^THE ii'liwi'^' SPIRIT THE ORIERr GEORGE WIliJAM KNOX Class X}^^^I6- Book : -jX^ — CopiglitN^ COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. C|)e S>ptttt of tlje £)rtettt Cbornas p. CtotocH & Co, Jl3eto Poth Copyright, 1905, by The Chautauqua Press Copyright, 1906, by Thomas Y. Crowell & Co. Published September, 1906 LIIRARY of CONGRESS Twt Co»iH Rw«ive< SEP 28 (906 CLASS A )(KC., Nn. A, Composition and electrotype plates by D. B. Updike, The Merrymount Press, Boston ContentjS Introductory Page America and the East ix The American Point of View Likeness of the East and West in the needs of their common humanity. Heredity not the explanation of our di£ferences.Ways in which we are indebted to the Orient. Period of separation of the East from the West. Acquaintance of the East a-nd West before separation. Opening of the history of India in our times. Variety of races in the East as great as in the West. Parts of the East to which the present study is restricted. Respects in which the Occident is one in religion. Unity of the West in its literature, law, art and science. Social conditions promot- ing this unity. Great common feature in the Eastern civiliza- tions. Buddhism a bond of union between them. Reasons why it is less influential than Christianity has been in the West. Idea of "personality" as held in the West quite absent from the East. The difference accounted for. By this influence the East has been made lacking in historic interest. Effect upon the masses of the people. The Spirit of the East as expressed by its great men. II The Asiatic Point of View General impression of the East upon the traveller. The Orien- tal's answer in general to our criticism of his forlorn surround- ings. The Oriental's reason for detesting the West. The Orien- tals' comparison of our learning with theirs. Causes for their considering our superiority as physical and material Contrast of their spirit of meditation with ours of restless energy. Their devotion to the ways of their fathers a hindrance to progress. Benefits given by England to India and the attitude of the peo- ple toward them. Difference between Japan's attitude toward the West and that of China and India. Ill Contents III Page India, its People and Customs 73 The great g/eographical divisions of India. The coming of the Mongolians to India, and their place of settlement. Character- istics of the Aryans. Place of their establishment. Destiny of the races displaced by the Aryans. The coming of the Mohamme- dans. Other races in addition to the above. Physical features of India. Their eflFect upon the population. Efforts of the govern- ment to improve conditions. Some of the chief occupations in India. Extent of illiteracy. The part of ornament in the life of the people. The " simple life " illustrated. Marriage and other customs as causes of disastrous financial troubles. Relation of the Brahmans to other Hindus. Place held by the Mohammedan faith. Variety of languages existing in India. Influence of the caste system upon Indian social life. IV India, its Spirit and Problems 109 Difficulty of describing the religious life of India. Some of the superstitions current among the people. Varieties in gods and religious rites. Content of the term Hinduism. The religion of India in its highest development. Conversation between a Chris- tian Brahman and a Hindu in regard to God. Varied forms in which Buddha is believed to have lived. The Indian's delight in extravagances as illustrated by his measure of time. Hindu's conception of karma. Effects of climate and habits of thought upon the life of the people. Ways of improving the physical well-being of the people. The burdensome expense of maintain- ing the British population. Moral effect upon the native of this foreign occupation. Degree of India's self-government. Possible accomplishments of education. The part of Christianity in solv- ing India's problems. V China, its People and Customs 147 Geographical description. Difference from India as regards for- eign conquests. Strong race pride. The time when China led the world in her achievements. Collections of records available to the Chinese scholar. Surface characteristics of a Chinese vil- iv Contents Page lage. Chinese contrasted with the Indians as to variety of race and religion and caste distinctions. The foreigner's difficulty in knowing the Chinese. Respect for learning. IneflFective method of study. The foreigner a barbarian from the Chinese point of view. Foreign judgments of China seldom of value. Etiquette as a barrier to foreign intercourse. Its intricacy illustrated. The Hindu and Chinese conceptions of our ideals. Chinese attitude toward war. Evidences of the industry of the Chinese. China's claims upon our respect. VI China, its Spirit and Problems i8i The family as the unit. Extinction of the family a calamity. The Chinaman not naturaUy an emigrant. Government of villages. Lack of patriotism. Limitations of the power of the emperor. Departments of the government. Prevalence of "graft." Social morality compared with that of Europe. Monotony of Chinese Ufe. Lack of "nerves" illustrated. Disregard of life contrasted with care of the dead. Present condition of Buddhism in China. Chief teachings of Confucianism. The spirit of India and of China contrasted in the nature of their religions. Problems presented by the poverty of China. Insufficiency of the Confucian code for the present nation. Necessity of slow progress in China. VII Japan, its People and Customs 217 Japan compared with other countries in length, area and popu- lation. Physical character. Origin of the Japanese. Changes brought to Japan by Buddhism. Buddhism and the earlier reli- gion of Japan. Its unfavorable influence. Its neutralization by Confucianism.The civilization of Japan as an Asiatic type. Over- coming of the spirit of luxury. A social organization like that of feudal Europe. The development of a different spirit from that of India or China. PrivUeges and limitations of the Japanese farmer. The story of the farmer who sacrificed himself for his fellows. Hardships and pleasures of the peasant. Young farmers become cooUes. Japan Ukened to Italy. Dishonesty of commer- cial life. Peculiar features of domestic service. Elements of kin- ship between nature and man in Japan. Contemg VIII Page Japan, its Spirit and Problems 251 Criticism made of Japan twenty years ago. Study of the West. Contrast presented by Japanese to China and India. Influence of the men of rank in bringing about the changes. Development of the spirit of national loyalty. The story of the " Forty-seven Ronins " as an illustration. The new position of the emperor as embodying the national spirit. The general form of governmen- tal organization. Power of the Satsuma and Choshu clans. Po- litical danger in the influence of the Imperial Diet. Dangers of the new commercial development. Handicap of education. Great moral questions confronting Japan. Kind of ethical ideal needed by the people. IX The New World 283 Significance of the victory of Japan over Russia. India and China not a "yellow peril." Japan unlikely to go to war again. East and West compared. The two forces that gave power to the West. Two reasons why liberty is essential to progress. Japan's sacrifice to secure liberty and truth. Influence of the Russo- Japanese War upon India and China. Doctrine of "Asia for the Asiatics " important for the world. Gifts which the Spirit of the East may have for the West. Bibliography 3x1 mt of %mmati(m$ Page A Chinese Family Frontispiece The Great Mosque at Delhi, India Fadng 14 Seth's Temple, Brindaban, India 28 Mohammedan Mosque, near Bidar, Dec- can, India 60 Tank and Northern Gopuram, Chidamba- ram, India 76 Babatul Temple, Umritsar, India 90 The Kutub Minar, Delhi, India 104 Hindu Funeral Pyres at the Ganges River, Benares, India 122 The Towers of Silence, Bombay, where the Parsee dead are exposed 136 Avery old Chinese University where many famous scholars have studied 148 Temple of Heaven, Peking, where the Em- peror worships 158 Rice Terraces, China 172 A Mixed Court, Chinese and European, at Shanghai 184 A Chinese Funeral Procession 194 !Li0tof3[Ilu0tration0 A Cemetery near Foochow, showing Omega-shaped graves 206 A Coast Scene, Japan 218 Japanese Bhuddist Priests, begging 224 Canal in Tokyo 230 Capitol of the Hokkaido, at Sapporo, North Japan 234 / Japanese Farmers 240 J Peculiar Effect of the Earthquake, Oc- tober 28, 1891 246 Wreck of Cotton Factory, Nagoya, Japan, by the Earthquake of 1891 250 Native Method of spinning Cotton, Japan 254 Geishas dancing at a Shinto Religious Festival 260 Theatrical Performance at a Shinto Reli- gious Festival 268 Japanese Pupils 274 Japanese Women dressing the hair 282 A General Store in Japan 290 A Street in Nagasaki 298 Gateway to the Palace of the Prince,Tokyo 306 gintronuaori? amema anti ti^e €m I HE EVENTS of the last ten years have aroused the American people to a new interest in the affairs of the Far East. The United States has be- come a "world power" in a new sense, and its people know that they cannot longer isolate themselves. Whatever maybe our judgment as to the wisdom of the course pursued, we must accept accomplished facts. Not only have we the great Pacific seaboard, which alone would make Asia of prime impor- tance to us, but we have acquired the Sandwich Islands and the Philippine Archipelago. Thus we seem to have penetrated the Orient and to have numbered ourselves among its peo- ples, so that the coming decades are certain to be filled with questions of the highest and most lasting importance IX 31nttoDuftotp to us and to our Asiatic neighbors. Politics, commerce, science, religion, art, literature, social customs, the eco- nomic situation, are all to be pro- foundly affected. Doubtless within a century our Asiatic relations will be at least as great as our interests in the lands across the Atlantic. Already we face a situation of world- wide importance, for we are attempt- ing a new experiment. European pow- ers have established empires in the East repeatedly, ruling over vast po- pulations by force. Some of these em- pires have been benevolent and some have been greedy and unscrupulous, but in all alike the fundamental prin- ciple has been government by a su- perior race through force. In our Asiatic possessions we are adopting a different course, as the principles of the American nation are government by the people and for the people. We proclaim these principles in our dependencies, and we are at- ametica anD tfie (!Ea0t tempting to introduce universal educa- tion in preparation for their practical application. On every side we are told by experienced observers that this is an impossibility, for the people of the East must be governed, they can- not rule themselves, and that we are trying to graft our ideas upon a stock which cannot receive them. If this be so, not only will our present experi- ment be a failure, but our own politi- cal principles must be modified. In- stead of asserting that government is of the people, by the people and for the people, we shall be obliged to add when the people are of Anglo-Saxon descent. At present, however, we are not convinced by the testimony of these experienced observers, but we are determined to persevere in our experiment. This instance is brought forward merely as an illustration, one out of a long line of instances that might be adduced, showing how grave are the SlntroDuftotp problems before us. In the past we have boldly and crudely attacked our difficulties as they have presented themselves, with a strong confidence in the intellectual vigor and moral in- tegrity of the people. This confidence on the whole has been justified, for our national problems have involved fac- tors with which we were at least mea- surably acquainted. The new situa- tion, however, demands the educat- ing and informing of the people, for the problems to be solved include un- known factors. Nor can we pride our- selves upon our success in dealing with Eastern Asia hitherto, though only re- latively simple questions have pre- sented themselves. It is true that our diplomatic history in the Far East has not been stained by such records as have disgraced the European powers. The story of diplo- macy in China, with the wars which have grown out of it, is one which we can read only with profound shame, xii ametica anD tfte Cast As has been repeatedly pointed out, it has been the papers of the Chinese diplomats which have read like the statements of a Christian power, whereas the papers of Great Britain, France and Germany have ignored not only the teachings of Christ but the fundamental principles of interna- tional morality. No pretext has been too insignificant or too immoral to be made an occasion for aggression. The United States has not thus been in- volved in a tortuous, immoral and ag- gressive diplomacy, but it has none the less profited by all that has been extorted, and time and again its moral support has been given to the cause of the stronger. It has not been, one fears, our superior morality but the less pressing nature of our interests which has made us more reasonable, and, shall I add, more Christian. For when our interests have been directly concerned, we have been not less open to charges of political im- xiii 3[nttoDuaotp morality. We accepted an admission to China which was forced. We initi- ated diplomatic action leading China to seek admission to the sisterhood of nations. We framed treaties for an equality of rights on both sides, then shamelessly we violated our own treat- ies by act of Congress, and passed acts concerning the exclusion of the Chi- nese which remain our lasting dis- grace. It is not argued here that Chi- nese coolies should not have been excluded, but it is merely pointed out that our Congress, under threat of los- ing the labor vote, passed laws of exclusion which violated our sacred treaties. It is also a matter of fact that the same substantial result could have been attained by consultation with the Chinese government and through a modification of the treaties. Our course in this matter was thus not only shame- less but needless. It is not fair to overlook extenuating circumstances. Neither the people of xiv ametica anD tfte (Bast Great Britain nor the people of the United States desired to do an injus- tice to the Chinese, but certain inter- ests, in England those of trade, in America those of labor, were threat- ened, and the people in general were ignorant and therefore indifferent. This again is brought forward merely as an illustration of the kind of pro- blem which awaits solution in the fu- ture. Since government is not only for the people but by the people, ignorance and indifference cannot be pleaded as valid excuses. As the statesman must know the problems before the govern- ment, as the manager of great busi- ness interests must know the condi- tions of his trade, so the American people must understand the problems with which they have to deal. Probably in no other field have such efforts been put forth for the under- standing of Oriental peoples as in that of religion. Missionaries have made the East their adopted home and they XV 31ntroiiuftorp have tried sympathetically to under- stand their neighbors. Such an under- standing is indeed of even greater im- portance to the missionary than to the diplomat or the merchant. He must know and respect the peoples to whom he is to reveal his higher truth. But our new relations to the Orient have led to a twofold criticism of the possi- bility of missionary success. On the one hand, certain critics tell us that the "natives" are too debased for ex- alted Christian truth, and that the Asiatic cannot change his nature more readily than can the leopard his spots. All converts, we are assured, are hypo- crites who desire worldly gain. On the other hand, other critics are telling us that the Asiatics already have reli- gions of such exalted types and ethics so pure that they do not need our teaching in either field. Hence, accord- ing to these writers, it is an imperti- nence for us to carry our religion to Asia. Manifestly we must see with our xvi ametica and tbt €a0t own eyes and understand for our- selves, when such opposed views can be given. The religious world, there- fore, no less than the political and commercial, is interested in a com- pleter understanding of the Far East. This little volume is an attempt to- ward such an understanding. No ob- server can do more than report what appears to him. No student can mas- ter so vast a subject in all its complex- ities. It is only by the cooperation of many that we may hope to come to understand in a measure our topic, and it is necessary to this end that each writer should "... draw the thing as he sees it For the God of things as they are." Reprinted by permission from "The Chautauquan' for September, October and November, 1905 I Cfte ametican point of l^ieto Cl^e awetfcan ^ofnt of a^(etp |H East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet I Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgment Seat." Mr. Kipling thus vigorously expresses the common opinion. Something sep- arates the Oriental from the Occi- dental. It is not merely that our fash- ions are different, the clothes we wear, the houses we dwell in, the food we eat, our ways of play as our methods of work, but that there is a deeper separation in life and spirit. How sel- dom do we understand each other, or either Oriental or Occidental interpret aright the Ufe of the other. A professor in the government college in Luck- now, who had spent years in India and who spoke the vernacular, once said to me, "None of us know these people. We do not understand their purposes nor their feelings. Before the 3 Cfte ©pint of tbe ©riem mutiny the residents supposed they understood them, and they trusted the people as they trusted themselves, and then suddenly, without warning, came the explosion. So now we do not profess to know, but we feel as if living on the thin crust of a volcano." I went out to the cantonments to ser- vice on Sunday and the splendid Brit- ish regiments came to chapel fully armed, bringing their loaded guns into the building. For in the mutiny some troops were caught in church unarmed, and since that time no risks are taken. This is the repulsive side of the con- trast, but it has its charm also. The traveller who has exhausted the re- sources of the West, to whom Amer- ica and Europe are an old story, finds himself in the home of romance when he enters the East. Its unfamiliarity is its charm, and who has wholly es- caped its spell? Poetry, and tales, and art, and mystery have come from the 4 C6e american point of i^ieto East, so that even the sight of the great ships engaged in the Eastern trade has been an inspiration. We love to emphasize the differences as we tire of the commonplace West. Travellers and authors flee to the Orient that their nerves may tingle with its freshness and novelty. "But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth, When two strong men stand face to face though they come from the ends of the earth." So Mr. Kipling continues, and we may ask at least whether the East after all is separated from the West when each seeks to understand the other. Doubtless the Spirit of the East dif- fers from the Spirit of the West, else there would be no occasion for this book, but beneath them both is our common humanity. Deep and wide is our separation, and strange to each other are the two great earth Spirits, and yet all men C6e ©pitit of tt)c ©rient are one. Could we creep for a while into each other's skin and look through each other's consciousness, we should feel at home. The greater part of life is the same for all. We have like bod- ies with their members and their senses, we are subject to the same influences of air and light and dark- ness and earth and sky. We have the same needs for food and drink and sleep and clothes. We alike are social in our being, and the great drama of life, with its beginning and ending, its pains and joys, its loves and hates, is the same for all, so that in no met- aphorical sense, but in the most lit- eral meaning of the words, we are one. If we take a child of English birth and put it in an Eastern environment we shall not be able to distinguish it in mental traits from its comrades and neighbors. I knew a Chinese woman who was taken when an infant by a missionary and educated as his child 6 Cfte amencan Point of Bicto in his home, and none would know from her language, thought, char- acter, or interests that she is not an American born. Or in less favorable circumstances, school-boys have been transformed in a few years so that they were strangers and foreigners in the land of their birth. All of us who have had prolonged experience with Ori- entals can recall such examples. No! It is not anything inherent or by he- redity which separates us, nor can we look in this direction for our explana- tion of the Spirit of the Orient. Besides, are we so different by de* scent? Our students do not knownow- adayswhattomakeofthe word "race." When I went to school we were taught that there were such and such races with well-defined limits and bounda- ries, but scholars now have obliterated the boundaries. We do not know much aboutthe tangled linesof race descent, but we do know that some of our an- cestors long ago came out of Asia, 7 Cfte Spirit of tbeflDtiem while some of their brothers remained in the ancestral home and others went south to India, and others perhaps far east to the Pacific. We also know that wave after wave of Asiatic population has flowed over Europe, until we should be perplexed to define a pure European, or on racial lines to distin- guish East from West. In the beginning of our historic times the differences were not felt as to-day. The Greek hated the barbarian, but he did not distinguish Oriental from Oc- cidental and far down into the Chris- tian era the influence of Asia upon Europe was great. How much we owe to that continent, what stores of phi- losophy and art and religion! How in- deed shall the East be foreign to us, since our Saviour dwelt there and our prophets and sacred books are of it? Our Holy Land is in the Orient, and we cannot understand our scriptures without knowing something of its ge- ography, customs and tongues. An 8 Cfte gmetican l^omt of i^icto Oriental may be excused for not know- ing the Occident, but we show our- selves unintelligent if we confess ig- norance of the source ofsomuch which is of our own inheritance. There was no deep feeling of a con- tinental difference when Alexander made himself an Oriental monarch, nor, long after, when St. Paul to the Greeks became a Greek. Possibly the sense of separation came with the dark ages, when the East was blotted out and forgotten, and Europe developed on independent lines. Not only was there separation, but antagonism, when Moslem was arrayed against Christian, and Europe came to know itself as one because united in arms against the Turk. An impenetrable bar- rier of religion and hatred interposed, and men did not so much as wish to understand their deadly foes. Behind the Mohammedan power, India and China were too far away to be well remembered, so that their rediscovery Cfte Spirit of tbeSDriem at last was like the apparition of a new world. The separation was not complete, it is true, for through the Moors some- thing of enlightenment came to Eu- rope, and missionaries and merchants attempted adventures in the East at infrequent intervals. But the excep- tions did not change the rule, and in- tercommunication was not sufficient to influence the development of the two great sections of humanity along their divergent Unes. It is not surpris- ing that when at last in our own day the two civilizations are brought to- gether they are strange to each other. Let two brothers be separated for a score of years and how unfamiliar they are grown. European and Asiatic were separated for more than forty gene- rations, until religion, traditions, cus- toms, and conceptions of the world all are different. No wonder that we must be reintroduced, and that time is needed before we settle down once 10 Cfte ametican Point of Bieto more into our ancient acquaintance- ship. Besides, even in the old days, the acquaintance in the nature of the case was only partial. None then knew of any save the nearest neighbor, and the strangest things were believed of folks who were really near of place and blood. Only our time of marvels makes "the whole world kin" and re- news on better terms the primitive unity, as at last it is possible for us to know "all kinds and conditions of men." In this modern era an immense a- mount of strength and time has been given to the discovery of the East and to the scientific mastery of its facts. India, for example, is described in the volumes of the Imperial Census with a thoroughness that is admirable. Chi- na has been traversed in all directions, and in such a work as "The Middle Kingdom" we have a better summary of the people and their land than can be found in the Chinese language. Even II CfteSpintoftfteSDrient Tibet has now yielded its mysteries to the invader, while Burmah and Siam are nolongerremoteorunknown. With the same thoroughness the inner life of the people has been studied. It was English and French scholarship which opened the ancient religion of India again to the Hindus, and we under- stand Buddhism better than do the Buddhists. The long series of volumes, "The Sacred Books of the East," is only representative of a small portion of the labor expended upon the inves- tigation of these ancient religious sys- tems which enshrine the faith and hope of so large a part of mankind. Doubtless we do not know the East. There are more worlds to conquer, and in regions already traversed much has been overlooked, much has been misunderstood, so that there are er- rors to be corrected and gaps to be filled up. Nevertheless our claim is valid,— that we have material at hand which makes it possible for the Occi- 12 Cftc American point of Bieto dental to describe the Orient more completely, more justly, and more sympathetically than it has ever been described by its own sons. We have written of "East" and "West" as if these terms stood for well-defined ideas. But we know that the "West" is not one, and we should be hard put to it were we forced to define the word. We are conscious of our differences, and hesitate to class together Englishman, Italian, Hun- garian, Finn, Spaniard, South Ameri- can, Frenchman, German, Russian and American. In what, pray, are we alike and how shall so mixed a multitude be put together over against the Ori- entals? In the East the differences are as great at least. What relationship has the Arab to the Hindu? Can we class together the Turk and the peace- loving, commercial Chinese? How widely separated again are the Ko- reans from their near neighbors, the Japanese? In India itself there is 13 Cl)e@p{rttoftbe©tient a bewildering multitude of peoples and religions, some of them mutually hostile, with a hatred scarcely ri- valled by the hatred of Jew and Rus- sian. We can think of the East as one because we do not know it, as all Chinamen look alike to most Americans, the individual differences being overlooked. But to one famil- iar with the people their differing personalities are as striking as with ourselves. So it is with races. As our knowledge grows, the dissimilarity increases until we come to wonder that we could ever have thought all the dwellers in India to be alike, much less the differing races of the Asiatic continent. It is therefore only in the most vague fashion that we can speak of the "East" as an entity, or set it by way of contrast over against the "West." The "East" used to mean western Asia, the classic lands of our religion and the home of the Mohammedan 14 ■^f C{)e ametican point of Bieto power, with India as a remote back- ground. But in our day there is a vast- er Orient. The Mohammedan lands, including Persia, are only its western frontier; India is its southern centre; while more important than them all are China and Japan in the Far East. Even the term "Far East" becomes a misnomer since the Pacific is the high- way of nations and Japan the nearest neighbor to our Californian ports. We have excluded from this sketch all central and northern Asia, a region of great historic significance and not without enduring influence. But its mere mention here is all that we can give to it, nor is it possible to include the lesser states of southeastern Asia in our survey. And further, we must cut off the older Orient, the true East of the Arabian Nights and the Crusades. We come, therefore, to the two re- maining portions, India and the Far East. Again we are tempted to divide, for how shall we group these together? 