 
 tinues through life in consequence. Another 
 facial difference between the Mongol and 
 Indo-European is the presence and absence 
 of bumps ’’ on the forehead. The Euro- 
 pean male at the age of adolescence develops 
 bumps ” on the lower part of the forehead. 
 These are not due to brain development, but 
 to a separation of the layers of the bone of 
 the forehead just above the eyes, leaving 
 cavities occupied by air, which communicate 
 with the nose. The elevations that result 
 form the bumps so dearly beloved by the 
 head-reader,” who endows them with 
 varied forms of intellectual capacity. In the 
 Chinese these air-cells are but slightly devel- 
 oped, and their features appear to occidental 
 ideas as baby-like.” A ‘‘ child-like and 
 bland ” aspect is natural to the features of 
 the Mongols, not from the causes Bret Harte 
 
174 
 
 SUX YAT SEX 
 
 would have us believe, but from normal eth- 
 nological developmental causes. 
 
 The marked development of the cavities in 
 several parts of the small European skull at 
 adolescence, when the voice ‘‘ breaks,” ac- 
 counts for the more rugged outline of the 
 skull in Europeans as compared with Chinese ; 
 and also for the depth of the male (bass) 
 voice in Europeans, compared with the most 
 tenor-like notes of the Chinese, especially 
 when singing, in which a high falsetto is the 
 rule. Of other physical Mongoloid character- 
 istics one is a sturdy frame, and although 
 the bones are relatively small compared with 
 Indo-Europeans, yet is the muscular system 
 capable of great development. The gap also 
 between the canine (eye-tooth) and its neigh- 
 bor in front is a characteristic Mongoloid 
 feature. 
 
 The question of the position of women in 
 China has been put to me by many women 
 who are interesting themselves in the po- 
 litical position of women in England. They 
 wanted to know Sun’s attitude towards wom- 
 en’s suffrage, and, although the subject is 
 rather a forbidding one to touch in England 
 at present, there can be no harm in describ- 
 ing the prospects of women in political mat- 
 ters in China. Sun’s attitude is well de- 
 scribed by Mr. Arthur Diosy in the London 
 
SUN YAT SEN’S TWO DAUGHTERS 
 Erom a recent photograph 
 

THINGS CHINESE 
 
 175 
 
 Globe in February, 1912. Mr. Diosy has 
 written several articles and letters and 
 spoken freely upon the part played by Dr. 
 Sun Yat Sen in the reform movement in 
 China. Mr. Diosy is deeply interested in 
 Chinese reform — a frame of mind inherited, 
 no doubt, for his father was Kossuth’s secre- 
 tary. No one is in a better position to de- 
 clare his opinion than Mr. Diosy, for he has, 
 so far as Great Britain is concerned, alone 
 enjoyed with my wife and myself the privi- 
 lege of an intimate acquaintance with the 
 great reformer, and of hearing Sun expound 
 his views on all matters appertaining to the 
 future of China politically, judicially and 
 socially. 
 
 Women in China have hitherto occupied 
 no place in the political horizon, apart, be 
 it said, from the dowager empresses in the 
 royal household — an example that cannot 
 be said to be propitious. Chinese women 
 were not supposed to learn to read and write. 
 A great ditference indeed from the case of 
 the men, for every boy in China is taught 
 to read, write and count. In China for thou- 
 sands of years this has been the case ; yet in 
 Europe compulsory education is but a thing 
 of yesterday. In some nations of Europe 
 universal national education is still unknown, 
 and in some cases the proportion of persons 
 
176 
 
 SUX YAT SEX 
 
 who can even now read is bnt abont 30 per- 
 cent. of the population. Althongh not, per- 
 haps, given “ school-board teaching ” as we 
 know it, yet is the Chinese woman educated 
 in branches of household work which amount 
 to little short of the marvellous in their ex- 
 cellence. In sewing work, in embroideries, in 
 hannonizing of colors in dresses, table- 
 covers, bed-quilts, petticoats, jackets, &c., the 
 Chinese men and women are skilled beyond 
 all other j)eople, and their productions are 
 frequently works of art which have long as- 
 tonished the world by their perfection. 
 
 The position of the woman within the do- 
 main of the household is a superlative one; 
 she rules absolutely, and, just as the dowager 
 empresses have shown themselves capable of 
 dictating terms to the Imperial household and 
 edicts to the Empire, so does a woman hold 
 sway within the jurisdiction of the family. 
 The fact that men, who can afford it, have 
 a plurality of wives must lead to friction, no 
 doubt, at times; yet officially “ Xo. 1 ” — that 
 is, the first wife — rules, and she has a voice 
 in the selection of other wives if there are 
 any. The mother-in-law, however, is the ulti- 
 mate authority in the household. She must 
 be obeyed always and at all times. 
 
 The hesitation of the Chmese women of 
 the better classes as regards coming into the 
 
THINGS CHINESE 
 
 177 
 
 public gaze is an old-time custom observed 
 to the letter. A male visitor seldom sees 
 them, and in the street, when ladies go out, 
 they are ensconced in a chair with the blinds 
 drawn, so that they are completely hidden 
 from view. 
 
 All Chinese ladies are supposed to have 
 small feet ; only women of the laboring classes 
 allow their feet to develop naturally ; but even 
 in a relatively poor household it is an am- 
 bition to bring up one girl of the family at 
 least as a lady,’’ and she accordingly has 
 her feet bound. Mrs. Archibald Little has 
 done a great work in trying to induce the 
 mothers of Chinese girls to give up foot- 
 binding. The men declare they would like 
 to see the custom done away with, but the 
 women insist upon it, and it is owing to them 
 that the children’s feet are distorted. Sun 
 intends, at the earliest possible moment, to 
 legislate against the continuance of this cruel 
 practice. This is no new departure, for ever 
 since the tenth century a.d., when foot-binding 
 is believed to have come into fashion, at- 
 tempts have been made and edicts issued for- 
 bidding foot-binding, but with no very 
 marked result. The Manchu women do not 
 bind their feet ; it is purely a Chinese custom. 
 Children’s feet are commenced to be “ made 
 small ” at a very early age. The first band- 
 
178 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 age is applied so that the outer toes are 
 bent under the sole, whereby in time the big 
 toe is alone seen when looking down upon 
 the upper surface of the foot. Later the 
 second set of bandages are applied, and by 
 these the foot is bent back so that the ball 
 of the big toe well-nigh or actually does touch 
 the heel. These bandages are applied 
 throughout life, and the power of walking is 
 reduced to a minimum. A maid or relative 
 has to be at hand for all but the simplest and 
 shortest movement, in order to keep the small- 
 footed woman from falling. The Chinese 
 argue that the custom of tight-lacing common 
 amongst European women is much more 
 detrimental to the physique than foot-binding 
 in China. The evident answer to these com- 
 ments is, that in China the children’s feet are 
 distorted by the mother before the children 
 can say yea or nay, whereas in Europe the 
 mother tries to prevent the daughter tight- 
 lacing; the girl, in fact, before she tight- 
 laces has attained to years of discretion, and 
 need not do it unless she pleases. Women in 
 all parts of the earth attach importance to 
 the smallness of their feet, and the women 
 of one nation deride those of another, as 
 the French do the English, about the large- 
 ness of their feet. To get the feet to appear 
 small, therefore, boots and shoes are worn 
 
THINGS CHINESE 
 
 179 
 
 by European women of a size and shape to- 
 tally at variance with comfort, and the feet 
 become distorted and misshapen in conse- 
 quence. 
 
 No Chinese woman with small feet ever al- 
 lows her feet to be seen by any one, not even 
 her husband, without the bandages, and sim- 
 ilarly few European women are proud of 
 their bare feet, owing to the fact that they 
 have been distorted in consequence of wear- 
 ing boots or shoes several sizes, it may be, 
 too small. The origin of the idea that small 
 feet are a thing of beauty ” is lost in an- 
 tiquity, but the result is seen to-day in the 
 small feet of Chinese ladies, and in the at- 
 tempts to make the feet look small at all 
 hazards in Europe. Some say the distortion 
 of the foot is done in China to prevent the 
 women running away from their husbands 
 or straying far from their homes at any 
 time; others uphold them for aesthetic rea- 
 sons, because the small-footed woman cannot 
 stand without swaying about, and she ap- 
 pears thereby more graceful — a waving 
 
 golden lily.” Why it is done in Europe is a 
 mere relic of barbarism, but it is a custom 
 w^hich there would appear to be no sign of 
 disappearing from amongst us. The ^ ^ small- 
 footed ” woman in China, the small- 
 booted ” woman in Europe, will be with us 
 
180 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 for many days, in spite of all efforts to uproot 
 the evil. 
 
 Kecently in China, chiefly through the in- 
 fluence and work of missionaries, Chinese 
 girls are being taught to read and write. In 
 several places they are being educated as 
 doctors, and the fact that one can see many 
 girls attending a medical course at Canton 
 is a proof of the movement going on. A few 
 Chinese women have found their way to the 
 British Isles for the purpose of education. 
 One of the most notable is Eonan-Woo (Mrs. 
 Chang), who has just returned to China after 
 attending the classes in the University of 
 Aberdeen. Mrs. Chang is a niece of Yuan- 
 Shih-Kai, and has done much to hasten re- 
 form in China. Yuan was the adopted son 
 of her grandfather, and Yuan and her father 
 were brought up as brothers together. Her 
 grandfather was General MToo, who fought 
 in the Taiping Eebellion on the side of the 
 Manchus ; her father was a magistrate, an ad- 
 vanced reformer, who persistently advocated 
 change in education and politics for China. 
 Yuan-Shih-Kai and his (foster) brother 
 agreed that reform was necessary, but they 
 differed in one point, as Yuan was always in 
 favor of retaining the Manchus or the pre- 
 dominance of a sovereign, whilst Woo was in 
 favor of a republic. So infatuated did Woo 
 
THINGS CHINESE 
 
 181 
 
 become with the story of the French Eevo- 
 lution that he named one daughter Joan of 
 Arc and the other after Madame Roland. At 
 fifteen years of age Mrs. Chang had read 
 Carlyle, Stuart Mill, and Spencer. She went 
 to Japan, where she met Sun Yat Sen and 
 became his firm adherent. Mrs. Chang pub- 
 lished a pamphlet styled the ‘ ‘ Liberty Bell, ’ ^ 
 which had a wide circulation in the Flowery 
 Kingdom. Her uncle. Yuan, wanted Mrs. 
 Chang to take up teaching at Tientsin in the 
 province of Chili, of which he was at the 
 time Viceroy, but she declined. At the Lon- 
 don School of Tropical Medicine Miss Ida 
 Khan, another Chinese lady, studied for a 
 time and showed marked ability. No one 
 who has met either Mrs. Chang or Miss Klian 
 could but be impressed with the verve, the 
 sound common sense, and the general air of 
 capability which characterize both. 
 