15 C6e@pitttDftl)e©tiem After careful consideration we decide to include them both, so that the "East" in this book shall mean India, ChinaandJapan,adistinction arbitrary in its inclusions and in its exclusions, and of use only in a practical and not a scientific way. Let us look over the geography of our field. Asia contains one third of the land surface of the globe, and may be divided along the fortieth degree of latitude. North of it are the great stretches of plains, deserts and low plateaux, to the Arctic Ocean, the rivers running north; while south of it, with some intervening space, are the empires where the people dwell with whom we are to deal. Even in this half, kingdoms must be ignored while we confine ourselves to India, China and Japan. Confine ourselves, did we inadvertently write? How could we write adequately of any of the three in twice our space? But one may comfort himself with the reflec- i6 Cfte American Point of Bieto tion that he has to do only with the "spirit" of the East, and that he may ignore most of its outward form and be freed from statistics and geo- graphy and poUtics, save as they im- mediately affect the soul, and from a multitude of details however interest- ing. The Spirit too can spread over the Himalaya ranges, and cross the seas between China and Japan in a fashion impossible to plodding scien- tific research or to the most rapid globe-trotter. The dictionary tells us that "spirit" means "a peculiar animating and in- spiring principle; genius; that which pervades and tempers the conduct and thought of men, either singly or (es- pecially) in bodies, and characterizes them and their works." So we have the "spirit of the place" or the "spirit of the age." Evidently then there must be a certain unity in diversity, and the unity must be something which is essential if we are to speak of the 17 CfteSpitttoftbe^nent ii spirit" of the East. In what sense can we use the term? What unity pervad- ing and tempering the conduct and thoughts of men can we find? Perhaps we shall be helped if we ask ourselves what we might mean by the "spirit of the Occident." Let us strictly limit the West also, and including in it only the nations which have been closely associated — Italy, France, Germany, England, the United States — possibly we can find some ** genius" which will characterize them all. It is manifestly out of the question to find a "spirit" which shall be alike in all the innumerable multitude which constitute these populations. We know many Americans whom we should not wish regarded as embody- ing the American spirit. When we speak of a representative American we think of some man who stands out preeminent— a Washington, a Franklin, a Lincoln, an Emerson, a Longfellow — and say he is represent- i8 Cfte american point of i^ieto ative and embodies the American spirit. It is related that once a group of Englishmen of letters discussed whom they would choose from all history to represent England were some new planet to open communication with our old earth, and that they decided upon Milton, immortal poet, scholar, statesman, gentleman. Christian. In some such fashion we pick out our re- presentative who embodies the Amer- ican spirit, that is, who incarnates our ideal, and set him forth as the kind of man we would have foreigners and strangers judge us by. It is perhaps impossible to pick out in this fashion the representative Occidental,— the differences are too great,— and therefore we must attack our problem in more indirect fashion. With all our diversity there is a cer- tain unity in the West, of religion, of social organization, of political forms, of history, of art and literature and music and architecture, of education 19 Cbe ©pint of tbe ©tiem and language and blood. With this too is the constant intermingling of our people and our perpetual inter- course in friendship or in rivalry. First we put religion, for this is the most powerful in its influence. When we say God, or heaven, or salvation, or sin, or church, our thoughts are more or less alike, and our diversities are not of race but of individuals, so that we may translate these terms at once into all the languages of the West without danger of being misunder- stood. Behind us is the same great background of religious truth; Israel with its prophets and apostles, the creeds of the early church, the organ- ization of the mediaeval church, the struggles of the Reformation, all be- long to all and produce a true unity in this realm of ultimate reality. So too are we one in our classical heritage; our literature is built upon the foundation of the Greeks, and the great writers of any of the peoples — 20 Cbe ametican Point of i^ietti Dante, Shakespeare, Goethe — are naturalized in all. Political systems dififer, yet the Roman law is the com- mon heritage. The peoples have the same aspirations after liberty, and the political, social and industrial organi- zations are on similar lines, all mov- ing along the same path and with the same end in view. Our art and archi- tecture have the same classic back- ground, the like Gothic and Renais- sance features with the same modern adaptions, for our students study in the same schools and use the same models, and gain in a kindred atmo- sphere the same inspiration. Science too overleaps boundaries and unites its votaries in the great Republic of Truth, so that our universities are cosmopolitan in the true sense, and nationality is regarded neither in stu- dent nor professor. Add to all this the intimate intercourse, the crowds which cross the ocean east and west, and the mingling of blood through in- 21 Cbe@pmtPft{)e©mm termarriages, so that no race is pure or without its tinctures of all the others, and we may well think that the differences are less than the agree- ments, and that Americans, English- men, Germans, Frenchmen and Ital- ians are one, joint heirs to a common heritage, united in a vigorous present, and in the hope of a still more glori- ous future. Surely one might set forth with ease what is the "genius" which constitutes the "spirit" of the West. But with the East how great the difference ! What has India in common with China, or either with Japan? There is no common history nor law nor social organization nor religion,— with Buddhism the only exception, — so that no interracial consciousness is realized. To the vast majority of these populations the thought of one- ness has never occurred, for Asia has never been one in war or peace. Only in our day by the reflex influence of Europe are Orientals coming to recog- 22 Cfte American Pomt of BietP nizea certain solidarity. Howthen can we speak of a "spirit of Asia" at all as distinguished from the "spirit" of Africa or of Europe? The question suggests its answer. Asia is not like Europe, nor like Af- rica. There is at least a certain unity of contrast. None takes the one for the other. It is said that Asiatics un- derstand each other at once in a fash- ion that is impossible to Europeans and Asiatics. All Europeans are "for- eigners" from Constantinople to the Pacific, but all Asiatics are in a sense at home in whatever part of this broad domain they wander, as we are at home even in the remoter parts of Europe. We know too in a general way what we mean when we speak of Asiatic customs, government, art and things in general, and we never misplace the adjectives European, Af- rican, Asiatic. Without attempting yet more precise definition, possibly we may put Africa for barbarism, Asia 23 Cfte %mtit oftbt ©tient for stagnant civilization, Europe for progress. Such definitions are not of much value, but they make a starting place. Africa produces no great civili- zation, as it was in the beginning so it remains, and all its glories are from without, its spots and periods of civ- ilization due to the presence of foreign peoples, with some periods of the Egyptian kingdom as a doubtful ex- ception. But India, China and Japan were civilized empires when our fa- thers were barbarians. They have pro- duced all the elements of civiliza- tion, highly developed religious and ethical teachings, complex systems of laws, refined philosophies, magnificent architecture and art and literature. Long, long ago they reached the stage our ancestors slowly and labori- ously attained millenniums after in part through the aid of the ancient civ- ilization of the East. But the East has stood still so long that it has come to identify its civilization with the laws 24 Cfie ametican Point ofi^ieto of nature and to think it as immov- able and as unimprovable. Man with all his work becomes a part of nature, and like it he is subject to Fate. We have thus a common feature, the immemorial character of Eastern civ- ilization, its early maturity and its com- parative immobility. In this we must not include Japan, as in many other respects also it is in a category by it- self; but the beginnings of the other two peoples are wholly lost in antiquity. How long ago were China and India already civilized? Frankly we do not know. Perhaps we are on historic ground when we go back to the tenth or twelfth century before Christ. At that early date the gaze of some im- mortal visitant to earth would have been attracted to Babylonia and to Egypt, to India and to China. Africa, save Egypt, then as now would have been in darkness, Europe would have been without form and void excepting possibly some stirrings where the glory 25 Cfte @>pirit of tbe ©tient of Greece was to be, but already China on a smaller scale would have shown the same features as to-day, and India would have revealed in germ what re- mains in old age. Were our visitor to return in this twentieth century A.D., after three thousand years, he would feel at home in China and in India; Af- rica would be repulsive as before, Eu- rope transformed and America dis- covered. We understand why our South Eu- ropean ancestors of the time of the Christian era did not feel the difference between East and West as we feel it, for there was no such difference. Sub- stantially all then stood on a level. But while the East has remained content, the West has moved on. So far we are perhaps on solid ground, but antiquity and stagnation do not mean very much. Can we find other indications of unity in India and China, characteris- tics comparable to those enumerated as constituting European oneness? 26 Cfte amctican l^oint of Bieto The noteworthy fact, first of all, as in Europe so in Asia, is religion. If we are to find a genuine oneness in the con- tents of consciousness it will be here. For Buddhism has been largely pre- dominant in the three empires alike. The Indian religion was made the state religion of China in the first century of the Christian era, and it became the state religion of Japan six centuries later. This has profound significance. Notwithstanding all our efforts, no great Asiatic people has accepted Christianity. They seem inaccessible to its powers as nations. But the great- est Asiatic nations yielded readily to Buddhism without the need of organ- ized missionary societies or a vast propagandism. With it went the art, the philosophy and many of the social customs of India. India became a far- away, dim, holy land to the peoples north and east, so that a certain his- toric and continental consciousness was created. No other positive insti- 27 C6e Spirit of tbeflDtient tution is comparable to this as a bond of union. Yet after all it is not comparable to the unity effected by Christianity in the West. There was nothing like the Crusades which gave Europe first its full sense of oneness, nor like the all- embracing organization of the Church of Rome. Shortly after Buddhism won China it lost importance in India, and finally entirely died out of the land of its birth. Nor even in the height of its powerwas there more than the merest fraction of the amount of intercourse which made for centuries the Catholic Church the most homogeneous and powerful organization on earth. Bud- dhism, moreover, after awhile decayed in China, and later still in Japan. In these empires educated men renounced it, and it became the religion of the ignorant and the superstitious, ceas- ing to influence further development. But there is a unity deeper than this af- forded by Buddhism, something which 28 s^^* Cfie ametican point of Bieto underlies Buddhism itself, and which separates profoundly East from West. I have said above that one may trans- late religious terms unhesitatingly into all the languages of Europe. But we cannot so translate Christian terms into Asiatic tongues. The missiona- ries after generations of debate can- not agree as to the proper word for God in Chinese. This indicates a fun- damental difference in the way of look- ing at the universe, and abstract as it may seem, a few words must be given to this subject or we shall not make a beginning in our effort to understand the spirit of the East. Europeans think of this universe as created by God out of nothing some six thousand years ago. Man is God's child, made in God's image, with an immortal soul and a destiny of pain or suffering according to his deeds and faith. Thus immense emphasis is put on the personality of God and man, while the world has been of secondary impor- 29 Cl)e Spirit of tfte ©tient tance. So it has been in the thoughts of Christendom for a thousand years, and other ideas are slowly displacing some of these only now in our own day, and however our thoughts of the world change, our estimate of the supreme value of personality remains. But to the Asiatic all is different. The uni- verse with its fixed laws and its resist- less fate is the ultimate fact. It exists from everlasting to everlasting. It goes on and on in ever-repeating cycles. It comes from chaos, assumes definite form, continues for a while, returns to chaos, and repeats the round worlds without end. Man is a part of this pro- cess, as are the gods themselves, the whole an organism with men and gods as incidents in its mighty movement. Possibly the vastness of Asia, which overpowers man, has produced this re- sult. In India the climate conquers, and none can resist it. The individual comes to a quick maturity, passes into an indolent middle life, and sinks with- 30 Cfte american poim oft^ieto out regret into old age. Englishmen avoid this only by short terms of ser- vice, by frequent vacations in more stimulating atmospheres, and by send- ing their children home to England at an early age. Nature is at once too prolific and too terrible; too prolific it yields enough for man without calling for strenuous endeavor; too terrible * it teaches him that his utmost labor is impotent before its vast calamities. China, it is true, has not thus con- quered man ; its climate does not ener- vate, nor its mountains appall, yet its long isolation, the vastness of its do- main and the immensity of its popula- tion have produced something of the same effect. To go through the com- mon round, to accompUsh the daily task, to live as the parents lived, is all that one can fairly ask. And beyond this there is no aspiration, and while individuals are ambitious of achieving success, for the race there comes no vision of a better time to come. Such 31 CteSpititoftfteflDrient a want of progress is not surprising, for it is man's normal state. Here with ourselves it is only the few who con- tribute to the advance of civilization. The majority are content. Let thiscon- tentment, which is akin to despair, take possession of a race and fatalism is the certain result. It is only where men think of God as Father that it can be escaped, or where they believe they have discovered a scientific method which will enable them to control na- ture. With such conceptions of nature and man it is not surprising that history in its true sense does not exist. The Hin- dus are notoriously deficient in his- toric interest. In China there are re- cords enough, and of two kinds, — mere annals of the past, dry and without hu- man interest ; or ethical, the past made to enforce by its events the teachings of the Sages. Real history has to do with progress, with the successive em- bodiment of high ideals in society. 32 Cfte American l^omt ofigieto That makes the interest of the Euro- pean story. In Asia there have been endless wars, but these havebeen mere struggles of king against king, or of race against race, resulting in no con- stitutional development and leaving the people unchanged whoever won. Hence it is impossible to get inter- ested in the story, as it is intolerably tedious, without real movement or re- sult. The internal story has been like the external. Great empires, like the Mug- hal, have arisen, magnificent, potent, luxurious, sometimes liberal and intel- lectual. But the same result has al- ways followed, and soon the splendor of the capital has caused intolerable misery among the people. Or, as in China, conquest has introduced merely a new set of rulers, who in turn have been transformed into the likeness of the people they have conquered. This want of development has been the result doubtless of the same causes 33 Cbe ©pint of tfte ©rient which have produced the religious views already described. The people have been content with tyranny as a part of the inevitable nature of things, content even with misery, since no way of escape appeared. Everything is, nothing becomes. All has been fixed. That rich should be rich, and that poor should be poor, that kings should rule and subjects obey, that the great events of life and death should be beyond control, and the small events of life, our calling, our etiquette, our clothes, our food, should be settled beyond dispute, — all this and more is a part of the unending round which is to-day as it was in the days of our fathers, and so it shall be to the remotest generation of those who come after us. Hence all go on without challenge or remonstrance, and it is only when there is some intolerable burden newly imposed by political tyranny that there is an uprising, and this is not in the interest of a new or- 34 Cbc amedcan Pomt of '©ieto der of society, but in an attempted easement of the old. Science represents the same spirit. There have been endless speculation and study, but they have expended themselves upon words and airy no- things. So science has never been for the understanding of the physical world that man may master it. Meta- physics instead of physics sums up the situation. Thought has been so refined that ordinary men could not grasp it, and the masses have been left to ignorance as to servitude. With religion, too, the same result has ob- tained. In its higher conceptions it has been the exclusive possession of the few, and its end has been escape from the round of the weary world, but both method and end have been too refined for the multitude, who are left to superstition and debasing idol- atry. Thus do we of the West judge the spirit of the East. It knows no pro- 35 C!)e©pmtoft!)eiaDtient gress, for its God is Fate. To some Fate gives power and wealth and long life and happiness, to some it gives toil and sorrow and superstition. Let each stand in his own place, knowing that struggle but increases sorrow. Science is transcendental metaphysics, reli- gion is withdrawal from the world, government is by the strongest and in the interest of the governors. Our description is true, we are con- vinced, and yet unjust. It is not the whole truth, for it produces a sense of sadness and depression which is unfair and too all-embracing. Let us remember that the great drama of life is the same with East and West alike, and that the joys which make up so large a part of our lives are theirs also. There as here, the com- mon talk, the common aspiration, the common grief and the common happi- ness are much the same. Could one be gifted with the gift of tongues and with an invisible and all-pervading 36 Cfae ametican Point of Bieto presence, he would be astonished to notice how exactlyaHke is nine tenths of the talk in all the regions of the earth, — weather, and crops, and money, and trade, and sickness, and birth, and death, and marriage, and food, and gossip, furnish its substance in India, in China and in Japan, as in Europe and America. The Spirit of the East has brought forth many noble sons of exalted lives,— statesmen, and poets, and war- riors, and law-givers, and holy men. In this, too, the West has no mono- poly. In these great representatives we must look for the embodiment of the spirit. In Asia the characteristic is retiracy from the world, a certain aloofness of soul, an indifference to outward state and fortune, and a con- viction that salvation is in the mind only. There is an exaltation above the heat and struggle of the world which charms many Occidentals, all of us, perhaps, in certain moods. Many men 37 Cbe^pirttoftbeflDtiem from the West enter into this spirit and come to prefer the retiracy and meditation and calm of the East to the bustle and toil and noise of our modern progress, for the real differ- ence between East and West is not of longitude but of habit and cast of mind. Butouradmirationandcondemnation are of Uttle moment. The East is too great a factor in the world to care for our judgment. It does not ask the con- sent of the West that it may exist, for the West is no nearer God than is itself, nor have we any peculiar title to the earth. So our task is not to criticise, but to attempt to understand these far-away peoples, our brothers of a common humanity. II Cbe asiatic point of Bieto 9^tt II Cl^e ajsiatfc ^ofnt of mm HE traveller wearies of the East, with its discomforts, its squalor, its beggars and its pride. There is little to see, he thinks, after the first pictur- esqueness has worn off, and much to endure. Excepting again Japan, where in all Asia shall one be made fairly comfortable? It is only where the Oc- cidental has gone that there is a mea- sure of decent accommodation. The roads are not worthy of the name, the inns are abodes of misery, the means of transportation are primitive. Every- thing is disorganized, behind time and listless, so that the whole continent appears discouraged and systemless. The governments are at once ineffi- cient and burdensome, and the peo- ple either arrogant or servile. They lie and cheat, and are generally con- temptible and untrustworthy. Nothing 41 C6e@prtitoft{)efl)rient is done at the right time nor in the right way. This at least is our impres- sion after reading wearisomely book after book written on India and China, after conversing with residents, and visiting the lands and observing their effect upon travellers. Said Lord El- gin of the Chinese diplomatists, "They yield nothing to reason and everything to force, "and another distinguished re- presentative of Great Britain declared the East a sad training-school for di- plomatists, since there are only two classes, bulUes and bullied. These ut- terances express the common notion, and it is as prevalent among mer- chants as among officials. The ordi- nary mortal comes to feel that he is surrounded with trickery, and that he can best get his way by force. So as the great diplomatists bully govern- ments with fleets and armies, private citizens bully individuals with oaths and fists. I once heard an English planter from Ceylon complain of his 42 Cfte agiatic Point of Bieto government there, "It is ruining the natives, for things have got to such a pass that one may be hauled before a magistrate merely for knocking down his servant!" How many natives have been knocked down, and yet have fawned upon their assailant? Who can forget the thrill of horror with which he first saw (in Cairo it was for me) officials using whips on the backs of their fellow countrymen? No wonder that travellers find a few weeks enough for India or China, trav- ellers we mean as distinct from schol- ars who will find a lifetime all too short for either. The globe-trotter wearies of tombs and temples, and comes to think "Oriental magnificence" mythi- cal. He finds its remains, indeed, at Agra and Delhi, and profusion, dis- play and extravagance in the capitals of the native princes. But with it all there is a lack of finish and of atten- tion to detail, so that the effect is not pleasing. So it is in Peking; the palace, 43 Ct)e§)pmtoftl)e©nent opened at last to foreign eyes, con- tained, like all Oriental palaces, many articles of beauty, but in such confu- sion and with so much of disorder and of positive filth that the total effect was repulsive. Gradually it becomes apparent that the East is not the home of splendor nor of wealth. Either the ancient tradition was the exaggera- tion of travellers' tales, or more likely it was the effect of our comparative barbarism. So our good American con- cludes that his pretty little town in the United States is **good enough for him," and that we have more things worth seeing than have all the multi- tudes of mankind in the storied Ori- ent. Who that has walked the streets of Jerusalem, or stopped in a Chinese inn, or observed the plague-stricken condition of some village community of India, can fail to sympathize with him? And if one find here and there an exception, the home of some rich merchant in China, a garden of tran- 44 tE:bt 90mtic Point of Bieto scendent beauty in India, some Ori- ental mansion with blank wall to the street but luxury within in the Mo- hammedan domains, he wonders the more that a people who can develop here and there an oasis will permit the wilderness elsewhere to prevail. Our straightforward American, ac- customed to streets crossing at right angles, lined with trees, with pretty houses equipped with every comfort, longs to bring some of the "natives" to the United States for an object lesson that will revolutionize their modes of thought and life. He over- looks the fact that there are object lessons closer at hand, in the foreign settlements in Bombay and Hong- kong and Shanghai, and yet that the native life goes on as before. The av- erage Oriental seems impervious to attacks whether as traveller in the West or as an observer of foreign ways at home. Even after years amid all our modern improvements he goes 45 Cbe Spirit of t{)e©nent home unchanged, to cast his new habits at once, and to return to the easy-going customs of the past. The new does not appear worth its cost to him. An Asiatic who had lived in diplo- matic circles in Paris declared that the game was not worth the candle,— the endless engagements, the notes which must be answered, the formal parties and dinners and public functions. His own ideal was a garden and a man- sion where one could do as he pleased, where one visited his friends at his own desire, and entertained or not as the whim seized him, where there was no mail, and no newspapers, and no need for a calendar or a notebook. Our civilization was so filled with ma- chinery that it destroyed repose and charm and the true taste of life. We hasten and have so much to do; why not enjoy now what we have? Time hastens away; why use it all in pre- paring to live? Besides, after all, what 46 Cfte asiatic point of Bieto are these reforms? Take the world as it comes, you cannot change it. In some such fashion the Oriental re- turns our criticism. Yet all summaries are unjust, for there is no such thing as "Oriental opinion." We have possi- bly an average American opinion as to the East, but we have many Ameri- cans who think this average judgment "Philistine" and prefer Eastern ways of lifeand thought. So in the East there are men who frankly admire the West and would reform the East upon its model. But the larger part as with us are indifferent, not taking the trouble to form an opinion, and the larger part of the thinking minority are frankly hostile. Between the two extremes are all degrees of admiration and antipa- thy. Besides, the ordinary Oriental is not given to free expression of his sen- timents, and he is as untrained in ob- servation as he is unwilling in expres- sion. Hence many of the judgments of East and West most often quoted 47 Cfie Spirit of tbe ©tient from Orientals are from men who have been trained in Europe and America, and who in their criticism reflect their adopted point of view. If we attempt, then, to learn what the East really thinks of us we shall be cautious, and rest content with setting forth simply what some Orientals say of us. First let us hear the language of thor- oughgoing detestation. For such ex- pressions we must go to men of posi- tion and of education. The common people for the greater part neither un- derstand nor care about these things. My first quotation is from Japan. Its writer was a good representative of the old regime, scholar, soldier, gen- tleman, patriot. He had the sincerity of the martyr, and he perished because of his impassioned opposition to the course of the government in opening Japan to foreign intercourse. He died in 1862, and the little book from which I quotewas printed in December, 1857. It is a tirade against Western science, 48 Cfte ggiatic Point of i^ieto and its contention is that our learning is superficial, while the Chinese is pro- found and of the heart: "Followers of the Western learning shamelessly say that the West knows the laws of the universe. They are rebels who exhibit a forged seal of state and gather a vile rabble. True disciples of Confucius and Mencius should raise their banner, expose the counterfeit and destroy these false scholars. The learning of the West knows only the outward, and deals with the seen, it cannot understand fun- damental principles. Foreigners are minute in researches, and careful in measurements, but they do not under- stand that the true *Way' of the uni- verse is benevolence, righteousness, loyalty and truth. Hence their learn- ing cannot make them virtuous. Their astronomy is wonderful in its mea- surements, but it destroys reverence for Heaven, and makes them think it a dead material thing. They do not 49 Cfie Spirit of tbeDtient know that Heaven and man are one, and that the essential nature of both is righteousness. They are like chil- dren who should measure carefully the features of their father's body, and care nothing for his heart. Besides, all that is essential is in our own ancient books which contain the root of the matter. Why neglect it and go to the foreigners for the leaves and branches? The foreigners do not know these books, and are like the brutes in con- sequence, and alas! our own scholars, misled by appearances, forsake the truth and go astray. Heaven is high, exalted, beyond our little efforts to ex- tol or belittle it, beyond our praise or blame. Would we benefit it, we can- not; would we kill it, it is beyond our reach. Only as its *Way' is followed and its laws observed can it be served. Let each one die for duty, there is naught else that one can do." This sincere patriot and philosopher thus rejects Western learning because 50 Cfte 3imtic Point of Bieto of its unworthiness. It may, indeed, he thinks, help out the affairs of man's outward Hfe, but it does not minister to the moral and the spiritual. We can readily understand his position as we remember how in the West the ad- vances of physical science have been resisted in the supposed interests of religion. As our leaders have talked of *^ science falsely so called" under the impression that it opposed the revela- tion of God, so it is in the East. It has been the most sincere and believing men who have been chief in the oppo- sition. Dr. Arthur Smith expresses the same opinion in writing of the Chinese literati: **To suppose that anything could be added to their wisdom is as arrogant an assumption to the Ortho- dox Confucianist as it would be to a Christian for one to claim that an ap- pendix to the New Testament is to be looked forwhich shall be of equal value and authority with its twenty-seven books." Such is the convinced judg- 51 Cbe Spirit of tf)e©mnt ment too of the Mohammedan world as to the Koran and of the Hindus as to their sacred books. Thus, to the trained and educated "natives" of these lands our learning is of trifling import compared with the deeper wis- dom of their sages and saints. This notion that our superiority is physical and material while theirs is moral and spiritual is widespread and deep-rooted. A distinguished repre- sentative of American Christianity on a visit to India repelled the natives by insisting upon the advanced position, the power and wealth of the Christian nations. "Granting all you claim," they replied, "what has it to do with reli- gion?" This idea was expressed at the Parliament of Religions in Chicago by the Chinese secretary of the Chinese legation in Washington: "What Christ means by calling at- tention to the lilies of the field has a parallel in the Confucian doctrine of doing one's daily duties and awaiting 52 Cfte ggiatic point ofigieto the call of fate. The object of all this is to teach men to put down the de- sires of the flesh, and to preserve the moral sense which is inherent in hu- man nature in a state of activity. The meaning of the above-cited passage is clear enough from the Chinese as well as the English version of the Bible. Missionaries in China, however, often contend in their controversial writ- ings that the Christian nations of the West owe their material well-being and political ascendency to their reli- gion. It is difficult to see upon what this argument is based. When teach- ers of religion speak of material pros- perity and political ascendency in such commendable terms, they in fact turn away from teaching religion to propa- gating such theories of government as were advocated by Kwan-tz, Shang-tz and Tao Chukung. It is the end of ev- ery government, indeed, to strive after material prosperity and political as- cendency. Christ, however, proposes 53 Cbe ©pitit of tl)c ©tiem an entirely different end, which is, to seek the Kingdom of Heaven. He cer- tainly did not hold up the foreign mas- ters that were exercising supreme po- litical control over his own country at the time as an example worthy of imi- tation."^ Nor are such expressions from the literati only, for our author goes on to say: "Missionaries take great pleasure in teaching others in the name of Christ that after death they may hope to go to Heaven, but the people of the East have a notion that after death the soul descends into Hades. When I was at- tached to the Board of Punishment at Lang Chang, I often had opportunity to examine the papers relating to cases of riot against missionaries which had been sent up to the board by the pro- vincial authorities. I frequently came across expressions like *I prefer to go ♦"World's Parliament of Religions," which is authority also for quotations in the next four pages. 54 C6e a^iatic Point of Bieto to Hades; let him go to Heaven/ used by the defendants in their depositions. It is easy to infer the intense bitter- ness of their hatred from this. Those men were evidently under the opinion that they were writing their hostile feelings against Christ, though they knew not who Christ was. "Yet it is not entirely unreasonable that the terrified suspicion, or you may say superstition, that Christianity is the instrument of depredation, is avowedly or unavowedly aroused in the Oriental mind when it is an ad- mitted fact that some of the most powerful nations of Christendom are gradually encroaching upon the Ori- ent." Alas! It is "not entirely unreasona- ble," since the history of international discourse has been a history of aggres- sion, and since the people of the East have come to believe that commer- cial exploitation and conquest are the chief end of Western governments. 55 Cbe Sipint of tbe ©dent In India also we find the claim to a higher wisdom and a more truly eth- ical life, nor is there any reason to doubt its sincerity. This is the way even our religious activity appears to the higher minds in the land which is so wearisome to our ordinary traveller : "My friend, I am often afraid, I con- fess, when I contemplate the condi- tion of European and American soci- ety, where your activities are so man- ifold, your work so extensive, that you are drowned in it, and you have little time to consider the great ques- tion of regeneration, of personal sanc- tification, of trial and judgment, and of acceptance before God. That is the question of all questions. A right the- ological basis may lead to social re- form, but a right line of public activity and the doing of good is bound to lead to the salvation of the doer's soul and the regeneration of public men." "Thus by insight into the immanence of God's spirit in nature, thus by intro- 56 Cfie matte Point of i^ieto spection into the fullness of the divine presence in the heart, thus by raptur- ous and loving worship, and thus by renunciation and self-surrender, Asia has learned and taught wisdom, prac- tised and preached contemplation, laid down rules of worship, and glori- fied the righteousness of God. "In the West you observe, watch and act. In the East we contemplate, commune, and suffer ourselves to be carried away by the spirit of the uni- verse. In the West you wrest from nature her secrets, you conquer her, she makes you wealthy and prosper- ous, you look upon her as your slave, and sometimes fail to recognize her sacredness. In the East nature is our eternal sanctuary, the soul is our everlasting temple, and the sacred- ness of God's creation is only next to the sacredness of God himself In the West you love equality, you respect man, you seek justice. In the East love is the fulfillment of the law, we 57 Cfte ©pint of tfte ©tient have hero worship, we behold God in humanity. In the West you estabhsh the moral law, you insist upon pro- priety of conduct, you are governed by public opinion. In the East we aspire, perhaps vainly aspire, after absolute self-conquest, and the holi- ness which makes God its model. In the West you work incessantly, and your work is your worship. In the East we meditate and worship for long hours, and worship is our work. Perhaps one day, after this parliament has achieved its success, the Western and Eastern men will combine to support each other's strength and supply each other's deficiencies. And then that blessed synthesis of human nature shall be established which alll prophets have foretold, and all the devout souls have sighed for." Thus is set over against our claim to a higher civilization as strong a pretension to a deeper spirituality and to profounder thought. In these pas- 58 Cbe Simtic Point of i&ieto sages just quoted India's ideal comes to full expression, and not only India's but Asia's, for listen to a native of Japan who writes English equal to that of our Hindu friend: "Asia is one. The Himalayas divide only to accentuate two mighty civili- zations, the Chinese with its commu- nism of Confucius, and the Indian with its individualism of the Vedas. But not even the snowy barriers can in- terrupt for one moment that broad expanse of love for the Ultimate and Universal, which is the common thought-inheritance of every Asiatic race, enabling them to produce all the great religions of the world, and dis- tinguishing them from those maritime peoples of the Mediterranean and the Baltic, who love to dwell on the par- ticular, and to search out the means, not the end of life." ^ This then is the contrast : the West seeks convenience, contrivance, com- * "The Ideals of the East," Kakuzo Okakura, p. i. 59 C6e Spirit of t{)e2Drient fort, the victory over matter; the East seeks after the Absolute, God, and its victory is of the Spirit. Man, as we have already said, seems overpowered by nature in the East, but he attempts to conquer it in the West. It is at least something gained if we recog- nize that current opinion represents more or less accurately the two spir- its. It is true that the ordinary Amer- ican criticises the Orient for its lack of material progress, and that the Ori- ental criticises us for our absorption in these things. We shall not attempt to estimate the correctness of the criticism, nor to judge between the two estimates, for our present task is merely to understand. But surely, our American interposes, there can be no dispute as to the ad- vantages of cleanliness over filth, of attractive villages over slums, and in general of modern methods over an- cient ways. So it seems to us, but the East will not readily acknowledge it. 60 Cfte aslatic Point of Bieto The way their fathers trod is their way. Would you have them wiser or better than their revered forefathers? So tradition and custom form a bar- rier which is almost impenetrable. Take sanitation, for instance; one would think the visitation of the plague would cause all to flee to modern sci- ence for safety; but no! the natives of Bombay resisted so stoutly the efforts of the authorities that efforts at control were given up and the ter- rible scourge is left unchecked, claim- ing in one year more than a million victims. A missionary, impressed with the inefficient methods of agriculture, un- improved since the days of Alexander the Great, tilled a plot of ground in the American fashion, with results far beyond all Indian precedent. But none followed his example, not even though he imported ploughs and offered them for sale at less than the price of native ones. The people could not see that 6i C6e ©pint of tfte ©tient which was before their eyes, and as- cribed his success not to his instru- ments but to some occult virtue in him as a foreigner. The weight of the past is too heavy, and the bondage of custom too strong for emancipation to win, and the "native" remains un- convinced and unimpressed. It is nat- ural to him that some should succeed and others fail, and his own lot is to submit and suffer. These are the peasants, and in India. Perhaps they do not represent the spirit of Asia. Take another example. A distinguished Chinese nobleman represented his country for years at the court of St. James, and finally he wrote his impressions for an Eng- lish review. He was not insensible to the position of Western states nor to the advantages of Western civiliza- tion. But after all what should one do? The conditions in China are so finely balanced, the population is so closely proportioned to the means of liveli- 62 Cbc ggiattc Pomt of Bieto hood, the occupations by which one may gain a liveHhood are so preempted that any disturbance in economic re- lations causes death to thousands. To build a railway means that thou- sands of carriers shall starve, and to introduce machinery is to deprive multitudes of all chance for gaining a livelihood. Possibly, in the end, the country will gain a benefit, but who shall venture to decree the misery in- volved on the chance of helping some future generation? Besides, we are in the hands of Fate ; centuries ago China was as much ahead of Europe as the latter now is ahead of Asia. Possibly the wheel of fate may turn again and the future see once more the lots re- versed, and if not, what can man do against the resistless currents of the universe? There is doubtless another side. Some Asiatics know that the West is not wholly immoral and greedy. Some, too, are ready to agree that its 63 Cbe ©pftit of tfte SDrient intercourse with Asia has taught les- sons which Asia may well learn, and conferred benefits which should excite gratitude. Let us hear this other side. Once on a steamer going from Co- lombo to Bombay I met two Kulim Brahmans, that is, men of the highest caste India knows. They were grad- uates of the University, spoke Eng- lish well, and knowing that I was an American, spoke their minds freely. This was the substance of their opin- ion as to their English rulers: Individual Englishmen we dislike. They are proud and insulting often. But we acknowledge the benefits of English rule. It gives us peace. Were it withdrawn we should fly at once at each other's throats and end by be- coming the prey of Russia. Then, too, England gives us justice. In the past India never knew it, but now the foreign judge is incorruptible, and so far as in him lies does equal justice to every man. This of itself compensates 64 Cfte a^iatic IPomt of Bieto for all the annoyances of British rule. ^ This is not a solitary judgment, but IS held by many intelligent men. It is well expressed by a native writer in the columns of the "Indian Nation," a paper ably conducted and most appro- priately designated: "An enlightened administration of justice, especially in criminal cases, religioustoleration, liberty ofthe press, liberty of holding meetings and peti- tioning—these are the rights which we in this country have so easily ac- quired that we are in danger of under- valuing them. We have secured by a few strokes of the pen of beneficent legislators advantages which English- men have had in their own country to buy with their blood." ^ "It is a practical commentary on the truth and justice of the charge brought against natives that they bitterly hate the dominant race as a rule, that in- dividual attachment to individual Eng- * " New India," by Sir H. J. S. Cotton. 65 Cjbe ©pitit of t{)e ©rient lishmen should be so marked a trait in native character. It is hardly pos- sible to travel over any part of India, where some individual Englishman has not left the impress of his hand, whether for good or evil, on the local- ity and its people. And it reflects the highest credit and honor on the native races that while the names of the bad and oppressive men have been almost forgotten, the memory of the good, just or charitable Englishmen has been preserved by tradition in perfect freshness— a perpetual testimony to the simplicity, forgiving spirit and gratitude of the Indian character. The native heart is naturally kind, but the kindness becomes warmer when the object of it is a member of the domi- nant class. It is not always because we expect any return from him, but it is a peculiar feeling with us to be anxious to stand well with a race to whom we owe so many obligations as a fallen and subject people. If those 66 Cfte Simtic Point of Bieto obligations had been unmixed with quite as great wrongs, it is] our fear that Englishmen might have been ob- jects of our idolatry, so enthusiastic is our regard and affection for all who really mean to confer or have con- ferred on us any great benefits."^ But higher testimony still is at hand. The Eastern search for the " Ultimate and the Absolute" had run its course. Ancient religion had sunk into debas- ing superstition without possibiHty of revival from within. Then came the powerful nations of the West, and with them new life for the East: "Our Anglo-Saxon rulers brought with them their high civilization, their improved methods of education and their general enlightenment. We had been in darkness and had well- nigh forgotten our bright and glorious past. But a new era dawned upon us. New thoughts, new ideas, newnotions began to flash upon us one after an- * "New India," by Sir H. J. S. Cotton. 67 Cbe Spirit of tfteiaDnent other. We were rudely aroused form our long sleep of ignorance and self- forgetfulness. The old and the new met face to face. We felt that the old could not stand in the presence of the new. The old began to see in the light of the new and we soon learned to feel that our country and society had been for a long time suffering from a number of social evils, from the errors of ignorance and from the evils of superstition. Thus we began to bestir ourselves in the way of social organization. Such, then, were the occasion and the origin of the work of social reforms in India. "^ That quotation represents a state of mind seldom found perhaps in India, not often met in China, but character- istic of Japan. We have left this em- pire for the most part out of our re- view. Many Asiatics regard it as a traitor to the East and as the willing ally of the West. But it at least makes * •• Parliament of Religions." 68 Cbe agiatic pomt of Bieto a choice. We should, however, misun- derstand its attitude were we to think it the undiscriminating copyist of our ways. It beheves that West and East have each their part to give to the greater humanity of the future, and that Japan, understanding both, is to unite them, making the future better than the present and far nobler than the past. That this is Japan's high mission is the faith of her noblest sons. Whether it be so or not, we cannot turn away unmoved from the vision. If God rules we cannot join in the wholesale condemnation of the East as if it were a blot on His creation. Its long story must have a meaning, and it doubtless has its own message for us. Neither can we agree to its condemnation of the West. We have faults enough; we are materialistic, greedy, proud, but we are not wholly of the earth earthy. Here, too, are spirituality and pure morality and 69 Cfte Spirit of tbeHDtient profound thought. We have our les- sons for the East, and as we come to understand each other we shall both learn, and from our intercourse may we not believe that the old antipathies will pass away and that, though East remain East and West remain West, still there shall be triumphant over both the nobler spirit of our common humanity, a spirit which holds all men as brothers as all have one Father, God? Ill 3InDia, its l^eople anD Customs Ill ^nhia, ftji ptoplt anJ) Cusstomss UR attempt to describe the spirit of the East is con- fessedly inadequate, for who can pretend to embody that which is so illusive? Now we are to study the three great countries in turn with the purpose of testing our state- ments a httle more in detail. Natu- rally India comes first, naturally be- cause of its immemorial relationship to ourselves and because of its rela- tionship to the lands farther east. We could not reverse the order. India has been known to the West from the dawn of history, and it has contributed much to our civilization. Some of its people, too, are distant relatives of our own. And it has also made an impres- sion on China, and through China on Japan. Thus it is truly a world centre, sending influences throughout the East and the West, so that it has 73 Cfie Spirit of tbe ©rient reached all parts of the globe. It is a continent in itself, 1,900 miles from north to south, and 1,900 miles from east to west, with a population of more than 290,000,000 souls. This vast area is divided, excluding Burmahand Cey- lon, into three great divisions: First, the great mountain region in the north, the dwelling-place of the snows, Him- alaya. One climbs laboriously the foot- hills, themselves mountain chains with beautiful valleys and wide fertile re- gions, until he reaches a ridge whence he looks down into an intervening val- ley, with the wall on the other side which divides Asia, a wall averaging twenty thousand feet in height, with the loftiest peaks in the world, and with valleys into which the Alps might be dropped and hidden. There are hun- dreds of miles so high that their sum- mits have never been trodden by the foot of man or beast. It seems impos- sible that the region should be a part of our common world, so dazzling is 74 glnPia, itg People anP Cu0tam0 it and so lofty, like a white veil let down from heaven and resting lightly upon the earth. These mountains con- stitute a great system with parallel ranges and spurs jutting out to the southeast and southwest. From the earliest times they have formed a bar- rier, impassable in its greater extent to men excepting at its ends, where the hills break down, or through in- frequent and difficult passes. Second, the great river plains. Middle India stretching along the courses of the Indus, the Ganges and the Brahma- putra. Here have been the seats of the great empires and the home of the densest populations. South of the plain comes the southern hill country, the Deccan, its northern boundary the Vindhya range. This plateau is bound- ed by the Vindhyas on the north and the ocean on the east, south and west, with the two coast ranges called the Ghats, which meet in the south at Cape Comorin. This region was the last to be 75 Cfte Spirit of tfte flDtiem civilized, and has still in our day many wild tribes among its inhabitants. In remote antiquity Mongolian peo- ples, Mongoloid the scientists call them, came into India from the north- east. They occupied the slopes of the Himalaya Mountains, and followed the course of the Brahmaputra a little way into Bengal. They mingled with the peoples who had preceded them, and fared variously, some advancing in civilization and some deteriorating. There their descendants still remain, the languages showing traces of an ancient connection with the Chinese. But the great road, the great series of roads, into the land was from the northwest. Thence came a succession of peoples and of races. In historic times Alexander the Great thus en- tered India, and the British Empire watches the passes with jealous care, knowing that from thence must come the Russians if their dreams of Indian conquest are to be realized. 76 31nDia, its People anD Customs But long before Alexander, long be- fore there were any Englishmen, per- haps thirty-five hundred years ago— a few centuries do not matter, we shall try to be exact within say five hundred years — the people came who were to form the India we know, the Aryans, tall, well-formed, light-colored, with a noble language and a great religion. They dwelt long in the valleys and on the slopes of the mountains, and then slowly, in the course of centuries, oc- cupied the river plains. They went far to the south also along the western coast, but in the centre and the east they were halted permanently by the Vindhya range. How they came to win the land we do not know. There are traces of the process in their sacred books. It was doubtless partly by conquest. They de- spised and subjugated the "natives," hating their black color, their short bodies, their pug noses and their half- savage ways. In the sacred books 77 C6e Spirit of tbe SDtient these humble folks appear as savages and demons. But traces remain which show that the aborigines were neither savages nor demons but people with a certain rudimentary civilization, in- capable, however, of maintaining themselves against the new-comers from the north. Nor are we to suppose that the conquest was wholly by war. There were compromise and barter and intermarriage, until at last the Ar- yans were in possession of middle In- dia, and the others fled to the south, where they found refuge in the Dec- can, or remained as outcastes, or be- came by marriage and amalgamation a part of the superior race. But the way which proved so easy for the Aryan was to suffice for their conquerors. A thousand years ago Mohammedans came over the same mountain heights, and after centuries of varying fortunes finally controlled India, with their capitals at Delhi and at Agra, and victorious soldiers ex- 78 3[nDfa, m People ano Cu0tomg alted above the highest Brahman in the land. Partly by immigration and partly by assimilation the Muslim in- creased mightily, becoming a great factor in the population as in the gov- ernment, making his mark clear and firm upon the institutions of the peo- ple. It was from these Mohammedan rulers that Great Britain wrested the land, and even yet they retain the pride of conquerors, and resent the in- tellectual advancement and superior- ity of the Hindus. Still, too, this re- ligion makes progress, multitudes of low-caste people embracing the virile faith which advances them at once in social status. Roughly, then, we divide the people, like the land, into three main divi- sions — the ancient people represented by numerous tribes, speaking many languages, with the outcastes, who live in the suburbs of the Hindu towns, lowest in the scale, though longest on the land; the Aryans, in part perhaps 79 Cfte Spirit of tfteflDtient still pure in blood but for the greater part intermarried with members of the subject races, constitutingthe vast majority of the people now, and the efficient factors in the production of Indian poetry, literature, philosophy and rehgion; and finally, the Moham- medans, new-comers, that is to say, within a thousand years, conscious of their military superiority, but, on the whole, in nothing above those who had preceded them. Besides there are other races of smaller numbers but of great interest, like the Parsis, descend- ants of the ancient fire-worshippers of Persia, expelled from their own coun- try by Mohammedan invaders, and now prospering greatly under British rule. There are less than a hundred thousand of them, and they live for the greater part near Bombay. Then, too, there are Sikhs, a military race with a religion of their own, of course, since in India religion counts for everything and race for little, who 80 3InDm, it!^ People anD Customs make the best of auxiliary troops under foreign leadership; and Jains, whose faith goes back to the time of Buddha. Thus if India is continental in size it is more than continental in the variety of inhabitants, and never from the earliest dawn of its history has it produced even a temporary unity or any consciousness of soli- darity. Its population is more than twice that of the Roman Empire in the days of its greatest extent, and it has a greater variety of tribes and peoples than ever acknowledged the rule of the Caesars. It is a wilderness of peoples, languages, religions and customs, full of rich mines of informa- tion which await the scholars who shall exploit them. Let us report briefly the physical fea- tures on which depends the distribu- tion of the population. The great snow range shuts off not only men but winds, and forms a barrier against which the southern winds of the monsoon beat, 8i Cbe ©pint of tfte 2Dtient depositing their moisture. To the east of the centre the flanks are protected by trackless forests and to the west by arid plateaux and deserts, both re- gions, east and west, inhabited still by tribes of lawless men. Between this great range and the oceans to the south, enclosed therefore on all sides and isolated, is India with, including Burmah now, 766,597 square miles, 12,000 square miles larger than Eu- rope if we exclude Russia. The popu- lation is 294,361,056. Most of the peo- ple live in peasant villages, only two per cent being in cities, if we count as cities all towns which contain so many as 20,000 people, while the vil- lages are innumerable. There is, there- fore, very little overcrowding in tene- ments, for the large cities, Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, Hyderabad, &c., are so few that their special conditions may be overlooked in this rapid sur- vey. As the people thus distributed in vil- 82 3[nDia, its l^eople anP Cugtomg lages are farmers, as many as two thirds of the entire population being returned in the census as agricultur- ists, it follows, therefore, that the po- pulation has to do with the conditions of soil and weather most favorable to agriculture. A glance at the map of population shows this to be the fact. The densest population is in the great plain along the Ganges and its branches. India is dependent upon the periodic winds, called monsoons, for its pro- sperity. They come from the south laden with moisture, and pour down the contents of their clouds upon the thirsty soil. There are two monsoons, with dry seasons intervening. The farmer watches the sky anxiously for the early and the later rain. "August *s here, no sound of thunder, Sky is clear and weather fine, Wife! 