 That the women of China are capable of 
 playing an important part in their country’s 
 development is assured; that they will be 
 asked to play a part is certain from Sun’s 
 statements on the subject. Many women have 
 already helped the reformer’s cause, several 
 at the risk of their liberty and even of their 
 lives, whilst some have even donned soldiers’ 
 uniform and fought in the ranks. Sun’s in- 
 tention is to give equal political rights to 
 
182 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 men and women. It will not, however, be 
 universal suffrage, for strict educational tests 
 will be enforced in the case of both men and 
 women claiming the vote ; and, as Mr. Diosy 
 says, it would not be surprising if there were 
 two Ministers of Education appointed, a man 
 and a woman, presiding over the departments 
 of male and female education respectively. 
 
 From earliest days in the history of China 
 education has been of paramount importance. 
 Attaining knowledge is the ‘‘ be-all and the 
 end-all ’’ of the literati, who constitute a very 
 large class of men in China. Theoretically, 
 and largely practically, advancement in Gov- 
 ernment emplo^Tuent is in direct proportion 
 to the amount of knowledge attained. Exam- 
 ination halls are, or rather were, a prominent 
 feature in the capital of every pro’^nnce. As 
 many as 10,000 students would assemble for 
 examination at a provincial capital. These 
 examination halls were permanent buildings. 
 A chamber or cell was assigned to each stu- 
 dent; a high iron railing in front of the 
 chamber door prevented exit or entrance for 
 three days; the candidates took food in bas- 
 kets, and water was placed in buckets outside 
 the railings. Thither the best-trained pupils 
 in the pro\’ince went for competitive exam- 
 inations annually, and after a long and rigid 
 ordeal, carried out under sujDervision, a cer- 
 
THINGS CHINESE 
 
 183 
 
 tain number of the best men were selected to 
 proceed to the capital for competition for 
 high posts in the Civil Service. 
 
 The subject-matter of the examination 
 was the Chinese classics for the most part, 
 and in addition, essays were required and 
 poetry was not forgotten. The actual value 
 of the knowledge requisite to pass these ex- 
 aminations seems to us perhaps worthless, 
 but we must not forget that in our examina- 
 tions for the highest posts in the Empire, 
 namely, the Indian, Home, and Colonial Civil 
 Services, the classics (Greek and Latin), es- 
 says, and a knowledge of English literature 
 are of the first importance. One may ask how 
 the knowledge of Chinese classics could make 
 a man a good viceroy of a province ; but sim- 
 ilarly we may ask ourselves how an intimate 
 knowledge of Latin and Greek can help our 
 young men to deal out justice to a district 
 in India or fit them for the multiplicity of 
 administrative duties they are called upon to 
 perform there. How well these young men 
 manage Indian affairs is one of the marvels 
 of government ; and how well China was ruled 
 through thousands of years by men similarly 
 trained is a matter not to be lightly thought 
 of in the present turmoil. One naturally asks 
 how with an ignorant, .corrupt, and etfete gov- 
 ernment class in China the country was man- 
 
184 
 
 SUX YAT SEX 
 
 aged tlirough all these centuries. The answer 
 is that the people ruled themselves.’’ 
 
 The parental system so keenly upheld and 
 rigidly taught by Confucius is the keynote 
 of organization through the length and 
 breadth of China. For thousands of years 
 the Chinese, as distinct from others of the 
 Mongol race, have been a peaceful people; 
 well bred in the sense of being capable of 
 restraint; loving learning for learning’s sake, 
 and withal possessing a well-ordered civiliza- 
 tion. Etiquette, ceremonial and politeness 
 have been looked upon as the essences of 
 behavior. Eespect for seniors, mindful of 
 what is due to authority, and rendering due 
 honor to parents has been instilled into the 
 very fibre of their being ever since Confucius 
 taught. A people thus trained and educated 
 are easily governed; the government com- 
 mences in the family and all else follows. 
 Xeither the change of dynasties nor the in- 
 roads of barbaric neighbors have altered the 
 character of the Chinese by one jot or tittle, 
 and it will be a bad day for China should 
 these excellent traditions of their race be dis- 
 turbed. 
 
 In the national life of China the school- 
 master plays a conspicuous and important 
 part. Xext to the parents the schoolmaster 
 is held responsible for the children being well 
 
THINGS CHINESE 
 
 185 
 
 brought up. To such a degree is this the 
 case, that should at any time after leaving 
 school a young man misbehave himself the 
 schoolmaster is held largely responsible for 
 the misdemeanor. Although the boy may 
 have left school several years, if he misbe- 
 haved upon the schoolmaster fell a meed of 
 punishment, because he ought to have in- 
 stilled better principles into the boy. Nor 
 did the punishment cease here, for neighbors 
 also suffered. A concrete example of the kind 
 was told me by Dr. Sun Yat Sen himself. A 
 son in an evil moment killed his father, when 
 the punishment inflicted was as follows : Not 
 only was the son beheaded, but also an uncle 
 suffered the death penalty. The schoolmas- 
 ter was exiled for 2,000 miles, and the neigh- 
 bors, occupying the three houses on either 
 side of the murdered man’s dwelling, were 
 condemned to leave their homes and not to 
 take up residence within 1,000 miles of the 
 village in which the murder occurred. A 
 system of government of the kind may at 
 times occasion an injustice to occur, but it 
 has been effectual in keeping order in China. 
 
 The people govern themselves, and good 
 behavior in the community is well-nigh en- 
 sured. That the teacher should be brought 
 into the category of punishment appears, to 
 our ideas, far-fetched, and were it acted upon 
 
186 
 
 SUX YAT SEX 
 
 in Europe would bring home to our school- 
 masters and our teachers of religion that the 
 nature of their teachings has a responsibility 
 which at present they are not supposed to 
 bear. In Britain religious and moral teach- 
 ing is being denounced by the so-called ad- 
 vanced ” directors of public thought. Ac- 
 cording to many, there should be no moral 
 or religious teaching given to the children in 
 our schools ; they should be allowed to choose 
 for themselves when they are old enough to 
 decide. Had the regime operative in China 
 been applied here, our schoolmasters and 
 clergy would be punished if any of their pa- 
 rishioners misbehaved themselves and came 
 within the criminal law of the country. A 
 wholesome doctrine which would serve us 
 well, for were every criminal traced to his na- 
 tive parish, and his clergyman held responsi- 
 ble for his departure from paths of rectitude, 
 it would stir our clergymen to become better 
 acquainted with the daily life of their parish- 
 ioners than they are at present. Apparently 
 the “ advanced thinkers ’’ of to-day would 
 do away with all form of prophylaxis against 
 the “ disease of criminality ” — for it is a dis- 
 ease — and the only thing we do is to treat the 
 disease after it has manifested itself. The 
 preventive measures — the business of the 
 clergy — have been largely removed, and it is 
 
THINGS CHINESE 
 
 187 
 
 only when the signs and symptoms are pro- 
 nounced that the ^ ‘ doctor ’ ’ — in the shape of 
 the policeman — is called in to treat the ail- 
 ment. 
 
 The Chinese system is quite scientific, ours 
 is pure empiricism, a mere tinkering with 
 the disease we call crime. Prevention by 
 moral training is at a discount, restraint is 
 abrogated, to the limbo of ‘‘ old-fashioned- 
 ness,’^ and being sent to prison is often suf- 
 ficient to stamp those who break our laws 
 as heroes, or more often heroines, and the 
 highway to win a martyr ^s crown. With this 
 mode of regulating conduct in China, with 
 every province an independent state, the idea 
 of a republican or federal system of govern- 
 ment is no uprooting of principles. 
 
 The monarchy has long been titular; its 
 withdrawal is nothing more than the eftace- 
 ment of an idol or the heathen figure of a 
 god. The Emperor has long been a mere 
 
 monarchical god,’’ and just as the Chinese 
 treat their war god, their sea god, and the 
 numerous other gods which they set up to be 
 dealt with as we treated witches and wise 
 women — ^propitiating them when it suited us 
 to do so, ridiculing them when we could afford 
 to snap our fingers at them — the passing of 
 the son of Heaven,” or monarchical god, 
 when he misbehaves is no more to the Chi- 
 
188 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 nese than the whipping of one of their house- 
 hold gods when he happens to disappoint 
 them, or even breaking the god in pieces and 
 scattering the fragments of the poor clay 
 image to the winds. Of all people the Chinese 
 are more ready to take up a federal system 
 of government than any other, for they have 
 practically been a republic, tolerating a mon- 
 archical deity in theory, but really proceeding 
 on federal lines for centuries. There is no 
 fear for the future, there are capable men 
 in China by the thousand; potent, grave, 
 and reverend signiors,” fit to rule a province 
 or direct an empire. Let those who cherished 
 the belief that a titular sovereign was neces- 
 sary lay aside their fears, and with all con- 
 fidence lend a hand to help this wonderful 
 people to a better state of government than 
 they have hitherto enjoyed. 
 
 In commerce the Chinese has been a po- 
 tent factor ever since he became known to 
 the Western world. His commercial instinct 
 is acute, his honesty in commercial transac- 
 tions has become proverbial. British bankers 
 in China tell us that in their banks the Chi- 
 nese shrotfs ” and compradors ” have 
 the handling of their dollars, and that in 
 many years of experience no dollar has ever 
 stuck to the shroffs’ or compradors’ palm.” 
 In the early days of commercial transactions 
 
THINGS CHINESE 
 
 189 
 
 between Britain and China, when sailing- 
 ships took a year to come and go between 
 the countries, when there was no possibility 
 of written documents being drawn up and 
 duly signed, and the Chinese merchant’s word 
 was all that the ship captain had to go and 
 come upon, there was no question of duplicity 
 amongst the Chinese, no going back upon 
 their word. When the ship captain returned 
 to England and told his employers that he 
 had made a contract with a Chinese to 
 ship another cargo of tea or silk a twelve- 
 month hence, they naturally asked to see the 
 agreement. Documents, however, there were 
 none, and the employers hesitated to believe 
 the captain as to the trustworthiness of a 
 contract of the kind. They did not Imow the 
 Chinese as the ship captain did, and he con- 
 tentedly undertook the long voyage to China, 
 knowing that the word of the Chinese 
 was as good as his bond, and that the bargain 
 he had made verbally was a secure one. 
 Should the market have gone against the 
 Chinese merchant, he would actually supply 
 the goods at a loss to himself, but the bargain 
 would be faithfully kept. Did the merchant 
 who undertook the contract die in the mean- 
 time, his relatives would be instructed to 
 carry out the transaction even if the family 
 lost thereby. Even with the ^ ‘ foreign devil ’ ’ 
 
190 
 
 SUX YAT SEX 
 
 the bargain was a consecration to be fulfilled 
 to the letter. Xor have the Chinese Govern- 
 ment ever gone back upon their international 
 financial undertakings with Europeans. At 
 the very commencement of the recent out- 
 break of hostilities at Hankow and neighbor- 
 hood, the leaders of the Eeform Party posi- 
 tively stated that they would honor and re- 
 spect all financial undertakings and interna- 
 tional agreements contracted by China up to 
 the time of the commencement of hostilities. 
 
 Every one who knows China and the Chi- 
 nese was conscious that this pronouncement 
 amounted to a bond; an undertaking which 
 would be conscientiously carried out. Yet did 
 the foreign financiers continue to flirt ’’ 
 with the Manchus, and persuaded the Press 
 that the Manchus, not the reformers, were the 
 winning side. The contemplated loan which 
 was being floated at the time of the outbreak 
 for the benefit of the Manchus was upon the 
 point of being put through,” when wiser 
 counsels prevailed and ad^dsed postpone- 
 ment. Had the loan “ gone through,” Eu- 
 rope would have been £10,000,000 poorer 
 to-day. 
 
 Had it been known that this rising was 
 no ‘ ‘ recurring row, ’ ’ but a universally preva- 
 lent national upheaval, no mere faction or 
 provincial rebellion, but instead a people de- 
 
THINGS CHINESE 
 
 191 
 
 daring its mind, a movement that there was 
 as much chance of stemming as to thwart the 
 tide in its flow, there would have been no 
 attempts to smother its importance in order 
 to get the loan granted to the Manchu Gov- 
 ernment. Evidently none of the financiers 
 were sufficiently informed of the nature of 
 the recent rising, otherwise some of them 
 would have had the courage to grant a loan 
 to the reformers, and not to bolster up the 
 doomed Manchus. 
 
 Those who contemplated advancing the 
 loan in question sought information from 
 their Governments, and from every possible 
 source except the right one, namely, the peo- 
 ple of China. These advisers pinned their 
 faith in the old regime continuing. They 
 clung to Yuan-Shih-Kai as drowning men to a 
 straw until the whole fabric crumbled beneath 
 them and a new China rose from the ruins. 
 Still was Yuan’s the name, the only name 
 
 officialdom ” mentioned in this great up- 
 heaval; it persisted in believing Yuan would 
 be able to ‘‘ save China ” by preserving the 
 monarchy, and continued to lisp the name of 
 a man without power, except that thrust upon 
 him by the reformers, whom officialdom af- 
 fected to despise. 
 
 Affairs have managed Yuan, and not Yuan 
 the affairs; as a diplomat he has long been 
 
192 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 looked upon by tlie Chinese as a failure, but 
 regarded as a great soldier. They attribute, 
 rightly or wrongly, the loss of Korea to his 
 bungling. The death of the late Chinese Em- 
 peror, an ardent advocate for reform, would 
 not have taken place had Yuan not informed 
 the late Dowager Empress Yehonala of what 
 was contemplated. Had Yuan had foresight 
 or a spark of diplomatic genius, not to men- 
 tion patriotism, in his composition, he would 
 never have allowed the late Emperor to have 
 been ‘ ^ removed ’ ’ ; he would have guided him 
 and advised him to keep quiet until nature in 
 due course had called the Dowager Empress 
 away, when he would have been left to rule 
 alone on modern lines, and thereby saved the 
 Manchus from expulsion and preserved a 
 monarchy for China. The Chinese say, “ We 
 may grant respect to Yuan for his position, 
 but he is a product of Manchu rule and can 
 never be accepted whole-heartedly by the 
 Chinese. Sun Yat Sen is loved universally 
 and the people will follow his teaching and 
 principles devotedly. ’ ’ 
 
 Had Sun not been the great man he is, 
 moderate in council, sacrificing everything 
 for his country, with difficulty persuaded 
 from retiring to his native village and taking 
 up life as he began, there would have been 
 disturbances in the foreign relations of China. 
 
THINGS CHINESE 
 
 193 
 
 Sun has, diplomatically, little to thank for- 
 eign nations for, except perhaps France. It 
 was largely by French sympathy that China 
 was allowed to work out her own salvation; 
 and it is this Sun alone thinks of, not of the 
 neglect, the slights, the churlish contempt for 
 him and his doings displayed by authori- 
 ties.’’ Whilst Sun has little to thank for- 
 eigners for, they, on the other hand, have 
 much to thank him for. Their trouble in 
 China arose from the exclusiveness, not of 
 the Chinese people, but of the Manchu rulers. 
 In the times of the Ming (Chinese) rulers 
 the country was open to foreigners for travel, 
 for commerce, for exploiting any new reli- 
 gion without let or hindrance. The masses 
 of the Chinese, under the Manchus, have been 
 taught to hate the foreigner; his presence has 
 been upheld as a constant slight to the dignity 
 of China; and even now were a powerful 
 leader to direct a campaign of expulsion not 
 all the might of Europe could repress it. 
 Japan successfully defied the might ” of 
 Russia, and altered the balance of power in 
 the world. China has many resources and 
 plans of campaign in addition to, and in place 
 of, the power of arms. 
 
 Just now China would seem to be at the 
 mercy of any nation or group of nations; it 
 is well not to count too implicitly on this, but 
 
194 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 to be thankful that the spirit and principles 
 which direct Sun Yat Sen are in the as- 
 cendant, for whilst he has power to guide and 
 advise, there need be no anxiety. The people 
 may prove too strong for Sun to control, when 
 they find their great leader is regarded by 
 foreigners as of no account in the national 
 councils and that Yuan is alone deemed wor- 
 thy of recognition; and the position of for- 
 eigners may become an awkward one. Let- 
 ters from Europeans in high position in 
 China which appeared in the Press in this 
 country were ill-advised, and still further 
 seek to belittle Sun Yat Sen at the expense of 
 Yuan. The newspaper before me now, dated 
 April 8, 1912, has an example of the style 
 of article referred to. After devoting a col- 
 umn to Sun’s intended doings in a sarcastic 
 sense, the writer ends up by asking, I won- 
 der what stout old Yuan-Shih-Kai will have 
 to say in the matter? ” It is sincerely to be 
 hoped that Yuan has the power and capacity 
 his foreign admirers endow him with, and 
 that he will carry out the work in the high 
 position Sun has conferred upon him by re- 
 signing in his favor. 
 
 Even now foreign authorities smile at Sun 
 and his doings; they almost invariably refer 
 to his name apologetically, and any reference 
 to his work or his statements ends up with 
 
THINGS CHINESE 
 
 195 
 
 a slighting remark derogatory to him per- 
 sonally and laudatory to Yuan. It is a fetish, 
 a cult, that one who knows the world quite 
 understands. Sun cannot be bought or sold; 
 he cannot be driven from his purpose; he 
 despises publicity, and remains the same hon- 
 est, simple, bewitching character, although he 
 has tasted of the highest position it is possi- 
 ble to think of. 
 
 Such a man is hopeless from a diplomatic 
 point of view; to financiers he is impossible; 
 he is the stumbling-block of company pro- 
 moters and an incessant vexation to the 
 would-be interviewer. Sun will never be pop- 
 ular with ‘‘ authorities a man without an 
 axe to grind is impossible to deal with in a 
 committee, a council, a parliament, or a cab- 
 inet. His position resembles that of a doc- 
 tor in public atfairs ; he has not only no axe 
 of his own to grind, but he brings forward 
 and supports schemes to improve the health 
 of the community and thereby injures his own 
 practice ; he advocates hygienic schemes 
 which when developed may bring him to want. 
 Such a man, were he not a doctor, would 
 be called a fool ; but the doctor is expected to 
 behave thus. So with Sun Yat Sen; he is a 
 patriot and nothing more, and not all the 
 wiles of financiers or the intrigues of diplo- 
 macy will ever cause him to deviate or make 
 
196 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 him a party politician. It may be his train- 
 ing as a doctor that helped to bring him 
 under the ban, and caused the “ authorities ” 
 on China to pass him by as a negligible quan- 
 tity or an insignificant cipher in China’s 
 councils. 
 
 But if those in high places thus lightly re- 
 gard a man of science, the people as a whole 
 hold him in high esteem, for in no way can 
 a nation be judged as to its position in the 
 scale of civilization better than by a study of 
 the position the art and science of medicine 
 holds within the realm. 
 
 As in other branches of activity, China re- 
 lapsed from an early period of what may 
 justly be regarded as an advanced position 
 amongst nations in the art of medicine, to 
 a state of stagnation which has continued 
 until the present day. 
 
 We have it on fairly good evidence that 
 4,500 years ago the Chinese had an inkling at 
 least of the circulation of the blood; 3,000 
 years ago it is a fact that they performed 
 several operations skilfully and successfully; 
 as long as 2,400 years ago they had systema- 
 tized massage; and an accurate knowledge of 
 mercury as a drug existed a couple of cen- 
 turies before the Christian era; and about the 
 fifth century a.d. serious operations, such as 
 removing tumors from the abdomen, trephin- 
 
Fig. I 
 
 THE PANTAGRAMME, SHOWING THE 
 YANG AND THE YU. THE MALE 
 AND FEMALE ELEMENTS OF CREA- 
 TION, IN THE CENTRE 
 ( See text) 
 
THINGS CHINESE 
 
 197 
 
 ing the skull, &c., were frequently performed. 
 At an early period specialism in medicine 
 and surgery was in an advanced state. 
 There were specialists for diseases of the 
 eye, chest, abdomen, skin, women, children, 
 bone-setters, dentists, pain-killers, bruise- 
 curers, gland doctors, military surgeons, 
 snake-bite curers, masseurs, corn-cutters, 
 midwives, ship surgeons, faith healers, and 
 miscellaneous doctors, in other words, gen- 
 eral practitioners. So specialized, in fact, did 
 the medical art become, that on external doc- 
 tors or surgeons and internal doctors or phy- 
 sicians meeting in consultation over a case 
 of an arrow-wound, the surgeon would nip 
 off the arrow at the point where it protruded 
 from the skin, but the part beneath the skin 
 was left to the internal doctor to deal with. 
 