't is time for us to sunder, You to your folks, I to mine." 83 Cfte ©pint of tbe ©mm So sings the peasant, and breaks up his family in fear of famine. In the season called Swati, the end of Octo- ber and early November — "One shower in Swati, friend, behold, The Kurmi's ear-ring turned to gold," SO closely are prosperity and adver- sity dependent upon the weather, and so surely does prosperity show itself in the purchase of adornment for the person. The rainfall varies greatly. Along the Western Ghats, above Bombay, it is prodigious, and the rain comes on with fury. Houses which are exposed to the blast will have neither door nor window on the side from which the storm comes. A friend, long resident in Bombay, told me that within an hour of the first fall of rain he had seen men swimming in the streets. Then by way of contrast, in districts shielded by mountains there is as little as eight inches of rain in the 84 3InDm, iw People anD Customs year, with all varieties and degrees of moisture between. In the middle country, in the Ganges valley, the population is more than 400 to the square mile, with one district reported as possessing 1,920 to this area, and these are peasants, we must remember, dependent upon the sky and the soil for their livelihood, and living not in cities but in tiny villages. On the whole we may lay down the rule that population is large where the rainfall is great and trustworthy, and small where it fails, though this state- ment, like all statements about so vast a subject, is true only in a gen- eral way and with many exceptions. While upon this subject we may re- fer in passing to the famines. When the monsoon fails, as fail it often does, then there is trouble at once. The peasants have little laid up against a dry day, and when, as also happens, the monsoon fails for three years in succession the effects are terrible. In 85 Cbe ©pidt of tfte ©nent the past, in populous districts, a quar- ter of the people have perished, and as recently as 1899-1900 as many as 4,000,000 persons died from this cause, notwithstanding the great efforts by the government for their relief. Yet, strange as it may seem, the advance of population in general is little hin- dered by these calamities. The sickly, the aged, the unfit die, while the strong, young and vigorous survive. Hence, in a generation the losses are made up and the population seems almost more thriving by its terrible weeding process. Though the population is so dense in great sections of the empire, yet on the whole India is not overcrowded. One fifth of the whole population is on one twentieth of the total area, two thirds of the people live on one quarter of the land, so that three quarters are sparsely settled in com- parison. And oddly, the people are most prosperous in Eastern Bengal, 86 3[nDm, itg People anP Cugtomg where the population is the most dense. With improved means of trans- portation and of agriculture, with the introduction of manufactures and the extension of irrigation, India may provide well enough for its natural increase for centuries to come, since for the decade preceding 1901 the net increase was only 1.5 per cent. The government is paying attention to these needs, having built many thousands of miles of railway and 43,000 miles of irrigation canals, and promoted scientific agriculture, the cultivation of special products and the development of mines and other natural resources. The people are farmers, as we have stated, and this in so great a pro- portion that the other occupations are small indeed. No other calling repre- sents as much as six per cent of the population, while commerce claims scarcely more than one per cent. Evi- dently the people are still in the stage 87 Cbe Spirit of tfte ©rient of development where wants are few and money little needed. We think of our highly organized machinery of civilization as being natural, and are unmindful of the fact that the greater part of the race get on very well with- out banks, or merchants, or machines, or lawyers, or doctors. In India there are few men of leisure, only five mil- lions entered in the census as such, and of these more than four millions are common beggars. In most countries females outnumber males, but in India the reverse is true, 963 of the former to 1,000 of the latter, the discrepancy being caused proba- bly by a relative inattention to female infants, for though there seems now- adays to be little direct infanticide, the baby girl is not welcome, and if she die there is small regret. If she grow up she will not be taught to read save in exceptional circum- stances. Nor will the boy, as a rule, for in all this vast population only one 88 3[nDia, its People anp Cugtomg man in ten can read and write, and only one woman in one hundred and forty-four, and this includes the sta- tistics for Burmah, where the Bud- dhists for centuries have maintained schools in the temples for a large pro- portion of the people. Probably no other civilized people is so ignorant. The reasons for it are significant of the condition of the masses: life has too little outlook; there is no incen- tive to the labor involved ; the people are too submissive to fate, too content with their condition, too hopeless of bettering it. So they do not establish schools, nor attend them if established. It has been maintained that the low- caste folk are incapable of intellectual training, but like all such statements founded upon prejudice, this is mis- taken. The schools established by missionaries prove that outcastes, low castes, and even primitive hill folk may all be taught, and that all re- spond to effort in their behalf 89 Cfie ©pint of tfte ©tiem With illiteracy is poverty. But we must not judge by our standards. A man is as poor as he feels, and his feelings are by way of contrast. Caste fixes one's position irrevocably, and therefore the individual compares him- self only with those who are in like condition. Hence, for the most part, the sting of poverty, self-depreciation, is escaped. But the poverty is there, nevertheless. In a climate like India's, clothes are for ornament, and nakedness, more or less complete, is the rule. The native covers the head instinctively, and cares little for the rest of the body. Hence, excepting for ornament, clothes need not be provided. But ornaments must be. Indian civiliza- tion is essentially ornate. The great man surrounds himself with pomp and splendor. I commented adversely upon the extravagant railway station in Bombay to a friend: "The people have to pay for this, and it is too fine; 90 3[nDia, it0 l^gople anP Cugtomg a simpler building would have an- swered every purpose." But he replied: "No native would make your criti- cism. It is a government railway, and in India governments are expected to be magnificent!" The same spirit is in the common people. When the rain comes, "The Kurmi's ear-ring turns to gold." Asking my friend of the government college in Lucknow as to his obser- vation of the condition of the people, he repHed: "They are prosperous on the whole. One sees more jewelry worn than when I first came out." As clothes are not needed, no more is furniture. Again, great houses and elaborate establishments are for dis- play. The common man needs little. His house is merely a shelter. The climate for the greater part keeps him out of doors, and he seeks only a refuge from beasts, snakes, rain and the greatest heat. Such requirements 91 Cfte Spirit of tfte ©rient are readily met, and his hut, which to our eyes lacks everything, to his thought is complete. His food is as simple as his house. He will not eat beef, nor any animal food, not even an eggy because of re- ligious prejudice, which has become an invincible repugnance. He often uses a leaf for a plate, his fingers for knife, fork and spoon, and the ground or the floor for a table. Hence ex- pense and labor are reduced to the lowest terms and the simple life is demonstrated as feasible and satis- factory. My professorial friend on a visit to Calcutta found on his hotel bill a charge of a rupee a day for food furnished his servant. Whereupon he summoned him and asked if he ate a rupee a day. The man opened his eyes in astonishment and informed his mas- ter that not a man in the wide world could eat a rupee a day. Whereupon my friend told him to buy his own food in the bazaar, and he went away 92 3[nDia, its People ano Customg vastly content with an allowance of a quarter of a rupee. But such a ser- vant was pampered. The average in- come in India of a peasant is of the smallest, and on this the family must be supported and provision made for funerals and marriages. If daily life is simple, such occasions are complex. Marriage is an affair of dower, and the ceremonies are elaborate and pro- longed, leaving the great majority of parents in hopeless debt. It is no won- der that when the rains fail there is immediate distress with starvation not very far away. The outward life is barren and even austere in its poverty, so that one is tempted to look upon the people as savages; but how extraordinary is the complexity of the social life. In this our life in the United States is in com- parison primitive and undeveloped. Takemarriage, forexample. Howwon- derful the contrast! The fundamental rule in India is that the woman may 93 Cfte ©pitft of tbe ©tient not choose for herself, and the second rule is like unto it in rigidity, she may not remain unmarried, and only less universal, once married she may not marry again. None knows precisely how the custom of infant marriages originated, but it is now something fortunately unique, a custom which separates the people of India from all others, and which bears with it a long list of ills. It is compUcated further with the rules of caste, a woman may marry into a higher caste, but never into a lower caste, and with innumer- able notions and rites and rules of religion, so that the native is bound and loses in his family relationships the freedom he seemed to gain by the simplicity of his surroundings and his ability to enjoy dignity without en- cumbrances. In this cursory survey, all too frag- mentary and hasty, of the outward ap- pearances of the Indian people, reli- gion must be included. We shall have 94 3InDia, it0 People ana Customs something to say of its spirit later on,, and here we can refer only to its outer forms. The great mass of the people (207,- 000,000 of them) are classed as Hindu. This does not mean that they have the same religion, in our sense, for they worship many different gods in many different ways, but it signifies that they acknowledge the supremacy of the Brahmans, and accept the caste system. Within this great mass are re- ligions and sects innumerable, some of them hostile, many of them hereti- cal, and some of them depraved. The Brahmans will minister to any and to all, for their own faith is different from all the rest and is incommunicable to other castes. Hence they accommo- date themselves to the weakness and ignorance of others, as if a philosophic theist among ourselves, thinking it im- possible to teach the common folk, and recognizing in a condescending way our religions as forces for good and the 95 Cfie ^pitit of ti)e ©rient best that we can comprehend, should be ready to minister, for a price, indif- ferently in a Quaker meeting, an Epis- copal church, a Roman Catholic ca- thedral, a Mormon temple or a Chris- tian Science congregation, classing all together as "Christian," and hold- ing his own philosophy as the essen- tial truth of which the others are mere shadows and outward forms. Next to the Hindus in importance are the Mohammedans. It is a relief to turn from the gaudy and dirty Hindu temples to the empty and clean and often magnificent mosques. There is a solemnity, a simplicity, a solidity, which appeals profoundly to our reli- gious instincts. No pictures, no sta- tues, no altar, no music, but here and there a worshipper, with his face turned towards Mecca and his knees bent in prayer. There are more than 62,000,- 000 of these worshippers of God, the descendants of the conquerors of India and their proselytes. The faith con- 96 3In0ia, its People anD Customs stantly increases, partly because its natural growth is more rapid than with the population in general, and partly because new believers are won from members of the lower Hindu castes. The religion, however, has not re- mained pure. It too is divided into sects, and it has been influenced by Hinduism in various matters of belief and practice so that some Mohamme- dans unhesitatingly join in the Hindu festivals. Third in importance are the peoples of primitive religions, who have not yet accepted the caste system. But they also gradually yield to their sur- roundings and become incorporated in the prevailing religion. From them many have been converted also to Christianity, and it is probable that still greater gains will be made in the future. Besides, there are Jains and Buddhists and Parsis and Christians, making altogether a wilderness of re- ligions, with all varieties of faith, from 97 Cfte ©pint of t{)e ©tient the most philosophic to the most pu- erile and impure. As with religion, so with language, we have a vast variety with wide dif- ferences. Some of the languages can- not express at all ideas which are among the simplest and most com- monplace known to us. Some of them are monosyllabic and as simple as words communicating thought can be, others are highly complex, so polysyl- labic that a whole thought is expressed in a word, so intricate that a hundred forms are given of a single tense of a single verb, while still others are re- fined, copious in vocabulary, finished in structure, and expressive of the pur- est-emotions and the noblest thoughts of which humanity is capable. Again we make a threefold division: we re- member that Mongoloid people came into India from the northeast. Two millions speak languages which be- long to the Indo-Chinese family. Then next, the earlier inhabitants, driven 98 3InDm, tt0 Ipeople anD Customs south into the Deccan, speak the lan- guages called Dravidian; of them there are 60,000,000; while 221,000,000 people speak languages which are classed as Indo-European. Our survey would be incomplete in- deed were we to leave out caste. As we have seen, its acceptance is the ac- ceptance of Hinduism, and its influ- ence extends even into the Moham- medan faith. It is perhaps the most characteristic feature of Indian social life. How it arose we do not know, probably by an exaggeration of influ- ences known elsewhere, race pride and prejudice, religious aloofness, aristo- cratic exclusiveness, and finally trade- unionism. Caste is the most compli- cated and the most powerful social or- ganization known on earth. Let me conclude this chapter by quoting at length from the Census of India for 1901: "For my own part I have always been much impressed by the difficulty LOFC. 99 Cbe^pititoftbe^tient of conveying to European readers who have no experience of India, even an approximate idea of the extraor- dinary complexity of the social system which is involved in the word caste. At the risk of being charged with frivolity, I shall therefore venture on an illustration, based on one which I pubHshedin * Blackwood's Magazine* some dozen years ago, of a caste ex- pressed in the terms of an EngHsh social group. I said then, let us take an instance, and in order to avoid the fumesof bewilderment that are thrown off by uncouth names, let us frame it on English lines. Let us imagine the great tribe of Smith, the *noun of mul- titude,' as a famous headmaster used to call it, to be transformed by art magic into a caste organized on the Indian model, in which all the subtle nuances of social merit and demerit which * Punch' and the society papers love to chronicle should have been set and hardened into positive regu- 100 3InDia, tt0 People and Customs lations affecting the intermarriage of families. The caste thus formed would trace its origin back to a mythical eponymous ancestor, the first Smith, who converted the rough stone hatchet into the bronze battle-axe, and took his name from the * smooth' weapons that he wrought for his tribe. Bound together by this tie of common de- scent, they would recognize as a car- dinal doctrine of their community the rule that a Smith must marry a Smith, and could by no possibility marry a Brown, a Jones, or a Robinson. But over and above this general canon two other modes or principles of grouping within the caste would be conspicuous. First of all, the entire caste of Smith would be split up into an indefinite number of * in-marrying' clans, based upon all sorts of trivial distinctions. Brewing Smiths and bak- ing Smiths, hunting Smiths and shoot- ing Smiths, temperance Smiths and li- censed-victualler Smiths, Smiths with lOI C6e Spirit of tfte ©tient double-barrelled names and hyphens, Smiths with double-barrelled names without hyphens, conservative Smiths, radical Smiths, tinker Smiths, tailor Smiths, Smiths of Mercia, Smiths of Wessex— all these and all other ima- ginable varieties of the tribe Smith would be, as it were, crystallized by an inexorable law forbidding the mem- bers of any of these groups to marry beyond the circle marked out by the clan name. Thus the Unionist Mr. Smith could only marry a Unionist Miss Smith and could not think of a home-rule damsel; the free-trade Smiths would have nothing to say to the protectionists; a hyphen Smith could only marry a hyphen Smith, and so on. Secondly, and this is the point which I more especially wish to bring out here, running through this end- less series of clans we should find an- other principle at work breaking up each clan into three or four smaller groups which form a sort of ascending 102 3[nDia, itg People anp Cugtomg scale of social distinction. Thus the clan of hyphen Smiths, which we take to be the cream of caste, — the Smiths who have attained to the crowning glory of double names securely welded together by hyphens,— would be again divided into, let me say, Anglican, Dissenting and Salvationist hyphen Smiths, taking rank in that order. Now the rule of this trio of groups would be that a man of the highest or Anglican order might marry a girl of his own group or of the two lower groups; that a man of the second or Dissenting group might take a Dis- senting or Salvationist wife, while a Salvationist man would be restricted to his own group. A woman, it will be observed, could under no circum- stances marry down into a group be- low her, and it would be thought emi- nently desirable for her to marry into a higher group. Other things being equal, it is clear that two thirds of the Anglican girls would get no hus- 103 Cf)e %>mit of tfte ©tient bands and two thirds of the Salva- tionist men no wives. These are some of the restrictions which would con- trol the process of match-making a- mong the Smiths if they were organ- ized in a caste of the Indian type. There would also be restrictions as to food. The different in-marrying clans would be precluded from marry- ing together, and their possibilities of reciprocal entertainment would be limited to those products of the con- fectioner's shop into the composition of which water, the most fatal and effective vehicle of ceremonial impu- rity, had not entered. Fire purifies, water pollutes. It would follow in fact that they could eat chocolates and other forms of sweetmeats together, but could not drink tea or coffee and could only partake of ices if they were made without water and were served on metal not porcelain plates. I am sensible of having trenched on the limits of official and scientific pro- 104 31nDia, m People anP Cugtomg priety in attempting to describe an ancient and famous institution in un- duly vivacious language, but the par- allel is as accurate as any parallel drawn from the other end of the world can well be, and when one wishes to convey a vivid idea one cannot afford to be over particular as to the terms one uses." IV 3InDia, its spirit anD Profilems IV Slntifa^ ftsi ^pitit anD pvobltm^ HE spirit of India is ex- pressed most clearly in its religion. So its sons tell us, and so the impartial stu- dent must decide. Some writers set forth religion as the cause of the de- gradation or advancement of a peo- ple, while others teach that it is itself the result of the condition of the na- tion. There is truth in both views, since the condition of a people reacts upon its religion and its religion acts upon its condition. Without discuss- ing the question we point out the clear fact that in India the religion is closely in accord with all the circumstances and conditions of the people's life. We may find the widest variety of belief and practice, from the dim, con- fused, irrational cults of the Dravidian peoples to the high philosophy of the Brahmans, and in so vast a mass one 109 C{)ce>pitttoftt)ea)nent finds with difficulty a clue which will reduce it to order. How should one de- scribe in a few pages Christianity with its many divisions, its antagonistic sects and teachings? More difficult still is it to make intelligible the tan- gle of worships which we call the re- ligion of India. But, with a clear con- sciousness of the imperfection of our result, we shall make the attempt. At the bottom we find a mass of un- systematized, unformulated and un- organized beliefs which we should call superstitions, fears of mysterious influences and powers which cannot be defined or described, like the fears men feel in passing through a dark wood at night, or the sensations of children as they look into a deep cave, or the feelings which survive in civili- zation as to the number thirteen and seeing the moon over the left shoulder. These feelings are attached to places and objects, to a strange tree or a peculiar stone or a mysterious ani- IIO 3fnDia, m ©pitit atiD ptoftlcmsf mal or an unusual man or woman. They are a combination of wonder and of fear, and result in a combina- tion of rites, some of simple worship, the expression of the wonder, and some of propitiation, the expression of the fear. Especially animals are looked upon as divine, snakes and tigers and monkeys and many others. Divine, did I write? The word has too sacred a meaning; unnatural, or supernatu- ral, or uncannny, or ghostly would be more fitting. Naturally the rites are of the simplest, as boys knock wood to avert bad luck, a remnant of ancient heathenism still surviving among us. In this lowest stage there is constant change. If, for example, a tree which is supposed to be worshipful is cut down by some foreigner, nothing is thought of the catastrophe, nor is any explanation forthcoming as to what has become of the mysterious power which had been supposed to dwell in it. Ill Cl)e Spirit of tfie SDtient As these men worship powerful and dreaded animals, so they worship pow- erful and dreaded men living and dead. Before the grave of an English- man who had been much feared the simple-minded natives made offerings, cigars and brandy and the like, sup- posing that after death he could be propitiated by gifts of the articles he was addicted to in life. Stranger yet, a story is told of an official who be- came a god while still alive. His wor- shippers would grovel at his feet and offer gifts, while he cursed them and declared himself no god. But his af- firmations did not affect their faith; a god he was and a god he must re- main. Above this condition, where, let me repeat, the terms god and divine are too exalted for the objects of worship, we find an infinite series of grada- tions. There are local gods with his- tories and priests and elaborate cults, and there are universal gods, who 112 3[nDia, jt0 Spirit anD Ptoftlemis may be described nearly in the terms we use to describe the Christianas God. There are in connection with these various deities all forms of rites: some of them grossly indecent, some refined and pure; some shockingly cruel and others impressive and well ordered; some of them wildly extrav- agant; others simple and plain. For as we have a continent in extent and a continent in the number of peoples, so we have more than a continental variety in religion. But still, exclud- ing only the Mohammedans, the Parsis, the Sikhs and the Dravidian peoples not yet reclaimed, all are ranked as Hindus. How can we ex- plain such an anomaly? How can we reconcile oneness of faith with a multiplicity of contradictory beliefs? Well, it is not a oneness of faith. Hin- duism, as we have explained, means merely the mass of those who accept the supremacy of the Brahmans and the caste system. Within those broad "3 Cfte ©pint of tbe ©rient limits every one may believe and wor- ship as he will. For the religion of India in its high- est development is the worship of the "Ultimate and the Absolute," as Mr. Okakura told us in our second chapter. Can we get that meaning clearly be- fore us? In spite of its abstract nature, let us try. The Ultimate and the Ab- solute represent the reality which is from everlasting to everlasting, which never changes, and which is infinite, that is, limitless. Therefore it is the opposite of all which we can see or touch or define. All these things pass away. Sunshine and shadow, day and night, leaves and flowers, winter and summer, the trees, the hills themselves, the earth, the sun, the universe, all be- gan to be, all change, all pass away, all therefore are the very opposite of the Ultimate, which is changeless and forever the same. How shall we define it? Perhaps by negatives: it is not the fire, the rain, the sun, the earth, man's 114 31nDia, ite Spirit anD Ptofilem^ mind, the universe. But how shall we define it more closely? We cannot, for to define it is to limit it. I was once in the market-place of a city in the Deccan, listening to a Christian Brahman preach the gospel. A student from a college in Ceylon translated his words for me in excel- lent English. As the preacher spoke of the nature of God, infinite, all good, all wise, all loving, a Hindu in the congregation began vehemently to contradict. The dispute became so hot that it was proposed to leave the street and, entering a garden near at hand, to sit down under the trees and have the discussion to an end. The sub- stance of it was this : The Hindu asked the Christian as follows: "You declare God to be infinite?" **Yes." "What is the meaning of infinite'?" "It means ^limitless.'" "And what part of speech is 'good'?" "'Good'is an adjective." "And what is the grammatical func- tion of an adjective?" "To limit a "5 Cbe Spirit of tl)e©uent noun." "How then do you apply an ad- jective to God, calling him good, and thus limiting the limitless?" By this philosophy, therefore, God cannot be described, no adjective ap- plies to him, and we can neither preach about him nor urge any to worship him. How then can we have anything to do with him? In the conversation described above the Christian Brah- man took his turn in asking ques- tions: "You believe in God as infi- nite?" "Yes, I so believe." "And you say that no adjective can be applied to him?" "I so affirm." "How then can you distinguish him from nothing?" That becomes the question, how can you distinguish him from nothing? You cannot by logic or discourse, but you may by long processes of contem- plation or of asceticism bring yourself to a place where you will understand. Then it will appear to you that God is the only reality, and that everything which men regard as real is an illu- 1x6 3InDia, its spirit auD Pro&lem0 sion,— earth, and men, and sky, and devils, and gods, and life, and death, and my own soul, all are such stuff as dreams, having no real existence, for that which is is the Infinite. My own existence is illusion like all the rest, excepting as I come to identify myself with the changeless, timeless, limitless, indescribable Ultimate and Absolute. This, then, is the height of religion, but manifestly it is unattainable for most people. Men with families, en- gaged in the struggle for the lives of those they love, believe that wife and children and parents and neighbors and their own selves are real. It is only by withdrawal from all these that a man may convince himself at last af- ter years of rigid discipline that no- thing exists but God. So the common people may be left to their delusions, for they cannot be led to this true wor- ship of the Ultimate and the Absolute. Hence, too, the Brahman who has at- 117 C{)eS)pmtoftf)effl)tient tained salvation may with condescen- sion assist at the celebration of any form of service, since all are alike true or untrue to him. To the common people such a man is an incomprehensible mystery, and because incomprehensible he is there- fore divine, for in India the divine is nothing else than the mysterious, the incomprehensible and the powerful. Mystery and power, these under a vast variety of forms are the divinities of all the people, of the dullest pea- sant as of the highest scholar; and as the philosophic Brahman delights in such disputes as I have described above, where the mind at last is "in endless mazes lost," so the common man loves his own special brand of the incomprehensible. He looks up with awe to the men above him and worships them. At the great Mela at Allahabad, in the triangle formed by the junction of the Ganges and the Jumna, I have