 Medical practice in course of time became 
 mere adherence to ancient custom, and was 
 completely subordinate to authority and 
 tradition. Any one could set up as a doc- 
 tor;' a coolie, who through injury or laziness 
 gave up manual work, would after a fort- 
 night’s study put up his ‘‘ sign ” and start 
 practice. In the higher grades an apprentice- 
 ship was served before practice was com- 
 menced, and in the highest circle of all a 
 knowledge of the points of the body at which 
 needle puncture could be, and should be, made 
 
198 
 
 SUX YAT SEN 
 
 had to be displayed before the Eoyal Phy- 
 sicians in the capital. Hereditary instinct 
 and inheritance was a passport to recom- 
 mendation for a doctor, and as early as the 
 Chow dynasty the public were warned against 
 swallowing any medicine compounded by a 
 doctor whose family had not been three gen- 
 erations in the medical profession. Chinese 
 medical literature is voluminous, but with it 
 all there is scarcely an item given that can 
 be seized upon on which to found a theory or 
 establish a fact. 
 
 The basis of things mortal finds expression 
 in China in the figure known as the Panta- 
 gramme (Fig. 1). In the centre is the infinite 
 void or universe, divided into two pear- 
 shaped bodies by a double curved line, repre- 
 senting the male and female principle, the 
 Yang and the Yu. Attendant upon these di- 
 agrammatic elements are eight symbols, of 
 which four only have been interpreted. The 
 uppermost, represented by three lines, is the 
 male (Yang) symbol; the lowermost, by six 
 short lines, signifies the female (Yu) prin- 
 ciple; on the extreme right, consisting of a 
 long central line and four attendant lines, is 
 the symbol for Water; and on the extreme 
 left, two lines with two intervening shorter 
 lines indicates Fire. The four intervening 
 sets of lines defied even Confucius to inter- 
 
Female Reservoir 
 
 ]\Iale Reservoir 
 
 SCHEME OF THE CONSTITUTION 
 OE MAN 
 
 (See text) 
 
 
THINGS CHINESE 
 
 199 
 
 pret ; and the fact that not only was the figure 
 in existence in his day, 447 b.c., but that the 
 actual meaning of it had been lost before his 
 time, shows the antiquity of this mythical 
 symbol. The diagram giving ‘‘ the scheme 
 of the constitution of man ” (Fig. 2) indi- 
 cates a further advance in the knowledge of 
 the principles of physiology, although the 
 scheme is altogether incomprehensible to 
 modern observers. The idea seems to be that 
 there are two reservoirs. One, the inner, the 
 female or negative, is represented by the 
 inner circle, in which the ‘‘ influence ’’ passes 
 from No. 1, the Heart, to No. 2, the Lungs, 
 thence to No. 3, the Liver, and on to No. 4, 
 the Spleen, then to No. 5, the Kidney, and 
 finally, as the line indicates, it travels back 
 again to the heart. 
 
 The outer circle represents the male reser- 
 voir, in which A indicates the stomach ; B, the 
 large intestine; C, the ureter or duct from 
 the kidney; D, the gall-bladder, and E the 
 small intestine. ‘ Below is the figure of the 
 Swastika, towards which the outlets of the 
 several organs concerned in the female reser- 
 voir empty, and beneath the Swastika the 
 ducts leading from the organs of the male 
 reservoir find exit. 
 
 The anatomical figure (Fig. 3) represent- 
 ing the position and relation of the different 
 
200 
 
 SUN YAT SEX 
 
 organs of the body according to Chinese con- 
 ception is scarcely in accordance with mod- 
 em research. The heart will be readily rec- 
 ognized by its shape and position; beneath 
 the heart is the diaphragm, the function of 
 which was not regarded as being that of 
 breathing as we have it, but served as a par- 
 tition to keep down the fetid vapors which 
 emanate from the organs of digestion beneath 
 it. The body, in fact, is held to consist of 
 two regions : the part above the diaphragm — 
 the parlor or more genteel portion of the 
 economy; and the parts below — the kitchen 
 or culinary department of the body, and from 
 whence the fetid vapors arise. The more 
 prominent features of the anatomy, such as 
 the brain, the lungs, and windpipe, the gullet, 
 stomach, and intestines, &c., are to be recog- 
 nized by a perusal of the picture, but the dis- 
 tribution of the large vessels connected with 
 the heart and several other items do not fit 
 in with modem anatomy. 
 
 All nations have had their periods of the 
 mythical in the healing art ; and tradition has 
 affected humanity in medicine as in every- 
 thing else ; nor with all our ‘ ‘ liberal ’ ’ educa- 
 tion have we got rid of mysticism and the 
 occult in medicine, and it is not likely we 
 ever shall. In the list of specialists in medi- 
 cine in China in the remote past we find ex- 
 
Fig. 3 
 
 AN ANATOMICAL FIGURE ACCORDING TO 
 CHINESE CONCEPTION 
 
 I. Heart; 2. Liver; 3. Gall Bladder; 4. Lungs; 5. Kidney; 
 6. Stomach; 7. Brain and Spinal Cord; 8 & 9. Intestines; 
 10. Bladder: ii. Windpipe; 12. Intestine; 13 & 14. Outlets. 
 
THINGS CHINESE 
 
 201 
 
 amples in modern reversions to the original 
 type among ourselves. Bone-setters are with 
 ns now, and are a class patronized especially 
 by the football fraternity, who go to their 
 bruise-curers as European women go to 
 Lourdes, or Chinese women to the Brass Mule 
 in Peking. Faith-healers of ancient China 
 are represented amongst us to-day by 
 Shakers, Christian Scientists, Theosophists, 
 or by one of the many beliefs and 
 practices which rise up with persistent 
 regularity under various names, only to 
 disappear before others still more soul- 
 absorbing in their ajJpeal to the degenerates. 
 Let us see to the mote in our own eye before 
 posing and pitying the poor deluded ” Chi- 
 nese for their ways and customs. As we 
 show signs of reversion in many quarters, the 
 Chinese on the other hand are going forward. 
 They are clamoring for education; the mis- 
 sionaries once held at arm^s length are now 
 implored to teach philosophy, geography, his- 
 tory, science, or any department of modern 
 knowledge. A people to whom education is a 
 passion have become aware that the knowl- 
 edge they have been allowed to acquire has 
 been limited to as much of the ritual of Con- 
 fucius and other writers as their Manchu 
 rulers thought tit to let them have. The 
 repetition of these at schools led to nothing, 
 
202 
 
 SUX YAT SEX 
 
 taught them nothing, and left them in ig- 
 norance. Suddenly a new era has dawned, 
 the people are acquiring modern knowledge 
 with avidity, and all prohibitions concern- 
 ing the reading of books from which real 
 knowledge can be acquired are removed. 
 
 Dr. Sun Yat Sen, whilst yet a boy, saw and 
 understood the uselessness and senselessness 
 of education in Chinese schools, and knew 
 full well that an intimate acquaintance with 
 the Chinese classics led to nothing. He 
 longed for instruction in science, and it was 
 this desire that brought him to the medical 
 college in Hong Kong the moment it was 
 opened ; he was the first student and the first 
 graduate. The sciences of botany, chemistry, 
 zoology, &:c., with which all medical teaching 
 commences, opened new worlds to him, and 
 every branch of study served to satisfy this 
 son of intelligent China, a product of several 
 generations of men whose brains had been 
 famished by being deprived of the intellectual 
 food which was their portion before the Man- 
 chus came and whilst yet the Mings held 
 sway. Sun studied medicine as he has 
 studied everything else, ardently. The lib- 
 eral education medicine gives has stood him 
 in good stead; since his energies have been 
 directed to other spheres of activity he has 
 had to study international law, military tac- 
 
THINGS CHINESE 
 
 203 
 
 tics, naval construction, finance in all its de- 
 partments, statecraft, and politics in all its 
 bearings. He bas visited many countries, and 
 studied their institutions and modes of gov- 
 ernment. When residing with us in Lon- 
 don, Sun wasted no moments in gaieties; he 
 was for ever at work, reading books on all 
 subjects which appertained to political, diplo- 
 matic, legal, military, and naval matters; 
 mines and mining, agriculture, cattle-rearing, 
 engineering, political economy, &c., occupied 
 his attention and were studied closely and 
 persistently. The range of his opportuni- 
 ties for acquiring knowledge has been such 
 as few men have ever had, and the result is 
 known to us. Sun Yat Sen is without doubt 
 the man possessed of the widest and most 
 liberal education in China to-day. Learning 
 is the one quality that the Chinese respect 
 above all others, and Sun’s position to-day is 
 due as much perhaps to his learning as to his 
 unselfish patriotism and untiring etforts for 
 his country’s good. 
 
IX 
 
 THE FIGHT WITH OPIUM 
 
 N O account of the Chinese Eevolution 
 can be accepted as complete that does 
 not touch, however lightly, on the ex- 
 traordinary efforts that China has put forth 
 during the last few years to shake herself 
 free from the insidious tyranny of the opium 
 habit — a habit that in no small degree con- 
 tributed to the inhuman inertia and deadly 
 lethargy of spirit which to Westerners seemed 
 to be permanently characteristic of the im- 
 passive Celestial. The story of China’s de- 
 liverance from opium proves the contrary, 
 and is one of the most inspiring that has ever 
 been written of struggling humanity. It has 
 moved even Cabinet Ministers to enthusiasm. 
 Said Mr. Montagu, Under-Secretary of State 
 for India : Few reforms have been so mar- 
 
 vellous in the history of the world as the 
 determined, manful, courageous effort which 
 the Chinese had made and were making to 
 rid themselves of that terrible curse. They 
 had made and were making progress which 
 nobody, not even the Chinese themselves, 
 
 204 
 
OPIUM SMOKERS 
 
THE FIGHT WITH OPIUM 205 
 
 could have prophesied as being possi- 
 ble a few short years ago.’^ This is warm 
 praise, but no stronger than the facts 
 justify, and those who still profess scepticism 
 as to the permanence of the change that has 
 come over China, and who confidently afiirm 
 that the revolution and the Kepublic are alike 
 of mushroom growth, to pass away as swiftly 
 as they came, cannot do better than study 
 this chapter of the history of the unchang- 
 ing East for most clearly does it demon- 
 strate that, once the Celestial has really re- 
 solved on his objective, once his mind is 
 made up about it in earnest, then he brings 
 to bear on its attainment an unsleeping 
 energy that nothing can resist, and that, as 
 some one put it, leaves the world lost in 
 astonishment.’’ 
 