seen lines of filthy as- ii8 31nDia, it0 Spirit ano Pto&lems cetics, naked, repulsive, with foul and matted hair, followed by com- panies of men and women worship- ping them and believing in their su- perior and divine holiness. Only let us remember that "holiness" does not mean of necessity uprightness, but attainment of supernatural compre- hension and power. Naturally magic flourishes. It is sup- posed that man can attain power over the gods by his rites, and stories are told of elaborate plans formed by the gods to prevent saints from continu- ing in holiness because of the fear that the saint would become greater than the gods themselves and compel them to do his bidding. Perhaps the most popular of all the sacred books of India contains a long story of the creatio;i of a particularly attractive and sen- sual universe for the corruption of a saint who had successfully resisted all the temptations of our world. As the men of the highest intelHgence 119 Cf)e Spirit of tbe ©tient feel themselves forbidden to teach the common people, they are left to their debasing superstitions and to a con- fused medley of beliefs. Superstitions born of yesterday are mingled with traditions three thousand years old; relatively high and pure teachings of God and morality will be found close beside fantastic and immoral cults. Any one may found any religion he pleases, and new forms of belief are set forth continuously. But after the founder dies and the enthusiasm of the first generation dies, the sect grad- ually gives up its peculiarities and sinks back into the ordinary fashions of the mass of the population. Within this complicated mass of beliefs and rites we may find most of the distinc- tions and differences familiar to our- selves though quaintly expressed : thus believers in a rigid predestination, a salvation by grace, are designated as the kitten sect, since they are carried to salvation as a cat carries its kit- 120 3[nDia, its %mit anP Ptoftlemg ten, by the nape of the neck; while believers in free will and salvation through our own efforts are the mon- key sect, who are saved as is the mon- key who clings tight with his two arms around his mother's neck. There are great denominations which believe in a Creator who formed all things, and one which teaches that all things flow forth from God by an eternal necessity. But while there are resemblances so are there differences. Christians be- lieve in the immortality of the soul, as do the Hindus, but the contrast here is striking. Christians believe that God created man, and that there was a time when we were not. Hindus be- lieve that the soul is uncreated, and that it has already existed forever as it will continue to live forever. Chris- tians suppose that at death the soul enters "an eternal state" where it will continue forever, but Hindus think of death merely as an incident in the long chain of endless changes which go on 121 CJ)e@pititoftt)e©mnt without beginning or end, unless in- deed in rare instances some one attain salvation. Salvation to the Christian means heaven, but to the educated Hindu it means absorption in the De- ity and the loss of our individual exist- ence. Save as it finds this salvation, the soul goes on and on forever, and exists in a vast variety of forms —on earth, in heaven, in hell, as god, devil, insect, animal, man, having all expe- riences and undergoing every possible form of happiness and woe, though on the whole suffering predominates. Thus a series of stories about Buddha very popular in Ceylon represents him as having adventures during many lives, and mentions him as living in the following existences: ascetic eighty- three times; a monarch fifty-eight times; the divinity of a tree forty-three times; a religious teacher twenty-six times; a courtier, a Brahman, a prince, each twenty-four times; a nobleman twenty-three times; a learned man 122 ^4 r r "^ ^>,^ ■i I ,r' 1 31nDia, m ©pint anD profilemiS twenty-two times; the god Sekra twenty times; an ape eight times; a merchant thirteen times; a rich man twelve times; a deer, a Hon, each ten times; the bird Hansa eight times; a snipe, an elephant, each six times; a fowl, a slave, a golden eagle, each five times ; a horse, a bull, a Maha Brahma, a peacock, a serpent, each four times; a potter, an outcast, a guana, each three times; a fish, an elephant driver, a rat, a jackal, a cow, a woodpecker, a thief, a pig, each two times; a dog, a curer of snake bites, a gambler, a ma- son, a smith, a devil dancer, a scholar, a silversmith, a carpenter, a water- fowl, a frog, a hare, a cock, a kite, a jungle-fowl, a kindura, each once. Of course this list makes only a begin- ning of Buddha's innumerable lives, giving only those of which incidents have been handed down. He was never born as less than a snipe, nor in one of the greater hells, nor as a female. The Indian imagination delights in 123 Cbe ©pirit of tfie ©tient these extravagances. Thus for a mea- sure of time : take a cube of ten miles' measurement, composed of the hard- est rock, let the woman who has the softest touch of all the women in the world once in a hundred years touch it once with her lightest touch, using the most delicate fabric known. Beyond all doubt each touch will make some impression, and when by successive touches the whole cube is worn away to nothingness you have your unit, with which you can measure periods which are really long! We may ask by what is our future existence determined, what is the rule and order of our fate? And the answer is karma. As the Christian believes in a God who rules and by whose right- eous judgment men are rewarded or punished, so the Hindu believes in an invariable law (karma) of cause and ef- fect. Every cause must have an effect and every effect must have a cause. Thus, our present life is an effect: it 124 3[nDia, its g)pitit anp ptofilemig began to be so many years ago, and it is happy or miserable. The cause must be sought in some former life. Because we then were virtuous we now are happy, or because we then were sinful we now suffer. Our past deeds work out their recompense now. In like fash- ion our lives are causes; the deeds we do shall live after us and produce a fu- ture in accord with them. Once happy now because of a good life in the past, we may enter the next existence in a state of misery because of our present evil deeds. All we do in life is balanced at our death and the net result carried to a new account, or, rather, embodied in a new form of life. Thus, the net outcome of a life may have the value of a flea, then a flea will embody it; or a god, when a god will enshrine it. When now the balance is used up, whether it be only sufficient for the life of a flea or ample for the existence of a god in the highest heaven, or so aw- ful that it means ages in the lowest 125 Cfte Spirit of tbe^ticiit hell, the condition changes, flea, god or devil dies and a new existence be- gins once more. Thus one may go at once from heaven to hell, or from some lower form to a higher, though the transitions are usually not extreme, and it is a toilsome task for one who has fallen to recover place and op- portunity again. Thus are explained the inequalities in the present world : Some good men are miserable because of evil done in former life; they will get their reward by and by. Some evil men are prosperous because of virtue in the former world, and their punish- ment for the present offences as surely awaits them in the world to come. Thus the universe shapes itself into "three worlds," past, present and to come, instead of, as with the Chris- tians, the present and the future. The result of this teaching is twofold: first, submit to fate; your present lot is the result of former deeds; and second, know that existence is misery. Hap- 126 3InDia, it0 Spirit anP Ptofalems piness may endure for a season, but surely evil comes as night follows the day. Life, therefore, is wearisome, and the highest gospel is the teaching of an escape from our individual exist- ence. We have written of goodness as holiness, but in the development of religion in India religion counts for more than ethics. Forms and cere- monies, prayers and formulae, espe- cially in unknown tongues, the minis- tration of priests and the maintenance of ceremonial cleanliness, are the main things. A woman touched by a little child in an early morning hour cried out, "Poor me!" for she was obHged to begin over again the long course of ceremonies almost completed and necessary before she could undertake her household tasks. A traveller who bought an article of food from a vend- er at a railway station and helped him- self to his purchase had to take the whole stock, as his touch had polluted 127 C6e ©pitit of tfte ©tient it. The ritual varies with the different cults, but the same underlying ideas obtain with all. One form of holiness is right conduct, but it is not on an equality with ceremony as an approach to God. One may well dwell upon these re- ligious forms and ideas, for they seem especially to represent the spirit of India, like a mental photograph of the whole. As we cannot think of our friend without imagining his body, or of it save as a symbol of him, as we may begin with either the outward or the inward, so interwoven are they in his unity of person, so it is with this peo- ple. Let us then review both sides briefly. A vast continent, with varying scen- eries, races, climates and conditions, enclosed by great mountains on the north and wide oceans on the other sides, it is a world in itself, yet a world unlike the rest of the globe, with spe- cial characteristics of its own. Its tem- 128 3[nDia, itg Spirit anP Pro61em0 perature is excessive, its dependence upon periodic rains extreme, its fer- tility great. Its climate makes man at once submissive and irritable, deadens sustained effort and kills ambition. In it he comes to an early maturity, attains his measure soon, and rests in a middle age which is content with small success. Nature seems supreme. Its fertility makes great labor unne- cessary, and also overpowers man so that he is helpless before beast and jungle, famine and pestilence, — a land where vegetation is grandiose and over-luxuriant, so that humanity is in- significant notwithstanding its mighty numbers. Here man early reached a high de- gree of civilization. He conquered the land, but never thoroughly. He wor- ships beasts and serpents, and is de- voured by them. He needs but little, but has never learned to make the lit- tle certain so that it can be depended upon, but learns to submit to forces 129 Cfte ©pitit of tbe ©tient stronger than himself, accepting the inevitable. The population is formed layer on layer, ancient peoples who have made no advance since the dawn of civilization and other races and peo- ples superimposed, each with its own status and its own degree of advance- ment. Its history is the story of suc- cessive invasions, of prodigal luxury for the conquerors and their certain debasement until ready for the coming of some new virile people who repeat the same experience; of a land where the lower accept their estate and wor- ship men who are more highly placed; where dreams of equality and liberty have never come, and where the over- hanging and overpowering belief is in fate ; where that which is is that which shall be, and where there is no desire for any new thing under the sun; where none the less man has reflected profoundly, considering the deepest problems of Hfe and destiny and being; where high social position depends 130 3InDia, itisi Spirit anD Ptotilems not upon wealth, nor power, nor intel- ligence, but on birth; where the ideal is not success, nor comfort, nor fame, nor wealth, nor rank, but the mastery of all outer circumstances and the su- premacy of the spirit; where asceti- cism, philosophy and earthly indiffer- ence to the world are the attainments most sought. "My pundit," said my friend in Bombay, "would not leave his seat and go to the window to see the greatest spectacle on earth." When now we ask ourselves for the specific problems for Indiaand fortheir solution, we are inclined to say these things are too great for us ; let us leave them to the slow working of natural laws and to the direction of the Divine Spirit, ourselves meanwhile content with the different fate allotted to us. But such an answer would be in har- mony with the spirit of India and not with the spirit of the West, which seeks to master nature and to make natural forces our servants. But pro- 131 Cfte %9ixit of tfte €)rient test as we may against fatalistic con- tent we are certain that the man is doomed who attempts, in Kipling's phrase, to "hustle the East." True, remedies can be found, but they will be slow in their effects, and India can solve the problems which have been caused by millenniums of existence only by centuries of endeavor. Here will be no instance of a people born in a day or of a regeneration by mi- raculous transformation. Here reform contends against hoary traditions, a society bound by custom which is stronger than life, and the forces of material nature. Manifestly we begin with the last named, nature. There is no question in India of an American social condi- tion, of villages with wide streets and trim gardens and pleasant cottages. We cannot anticipate a time when the laboring man shall earn a dollar and a half a day, and when the man of moderate circumstances may antici- 132 JlnDia, itisi Spirit anD Iptoblems pate a thousand a year. We shall not look forward to a future when our ma- chinery of civilization, our houses and furniture and clothing and food shall be introduced. East shall continue to be East, India will not become Amer- ica, and in outward conditions there shall continue to be a great gulf fixed between the two. Similarity in these things is not even desirable. The Hin- du has his own standards, and they are in accordance with his needs. He has lessons for us, as he shows how self- respect can be maintained on the mer- est fraction of that which we regard as essential. It would indeed be a ca- lamity were our notions to prevail ev- erywhere. Surely his is not after all the lowlier ideal, to be rid of impedi- menta, and to seek highest satisfac- tion not in the abundance of things he possesses but in life itself There are times when we may well envy the simplicity and plainness of life in the great peninsula. 133 Cbe Spirit of tfte ©mm But admitting all this and insisting upon it, still the people may be deliv- ered from actual want, from the pov- erty which does not know what the satisfaction of hunger means, and from the recurrent calamities which deci- mate whole sections. Better agricul- tural methods, irrigation on a still larger scale, the cultivation of regions which are scantily peopled, the ex- ploitation of natural resources which are still untouched, all this and more can be accomplished, so that there may be an increase for ordinary life and provision for years of scarcity. This would require progress in wealth, but at a moderate pace, with life con- tinuing upon the ancient lines. The problems of government are scarcely less arduous. It has always been far too expensive, and so it con- tinues in our day. The British govern- ment has given unexampled peace to the people, and justice. It is incorrup- tible and impartial. It studies the 134 3Inom, m Spirit anD Ptofilemg needs of the people and it seeks to further their interests. In the second chapter we quoted words of high ap- proval from native writers. But there is another side. The government is terribly expensive, and it is foreign. British standards of life cannot be lowered to the native level, so that sal- aries must be paid which will main- tain the English ways and which will tempt competent men to a life of exile. Hence salaries are very high, with am- ple allowances and pensions and pay- ments to widows and orphans. The home government exacts no tribute, yet an immense amount of money goes year by year to England, sent home by English officials in payment for Eng- lish luxuries and necessities. There is an army of civil servants of foreign birth, and regiments of troops, who are supported by the native treasury. A visit to the cantonments of a crack British regiment astonished me at its provision for the needs of the men, ev- 135 CfteSpmtoftfteaDtient ery three soldiers having a native ser- vant. Any other policy would be sui- cidal; the foreigner cannot live as at home, but the native pays the bills. Besides, the foreign occupation crushes the native spirit. Every native gives way to the Anglo-Saxon as to his conqueror. White men constitute a caste by themselves, and the conse- quent servility on the part of the men who own the land is degrading to both ruled and ruler. In such circumstances a vigorous national life is impossible. We cannot conceive of India as com- ing forward to play a great part in the future of the world, as making great contributionsof its own to our science, arts and literature, while its children are so humiliated. The solution would seem to be an in- creasing measure of self-government. This is demanded by a growing pub- lic sentiment, and is awarded in a de- gree by the employment of natives in the civil and military service, yet only 136 3InDia, its ©pint anD Pro&lem0 in a small degree, for the positions of large pay and influence are reserved for white men. None else, it is argued, are capable. Foreign writers complain that even as subordinates native offi- cials are arrogant and corrupt and in- efficient. Doubtless there are grounds for the accusation, but none the less India can have a true future only as the ideal is kept steadily in view, and as the British government recognizes its position as one of trust, holding it not for glory nor for gain but for the interests of the people and for their advancement. The young men must be taught honesty and patriotism. There is little yet of either. How could it be otherwise with the story of the past before us and its influence all per- vading among the people? Patriotism has been impossible, and now it is only slowly kindled; but without it there can be neither true dignity nor true re- sponsibility. The same great princi- ples obtain throughout the world in 137 Cbe@>pmtoftbe©nent society and in physics. Government must be by the people and for the peo- ple; not, it is true, on the pattern ev- erywhere of England or of the United States, —as well expect English coun- try houses and American villages ev- erywhere, —but adapted to varying cir- cumstances and needs. England has proved herself worthy to rule. She only has made a success of empires across the seas. She only has sent forth suc- cessions of noble and self-sacrificing men to serve her in foreign lands. But to all the rest she must add the high- est gift of all, the capacity and the right of self-government. It will be her highest praise if she can make her rule unnecessary and bring at last the day when India shall take its place among independent empires. But that is in the dim future. Imme- diately there are more pressing needs. We have seen how small is the per- centage of educated men and how in- finitesimal the number of women who 138 3[nDia, it0 Spirit anP Pto&Iemg can read. The problem of education is almost the greatest at the present time— so great that it is baffling and yet imperative. Thus far the govern- ment has confined its attention to the training of the few. Young men are taught that they may be fitted for the public service. Entrance to public life is the motive which sends the bright- est sons of well-to-do families to the colleges. They are taught the studies which belong to our own institutions, and acquit themselves, as we should expect, with credit. The larger prob- lem of the masses is almost untouched. Yet while it is unsolved India will con- tinue as it is, the prey to superstition and tradition and disaster. Only en- lightenment can break the chains which bind the people, and make pos- sible for them a glimpse into the higher world. Mission schools suc- ceed with the few; it remains for the government to undertake the problem for the mass. How shall this be accom- 139 Cbeg)pititoft6effl)rient plished, whence shall come the funds, the teachers, and how the desire shall be awakened where it does not now exist, are questions calling at once for the wisest statesmanship and the broadest philanthropy. Such an edu- cation, we need not add, should not be modelled upon our own. The people of India have their own difficulties and they should be taught to meet them. There are already noble efforts in pro- gress for such training as will fit them for the struggle for existence, making them better farmers, more expert me- chanics, and more competent workers in their various occupations. Educa- tion thus answers the two questions already discussed— how the people shall be prepared for self-government and how they shall be relieved from the burden of crushing poverty. Science is given us for the mastery of nature, to make man at once intelligent and free. Adapted to India it will accom- plish these two tasks. Man will no 140 3[nDia, itt %mt anD Pto&Iems longer be the prey of superstitions, surrounded by imaginary foes, and he will be armed against his real antago- nists, learning how to live to best ad- vantage and to highest purpose. Edu- cation must be the means to all higher ends. Religion we have left to the last. It is the greatest problem of all and the most pressing. We are far from advo- cating the introduction of a new sec- tarianism, but the most sympathetic review of conditions in India must re- veal the need for a new gospel. Very much which goes under the head of our own religion is indeed unnecessary. Its introduction would only bring fresh confusion. The Hindus will not accept Christianity as bound up with our civ- ilization, for that, as we have seen, is not suited to their needs and is repug- nant to their taste. Nor will they ac- cept our philosophical doctrines. In metaphysics they are past masters, and they are not prepared to sit at the 141 Cfte Spirit of tbe ©tient feet of Western scholars. But fortu- nately, in our day Christianity is re- turning to its first simplicity, and in the teaching of Christ there is neither East nor West, but the gospel for a common humanity. Indian religion is a complex mass of cult and philosophy. Christianity should be taught in its simplest form, as the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. As the first it will free the people from their bondage to fear, from their superstitions, from their^ reliance upon priests and cere- monies, and will give each man his value as in vital relationship to God. The second will break down caste and exclusiveness, and teach men not to call each other common or unclean but to recognize their common and mutual relationship and duties. Caste isolates race from race, class from class, guild from guild, family from family. Philosophical religion com- pletes the isolation by separating the 142 3InDia, its %mit anD Problems individual and making him seek sal- vation for himself in meditation or by asceticism. Christianity breaks all this down, making service of others, even the outcastes, the highest worship, and bringing all men together as brothers. It is this inner regeneration which India chiefly needs. With it ac- complished, all that is best will follow, and we shall go there then, not from idle curiosity, but to learn the lessons it can teach us, of simplicity and spir- ituality and the freedom of the soul from the trammels of the outer world. V Cfiina, its people anD Customs V €}iim, ftjs i^eopie anD Cujstomjs |ET us think of the United States east of the Missis- sippi, with Texas, Missouri, Arkansas and Iowa added, filled with more than three hundred millions of inhabitants, and we can form a picture of China. This territory is divided into eighteen provinces, and its chief physical features are three great rivers, with plains, mountain ranges, hills in endless variety, and boundless resources. Besides, to the northeast is Manchuria, to the north Mongolia, and to the west and north- west Tibet, Hi and Kokonor. The whole is under Chinese control, one third of Asia, one tenth of the habi- table globe, constituting the greatest independent empire the world has ever known in population and in dura- tion. Its chief characteristic is isolation. 147 Cbe ©pittt of tfte ©rient It is bounded by mountain ranges, deserts, pathless wastes and the broad sea. From the dawn of history— and this conventional phrase here means a really immemorial antiquity— the empire has been not only free and independent but self-contained and self-reliant. Unlike India it has never known an invasion which has modi- fied the customs or the ideas of the people, for although foreigners have repeatedly conquered it, they have been powerless to influence the life of the people, but have themselves sub- mitted to ways and manners which are stronger than themost triumphant arms. Not only has the empire thus main- tained its solidarity and its traditions, but it has preserved and strengthened its pride. Could we conceive of the Mississippi Valley in isolation, its people having for thousands of years no vital connection with any other civilized folk, rude Indian tribes or 148 Cftma, it^ People anp Cugtomg some semi-civilized peoples consti- tuting the world outside its own boun- daries, we can understand how a pride ofracemightbecultivatedwhich would regard the indigenous type of civili- zation as the only enlightenment, and all the rest of the world as barbarous. So in fact has it been with China. Its own civilization is so ancient that its origin is wholly lost. The people in their own thought have always been enlightened. No great teachers ever came to them from other lands, no adventurous travellers brought back from beyond the mountains or the seas the treasures of foreign parts. Save for a few men who penetrated India, and for the coming of the Buddhist religion, no debt is acknowledged to any but to themselves. Thus the em- pire becomes "The Middle Kingdom," the middle of the earth, the centre of enlightenment, surrounded with outer darkness and a fringe of savages. We must dwell upon this feature and em- 149 Cfie ©pitit of tbe ©mm phasize it, for it is the key to our ex- planation at once of the institutions and character of the people and of the problems with which modern states- manship, science, philanthropy and missions must deal. Thus understood, we shall perceive that the Chinese are not inherently different from the rest of mankind. For far less reasons the Greeks looked down upon all peoples as upon barba- rians and thought it a virtue to hate un- reservedly the foreign nature. So pro- vincials the world over have thought themselves the elect of heaven. Com- mon as all this is, and familiar from countless instances known to our- selves, even among Americans with all our opportunities for knowledge of other locaUties, in China provincialism has been made racial by the situation of the country and by its wide separa- tion from other favored sections of the globe. Ten centuries ago China was un- 150 Cbina, itg People anP Customg doubtedly the most civilized portion of the world, and three thousand years ago only Egypt and possibly India could have competed with it. But while the others have changed in va- rious ways, China has remained the same. Think of some of its achieve- ments! The greatest structure ever reared by human hands is the great wall. It is fifteen hundred miles long; without break it crosses valleys, climbs mountains, clambers up the face of pre- cipices, and bounds an empire on the north. It was built before the formation of the Roman Empire, while it was still a republic, and while Christianity was still unborn, in 204 B. C. Or, to take a modern instance, while the enlight- ened peoples of Europe were still en- gaged with the Crusades, before gun- powder or the printing-press had been invented, China built the great canal, almost seven hundred years ago. Our imagination fails us with such numbers. A thousand years of Chinese 151 Cfte Spirit of tbe ©rient history makes no impression upon us, for they stand for no events and are represented to our thought by nothing distinguished in character or litera- ture. But to the scholar all is different. He learns to fill out the centuries and gains at least some faint idea of their magnitude. He comes to understand that it has not been quite a monoto- nous sameness, but that there have been wise and unwise rulers, success- ful and inefficient dynasties, periods of refinement with flourishing litera- ture and art and periods of terrible and desolating warfare. In China, too, he comes to understand there have been great sovereigns, great novelists, great essayists, great historians, great artists. To begin to master all that has been there achieved is beyond the powers of any man, and the most that an industrious student can hope to do is to learn more or less thoroughly the events of some single period, or to trace the development of some 152 Cbina, iw People anD Customs particular line of science or of art. Chinese encyclopaedias there are, in hundreds of volumes, and histories which seem interminalDle, and diction- aries which are terrifying by reason of their size, and compendiums, and short editions innumerable, them- selves seemingly long enough for the most industrious. But leaving this, let us look over the country and note some of its acquired characteristics. First of all perhaps is the kind of cultivation. Man here has developed a form of agriculture which is akin to gardening, minute, thorough, utilizing every spot and space, so that the impression is not of fields and meadows and pastures but of little plots as carefully tended as a flower- box for a window. There are no flocks nor herds nor carriages nor pretty farmhouses. Villages there are in- numerable. At a distance they are often attractive, but they will not bear a closer inspection. The streets are 153 Cfte ©pirit of tbe ©rient very narrow, seldom over ten feet in width, the houses are low, small and miserable, and there seems a total lack of order, cleanliness and, of course, of elegance. There are no parks nor pleasure-grounds nor attractive sub- urbs. The village begins and ends suddenly, and is as cramped for space as are the cities. There are no trees nor vines nor (not to dwell too long) comforts without the houses or within. Outside the villages are the garden- like fields, and roads stretching from village to village in all directions. There are great roads, some of them paved, but all of them, like the smaller ways, in horrible repair. This is true also of the streets in the cities. Peking is distinguished for the width of its streets and for their badness. It is said that after a rain pedestrians have per- ished in them, so deep are the holes and so fathomless the filth, while in dry seasons the dust is almost as ter- rible. 