 This has proved to be the case with opium. 
 Five years ago Great Britain negotiated 
 what has been called the ten years’ agree- 
 ment ” with China. Put shortly, its terms 
 were these: We, on behalf of India, under- 
 took to reduce the amount of opium sold in 
 Calcutta on Government account for export 
 to China by 10 per cent, every year until the 
 traffic had finally ceased. There was, of 
 course, an equivalent, indeed a much greater, 
 undertaking on the part of China. She cov- 
 enanted to diminish her own production 
 
206 
 
 SUN YAT SEX 
 
 coterminously with our supplies. Think 
 what this meant! Opium-smoking had be- 
 come the national vice of China, as certainly 
 as alcoholism is ours. The habit had per- 
 meated every class of society. The idea that 
 only the low-grade Chinese indulges in the 
 opium pipe is, of course, fictitious. The busi- 
 ness man, the Court official, the nobles — all 
 were addicted to a habit so deep-rooted as 
 to make its eradication seem almost impos- 
 sible, a habit as common as is tea-drinking 
 here. The Chinese Government said, in ef- 
 fect, that it must cease within ten years. 
 Small wonder that the edict was food for 
 smiles everywhere — except in China. The 
 most determined enemies of the opium traffic 
 thought that the Government were courting 
 disaster by attempting to achieve in a decade 
 what it might take two or three generations 
 to accomplish. Scarcely any one dared to 
 hope for success, and it seemed that China 
 had entered on an impossible task. Quite 
 apart from the fearful hold which the opium 
 habit had gained over hundreds and thou- 
 sands of Chinese, there was another factor 
 which made its eradication most difficult — 
 the loss of revenue to the small farmer, to 
 whom the cultivation of the poppy was a val- 
 uable “ side line.'’ Opium, it must be re- 
 membered, is extremely portable. The 
 
THE FIGHT WITH OPIUM 207 
 
 farmer found it easy to carry to market. He 
 could put the whole product of several fields 
 on his back and sell it readily and profitably. 
 The Government proposed to deprive him 
 of this most welcome addition to his income. 
 More, all officials wffio took opium were to 
 be turned out of Government employ. Opium 
 dens were to be closed and opium-smokers 
 held up to public ridicule. Nearly every one 
 prophesied failure. The very missionaries 
 who had carried on a crusade against opium 
 for years sadly shook their heads. Failure 
 seemed inevitable. 
 
 And then what happened? Travellers re- 
 ported that, whereas opium-smoking was 
 once so common a vice that you could see 
 men puffing a pipe at their own doors, two 
 years after the edict those who smoked, 
 smoked secretly. Lord William Gascoyne- 
 Cecil, in his fascinating book, Changing 
 China,” tells of the extraordinary difference 
 those two years made in the aspect of the land. 
 On his first visit the country, as seen from 
 the railway between Hankow and Harbin, 
 was exquisite with the white and pink crops 
 of poppy, ‘‘ resembling the transformation 
 scene at a variety theatre. ’ ’ But on his next 
 journey every poppy had disappeared. The 
 edict was being enforced I Men were going 
 to the missionaries asking for some cure or 
 
208 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 relief from the terrible suffering that the 
 cessation of the opium habit brought. Others 
 died from the strain. Morphia syringes be- 
 gan to make their appearance, for many 
 sought relief in hypodermic injections. But 
 the elimination of the poppy went on. In 
 Yunnan, the province which formerly had the 
 largest proportion of poppy gi’owth, opium 
 gave way to silk and cotton cultivation. In 
 other districts the production of cereals 
 enormously increased. In Chekiang, the 
 Statistical Secretary stated: It is satis- 
 
 factory to be informed that the decrease in 
 the importation of rice at Ningpo, which 
 amounted to the value of 3,300,000 Hk. taels 
 ($2,500,000), and which by so much reduced 
 the total of native imports, was made good 
 by the produce of lands lately rescued from 
 the poppy in the prefecture of Taichow.” 
 
 In many provinces total prohibition was 
 resorted to, and the punishment that fol- 
 lowed its infraction was death. The success 
 of these repressive measures and the im- 
 mensity of the undertaking of the Chinese 
 Government may be realized by a glance at 
 the extremely interesting map here produced 
 by kind pennission of the Society for the 
 Suppression of the. Opium Trade. ^ 
 
 ^The three sets of figures are (1) the estimates of opium cul- 
 tivation in each province contained in the Report on Opium 
 
THE FIGHT WITH OPIUM 209 
 
 All this was done only at the cost of im- 
 mense pecuniary sacrifice. India has, so far, 
 actually gained by the diminution in the 
 growth. For, so far as she is concerned, 
 the only reasonable computation proceeds on 
 the average receipts before the recent agree- 
 ment was made. On that basis the net annual 
 revenue from opium sent to China amounted 
 to £2,489,000, and the first year’s loss to the 
 Indian revenue should have amounted to 
 £248,900, and in three years to thrice that 
 sum, viz., £746,700. Indeed, it was under- 
 stood that the Indian Government, looking 
 forward to the gradual reduction during ten 
 years, calculated on eleven or twelve millions 
 sterling as likely to be China’s contribution 
 to India’s opium revenue before the trade 
 was abolished. Whilst, according to the most 
 reasonable computation, India’s revenue 
 from opium sent to China should, during 
 those first three years of the agree- 
 ment, have been £1,991,200, £1,742,300, and 
 £1,493,400 respectively, the result has been 
 far otherwise. Instead of steadily diminish- 
 
 in China, prepared at the British Legation in Peking in 1907, 
 and published in the official White Paper, China, No. 1 
 (1908) ; (2) and (3), the estimates of opium cultivation in 1906 
 and 1908, presented to the Shanghai Opium Commission by 
 the Chinese delegation. Since then, further great reductions 
 have been made. 
 
210 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 ing, her revenue from opium sent to China 
 has been largely increased as follows : — 
 
 Total Opium 
 Receipts 
 
 1908 - 09 £ 4 , 648,700 
 
 1909 - 10 4 , 418,200 
 
 1910 - 11 6 , 460,000 
 
 From China 
 £ 3 , 867,700 
 3 , 637,200 
 5 , 697,000 
 
 That is to say, that the Indian Treasury, in- 
 stead of receiving as the result of the first 
 three years of the agreement the sum of 
 £5,226,900, has actually received the sum of 
 £13,183,900, or something like two millions 
 sterling beyond her reasonable hope for the 
 whole ten years. Indeed, India’s revenue 
 from opium sent to China this last year is 
 far greater than in any year for a long time 
 past. The sales have diminished by 15,300 
 chests, and yet the revenue has enormously 
 increased. Whence has the increase cornel 
 The explanation is only too easy. The dimi- 
 nution of China ’s output by seven and a half 
 tenths has raised the price of Indian opium 
 along the coast of China to an enormous de- 
 gree. In a multitude of places there is now 
 not a grain of Chinese opium to be had, and 
 the wealthier confirmed smokers are ready 
 to pay 300 to 500 per cent, for the Indian 
 drug to relieve their horrible craving. 
 China’s eagerness to be rid of the national 
 
THE FIGHT WITH OPIUM 211 
 
 curse is being paid for at a ransom price. 
 And lest any should say that these high 
 prices for Indian opium are just the fluctua- 
 tions of the market, we have only to note the 
 
 MAP TO SHOW WHAT CHINA HAS DONE 
 
 MAP OF OPIUM PRODUCTION. IN_CHINA., 
 
 extraordinary efforts made by the holders of 
 opium for other countries to bring that opium 
 to China, efforts that are entirely opposed 
 to the spirit of the agreement. 
 
 Let us look now more nearly at China’s 
 
212 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 pecuniary sacrifice over against India’s gain. 
 India computed her ovm normal loss at 
 £248,900 a year, or in the three years £746,- 
 7 00. And the two elements involved in China ’s 
 loss are (1) all the surplus that India has 
 gained in these three years, amounting in all 
 to £7,957,000, and (2) whatever may be esti- 
 mated as the value of the opium relinquished 
 for the sake of the national welfare. She 
 has given up, not 15,300 chests, like India, 
 but 438,800 chests, and computing this 
 for a moment at what was the Indian 
 opium price at the beginning of the 
 agreement, we find that it amounts to 
 £746,000 (India’s loss on 15,300 chests) 
 
 X 28 . (^38,000) £20,888,000; and 
 
 (15,300) ’ > . » 
 
 adding the two items together we have 
 the enormous sacrifice of £28,845,000. It 
 may be said that this is putting the value of 
 Chinese opium at too high a rate, but if we 
 take five millions sterling from it we still 
 have the enormous sum of over £23,845,000.^ 
 No one can doubt that China will recover 
 these lost millions. But who will deny that 
 their sacrifice, at a moment in her history 
 
 ^ For this analysis of the financial aspects of the question, 
 and for the figures given in support thereof, the authors are 
 indebted to Dr. Maxwell, the Chairman of the Board of the 
 British Anti-Opium Societies. 
 
THE FIGHT WITH OPIUM 213 
 
 when she needed money more than ever be- 
 fore, when in fact her exchequer was drained, 
 does not prove her grim earnestness? 
 Surely the time has passed for despising a 
 people with such vast reserves of energy, 
 such unconquerable resolution. Enfeebled 
 and corrupt China may have been. Not so 
 now. She has crushed the poppy beneath her 
 feet and at last she is aroused. 
 
X 
 
 THE FUTURE OF CHIXA 
 
 W LIT is to be tbe future of China! 
 
 On what lines will the great Re- 
 public of the East develop! Will 
 she retain any, and which, of the characteris- 
 tics that marked the Celestial Empire — that 
 Empire which for centuries seemed imper- 
 vious to change? Now that at last change 
 has come, what will be the consequences! — 
 first, upon the situation in the Far East; 
 then upon the world at large — the world that, 
 accustomed to discount China as a supine 
 giant whom nothing could rouse, now has to 
 realize that her awakening liberates a force, 
 strange and incalculable, that must be reck- 
 oned with. 
 
 These questions are of profound, of far- 
 reaching importance. No one who has tried 
 to realize the stupendous industrial and com- 
 mercial possibilities that hinge upon the 
 opening of China; no one who has even 
 faintly comprehended all that a Yellow Peril 
 might mean to Europe, can fail to grasp 
 their significance, for upon them, or rather 
 
 214 
 
THE FUTURE OF CHINA 215 
 
 upon the answers of history during the next 
 half-century, it may well be that the whole 
 fabric of our civilization depends. To try 
 and anticipate history would be foolish in- 
 deed. Prophecy, we know, is ever the most 
 gratuitous form of error. But from the many 
 perplexities of the situation at least one or 
 two cardinal facts stand clearly out — facts 
 that properly considered may serve in some 
 measure as pointers for the future. They 
 indicate unmistakably in what respects the 
 new China will, and must, differ from the 
 Empire that has gone by for ever. 
 