154 Cftina, itg People anP Cugtomg The traveller in China is repelled by this view even more than by his so- journ in India. He finds the adjective ** Asiatic" applicable to both and with derogatory significance. This is per- haps deepened as he remembers the imbecility of the people in their con- tact with the foreign powers. India has been repeatedly conquered, and China has proved defenceless against a few thousands of men. The same disorder and lack of system and contentment with obsolete methods are found in both war and peace, so that our visitor upon this brief inspection decides that China is grotesque and impossible. It is not easy to get beyond these sur- face opinions. It is true there is no- thing which corresponds to the caste of India nor to the vast variety of race and religion which makes the pro- blems there seem so intricate. The peo- ple of China are remarkably homoge- neous. It is true there are differences of race descent among them, but as 155 Cfte ©pitit of tfte ©tiem immigrants from different nations be- come in a generation or two indistin- guishable in the United States, losing their differences in a common likeness, so it is in China. There, however, the differences in language are great, dia- lects differing so widely that the na- tives of one district cannot understand the natives of another; but neverthe- less the homogeneity is greater than the diversity, for the written language in all sections is the same, so that all Chinamen study the same books in the same way, write the same styles of let- ters in the same words, and possess in general the same literary, philoso- phical and religious ideas. Further, the homogeneity is increased by the lack of hereditary distinctions in rank. There are, it is true, noble families and other families distinguished for centu- ries in various ways, but these distinc- tions do not separate their possessors from the people, and confer no privi- leges. Theoretically, China is the most 156 Cbma, it0 People anD Customs democratic of empires, a place where all men are equal. Theoretically, the son of the poorest peasant is on an equality in all respects with the son of the richest man, and as a matter of fact many of the greatest men in China have come from a humble par- entage and from poverty. Thus the natural and artificial barriers which isolate in India are wanting. This constitutes the first great dif- ference between the two: India is essentially aristocratic, while China both theoretically and practically is democratic. Why, then, cannot the foreigner easily and successfully learn more of the people than appears upon the surface ? There are reasons enough. One is that the foreigner is often too contemptuous to take the trouble. The view already outHned is sufficient and he abides with it. Another reason is that a real acquaintance requires great perseverance and persistence. It is not only that the language must 157 Cfte ©pitit oftbt ©riem be learned,— and this is one of the severest tasks ever set man,— but an intricate system of etiquette and an extended literature and history. It is only the unusually gifted foreigner who can overcome these barriers and enter into real intercourse, as it can be achieved on no easier terms, and therefore the number of foreigners whose opinion is really valuable is very small. We must remember that the Chinaman looks down upon us and esteems us barbarians. Recalling our own contempt for him, remember- ing his ill-smelling streets, his horrible roads, his comfortless dwellings and his many eccentric way s, that he should look down upon Europeans and Ameri- cans seems simply one more absurdity. But after all it is not absurd, though it is undoubtedly mistaken. Let us take up the two items named, language and etiquette, and try to understand why the foreigner is a barbarian to the Chinaman. First, the 158 1 ^^\T^' vJj Cftina, itg People anp Cugtomg language: this is the subject of life- long study to the educated man. The little boy begins the endless task. He is taught profound respect for his teacher, and is informed that the great sages, Confucius and Mencius, before whose tablets he bows on en- tering school, were teachers. His teacher is paid Httle in money but greatly in respect, and he may punish his stupid scholars at pleasure, though their parents would not think of flog- ging them. With this early reverence for the teacher is joined a reverence for books, so that not a printed page, or even a scrap with printing upon it, shall be treated with indignity. Thus from the start letters are given supreme place. Nor is this merely rhetorical ex- travagance. The boy in school sees every one giving place to scholars and gradu- ates, the presence of a man with a degree in a village giving it distinc- tion. Rich merchants pay large prices 159 Cfie^pititoftbefiDtient for the honor of a degree, though they know that the fact of its purchase de- stroys most of its value. Not only is social precedence given to scholar- ship, but there are legal immunities as well. The man who has passed the Imperial Examinations has rights be- fore the law possessed by none others, and more than this, he only is eligible to any position in the government. Not rank nor riches but scholarship gives what men everywhere covet,— pow- er, precedence, privilege,— and conse- quently in every village, with rare ex- ceptions, is a school. Rich men hire pri- vate tutors for their boys, and every- where there are signs of the predomi- nance of learning. It is true the results are not satis- factory from our point of view. The methods of instruction are slow, in- efficient and wasteful. Only the bright- est succeed, and multitudes of pupils gain nothing from their arduous toil. For example, students are required i6o China, it0 People anD Customs to commit an immense amount of literature to memory, spending years on the task, without one word of ex- planation. As if our primary student should be asked to commit the clas- sics— say Homer and Virgil — from be- ginning to end without any transla- tion or any explanation of any diffi- culty. Then, when at last after years the task is ended, all is begun again with translation and commentary, the translation and commentary being likewise committed to memory. Were our students required thus to commit all the Greek and Latin poets, with the classical prose authors in the same languages, to memory, with, in ad- dition, minute comments by stand- ard commentators, and be prepared on examination to begin at any point and write the text with the required commentary, and then to add a poem in the classic style and an essay ab- solutely correct according to the form and matter of the ancients, they would i6i CfteSpititoftfte^riem have a task comparable to that set the Chinese students. In consequence, some scholars fail in the initial task; they cannot remain in school long enough to commit their authors: others are "half learned," that is, they know their authors by heart, but do not in the least appre- hend the meaning, and above these are all kinds and conditions of ac- quirements. Thus those who fall out by the way have nothing of real value to show for their expenditure of time and labor. But the Chinese regard all this as natural, for why should not the fit survive in examinations as in na- ture, and the weak and unfit fall out by the wayside? Besides, there are competent scholars enough, and we need not be anxious to increase their number. Nor are the results with those who succeed altogether beneficial. In all the long course of study absolute submis- sion to authority is insisted on. As the 162 Cbma, its People anD Customs teacher is honored next to the parent, as the printed page is regarded with honor, so in still higher degree are the classic books venerated. All the honor which Christians have given to the Bible is lavished upon the Chinese "Sacred Books." In America there are thousands who treat the Bible with scant respect, but in China there is lit- erally none who does not honor the writings of Confucius. Thus a religious sentiment gathers around these books, and they are supposed to contain the fundamental truth of the universe it- self and the laws which must govern mankind. Hewho obeys them is happy, he who disobeys them is a wretch. The welfare of the empire is dependent upon conformity to the teachings, and even nature, sky and earth and sea are affected by man*s obedience or dis- obedience to them. Moreover, all lit- erature—essays, poems, history— is filled with allusions to these sacred writings, and even the common talk of 163 ./. Cfte %pmt of tftc flDticnt educated men cannot be understood unless we, like them, are familiar with their whole range. We can understand now why the or- dinary foreigner appears like a bar- barian. He knows nothing of these things. Even if he "knows the lan- guage" it is only some spoken dialect, and even if he can read the Chinese characters he does not attain to liter- ary excellence. Thus, judged by one standard, the only standard known, he fails abjectly. And the Chinaman does not value our acquirements in the least. He knows nothing of Greek and Latin and Hebrew, nor of modern lan- guages nor modern science; hence a foreigner may be a marvel in all these, and produces no effect at all because he is ignorant of Chinese literature and the Sacred Books. Let us repeat, this learning is the sign of the gentleman, it constitutes aris- tocracy, and the foreigner does not possess it. Why, then, should he be ad- 164 Cbina, itg People auD Cugtomg mitted to the society of gentlemen? They do not care for his conversation, nor he for theirs, hence they remain apart. But do none break through the barrier? Some dig through it. A few distinguished foreigners have so far mastered the task that they have been welcome guests with scholars and have met high-placed graduates on an equality. But in the nature of the case the instances are few. Therefore for- eign judgments on China are not often of great value. What should we think of men who, travelling through the United States and finding our food unpalatable and our manners disa- greeable, should superciliously write about us on such superficial inspec- tion? Or, without knowing our lan- guage or reading a word of the Bible or Shakespeare or of any of our au- thors, and without meeting any of our leading citizens, because our country roads are undeniably bad, our railway cars overheated in winter, our habit 165 Cbe ®pint of tfte ©tiem of public expectoration disgusting, should condemn us and all our ways? On a par with such judgments are our own when we despise this vast people, so large a fraction of the human race, because they do not conform to our standards nor come up to our modern requirements. But if the whole literary training of the Chinaman secludes him from for- eign friendship, so does his etiquette. Probably with all the world etiquette has more influence than morals in de- termining likings. The etiquette is on the surface so that every one must be affected by it, and if one violates the code in which we are trained he is a boor to us. Now the Chinaman is trained in etiquette as he is trained in letters. Confucius put propriety among the first virtues, and indeed it is a moral accomplishment to say and do the right thing at the right time. But with Chinese minuteness and Chinese patience and Chinese re- i66 Cftma, itg l^eople anP Customs gard for tradition a system has grown up which excels all competitors for intricacy. The Chinese child is trained to it from infancy and it becomes a second nature, so that the humblest does not violate ordinary rules of po- liteness, while the scholar is as profi- cient in etiquette as in literature. How, then, shall aforeigner become a friend? He does not know how to enter a room nor how to leave it; he does not understand how to drink his tea nor what is the meaning of the cup given him as he begins his call ; he does not so much as know when he is grossly insulted, and he insults his host in fla- grant fashion, in all unconsciousness. It is as if some guest should come to an elaborate dinner given by one of us in his behalf and should put his muddy feet on the dining table, sitting with his hat on and his coat off. We would not invite him a second time, nor will the Chinaman, as he finds his foreign guest lacking in the first rudiments of 167 Cfte S>pint of tbe ©mm propriety. So again the Chinaman is justified, at least to this extent, that we can understand his conduct and recognize that his treatment of us is not essentially different from our con- duct in like circumstances. It is difficult to show how minute and all-embracing the rules of conduct are. For example, there is the well-known story of the American who was em- ployed in the University of Japan in the old days when Chinese etiquette was still maintained in that empire. After a time he was visited by a solemn delegation of the authorities, who, af- ter much circumlocution, asked him what they had done to injure his feel- ings. He replied that they had done nothing, but they took his reply onlyas polite evasion, and insisted. As really his feelings had not been hurt by any- thing, he was in perplexity and began at last to ask them what he had done to indicate his annoyance, whereupon it came out that he had appeared (be- i68 Cftina, its People anp Cugtomg ing really a man somewhat absent- minded and indifferent to his dress) several times in his recitation-room with his shoe-strings unfastened, and the authorities had supposed this a quiet way of indicating that his feel- ings were injured. Or, to take an oppo- site instance: an American long years since went to China as a missionary. He took up his residence with a group of students, and learned at once the lan- guage and native customs. Many years after he rendered the Chinese govern- ment signal service and was made a mandarin. When I knew him he lived in Japan, and he told me that in his long residence in China he had met only courtesy, because versed in their ways he rendered courtesy where cour- tesy was due. When a new Chinese minister came to Tokyo the American would call upon him. At the outer gate he sent in his ordinary American visit- ing-card. The response came back, "His Excellency is not at home." So 169 Cfte %mit of tfte ©tient the American advanced to the inner gate and presented an elaborate visit- ing-card in Chinese, and again the re- sponse came, "Not at home." Then he advanced to the door of the residence and presented his great official visit- ing-card inscribed with all his titles, and the minister was found at home and prepared to do him all honor. To have presented his official card in the first instance would have been pre- sumptuous. He must appear in a pri- vate and modest capacity, but for the minister to have received him in such form would have been to do him a dis- courtesy. The successive responses were really in the nature of a command to come up higher and be received in a style befitting my friend's rank and distinguished services. Naturally, few foreigners have the time, the patience or the adaptability to learn so elabo- rate a code and one so adapted to all the contingencies of a strange life. Eti- quette in China is little less elaborate 170 Cftina, its People anD Customs and perplexing than is religious rite in India. In both we have illustrations of the methods in which men bind them- selves with artificial codes and make life burdensome by their own tradi- tions. However, there comes a time when even such a code becomes a sec- ond nature, and its lack is felt as if something essential were missing. So again we have found that first ap- pearances are deceitful. China looked to us systemless, untidy, without ele- gance and repulsive, but already we have gained a certain respect for the people. It is a great accomplishment to make scholarship supreme and to honor letters beyond rank or wealth, and this not by a class of students but literally by all the people— by mer- chants, officials and even coolies no less than by students and authors. Then, too, it is no mean accomplish- ment to get a code of etiquette recog- nized everywhere so that every one may know the right thing to do and 171 Cbe ©pint of tbe ©riem say at the right time. Such a people surely do not merit contempt, but on the contrary may rightly lay claim to a high degree of civilization. Nor can we altogether wonder that our West- ern civilization appears to them not attractive. As the Hindu supposes that Occidentals are given to the comforts of material civilization while he seeks the joys of religion, so the Chinaman fancies that we give first place to wealth and to force, while he honors literature and morals, including eti- quette in morals. Nor has his regard for morality been merely outward. Long before the Christian era a Chinese emperor de- clared, "The Empire is peace !" and on the whole the declaration is true. Peace is the ideal of the Chinaman, and war an abhorrent interruption of the course of nature, like a typhoon or an earthquake. We must have sol- diers, as we must have policemen, but they are not held in distinguished es- 172 Cftma, m Peopte anP Cugtomg teem. A general is by no means the equal of a subordinate civil official, and the latter always and everywhere takes precedence. To be put into the military service, even though with several steps of advancement, is a de- gradation and a punishment for a mem- ber of the civil service. War is a crime, and only because there are criminals must there be soldiers, is the Chinese principle, a principle which surely is nearer Christian teaching than like Christian practice. War in China has been terrible. For the most part it has been either the savage incursion of barbarian hordes, without mercy or reason, or it has been the outbreak of rebellion when the people have risen in mobs and have killed and slain without discrimi- nation or limit. Hence in both in- stances war appears as a species of insanity, as indeed it is. Whereas the Chinaman loves peace, when he is stirred to war he is at once savagely 173 Cbe ©pittt of tbe ©rfent cruel and an arrant coward. In a mob, with some village or town at his mercy, he will commit deeds of the most hor- rible description, while as an individ- ual, or on occasions when heroism is required, he proves lacking in courage. This, however, is in part at least be- cause of his training. It is said that when the French attacked the Chinese fleet at Foochow in 1884, the Chinese commander remembered that he had an invitation to dinner on shore and left his ship to keep his engagement. On the other hand. General Gordon (the famous "Chinese" Gordon), com- mander of the "ever victorious army," declared that the Chinese needed only good leaders and they would be excel- lent soldiers, an opinion borne out by the testimony of many competent ob- servers. But however that may be, an empire has claims upon our admiration which for three thousand years has honored peace and has given war its true place as an alien element to be 174 Cbina, its People anD Customs banished from the thoughts and the lives of reasonable men. Again, we shall not permit our first view of China to blind us to another admirable quality in the people, their persistent industry. We sometimes hear of the birth, youth, maturity and old age of nations. But here is a peo- ple which was born before history be- gan, and is still in full virility. As we have noted, they built the great wall two thousand years ago, and they are still capable of prolonged and persist- ent exertion and of the greatest en- terprises; indeed, under competent di- rection, there is nothing which they may not attempt. All China is filled with patient industry. Beggars there are, as everywhere, but idleness is not held in honor. It is not exalted in vir- tue into holiness as with the ascetics of India, for the practical ideal of China is plodding, continuous toil. Much of it is misdirected, it is true. As in India, conservatism has hindered 175 Cfte ©pitit of tbe ©mm improvements and has added terrible burdens to the task of gaining a live- lihood. Almost everything is done at the hardest, for man has only his un- assisted strength, using cattle spar- ingly, and is not master yet of steam and electricity. His toil procures for him the simplest of livings, but there- with he is content, loving his home, his family, his neighborhood, and tak- ing his lot as it is given him. With him too, as with the natives of India, the universe is a vast complex organism, and he is an infinitesimal portion of it. He must move with its currents, and where he is there shall he abide. Have we not modified somewhat our judgment? This untidy, inelegant, comfortless land is not so uninviting after all, unless we be indeed barba- rians and put material satisfaction as first and last the only essential. A peo- ple which honors literature and mor- als and lives under an elaborate code of etiquette, which glorifies peace and 176 Cfaina, its l^eople anP Cugtomg despises war, which rejoices in indus- try and is content with its lot, must merit something better than contempt or an amused smile at their strange- ness. "Why," once asked the distin- guished Professor Tholock of an Am- erican student, "did the Lord make so many Chinamen and so few Germans ? " I do not know what answer was given, but the truth doubtless is because He wanted them. They too have their place on the earth, which does not belong to Germans nor to Americans, and their claims upon esteem and admiration and respect. They too are near our Fa- ther, and are His children with their inheritance in His love and favor. VI C6ma,its ©pmt anD Ptoblem0 VI €iiim, ftjs ^pivit anti i^rolJlemjS HE Chinese social organism is at once the most primitive and the most democratic in civilized states. Yet its de- mocracy is not according to our type. Our system is based upon the value of the individual, but the Chinese unit is the family. This modifies the whole structure. With us, when a man at- tains maturity he establishes, if he will, an independent household, or if he will he continues single. In China he does neither the one nor the other, for marriage is not a matter of his will but is arranged for him. Very likely he was betrothed in infancy or early childhood, and although the Hindu system of early marriages does not ex- ist in China, long before the boy is his own master he may have a wife. In- deed he is never his own master, for he is born into a network of relations, i8i Cfte^piritoftfaeiaDnem and continues in them all his days. When he marries he brings his wife home, or rather she is brought to him, to his father's house, where she be- comes a kind of servant to his mother. The bride's relation to her mother-in- law is far more important to her than is her relationship to her husband, for her subjection continues so long as his mother lives, and she comes to a place of importance only when at last her son brings a daughter home. After a time the family comes to constitute a kind of clan, and the home grows into a village, so that there are very many villages where all the inhabitants have the same family name. When the immediate family connection has so broadened that the sense of kindred is lost, the village remembers still its origin and remains a little self-govern- ing state. The father of a family has very large powers and very large responsibili- ties. As the family is the unit, when 182 Cftina, it0 ©pint auD Problems one member suffers all suffer with it. If one commits a crime, the entire fa- mily may be punished, and even if the actual culprit escape, his parents will suffer in his stead, while if he is caught, they too may be punished with him, according to the gravity of the offence. We must go back to the stories in the Pentateuch and in Jo- shua for familiar descriptions of a sim- ilar state of things. As the family thus suffers with all its members, so does it share in the prosperity of each. No one is rich for himself If, for example, a son gains the coveted degree which admits him to the public service, and obtains in time a lucrative post, a swarm of relatives will follow him and surround him. He must provide for them all, making nepotism a matter of course. Nor does he ever become pre- cisely his own master, even though he grow to be the head of the family, for he is still bound by custom and tradi- tion and public opinion. These com- 183 Cl)eS)pmtPftbe©tient bine to form a force which can be de- fied only by the boldest and the most strong-willed. Especially must the son honor his parents. This is the central commandment, and it is enforced by endless stories of obedient sons, some of which would seem to indicate, mis- takenly however, that the Chinese have no sense of humor. For example, it is gravely related of one good boy that he still dressed in baby clothes when a grown man, and when asked the reason for his course replied that he could not think of dressing like a man lest he should cause his parents to grieve over their advancing years! In many places memorials are set up by the authorities in honor of a son or a daughter who has been an example of "great filial obedience." Next to these duties to one's parents, which exceed all others in importance, come one's duties to his brothers, and then to his wife, and finally to his friends. But the wife occupies in the 184 < ^ i Cfiina, its %mit anD Profilems code a subordinate position, and she has any real position only as the mo- ther of the children who are to con- tinue the family line. For the extinc- tion of the family is a calamity of the greatest magnitude, since in it the Chinaman lives and moves and has his being. He who is cut off from it is an outcaste and a vagabond. There is no new circle which he can enter, since all are constructed on the same plan and have no opening for strangers and foreigners, save possibly as infrequent guests. The economical position is none the less serious for the man with- out a home: all occupations are filled, and there are no vacancies. The Chi- nese are past masters in the art of combination, so that our labor unions seem very amateurish in comparison. Thus so long as a man moves along with the system all is well, but woe to him if he steps out. Then, in addition, all the associations which hallow life are concentrated 185 Cfie Spirit of tbe ©tient about the family. It is thought of as a corporate whole to which belong not only the living but the dead, and these are so connected that the suffering or the welfare of the living affects the dead, and if one break the family line all the ancestors are in distress. To worship or do reverence before the ancestral tablet is far more than all other religion, so that the man who has separated from his family has lost his gods as well as his living relatives. A young man once came to my house in Tokyo in great grief He had been for years in New York, where he had prospered until at last he could return to his home in the neighborhood of Canton. He had become a Christian, but as soon as he entered his mother's house she took him to the ancestral tablets and asked him to worship them. He refused, and she in wrath and hor- ror drove him from her door. It was almost night, but not a person in the village would take him in or give him i86 Cbma, it0 Spirit and Pto61em0 a mouthful of food, and he was obliged to go many miles to a village where his people were wholly unknown, be- fore he could find a refuge. When I saw him he was on his return to Amer- ica, since residence in China had be- come impossible for him. The Chinaman, therefore, is not natu- rally an emigrant. All his ties and af- fections keep him in the locality where he was born. He knows nothing and cares nothing for the world beyond. He does not wish to travel through