 First, then, between the old China and the 
 new there is one great gulf fixed. The 
 Chinese of yore, he whose neck was bowed 
 beneath the yoke of the Mongol or the Man- 
 chu (foreigners both), was taught to despise 
 the soldier, and despise him he did. Learn- 
 ing, scholarship, these he revered, even when 
 they were wholly divorced from the realities 
 of life and given over to the memorizing of 
 dead classics. But the soldier, the man who 
 went down fighting against odds for his 
 country, was akin to the barbarian, at best a 
 necessary evil. A Chinese writer explains 
 this inferiority thus: ‘‘ First, he says, 
 
 ‘‘ comes the scholar: because his mind is su- 
 perior to wealth, and it is the intellect that 
 distinguishes man above the lower order of 
 
216 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 beings and enables him to find food and rai- 
 ment and shelter for himself and for other 
 creatures. Second, the farmer: because the 
 mind cannot act without the body, and the 
 body cannot exist without food, so that farm- 
 ing is essential to the existence of man, es- 
 pecially in civilized society. Third, the me- 
 chanic: because, next to food, shelter is a 
 necessity, and the man who builds a house 
 comes next in honor to the man who provides 
 food. Fourth, the tradesman: because, as 
 society increases and its wants are multi- 
 plied, men to carry on exchange and barter 
 become a necessity, and so the merchant 
 comes into existence. His occupation — 
 ‘ shaving ^ both sides, the producer and the 
 consumer — tempts him to act dishonestly, 
 hence his low grade. Fifth, the soldier 
 stands last and lowest in the list, because his 
 business is to destroy and not to build up 
 society. He consumes what others produce, 
 but produces nothing himself that can bene- 
 fit mankind. He is, perhaps, a necessary 
 evil. ’ ’ 
 
 All this the Eevolution has changed. 
 Never again will the Chinese despise the 
 profession of arms or seek to degrade valor. 
 It was from no mere accident, but by a de- 
 liberate act of great significance, that Sun 
 Yat Sen inspected the Chinese Fleet the day 
 
THE FUTUEE OP CHINA 217 
 
 following his selection as President of the 
 Provisional Eepnblic. Again, almost the 
 first proclamation that Republic issued was 
 to call for a conscript army. The fact is that 
 China has had hammered into her the old les- 
 son that a country can know nothing of real 
 dignity, let alone security or peace, unless 
 she is prepared to fight for them with her 
 o^vn right arm, and that scholar, farmer, 
 tradesman, and merchant alike, all are de- 
 pendent on the soldier for freedom to follow 
 their avocations. During the past few years, 
 the proud Celestial has had heaped upon his 
 head humiliation after humiliation from 
 hands he despised. Consider for a moment 
 how the events of the past decade and a 
 half must have appeared to him. 
 
 First came the challenge to his suzerainty 
 over Korea. Then followed the war with 
 the Japanese — China’s pupils till recently — 
 whose claims were regarded with amused 
 contempt, and by whom the Chinese were so 
 soundly thrashed that they had to appeal to 
 the European Powers to protect their terri- 
 tory. Their pride was soon to sustain a 
 deeper wound. Two German missionaries 
 were murdered by a mob of fanatics. Noth- 
 ing would placate the inexorable German but 
 a part of the Celestial Empire itself, and 
 Kiao-chou was ceded. Then came the Boxer 
 
218 
 
 SUN YAT SEX 
 
 Eising and the terrible vengeance exacted by 
 the Powers for the outrages committed — the 
 sack of the capital, the loot of cities, the dis- 
 honor of women as the allied troops passed 
 through the country burning, devastating, 
 pillaging. 
 
 Yet their cup of humiliation was not full, 
 for the Eusso- Japanese War broke out — to 
 be fought not in Korea, not in Eussian, not 
 in Japanese territory, but in Manchuria, 
 which belonged to China, with whom neither 
 combatant was at war — an unmistakable in- 
 dication to the world at large that the Celes- 
 tial Empire had ceased to count! 
 
 Small wonder that these things should 
 have burnt themselves into the soul of the 
 Chinese, and that even before the Eevolution 
 he should have set about the task of reorgan- 
 izing his army in earnest. Is there no 
 higher power than that? ” asks the highly 
 cultured young lady in Major Barbara,” 
 pointing to a shell. “ Yes,” is the answer; 
 “ but that power — the shell — can destroy the 
 higher powers as a tiger can kill a man. 
 Therefore it is necessary that man must mas- 
 ter that power first.” And in some such 
 spirit the Chinese realizes that the culture 
 of his beloved literati and the revered tombs 
 of his ancestors will not be proof of them- 
 selves against the invading foreigner. We 
 
THE FUTURE OF CHINA 219 
 
 may take it, then, that the first essential dif- 
 ference between the China of to-day and the 
 defunct Empire is that the Republic will 
 strive to become a great military power. 
 
 Already English and American officers are 
 on their way to train the revolutionaries, al- 
 ready the latest type of quick-firing guns 
 have been despatched to the Republican Gov- 
 ernment. Consider for a moment what a 
 prospect this opens up ! China has a popu- 
 lation four hundred million strong. Once 
 her people become proficient in the use of 
 arms, she can face fearful losses in battle 
 with comparative equanimity — losses that 
 would stagger any combination of European 
 Powers. It may be said, it is still widely 
 believed, that the Chinese cannot be got to 
 fight, that he is at heart a coward, and that 
 he will never stand punishment like Euro- 
 pean troops. Facts do not support this 
 theory! Those who have seen the Chi- 
 nese in action under competent leaders speak 
 of him as a magnificent soldier. Lord Elgin 
 praised most highly the Tartar cavalry. 
 Gordon often could not find words to ex- 
 press his admiration of his own Chinese 
 troops, and his diary teems with tributes 
 both to their bravery and to that of the rebels 
 he was fighting. Of one battle, he said that 
 never in his experience of the Crimea had 
 
220 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 he witnessed anything like the hand-to-hand 
 fighting for fierceness and determination; 
 and when we recall some of the battles of 
 the Crimea this praise ought to be conclusive 
 as to the mettle and endurance of the Chinese 
 soldier. The English officers who com- 
 manded the Wei-Hai-Wei regiments and 
 those who led the Chinese volunteers at the 
 siege of Peking spoke as warmly, as Gor- 
 don, and it is reported (so says Lord Gas- 
 coyne-Cecil in his ‘‘ Changing China that 
 the Chinese soldiers at the siege of Tientsin 
 would carry the wounded out of the range 
 of fire when no European was forthcoming 
 for the task. 
 
 The fact is that the almost open contempt 
 of the Chinese for soldiering has misled 
 European observers into thinking him a 
 skulker and a runaway. But the battlefield 
 proves the contrar^^ The contempt was only 
 part and parcel of a general mental attitude 
 — an attitude that has passed completely 
 away. Says Mr. Putnam M^eale in his book 
 “ The Struggle Pound the Far East 
 ‘ ‘ The general military organization in China 
 is now undoubtedly far better than it has 
 ever been before. At such places as Kiu 
 Kiang, Soochow, and Foochow, the writer 
 has recently seen battalion after battalion 
 (each the nucleus of a future divisional or- 
 
THE FUTURE OF CHINA 221 
 
 ganization) turn out, relatively speaking, 
 well clotked, well armed, and exceedingly 
 well drilled.’^ The same authority quotes a 
 secret memorandum setting forth the details 
 of the Chinese Army, according to which, 
 just before the great autumn manoeuvres 
 of 1906, provision had been made for the 
 creation of 18 major units or divisions, 
 divided up on the Japanese-German brigade 
 and regimental system, and therefore com- 
 prising 36 infantry brigades, or 72 regiments 
 (making a total of 216 infantry battalions, 
 72 squadrons of cavalry, and 152 batteries 
 of artillery). Of these corps ten divisions 
 were almost complete before the end of 1906, 
 while eight divisions consisted merely of 
 skeleton corps. 
 
 Shortly after the memorandum was 
 drawn up, the organization of an additional 
 division was begun in North China by Yuan- 
 Shih-Kai, making the seventh division in 
 North China; while the Canton division, sev- 
 eral battalions of which have already been 
 recruited, was also comprised in the general 
 scheme, being designated No. 20, and was or- 
 dered to bring the skeleton regiments up to 
 full strength as quickly as possible. Further, 
 the transfer of troops to Manchuria began 
 on a big scale in April, 1907, and will now 
 be followed by the creation of new corps. 
 
222 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 Probably four divisions will at first be de- 
 tailed for duty in Manchuria; and it may 
 therefore be assumed that the immediate 
 work of Lu Chun Pu, Minister of War, will 
 be the completion of an army of twenty-four 
 divisions, which will number some 300,000 
 men of all arms on a peace footing, and which 
 will possess, when the artillery parks have 
 been fully organized, no less than 1,216 field 
 and mountain guns.’^ 
 
 This may be taken as indicating the maxi- 
 mum of China’s immediate military re- 
 sources. But it is of value for the moment 
 only. Nothing is more certain than that the 
 Eepublicans intend to organize the military 
 resources of China on a vast scale and under 
 the most efficient guidance they can secure. 
 
 What will be the effect of this new force 
 upon the balance of power in the Far East? 
 How far will it menace the hold on China 
 that the Powers have secured? Will it, for 
 mstance, ultimately mean notice to quit to 
 Europe? 
 
 Ultimately, it may. At present there is 
 no possibility of such an event. But in other 
 directions the army that China can now mus- 
 ter will almost certainly lead to far-reaching 
 consequences. For instance, as Mr. Putnam 
 Weale truly points out, if China can create 
 a force strong enough to convince the occu- 
 
OUTIJNE SKCTION MAI’ ()K CKINX 
 AND TIIK TKKKITOKV S U Iv K( )IT N I ) IN( ; IT 
 
I 
 
THE FUTURE OF CHINA 223 
 
 pants of Manchuria that she is in a position 
 to resume the complete mastery of her out- 
 lying territories, ‘ ‘ a new series of evacuation 
 treaties may have to be prepared.” It is 
 scarcely credible that a demand for these 
 treaties would lead to any difficulties that 
 statesmanship cannot surmount. The day 
 has passed when the Powers found Chinese 
 diplomacy impossible. Indeed, if there be 
 one result of the Revolution more certain 
 than another, it is that the relations between 
 China and Europe have entered definitely 
 upon a new chapter, free from the irritating 
 absurdities, the suspicions and hostilities of 
 the past and to be characterized by candor 
 and cordiality. The Refonn Party in China 
 look to Europe for help and encouragement 
 in their task of reconstructing a mighty na- 
 tion, and once their aims are appreciated 
 they will not look in vain. One cloud there 
 is on the horizon, however, no bigger than a 
 man’s hand. In one of his most recent 
 speeches in Canton, Sun Yat Sen referred 
 very briefly to an old controversy — that 
 touching the question of extra-territoriality 
 — and as it is practically certain that more, 
 much more, will be heard of the matter, it 
 may be as well to state shortly in what the 
 difference consists. 
 
 The facts are these. When, in 1842, the 
 
224 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 Chinese had been hopelessly defeated by 
 Britain, they signed the famous treaty of 
 Nanking. This provided for the compulsory 
 cession of the Island of Hong-Kong, the 
 opening of not only Canton but Amoy, Foo- 
 chow, Shanghai, and Ning^DO as treaty ports, 
 the location of a British Consul in each port, 
 and, most necessary but most humiliating of 
 all to China, the recognition of the extra- 
 territorial rights of all foreigners, so that 
 no matter what their crime, they could not 
 be tried by Chinese courts, but only by their 
 own Consuls. This treaty contributed so 
 much to the opening of China that Dr. S. 
 Wells Williams characterized it as ‘‘ one of 
 the turning-points in the history of mankind, 
 involving the welfare of all nations in its 
 wide-reaching consequences.’^ That may 
 have been the case. 
 
 None the less the Chinese have always 
 bitterly resented its terms. In fact, these 
 extra-territorial rights are one of the chief 
 sources of irritation against foreigners, for 
 they not only imply contempt for China, 
 but make foreigners a privileged class. Said 
 Minister Wen Hsiang in 1868: Take away 
 
 your extra-territorial clause, and merchant 
 and missionary may settle anywhere and 
 everywhere. But retain it, and we must do 
 our best to confine you and our trouble to 
 
THE FUTUEE OF CHINA 225 
 
 the treaty ports. Unfortunately this is a 
 cause of resentment that Western nations 
 cannot immediately remove. While we can 
 understand the resentment of the Chinese 
 magistrates as they see their methods dis- 
 credited by the foreigner, it would not do to 
 subject Europeans and Americans to Chinese 
 legal procedure. The answer of Mr. Wade, 
 the British Minister, still applies: — 
 
 Experience has shown that in many cases 
 the latter (i.e., the law of China) will con- 
 demn a prisoner to death, where the law of 
 England would be satisfied with a penalty 
 far less severe, if, indeed, it were possible 
 to punish the man at all. It is to be de- 
 plored that misunderstandings should arise 
 from a difference in our codes, but I see no 
 remedy for this until China shall see fit to 
 revise the process of investigation now com- 
 mon in her courts. So long as evidence is 
 wrung from witnesses by torture, it is 
 scarcely possible for the authorities of a for- 
 eign Power to associate themselves with 
 those of China in the trial of a criminal case ; 
 and unless the authorities of both nation- 
 alities are present, there will always be a 
 suspicion of unfairness on one side or the 
 other. This difficulty surmounted, there 
 would be none in the way of providing a code 
 of laws to affect mixed cases ; none, certainly. 
 
226 
 
 SUX YAT SEX 
 
 on the part of England; none, in my belief, 
 either, on the part of any other Power.” 
 
 Meantime, as the Hon. Frederick Low, 
 United States Minister at Peking, wrote to 
 the State Department at Washington, March 
 20, 1871: ‘‘ The dictates of humanity will 
 
 not permit the renunciation of the right for 
 all foreigners that they shall be governed 
 and punished by their o^vn laws.” 
 
 There can be no doubt whatever that so 
 long as the corrupt and' degrading system of 
 justice that characterized the Manchu regime 
 persisted, it was not possible for civilized 
 countries to adopt any other attitude than 
 that of rigid insistence on their extra-terri- 
 torial rights. The old Chinese criminal code 
 differs so widely from our ovm, it is, accord- 
 ing to Western notions, so capricious and in- 
 explicable, that obviously Europeans would 
 not live under its harsh and antiquated pro- 
 visions. But now the question arises, or it 
 will soon arise, as to whether this attitude 
 does not properly belong to ancient history, 
 for in the recasting of Chinese institutions 
 none, it is certain, will be reformed more 
 drastically than the judiciary. The day of 
 the corrupt and impossible mandarins is 
 over. 
 
 Who will take their place? Students and 
 lawyers, trained^ not only in Chinese uni- 
 
THE FUTUEE OF CHINA 227 
 
 versities, but at Western seats of learning — 
 men who have taken their degrees at Oxford 
 and Cambridge, at Harvard and Berlin, and 
 who will administer laws based not upon 
 obscure customs, and drafted centuries ago, 
 but passed in a Parliament representative 
 of modern China and with the experience of 
 the world to guide its deliberations. We 
 must not forget that perhaps the greatest 
 triumph achieved by Sun Yat Sen and his 
 colleagues has been that while they have 
 carried on, under the extraordinary circum- 
 stances we have described, an incessant war- 
 fare with the Manchu despotism, they have 
 never lost sight of the fact that a day would 
 come when it would be absolutely necessary 
 for them to set about the work of reconstruc- 
 tion, and accordingly, as the impending col- 
 lapse of the old regime became more and 
 more apparent. Sun Yat Sen succeeded in 
 persuading the rich and influential among his 
 supporters to send the brightest spirits of 
 the younger generation to be educated out- 
 side China. There is something decidedly 
 impressive in the quiet confidence and 
 strength of a leader who, as he directs the 
 pulling dowm of a doomed edifice, takes steps 
 to raise another in its place, and the pre- 
 science of the man who has for twenty years 
 directed operations against the Manchu des- 
 
228 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 potism will be in nothing more apparent than 
 this : that now the crash has come he has his 
 men ready for all the positions of trust and 
 danger on whose fitness the State must de- 
 pend. This is true of the Army, of the Na^^, 
 of the Magistracy, and it is certain that, with 
 a reconstituted bench, whose personnel is un- 
 exceptional, administering a modern and 
 scientific system of law, the Republic will 
 press on the Powers the demand for the 
 abrogation of these extra-territorial treaties. 
 China, when weak and decadent, accepted 
 them only under pressure. China conscious 
 of her own immense reserves of strength is 
 not in the least likely to suffer them a day 
 longer than she can help. 
 
 How will China enforce this demand? 
 She can bring to bear on Europe a most pow- 
 erful, albeit indirect influence — the influence 
 of trade. The great objection to the Man- 
 chu dynasty outside China was that it ham- 
 pered commerce at almost every turn. It 
 needed not one, but many wars to get Euro- 
 pean business men ordinary commercial 
 facilities, and, as we have seen, the indus- 
 trial resources of the country have not yet 
 begun to be developed. It will be the policy 
 of the Republican Government, not to con- 
 tinually restrict and harass trade, but, sub- 
 ject to certain conditions, to facilitate by all 
 
THE FUTUEE OF CHINA 229 
 
 means in their power the opening up to the 
 industrial nations of the earth of the great- 
 est market for their goods that the world 
 can atford. 
 
 It is certain, even from the speech of Sun 
 Yat Sen to which we have referred, that the 
 price she will demand for this is the can- 
 cellation, probably under a time limit, of the 
 extra-territorial clauses, giving in return 
 treaties and concessions of infinitely more 
 importance and value. 
 
 For there can be no possible probable 
 shadow of doubt that the revolution in 
 China is to be the precursor of one of the 
 greatest industrial “ booms ’’ that the world 
 has ever seen. Consider first the neglected 
 mineral resources of the Flowery Land. The 
 world has only faintly realized the value of 
 these deposits. Huge reserves of anthracite 
 coal and vast quantities of iron are two of 
 China’s most important assets. Both have 
 been proved : neither has been worked. 
 True, for centuries the Chinese have been 
 busily engaged in working the coal outcrops 
 in Hunan, and in other parts of the Empire. 
 But how? By means of shallow pits and the 
 most rudimentary appliances for dealing 
 with water, which finally overwhelmed them. 
 True, also, that recently numerous attempts 
 have been made upon the part of various 
 
230 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 financial groups to develop the vast deposits 
 of coal on modern lines. 
 
 There was, for instance, the famous Peking 
 Syndicate, formed to exploit the metallifer- 
 ous areas of the two rich provinces of Honan 
 and Shansi, provinces which, according to 
 the scientist traveller, Baron Von Eicht- 
 hofen, contain enough coal and iron to keep 
 the world busy for two thousand years. The 
 23rospects of the syndicate were, therefore, 
 excellent. But what took place? The shares, 
 it is true, went to a premium on the Stock 
 Exchange, but the actual coal and iron raised 
 were a negligible quantity. Disturbed con- 
 ditions prevented any operations until 1902. 
 Then there were difficulties with the Chinese 
 Government, who procrastinated as only Ce- 
 lestials can. 
 
 Finally, so it is alleged, it was discovered 
 that the original contract of the Peking Syn- 
 dicate was defective, inasmuch as the Eng- 
 lish and Chinese texts differed in some essen- 
 tial particulars, and it was, unfortunately, 
 never agreed which text was to be the 
 authoritative one. There have been other 
 syndicates formed with prospects just as al- 
 luring, with histories just as barren of re- 
 sults to every one except the lawyers. It 
 was essential, in fact, to the development of 
 China that a new spirit should animate her 
 
THE FUTURE OF CHINA 231 
 
 Government, that a new faith should quicken 
 the pulse of her people, and the inevitable 
 has happened. Both the Peking Syndicate 
 and the basket method of mining belong to 
 an era that has definitely closed, and the first 
 care of the Republican Government, once it 
 has provided for national defence, will be to 
 organize upon modern lines the development 
 of the national wealth whose neglect was 
 alone sufficient to condemn the Empire. Let 
 us see for a moment what this means to 
 China. ‘‘ While in Teng-Chow-Fu,” says 
 Mr. Brown, we witnessed a pathetic cere- 
 mony. There had been no rain for several 
 weeks. The kaoliang was withering and the 
 farmers could not plant their beans on the 
 ground from which the winter wheat had 
 been cut. The people had become alarmed 
 as the drought continued, and they were 
 parading the streets bearing banners, wear- 
 ing chaplets of withered leaves on their heads 
 to remind the gods that the vegetation was 
 dying, beating drums to attract the atten- 
 tion of the gods, and ever and anon falling 
 on their knees and praying, ‘ 0 Great Dragon, 
 send us rain ! ’ It was pitiful. This country 
 is fertile, but the population is so enormous 
 that, in the absence of any manufacturing or 
 mining, the people even in the most favored 
 seasons live from hand to mouth, and a 
 
232 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 drought means the starvation of multitudes. 
 Obviously a people living almost exclusively 
 on agriculture and disdaining mining .and 
 manufacture must become inured to a stand- 
 ard of living that appears incredibly low to 
 the Westerner, with few comforts and with 
 their very food liable to constant menace. 
 Inevitably the industrial awakening must 
 check this impoverishment of the people. 
 