China and still less to foreign lands. It is only stern necessity which drives so many thousands to expatriate them- selves, and this is only for a time and with the fixed resolve to return home when circumstances shall favor them. In the villages the elders rule. They may be in fact the old men, or they may be young men of vigor and enter- prise. Sometimes they are elected, and sometimes they simply take the of- fices. A multitude of affairs come be- 187 C!)e@pftttoftfte©tient fore them, for the community is only a larger family and it settles its own matters. It is only when a feud breaks out between adjacent villages, or when in the community matters become un- controllable, that the officers of the law are called in. But so long as there are no riots, and the taxes are paid with reasonable promptness, the Imperial Government has nothing to do in the premises. It is therefore looked upon as a last resort, and with reason, for when a matter is referred to the courts for settlement it is in desperation, when the appellant is ready for ruin, since in all probability, whatever the rights, both parties will be stripped of their possessions and punished. It follows that there is nothing like loyalty. Again and again invading ar- mieshavebeen astonished at thereadi- ness of the people to serve them. If the pay were good and prompt the people showed a strange impartiality. They have no patriotism for China and no i88 Cftma, its Spirit ano Pro6Iemg affection for the Emperor, who is as a god far away in Peking, inaccessible and unimaginable. During the recent wars missionaries have reported the total lack of interest in the news, the peasant not caring who fought or who won, so long as the conflict was at a distance from his fields. If we, however, were to live in the capital, the government would assume high importance, or if we were edu- cated and had passed our examina- tions. Without legislature or supreme court the power centres in the Em- peror, but he is not an autocrat, for he must rule according to precedent and, above all, in accordance with the code handed down from antiquity under the name of Confucius. The theory is that he rules by his virtue, standing as re- presentative of the people before Hea- ven and responsible to it. Nor is he above human censure, since there are specially appointed officials whose duty it is to reprimand him when he 189 Ct)e Spirit of tf)eg)nent wanders from the straight and narrow way. Difficult as is this duty, it has been faithfully performed times innu- merable by upright and truth-loving men. I quote from "The Middle King- dom:" "The celebrated Sung, who was ap- pointed commissioner to accompany Lord Macartney, once remonstrated with the Emperor Kiakinguponhisat- tachment to play-actors and to strong drink, which degraded him in the eyes of his people and incapacitated him from performing his duties. The Em- peror, highly irritated, called him to his presence, and on his confessing to the authorship of the memorial, asked him what punishment he deserved. He answered, * Quartering.' He was told to select some other: *Let me be beheaded;* and on a third command, he chose to be strangled. He was then ordered to retire, and the next day the Emperor appointed him governor in Hi, thus acknowledging his rectitude, 190 Cftina, itg ^yitit anp ptoftlemg though unable to bear his censure." The story illustrates the old Chinese saying, "The position of the Censor is more dangerous than is that of the foremost spearman in battle." The Emperor sometimes publicly assumes responsibility for the evils in his do- minion, in accordance with the word of Confucius, "If you hear of evil ex- amine self." Below the Emperor are the great de- partments of state,— the Cabinet, the General Council of State, the Board of Civil Office, the Board of Punish- ments, the Board of Works, the Colo- nial Office, the Censorate, the Court of Transmission (a means of communi- cation with provincial authorities), the Court of Judicature and Revision, and the Imperial Academy. These various bodies are intrusted with the control of a great body of officials, and through them with the entire empire. But all must rule in accordance with the great code which is supposed to cover all 191 Cf)e ©pftit of tfte SDtient contingencies. It is in six sections: general, fiscal, ritual, military, crim- inal and Public Works. It is de- scribed as "on the whole reasonable and common sense, though not indi- cating a very high social develop- ment." It fits the conditions of the people, and the result is that there is little discontent and no thought of re- formation or revolution. The system is as the laws of nature, and the peo- ple do not complain of it. The only dis- satisfaction is with the officials and their fashion of enforcement of the laws. Doubtless there are thousands of honest officials, and they must not be judged by our standards, for "graft" is a part of the system. So it is in all departments of life. The new-comer from America perhaps rebels. He will not submit to a system where there are not only tips constantly but where every one takes a "squeeze," every- thing which he buys paying its per- 192 Cftina, it^ ©pint anD Profilems centage to his household. But by and by he recognizes his powerlessness. Even if he make his purchases him- self, his servants take toll when they are delivered at his door, and even if he carry them home, in one way or an- other the place of purchase is discov- ered, and the seller hands over the commission. With such a system per- vading life it is not wonderful that official circles make all that the "busi- ness will bear." The governor of a pro- vince is paid a salary which is ab- surdly small, not more perhaps than he pays his cook, and yet after a few years he retires rich, and besides, has made the fortune of a multitude of re- lations. All this within a degree is looked upon as a matter of course, and it is only when the graft becomes un- usually large, so that there is an in- crease in the burdens of the people, that there is trouble. The patience of the common people is very great, but it has its limits. As in private affairs 193 C6e ^pitft ottht ©tient there comes a time when an individual is ready to be ruined himself if only he may injure his adversary and so goes to law, there is also a time when the people throw all patience and caution and prudence to the winds and rise in frantic mobs to protest against mis- government, and then beware! The Chinaman is the most matter-of-fact, practical, phlegmatic of individuals, until he explodes, and then he seems crazed, irresponsible, cruel, danger- ous, ready to go all lengths and to de- stroy himself with his enemies. Right- fully, considering the character of the people, the governors are required to maintain order, it being taken for granted that they are to blame if dis- order arises. This too is in accord with the Confucian teaching, which sup- poses that if the rulers are virtuous the people will be notxmly happy but good, and hence that if the people are rebellious the rulers must be to blame. Nor am I aware that the teaching has 194 Cbina, its ^pitit anD Problems been disproved by facts in the long course of Chinese history. The social morality is equal to that of Europe. It is true that the idea of the family is different. A man may have not only a wife but concubines, and in some instances, if, for example, his wife has no children, he must have them. But if we condemn this as im- moral we must also condemn Abra- ham, Isaac and Jacob, to say nothing of David and Solomon. It is another social organism, accepted and main- tained with all propriety. Indeed, as we have seen, the Chinese are beyond all others sticklers for propriety. They regard us as immoral because men and women meet freely and even are seen on the street together, whereas Chinese etiquette forbids brothers and sisters to so much as touch hands af- ter an early age. Perhaps the most outstanding fea- ture of Chinese life, next to its indus- try, is its monotony and vacuity. Years 195 itht^mit of tbt^timt ago I met a very wealthy Chinaman on a steamer going from Hong-Kong to Penang, where was his home. He was a mandarin, having purchased his degree as he told me without hesita- tion, and was consul in Penang. He had been making his yearly visit to his parents in Canton. I asked why he did not return to Canton and make it his permanent home. He replied, "I cannot afford to," and upon an ex- pression of astonishment he went on: "All the officials know that I am rich, and if I were to return I should be obliged to give most of my wealth to them. Were I to refuse they would arrest me on any charge, and I could not escape from prison without satis- fying their demands. You know that the Chinese call the prison ^Hell,' and it deserves the name. Besides, in Can- ton there is nothing to do. In Penang I keep my carriage and drive every day, I have my club and all I wish in the way of amusement. In Canton 196 Cbina, its ©pitit anD l^roblems there is nothing which attracts me." His story illustrates at once the way of the officials and the dulness of life. If he could find nothing to do, still less can the common people find amusement. Their lives of toil have few pleasures; theatres, story-telling, Punch and Judy shows, weddings, funerals, feasts, the fortnight holiday at New Year's, about exhaust the list. And these are infre- quent and uncertain save the last. Then the whole empire makes holi- day. All debts are supposed to be paid by the end of the previous twelfth- month, or if not paid, escaped for an- other year (though a story is told of one creditor who sought his debtor in broad dayUght on New Year's Day with the light of a lantern, thus keep- ing up the fiction that it was the night before, as our congressmen turn back the hands of the clock to lengthen, like Joshuas, the length of the natural day). So with free minds the people give themselves over to pleasure, es- 197 Cfte Spirit of tbeSDriem pecially to feasting and to gambling. The latter is the national vice, recog- nized as such, but at this festive sea- son even the most virtuous women in- dulge themselves in its excitement. But for the most part it is on the small- est scale, for the people are very poor. There are thousands, tens of thou- sands of families whose total posses- sions are not worth five dollars each, and multitudes more who do not know whence the next meal is to come. Al- most in desperation, the distinction between mine and thine is effaced, and the people who are in possession are obliged to watch their crops, their fruit, their food in their larders, all that they have with constant care. With monotony and poverty com- bi^ied, human life has little value even fof its owner. One is tempted to think the Chinese made of a special nervous, or nerveless, tissue. Certain it is that all the discomfort of their villages and homes does not annoy them, nor are 198 Cbina, m Spirit anD ptotJlem0 they ambitious of anything better. Foreign surgeons perform operations upon them without anaesthetics which no Occidental could so endure. A mis- sionary friend illustrated from his ex- perience the curious insensibility to discomfort. Returning half sick from a trip in the interior he put up in the village inn, a series of cells surround- ing a courtyard. No sooner was he settled in his place than in came a man with a donkey and stopped just outside his room ; and soon a second and a third and a fourth, then men with other beasts, all tired and excited and noisy, but not a Chinaman protested or indeed cared. Not until after mid- night did the hubbub subside, and then shortly, long before dawn, a man came with a number of hogs and proceeded to brand them one by one! Only a for- eigner with high-strung nerves would object to such a resting-place. Even the Japanese are astonished at the Chinese lack of nerves. A spy was 199 Cbe Spirit of tbe ©rient taken early in the war, a Chinaman, and was condemned to be beheaded. He listened to the sentence with stolid composure, and asked for something to eat on his way to the execution ground. He was given a rice-ball wrapped in a leaf, and he ate the food with keen relish, taking the pains at last to pick off the kernels which ad- hered to the leaf. Then he threw away the leaf and bowed his head to the exe- cutioner's sword. Or take another instance. In a ty- phoon the Chinese stokers on a steamer quit work and threw them- selves on the floor. Neither curses, kicks nor blows could induce them to stir from their places. Finally the chief officer drew his revolver and threat- eiied to shoot if they did not return to work. They still refused, and he shot one of them, and threatened to shoot again. They still refused to work and he shot again. But still they refused to work, and he put up his pistol, re- 200 €bim, its Spirit anP l^rotilemg cognizing the impossibility of arous- ing them. They fully expected the loss of the ship, and why should they spend the last hour of life at work, or what did it matter whether they went down with the boat or were killed by the chief officer? The cabin passengers stoked the furnaces and saved the ship. But though the Chinaman is thus dis- regardful of life, though many can be found who will give their lives for a few dollars or out of revenge, yet no peo- ple are so mindful of the body after death or so clear in mind as to the fu- ture state. They provide the departed spirit with an elaborate outfit, furni- ture and clothes, and even deeds of property, all of paper, all to be burned, and all of value in the spirit world. The body is prepared with elaborate care, and buried in ground which is hence- forth sacred. With all his practicality, the China- man is intensely religious, or perhaps 201 Cfte Spirit of tfie ©dent as the King James version mistrans- lates St. Paul's word, "superstitious." There are three great religions, and a Chinaman may believe any or all or, most likely, some composite of the three. Two are native and one im- ported. The last is Buddhism. It was made the state religion in the first cen- tury of the Christian era, and for a thousand years influenced profoundly the empire. Emperors abdicated and became monks; great nobles founded monasteries, becoming abbots; great ladies entered convents ; literature and philosophy were shaped by the Indian teaching. But after the thousand years had passed educated men rejected the religion and returned to the teaching pf Confucius, leaving Buddhism for the ignorant and the lowly. Nowadays it is still in this evil fortune, compounded with a variety of native superstitions and incapable of high influence. Its priests are ignorant and degraded, and its true followers few. The attitude 202 €bim, it0 Spirit anP profttems of the gentry towards it is well illus- trated by an address given by a high official some years ago at the dedica- tion of a Buddhist temple. He told the people that he came because he had been earnestly invited to make the chief address ; that of course he did not believe in any of these things; that he had no doubt Buddhism was of some interest and valueforthelower classes; and, finally, that possibly there might be some truth in some of its teach- ings! No one seemed shocked or even surprised at so strange an address of dedication, for it expressed what ev- ery one knew to be the facts. Besides Buddhism is Taoism. It was originally a mysticism, but is now sim- ply a mass of miscellaneous supersti- tions, with priests who act as necro- mancers and quellers of evil spirits. They cast the horologue for infants, choose lucky days for enterprises, and determine what is the relationship of the position of houses to good and bad 203 Cfte §)pmt of tfte 2Dnent luck. Most potent of all the influences which determine man*s destiny are those of air and earth (Feng-Shui the Chinese call them), and the necroman- cer must always be consulted in order that evil maybe ordered or avoided and good invited. The topic would take a volume by itself. The ordinary citizen cares little for distinctions between these systems, and knows little of their teachings. He follows custom and tradition, and fre- quents the village temple, and employs the priest as he binds his daughter's feet, and conforms to the fashions in his dress. The government has no state church, but it governs religion as it governs all else. The officials are su- perior not only to the priests but to the gods, so that one may read in the Peking "Gazette," the official publica- tion of the government, of the exalta- tion or the degradation of some local deity precisely as of the promotion or punishment of a human official. 204 €6ma,it0 Spirit anD Problems The religion of the official is Confu- cianism, and this is the true religion of China. As in India so in China, re- ligion is like a transcript of the peo- ple, it reveals in clearest light the spirit of the empire. Confucianism has been described as chiefly polity, that is, for the government of the states- man. In fact it is intended first of all for him, and sets forth the ideal which is to be his guide. It is lofty, rational, attainable, and, as things go, effec- tive. It makes righteousness the very essence of the ruler. If a man be not righteous he is no ruler, and a king is rightfully dethroned if he transgress the law. As with the ruler so with all men, righteousness is first, indeed it forms man's true nature. Elsewhere only by the Jewish prophets has the rule of right conduct been so exalted and righteousness made so supreme. In empire, in community, in family, in one's own soul, righteousness is to reign. Or we may reverse the order. 205 Ct)e@pitttoft{)effl)rient One is first of all to govern himself ac- cording to righteousness, then his fa- mily, then the community, and then the empire. Righteousness is the law not only of mankind but of the material universe as well. All is law, and all is according to one great system. In it everything has its place, and in its place finds its reason for itsbeing. That is, the Emperor is not Emperor in or- der that he may enjoy wealth and plea- sure and power. He is Emperor for the sake of the people. As it is written, "The Empire is the Empire of the Empire. It is not the Empire of one man." So with the father, he is father not for his pleasure but for the sake of his family; and so with the son, his existence is not for himself but for his parents' sake. Nor are these relation- ships merely of human contrivance, they are natural, the expression of heaven's eternal law. Heaven is ex- pressed in righteousness and truth, for it is not the blue vault above us, 206 Cftina, its Spirit anp Ptoftlcmg but is the eternal and unchanging power which watches over us and makes for righteousness. Thus Con- fucianism begins with the concrete relationships of our lives, and it ends with a religious acknowledgment of an invisible Power which is from everlasting to everlasting. But such a system is too refined for the ordi- nary man. Confucius himself said, "Heaven is too cold and heartless, therefore the common people turn to gods and spirits." The contrast between India and China comes out most clearly in their religions. In India the highest holiness is expressed by flight from the world and is found in the ascetic and the recluse. In China such a retreat from the responsibilities of life is the act of a madman, for man's true place is found precisely in the activities of life and in being true to one's family, friends and government. Hence Bud- dhism is repudiated in the name of a 207 Cfie Spirit of tbe 2Drient higher morality, or it is accepted as a system of rites and ceremonies, while Confucianism is maintained as the social and ethical code for conduct. As one thinks of Confucianism, its vast antiquity, its immense influence over such multitudes, its practical common sense, its freedom from all that is superstitious or licentious or cruel or priestly, of the intelligent men it has led to high views of right- eousness, one cannot but regard it as a revelation from the God of truth and righteousness, and as one of the main reasons which account for the long continued peace, prosperity and mo- rality of the remarkable people who produced it. If now after this hasty and inade- quate review we ask ourselves what are the great problems which face China, we find ourselves confronted by difficulties nowhere surpassed. First of all is the physical situation. What shall be done with a country 208 Cftma, itg g)pmt anP ptoftlemg where poverty is so prevalent? Shall we develop the resources of the coun- try, introduce scientific methods of agriculture, build factories and rail- ways, and in general transform indus- try? But meanwhile what of the myri- ads who shall find themselves without employment, displaced by railway and factory and machinery? Our political economy teaches that progress is al- ways at the expense of many, and the gain is worth the inevitable cost. But in China the cost would be so inevitable and so tremendous that one would hesi- tate to give the orderwere he possessed of omnipotent command. Will future gain balance present misery, or has one the right to doom the present genera- tion to suffering for the sake of those that shall come hereafter? However, the question is not altogether one-sided nor theoretical. The people now suf- fer, as we have seen. The population presses upon the resources, and mil- lions are in dire poverty, with famine 209 Cfie ©pint of tfte ©rient and pestilence always present possi- bilities. Only if we are to sit down helpless before fate can we take the view that nothing must be done be- cause of the displacement of labor. It would seem as if the new era had come to China almost too late, but none the less we are convinced that only as man utilizes the forces of na- ture, only as he learns its laws and applies them, can there be escape from misery, and this is as true in China as ; in America. The same holds in all departments of life. China has a splendid belief in nature and in obedience to its laws. But it confounds nature's laws with the contents of the sacred books. One would not disturb the confidence in nature, but China must replace its useless learning, its poetical and lit- erary accomplishments, by the know- ledge of facts. The empire has the de- fects of its qualities. Its veneration, its propriety, its sobriety, all bind and fet- 210 Cbina, its Spirit ano Ptofalems ter it because it lacks the freedom of the spirit and is bound fast by the let- ter. None gives higher respect to Con- fucius than do I. But how shall any code framed in the remote past meet the changing conditions of human devel- opment, or fail to fetter man when it is taken as unchanging law? With little that needs to be repudiated or cast aside, China should add to its stores of learning the new science in all its branches, and be prepared to live not in the twelfth century B.C. but in the twentieth century A.D. With these changes should come the reformation of its government. It does not need a revolution or the overthrow of existing institutions. The present ones will suffice if efficiently adminis- tered. And how shall this be accom- plished? How shall knowledge be sub- stituted for pedantry, honesty for cor- ruption, clear-sighted intelligence for obstructive conservatism? How, in short, shall China be led forth into the 211 Cfte %pitit of tfte ©nent currents of the twentieth century and be made participant in the progress of the world? Let us repeat, "the good is ever the enemy of the best." And it is because China has so long possessed the "good" that it is the inveterate enemy of the "best." Nowhere else is preju- dice stronger, nowhere else are ancient customs which are unfortunate and evil more firmly established. Contact with foreign nations has not broken down the Chinese wall of misunder- standings and antipathy. Neither the friendly meetings of commerce nor the hostile meetings of war, neither the knowledge of the greater wealth and prosperity of the Occident nor the ap- parition of European armies in Peking itself, has sufficed for China's awaken- ing. But now at last Boxer troubles, Russian aggression, and the startling success of Japan appear to be arous- ing the giant. What shall be the out- come none can know. It will not be 2X2 Cbina, ttg %mit anP Ptoblemg shown completely in our generation, for he is a fool who attempts to * * hustle " China. It can be transformed neither in haste nor by arms. Its development has been too ancient and too slow, its people are too content and too numer- ous, its institutions are too perfectly fitted to the needs of the people and its classic teachings too completely expressive of their mind, for any at- tempt at sudden reformation or revo- lution to succeed. The highest wish one may form is, that slowly, without revolution or haste or cessation, the people be educated to new ideals and to new views of nature and of God, and that thus still on the basis of the old a new may be reared which shall be bet- ter than the old and yet possess its splendid virtues. China's peculiar characteristics are the result of her immemorial seclusion. Her great wall is typical of her intel- lectual, economic and social barriers. Henceforth isolation is impossible and 213 C6e §>pint of tbe ©tient undesirable. Not through any sudden irruption of "barbarians" can the tra- ditions of millenniums be overturned, but only by the slow process of peace- ful contact. We may hope that electri- city and steam and the countless forces of our era which make for international intercourse will affect China at last and bring her into the comityof nations and give to her the best which the West has learned. VII 3Iapan, tt0 People anD Custom0 VII %apan, (tjS ptt^it ana Cujstomjs |HE continent of Asia is fringed upon its east by a long line of islands which stretch from Kamchatka on the north to the equator. More than two thousand miles of this line ac- knowledge the sovereignty of Japan, the northern limit being farther north than the northern boundary of Maine, and its southern south of the Tropic of Cancer. By the cession of the southern half of Sakhalin to Japan under the terms of the new Russo-Japanese treaty, the northern boundary of the "island empire" will touch a parallel which crosses Labrador. But without this addition the empire now extends through thirty degrees of latitude and thirty-five of longitude. Yet we con- stantly think of it as a little kingdom, and doubtless Russian statesmen un- derestimated its size by the habitual 217 C6e ©pitit of tfte ©riem use of maps drawn to different scales, big for the home lands and small for the rest of the world. Excluding the colonial possessions, the empire itself may be thought of as corresponding to our own Atlantic seaboard, from the northern boundary of Maine to Florida, with an area somewhat more, perhaps a quarter more, than that of Great Britain and Ireland, and a population of about forty-five millions. Hence it is not one of the minor nations, but in size is com- parable to France. Its population is very dense in spots. The land is a great mountain chain rising out of the sea and full of volca- noes. From the central mountainous mass branches run out in various direc- tions to the sea, so that one is almost never out of sight of hills, nor are there any really extensive plains. The moun- tains are sparsely inhabited and are not inviting for agriculture. Indeed only one tenth of the whole surface is un- 218 31apan, its People ano Customs der cultivation, so that a small fraction of the area supports the population, aided, it is true, by the plentiful harvest of the sea. The mountains came out of the sea, but whence the people came we do not know. Some time in the dim past they came across the narrow straits from Korea, and in various waves of immi- gration occupied the land. That was before they had either written history or oral tradition, and the memory of their journeys on the continent has long since faded without leaving more than a doubtful trace or two. What we know is chiefly negative. They are not akin to the Chinese nor to any other people on the mainland, except in a re- mote cousinly fashion to the Koreans. If we may judge from their language, these are their only kin, besides the tribes who live in Loo Choo, now also under Japanese rule. As we do not know whence the race came, so also we do not know when 219 Cfie@)pitttoft6e©tient they came into their land. Already it was occupied, and for ages the new- comers fought the aborigines (if indeed these were not immigrants themselves and conquerors like the Japanese), un- til at last the latest comers were in se- cure possession and at peace. During this same period, however, the Japa- nese fought among themselves, being divided into clans or tribes or fami- lies without any strong central govern- ment. Japan is unlike India and China in this : it has not a history of imme- morial antiquity, but is a new nation, in age comparable to the nations of Europe. When the Germanic tribes were still semi-barbarous so were the Japanese, for the latter came under the influence of enlightenment only a little before the time of Charlemagne. Long, then, after the Christian era ci- vilization came to Japan from China, brought by Buddhist priests who came as missionaries not only of civilization but of religion. The earliest trust- 220 3Iapan, its People anD Customs worthy date is 552, and the first book written in Japan, which still remains, was composed in the year 712. Thence- forward the history of the people is clear and carefully written. Buddhism won its first converts a- mong the highest of the people, em- perors and queens and great nobles. There was something of opposition, in part religious on the part of the old native faith, in part political by men who did not fancy the new system of government now introduced. For with Buddhism came all Chinese civiliza- tion, the very name by which Japan is called, Nippon; the centralized form of government, with emperor, who in imitation of Chinese usage was called Son of Heaven, and twelve ministries, and an organization of the country in- to provinces; a new code of laws; let- ters and literature, mechanics, agri- culture, commerce, architecture, art,— all continental and all adopted with fervor. The process was long, from the 221 Cfie @pmt of tfte ©tient middle of the sixth century to the mid- dle of the eighth, but it was accom- plished at last, and Japan took on the appearance which it still retains. Fortunately, the process was per- mitted to go on to its end without inter- ference. After a few ineffectual upris- ings there were no rebellions within, and no foreign foe appeared without. Foreigners indeed were interested in the process, but as friends and advis- ers and teachers only. They did not plot for supremacy, nor use their posi- tion to further political ends, so that they were trusted and given positions of honor. After a time the Japanese visited China and Korea, seeking knowledge at the fountainhead, and came back laden with treasures of in- formation. The civilization thus introduced was of course Asiatic in all its characteris- tics, but it was Asiatic civilization at its best. Buddhism as it came to Japan was an organized religion, with tem- 222 3[apan, it0 People anti Customs pies and monasteries and a hierarchy. It had a developed theology, a meta- physical philosophy and many sects. Its influence was great, for Japanese religion was completely unformed and undogmatic. In place of its simple na- ture-worship with its confused mass of superstitions Buddhism brought definite ideas, elaborate rites and a profound beUef in education. Schools were started in connection with the temples, and the people were taught the wonders of Asiatic learning. But with all its excellences Bud- dhism was thoroughly Asiatic. Its idea of God was profoundly philosophi- cal, so that only the few could under- stand it, and, therefore, precisely as in India, for the masses there were pious fictions which were "good enough" for them. Then, still more to the detri- ment of sound ideals, the conception of the religious life was ascetic, or at least religion was synonymous with "flight from the world." Hence the 223 C6e g)pitit of t6e Dtient holy man is not in the world, but has- tens out of it, and his task is not its re- formation, but the contemplation of the "Ultimate and the Absolute." With such teaching there is always danger that the best of the nation will shun its most pressing tasks, and that the great work of every day will be de- graded by the belief that it is not tru- ly religious. Buddhism in Japan was saved in part from these results by its union with Confucianism. For when Buddhism came to Japan it was still in harmony with the rival system in China, the former furnishing the ma- terial for the religious life, and the lat- ter the code of morals for the work- aday world. So was it in Japan, and thus the full effects of Buddhism were not felt. Still, as in China, emperors abdicated to enter monasteries, and great nobles became abbots. There was immense activity in temple-build- ing and in religious art and in reli- gious ceremonies andrites.The nation 224 & =.