 Let it be remembered that a direct result 
 of this impoverishment is infanticide, the 
 greatest blot on the Chinese escutcheon, for 
 it should be noted that this horror is preva- 
 lent only where grinding poverty obliterates 
 natural affection. Only in the famine dis- 
 tricts may we read the words “ Girl babies 
 must not be drowned here.’’ 
 
 The effect of the industrial awakening will 
 be felt far outside China. It will provide the 
 European and American exporter with such 
 a market as trader never dreamed of. With 
 the Eepublic China has entered definitely 
 upon a course of commercial development, 
 and we have only to reflect for an instant 
 upon the vastness of her population to real- 
 ize that this way lies an economic revolution 
 such as the world has never seen. No effort 
 will be required on the part of the Chinese 
 to enter industrial life, for which alike their 
 instinctive capacity for craftsmanship and 
 
THE FUTURE OF CHINA 233 
 
 their sense of discipline eminently fit them. 
 
 Once the Chinese finds his standard of 
 life is rising, once his wants increase and 
 multiply so that his consumption becomes 
 considerable, obviously his country will otfer 
 unequalled opportunities for the expansion 
 of trade. Already there are indications that 
 point in this direction. Modern inventions, 
 more varied foods, articles of comfort for- 
 merly unsuspected of the Celestial, these 
 have already made themselves known in 
 China. The peasant is no longer content 
 with the wretched tallow candles and oil 
 lamps ’’ with their wicks floating in cups; 
 he wants kerosene instead of bean oil, and 
 he is learning to buy American lamps, and 
 thus Chinese households are being rescued 
 from the misery of semi-darkness. In Can- 
 ton the narrow streets are brilliant with 
 houses lit with German chandeliers and 
 lamps — cheap perhaps, but infinitely supe- 
 rior to those they have replaced. Not only 
 are new lamps for old demanded, but there 
 is everywhere in China evidence of the live- 
 liest dissatisfaction with the wretched hous- 
 ing conditions, and for the mud roof of a 
 generation ago bright red tiles are being 
 substituted. The impact of Western ideas 
 has created a host of new demands of which 
 Europe is already feeling the benefit. 
 
234 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 The old days when China bought next to 
 nothing from the West are over. At a ban- 
 quet given by the foreign Ministers to the 
 Emperor and Empress Dowager in the 
 famous Summer Palace outside Peking a 
 few years ago, the guests cut York ham with 
 knives from Sheffield, and drank French 
 wines out of German glasses. And not 
 merely the aristocrats and the wealthy, but 
 the people themselves are touched by the 
 new spirit. The children that went naked 
 are being clothed, and already thousands 
 upon thousands of sewing-machines are 
 buzzing in countless Chinese homes. Fathers 
 and mothers are learning to vary the eternal 
 monotony of rice diet.’’ They are learn- 
 ing the superiority of wooden floors to ground 
 encrusted with filth, of good roads to tor- 
 tuous paths through heaps of putrid gar- 
 bage. 
 
 In a word, China is becoming civilized, and 
 as a purchaser of Western goods she will 
 easily outdistance all competitors. The 
 change set in prior to the revolution, which 
 will enormously quicken the pace. 
 
 Cotton and flour mills have been spring- 
 ing up in various parts of the country. Silk 
 filatures fitted with modern plant are every- 
 where on the increase. Small native-owned 
 iron foundries and machine shops with Euro- 
 
THE FUTURE OF CHINA 235 
 
 pean machinery are being established along 
 the coast, river, and rail, and during the 
 decade 1896-1906 — a period that included 
 two wars, several famines, and many spo- 
 radic outbreaks — the net value of the foreign 
 trade of the country increased 80 per cent. — 
 from 366,329,983 taels in 1897 to 646,726,821 
 taels in 1906. 
 
 If these things are done in the green 
 twig, what shall be done in the dry? ’’ Re- 
 member, the above increase was effected in 
 the teeth of the opposition of a Government 
 bent upon hampering trade in every possible 
 respect. The contrary will be the policy of 
 the Republic, whose leaders realize to the 
 full that they are responsible to countless 
 millions whose only escape from abject pov- 
 erty lies in the expansion of trade. And 
 they will seek to extend that trade, first and 
 foremost, by the provision of such a system 
 of railways as will liberate the immense 
 mineral resources of China and make their 
 development a commercial possibility. 
 
 The provision of railways is to China an 
 absolute necessity of her complete industrial 
 awakening. Without them her minerals can- 
 not profitably be worked. There are, it 
 should be borne in mind, no roads to speak 
 of in the interior of China. Ruts have been 
 made by the passing of generations of feet 
 
236 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 and wheels — ruts that are either thick with 
 dust or fathomless with mud. Add to this 
 one other consideration — the bewildering 
 vastness of the territory — and we realize at 
 once the paramount importance of improved 
 transit. What has been done thus far in the 
 direction of providing China with railways? 
 The first railway ever built in China, that 
 laid down in 1875, was, as we have seen, 
 destroyed by the Government. It was six 
 years before it was followed by another at- 
 tempt, a line from the Kaiping coal-mines to 
 Taku, at the mouth of the Fei-ho Eiver and 
 the ocean gateway to the capital. Later this 
 line was extended, and now forms part of the 
 Imperial Eailway, belonging to the Chinese 
 Government, though vfith bonds issued on it 
 to the French and American capitalists who 
 financed its working. It was not till 1895 
 that any concessions to build railways, much 
 worth counting, were granted by the Chinese 
 Government. Then they were issued rapidly, 
 and, according to the Archiv fur EisenhaJin- 
 reisen of Gennany, the total length of the 
 railways in use in China was about 742 miles, 
 an aggregate so trifling as to be ridiculous, 
 while lines of the very greatest importance, 
 whose very construction will require years 
 of constant work, are ‘‘ projected ’’ and re- 
 main so. 
 
“HEADS AND TAILS” 
 
 A Street scene in Shanghai. A festal occasion 
 
THE FUTURE OF CHINA 237 
 
 What lias caused the delay? In part it 
 is due to the inherent defects of the old or- 
 der, the almost endless procrastinations, the 
 interminable delays, the stubborn hostility 
 to foreign syndicates — for all of which and 
 for a hundred other otfences the Manchus 
 are to blame. 
 
 On the other hand, we must recognize that 
 no little blame attaches to the ‘‘ frenzied 
 finance which has used railways in China 
 merely as a bait for unwary speculators, with- 
 out making any serious effort to place them 
 on a sound footing. Worse even than the 
 merely obstructive policy of the Chinese 
 Government has been this : that, as Mr. Put- 
 nam Weale explains, ‘‘ no effective control 
 has been exercised by the Government over 
 the European syndicates, with the result that 
 the whole system of railway building has 
 been bad from first to last.’’ Constructional 
 expenses have too often been made simply 
 enormous so as to allow commissions of in- 
 ordinate size to line the pockets of those 
 who have been successful enough to receive 
 building concessions. In no other part of 
 the world would syndicates have been per- 
 mitted to float loans without first submitting 
 to the Government of the country definite 
 surveys and building tenders, which would 
 afford a check on capital expenditure and 
 
238 
 
 SUX YAT SEX 
 
 make the concessionaires, and not the Gov- 
 ernment, liable for any exjDenditure not ex- 
 pressly specified in the final contracts. In 
 the case of the Shanghai-Xanking Eailway, 
 the original estimates have been exceeded by 
 nearly three-qnarters of a million sterling. 
 
 In this particular case there is a keen dis- 
 pute as to where the blame should be laid, 
 but speaking generally, there can be no pos- 
 sible doubt that the railway development of 
 China has been gidevously retarded, as much 
 by unscrupulous concessionaires as by the 
 supineness of the Chinese Government. It 
 needs no great penetration to discern what 
 the policy of the Eepublican Government will 
 be, for, while on the one hand they will do 
 everything in their power to encourage capi- 
 tal with which to inaugurate a really ade- 
 quate system of railways, yet they will end 
 once for all the system, whereby groups of 
 men and interests, not iDrimarily associated 
 with railway building, come into the market 
 to exploit the Chinese by raising to an 
 absurd figure the capital cost of the railwavs 
 built. 
 
 Eailways, in fact, wiU, after national de- 
 fence, be the first care of the Chinese Execu- 
 tive, which wiU leave no stone unturned, first, 
 to secure the capital for their construction; 
 secondly, to see to it that not a penny is 
 
THE FUTURE OF CHINA 239 
 
 wasted. A stupendous task indeed, but well 
 worth the effort. 
 
 As Mr. Brown says: It would be im- 
 
 possible to describe adequately the far-reach- 
 ing effect upon China and the Chinese of this 
 extension of modern railways. We have an 
 illustration of its meaning in America, where 
 the transcontinental railroads resulted in the 
 amazing development of our western plains 
 and of the Pacific coast. The effect of such 
 a development in China can hardly be over- 
 estimated, for China has more than ten times 
 the population of the trans-Mississippi re- 
 gion, while its territory is vaster and equally 
 rich in mineral resources. As I travelled 
 through the land, it seemed to me that al- 
 most the whole northern part of the Empire 
 was composed of illimitable fields of wheat 
 and millet, and that in the south the millions 
 of paddy plots formed a rice-field of con- 
 tinental proportions. Hidden away in 
 China’s mountains and underlying her bound- 
 less plateaus are immense deposits of coal 
 and iron; while above any other country on 
 the globe, China has the labor for the de- 
 velopment of agriculture and manufacture. 
 Think of the influence, not only upon the 
 Chinese but the whole world, when railways 
 not only carry the corn of Hunan to the 
 famine sufferers in Shantung, but when they 
 
240 
 
 SUN YAT SEN 
 
 bring coal, iron, and other products of 
 Chinese soil and industry within reach of 
 steamship lines running to Europe and 
 America. To make all these resources avail- 
 able to the rest of the world, and in turn to 
 introduce among the 426,000,000 of the 
 Chinese the products and inventions of 
 Europe and America, is to bring about an 
 economic transformation of stupendous 
 proportions.’’ 
 
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