^#^ ..;;:'«S^^ 3lapan, to People anD €nmms took on a religious aspect which still continues. Notwithstanding this un- doubted service in bringing civiliza- tion and learning, the predominant characteristic was other-worldliness, for the typical Buddhist is the man who is so impressed with the transi- tory and worthless character of all things that he comes to think that nothing is of real consequence, so that happiness is not to be sought nor sor- row avoided. Hence the world as- sumes an unreal aspect and is sorrow- ful in its best estate. "As sad as a temple bell" is a Japanese proverb, and the impression made by religion is that all strenuous effort is an error, quietness, repose and a placid con- tent being the chief ends of life. In all this Japan belongs to the continent up- on whose border it lies. The civilization which resulted from this contact with China was truly of the Asiatic type. How indeed could it have been otherwise ? In the first chap- 225 CfteSipttitoftfteDtient ter reference was made to a Turk who objected to life in Paris, his ideal being a mansion and a garden and a group of friends, removed from social functions and great dinners and en- gagements and note-writing; a place where one could be in luxurious ease and do as he pleased. Such was this early civilization in Japan, refined, aes- thetic, luxurious, in retreat from the responsibilities and cares of life, and withal immoral. The emperors were the source of power, but they ceased to rule. The great nobles monopolized the offices of state, but they were too effeminate to attend to their duties. The lesser nobles sent their subordi- nates to govern the provinces in their name, and gave themselves to plea- sure, while over the whole scene reli- gion threw its half-light, the great Bud- dhistic establishments being under the patronage of the emperor and his princes and as luxurious as palaces. Thither the rulers retired for repose 226 31apan, iw IPeopIe anD Customs when the ceremonious life at court be- came too burdensome. Had all this continued Japan would have become decrepit before reaching maturity. But this spirit of Oriental luxury is not the spirit of Japan. After a time luxurious peace came to an end. Be- cause of the misrule of the central government rebellion broke out and endless feuds ensued. A feudal system was formed gradually with its barons from the ranks of the soldiery, while the old nobility looked on helplessly, and the emperor lost all his power, be- coming a prisoner of state, none the less a prisoner because invested with a quasi-divine dignity. For five hundred years war was the burden of the story. It is a tiresome tale, Asiatic in this, that it involved no great principle, but was merely tribal, individual and lo- cal strife. No great constitutional movement came out of it and no high ideal of the worth of man; hence it is not history in the highest sense, for 227 Cfie %pitit of tfte ©tient that is a record not of the doings of man but of his progress. However, something was accom- plished during these centuries. In the earliest times there was no army, but so far as we can judge from our imper- fect evidence, the strongest men served as soldiers in the time of need, and if there were troops with local chieftains, they were not distinguished perma- nently from the masses of the people. But in the feudal wars gradually a military class was formed, the famous samurai. They were the military re- tainers of the barons, and corresponded roughly to the knights of feudal Eu- rope. Each baron had his castle with its moats and walls. Within the outer walls dwelt the samurai, or sometimes in choice situations in the near vicin- ity. They constituted the power on which thebaron depended, and in them, subject to him, were vested all the state functions. They were the judges and the civil officials as well as the 228 3[apan, it^ people anP Cu0tomg military force. The baron only was above them, and he was often so effem- inate that the knights had all things in their control, so that their interests were varied, and they learned to iden- tify themselves with the state. They in time constituted a caste, and though some of the greatest soldiers Japan has produced came from the common people, and though there is no differ- ence in blood or in fundamental char- acteristics between the samurai and the rest, yet so strong was the feeling of superiority that a man from the people who by extraordinary means entered this higher class was ostra- cized, nor could his descendants re- gard themselves as on an equality un- til the fourth or fifth generation. We find, then, in Japan a social organ- ization which was not essentially Asi- atic but approximated the scheme of Europe in the feudal ages. First of all were the emperor and the court no- bles, with a religious atmosphere about 229 Cfie Spirit of tbe 2Dtient them, living in retirement without con- tact with the actual affairs of the empire. Similar instances have been known in Europe; for example, the sluggard kings of France in the sev- enth and eighth centuries. Then came the feudal barons, in number varying at different times, but say two hundred and fifty in all, men who had seized po- sitions of advantage and had won the power which they handed to their de- scendants, provided the sword which had won it could preserve it; next were the samurai, the knights, the gentlemen, some four hundred thou- sand of them, making with their wives and children a total of eighteen hun- dred thousand ; and below these were the common people, — farmers, arti- sans, merchants and laborers,— with a horde still below the last, beggars and thieves and outcastes. This organiza- tion lasted until 1867-9, when the feudal system was overthrown and modern reforms were introduced. 230 3Iapan, tt0 People anD Cu0tom0 If now we attempt to enter the life of the people we shall find resemblances to and differences from other Asiatic kingdoms. Here was not a peace-lov- ing democracy as in China, nor a caste system based on differences in nation- ality as in India, but a feudal aristo- cracy as in Europe. Nor, again, was there, as in China, a notion of self-suf- ficiency, of being the only civilized na- tion under heaven, for the people were well aware that their civilization was not indigenous but imported. Nor was there the sense of subjugation which is characteristic of India where wave af- ter wave of foreign conquest has rolled over the land, for Japan has never been conquered by a foreign foe. Thus again we have a consciousness approaching the European type, with its recogni- tion of indebtedness to the ancient ci- vilizations and its proud self-reliance and confidence in its power to work out its own destiny. From such com- binations we may look for the greatest 231 CfteSpftttoftbeaDtiem results, not from peoples who have been so isolated that they have ac- quired an altogether false conception of their own position, nor from peo- ples who have been so conquered that they have lost self-confidence, but pre- cisely from peoples who, knowing their debt to others, are still confident in their own ability to maintain their in- dependence and to add to the progress of the race. This consciousness in Japan was dif- ferently developed in the differing classes, and yet it was not wholly wanting in any. With all his ceremo- nial readiness to acknowledge his su- periors there was in the common man a certain sturdy self-assertion which commanded respect, for he was by no means ready to submit beyond definite limits, and at times forced the hand of his masters by acts of heroic self- devotion. The farmers ranked next to the gen- tlemen, and some of them were men of 232 3[apan, its People anp Cugtomg importance. The homeofagreat farmer had the characteristics we found want- ing in China,— elegance, neatness, comfort, order, attractiveness. A friend of mine was the son of a farmer who had hundreds of peasants. They were his tenants, paying him half their gross products as rent. They were at his mercy, owning nothing but their little cabins and the ground on which they stood. Were he to refuse one of them the renewal of his lease, it would be ruin. There was no possibility of other employment in the neighborhood, and a peasant could not travel to any other district without a passport. Yet the relationship was not without its alle- viations. In hard seasons the landlord reduced the rent or remitted it alto- gether, and in cases of misfortune he was expected to aid. But he was not free himself. The government exacted a large part of his receipts as land tax, and as he looked down upon his ten- ants and would not associate with 233 Cfte^pitftoftfteflDtient them, so did the gentlemen look down upon him. At the end of an avenue of fine old trees, and surrounded by a beautiful garden, stood his house, large and well arranged, with articles of art and every indication of refinement. Life had run on in peace and prosperity for generations, the estate being entailed so that it was inherited by the eldest son. In some of the provinces the tenants had larger rights. In Tosa, for exam- ple, the tenant could not be evicted if he paid his rent, nor could the rent be increased, and he could sell his rent- hold at his will, while all the improve- ments he had made were his. Thus he was independent. Tosa anticipated the Ulster custom of tenant rights. In this province there were no great farmers, none with a place compara- ble to that described in the last para- graph, but, on the other hand, none was very poor. They were an inde- pendent folk, unceremonious, know- 234 3lapan, m People anD Customs ing their own rights, and ready to de- fend them, mindful of the feudal wars in which their fathers had taken part, fighting for this baron or for that, and winning the respect of the gentlemen by their bravery. In the regions near Yedo (Tokyo) the conditions were harder, and the farmers sometimes rose in rebellion, not against the system but against its administration. A story is told of one who sacrificed himself for his neighbors, winning immortal fame. Conditions were unbearable, and the local baron was deaf to all entreaties. So this farmer resolved to lose his life for the welfare of his fellows. He wrote a petition setting forth the wrongs of the farmers, and went to Yedo. There he waited his opportunity, and thrust his petition into the palanquin of the ruler of Japan, the Shogun. This act was punishable with death, for none was permitted to approach the sov- ereign in such irregular fashion, and 235 Cbe ©pitit of tfte ©tient the farmer was taken, handed over to his own master and crucified. But his purpose was accomplished and the people were relieved. At best the work of the peasant farmer is insufficiently rewarded. He cannot eat the rice he raises, but must sell it and live on cheaper food; his house is small and devoid of furniture and his clothing is of the scantiest. A peasant in Tosa showed me his ac- count for a year, and his total receipts from twelve months of hard work were less than twenty dollars, out of which he had to clothe and feed himself. And the peasant is well off who earns sixty dollars in the year. Hence life is of the simplest. Yet it has its com- pensations: for example, once in a lifetime a religious pilgrimage, which is a prolonged picnic, to some famous shrine, or a trip to Tokyo and to its temples. Besides there are holidays and rustic festivals and pleasant re- sorts within easy reach. The peasant 236 3Iapan, its People ana Customs also loves nature and has his tiny gar- den, and for the winter time a box of plants. His children nowadays go to school, and begin to understand some- thing of the events of the day. For Japan has a well-established system of public schools, based upon our own, and tuition is free to all who apply for it, though a small fee is charged the well-to-do. From the ranks of the farmers comes a large part of the class foreigners call "coolies." The young men dread the hard and narrow life of the farm, and go to the cities, where they can find employment in pulling the little carriages called jinrikisha. In Tokyo alone more than forty thousand men gain their livelihood by this means. A man may earn a dollar on some days if he be fortunate, or, in private em- ployment, as much as eight dollars a month. Then he has the excitement of his trips, racing with his fellows, and taking long runs as a great pic- 237 Cfie ©pitit of tfte SDtient nic. The work is not continuous as on the farm, but is interspersed with rest and amusement. He eats better food and sees more of the world, and so, though he descends a step in the so- cial world, he chooses the pleasanter life. Often it is the more immoral life also, and as he does not take good care of himself, he is worn out before his time. From these men and their fellows, the hereditary coolies, the government has found endless num- bers of recruits for its service in Korea and Manchuria,— an unexcelled force for carrying burdens and pulling carts, cheaper and more effective than horses, and as dependable as the sol- diers themselves. The artisans rank next to the farm- ers. Their work is like that of arti- sans in all lands, but it is distinguished by its artistic quality. China has pro- duced great artists, and India has magnificent structures in its tombs and palaces and temples ; but no other 238 glapan, itg Peopte ana Custom0 land can show such a love for the beautiful and such a universal power for its production as can Japan. Italy is its only rival, and art is even more common in Japan than in Italy. Art is not a thing apart, though there are fa- milies and guilds of artists, but it is the application of beauty to common arti- cles. So that one finds bits of fine carv- ing in remote country villages, in inns and farm-houses, and forms of roofs and gateways and verandas which please the artistic sense, and utensils of the kitchen and the table which in shape and decoration are worthy of the collector's attention. Even in the pri- sons are men and women who produce embroidery and carvings and artistic articles in many varieties. Thus art is only the common work done with lov- ing care and with a feeling for the beautiful, and one hesitates to draw the line between artisan and artist. In the old days the best workers were given a distinguished place, the 239 Cl)e@pfdtoftl)e©rient product of their labor being taken by great personages, and the workers treated like the retainers of the no- bles — that is, given allowances for a lifetime, and expected to produce work not by the piece and for the market but in perfection and with the con- noisseur in view. So to-day the choi- cest work is not done in factories but in tiny shops, the artist being content with his work and seeking only a mod- est livelihood. The coming of the mod- ern commercial spirit, however, threat- ens perfection, for it seeks pecuniary reward and as a consequence meets the popular taste and produces by whole- sale. Like the farmer and the coolie, the artisan and the artist form here- ditary castes, in which the blood de- scent is less important than skill in the vocation, for often the headship goes not to the eldest son but to an ap- prentice who excels. He may perhaps marry his master's daughter and be- come the head of the family, taking 240 3lapan, it0 IPeople anD Customs the family name and striving to main- tain its reputation. In such a society trade has a subor- dinate place, for the ideal is virtue, that is, work for the work's sake and not for gain. Hence mere barter is held in disrepute. The trader is looked upon as is the peddler or the huckster in the West. It is true there have been great families of merchants and houses fa- mous from generation to generation, but generally the trade was on a small scale and dishonest, the very notion of gain being dishonorable. Hence in our modern world the Japanese have acquired an evil repute among mer- chants. It is not easy to do business with men to whom a contract is not sacred, by whom profit is sought through overreaching and misrepre- sentation, and with whom trade is a game. A wise buyer of high-priced ar- ticles told me that on entering a little shop in search of ivories he never ex- pressed a desire to see them, but talked 241 Cfte Spirit of tfte ©rient of other articles,— bronze, silk or lac- quer,— and only after repeated visits, when the shopkeeper produced the ivories of his own accord, would the purchaser so much as look at them, and then only with the protestation that he cared nothing for them, but was ambi- tious only of other things. Or again, sometimes the price rises as the buyer desires many of a kind, a dozen coming to more than twelve times the price of one, because thus the shop is emptied of its stock and the seller is obliged to take the trouble to replenish it. Or again, it takes reiterated demands to get the article one desires brought forth, the merchant declaring that he does not have it, though his storehouse has an ample supply. For even the mer- chant does not have the true commer- cial spirit, but wishes only to live as his father lived and to gain the mod- est income which suffices for his wants. The combination seems odd, — a readi- ness to make large and illegal gains 242 3Iapan, it0 people anD Customs and the lack of enterprise in trade,-— but it is something every resident dis- covers to be a fact. Every ton of coal which enters the house and every quantity of sugar or flour or fruit must be watched or the buyer will find him- self defrauded, while the supply of milk is so adulterated that I have known careful housekeepers who demanded that the cow be milked in their pre- sence and the milk put directly into their receptacles. Servants also form a class by them- selves, but they are recruited from all the other classes. Domestic service has no stigma attached to it. In the feudal days much of the personal ser- vice was rendered by gentlemen, who were honored by such attentions to their lords. In a feudal society, where status is fixed, there is no danger of overstepping the bounds of propriety, and the servant may be an honored member of the family. So, often, men and women chose to follow their mas- 243 CfieSpmtoftfteHDtiem ters, even when in misfortune there could be no wages but only suffering and poverty. My own cook was a samurai . Once on a steamer I saw him talking to a high official of the government who was going to Germany to purchase guns for the navy. On inquiry I found that the two in the old days had been fellow clansmen, but that my servant had suffered in the changes made by the introduction of modern ways, while his old comrade had profited. My man had charge of all our domestic con- cerns. No new servant could stay with us against his wishes, and he was al- ways consulted when there was a va- cancy. He made the purchases, ren- dering his account every morning and having his percentage of profit on all. He would run the house without an order for a month at a time, and some- times when his mistress was absent and I had friends for dinner, he would arrange the menu, buy flowers and 244 31apan, its l^eople auD Customs decorate the table, and in general put me entirely at my ease. So, too, in go- ing into the country for a vacation, he would make a list of needed articles, send them off by express, precede us to the cottage in the mountains, put things in order, and greet us on our arrival with dinner prepared and all things in readiness. He was our loyal retainer, and would go forth with us to the ends of the earth. I doubt not he would come to us were we to re- turn to Japan after these years of ab- sence, for we are still his master and mistress. That is the servant at his best; but there are others, untrust- worthy, careless, wasteful, drunken, for human nature is the same in Japan as in the United States; it varies with in- dividuals, and one may not generalize from a limited experience. Japan differs from the continent of Asia in its natural scenery as in the characteristics of its people. Instead of vast plains, great mountain ranges 245 Cfie Spirit of tfie ©riem and mighty rivers there are hills and valleys, with the ever-present sea. No land excels it in picturesqueness, and in none do the people more perfectly fit their land. They love it as their only home, they rejoice in its beauty, and ' they make their constructions suit its features. Their old legends relate the birth of the islands first, and then the birth of the people. All are alike in their descent and in their divinity. All alike, we may add, share in defects, since nothing is perfect upon earth. The same volcanic force which gave the islands their striking forms still works, making the land quake and tremble. In one earthquake, in 1891, more than ten thousand persons were killed and a hundred thousand houses were destroyed. The same winds from the south which bring clouds of warm moisture and pour their contents upon the hills bring also devastating ty- phoons which seem to laugh at the la- bors of men. Nowhere is nature more 246 3Iapan, it0 People anD Cu0tom0 beautiful, nowhere more terrible. There is something akin to this in the Japanese themselves. No people are more perfectly trained to courtesy. When once I ran over a man in the street with my bicycle he picked him- self up and begged my pardon for get- ting in my way. Nowhere are there greater finish and nicety in workman- ship and art. Yet withal there are ter- rible forces, which when once aroused astonish us by their power. In the next chapter let us attempt to study this character more closely, that we may, in part at least, understand at once the Japanese achievements and the pro- blems which still await their solution. VIII 3fapan, its ^pitit am ptolHems *F iHBB L9X* VIII N the end of the last chap- ter reference was made to the Japanese tradition. It is not very interesting, and is wanting in the beauty which charac- terizes the myths of other peoples. But it indicates a belief in the divinity of the land and of its people. Perhaps di- vinity is too strong a word, as the word in the Japanese means only "superi- or." So we may amend the sentence to read "in the excellence of the land and of its people." The world is astonished at the results produced in the last generation. It is only a little over fifty years since Com- modore Perry made the first treaty, and it is not yet fifty years since the first American was admitted to the empire as a resident. It was a grudg- ing admission, with the purpose of closing the door completely again af- 251 Cfie Spirit of tfie ©tient ter a little. But that proved an impos- sibility, and so after many troubles, which we cannot here stop to relate, less than forty years ago the people made up their minds definitely that the policy of seclusion was impossible, and that Japan must come forward and take its place among the great nations of the earth. Here was a momentous resolution, one unparalleled indeed, and few be- lieved that it could be carried into ac- tion. When I went to Japan twenty- eight years ago, in 1877, the movement was well under way. The young men were full of enthusiasm and of un- daunted confidence. "When foreign- ers came to Japan three hundred years ago we were their equals, but we have been asleep, while they have been wide awake. What they have done in three hundred years we must do in thirty." That was the spirit which ani- mated young Japan, and of course all the wise men laughed ; they had heard 252 3Iapan, its Spirit anP l^totiiemg boys talk before! Very few had confi- dence in the ability of the people or in their perseverance. "They are first- class copyists," we were told, "and will take on a superficial polish of Western civilization, but they are Asi- atics, and between Asiatics and Euro- peans there is a great gulf fixed. "The people did not pay attention to the criticism, but went their way; they engaged foreign instructors,— Ameri- cans, Englishmen, Germans, French- men,— and they sent endless delega- tions to Europe and to America to investigate and to study. It was a great vision of a great world which greeted them, and they recognized its greatness. What they have accomplished the world knows. The same group of men are still in control, now no longer young, supported in their task by other young men trained by themselves and of like spirit. None now talks about superficial imitation, for the test has 253 Cfte^pitftoftbeflDrient been of the hardest, and every portion of the organization has come forth with glory. The empire has been transformed; what the West accom- pHshed in three hundred years Japan has done in thirty, and the nation takes its place among the world powers. Here is the greatest of contrasts to India and to China. Europeans have come to think of Asia as an area for exploitation. Any bold soldier with a thousand troops could march through China; and the smallness of England's garrison in India is one of the wonders of the world. The East has lacked power of organization, of attention to detail, of thoroughgoing discipline, of patient working to great and distant ends. It has been absorbed in the con- templation of "the Ultimate and the Absolute," and it has submitted in the present world to more militant races. But Japan has proved itself possessed in high degree of the very qualities which we have regarded as peculiarly 254 3[apan, its Spirit anP pto&lemg belonging to the Occident. We have many explanations of the phenomena, but behind them all is this character. There is something in the nature of the Japanese which differen- tiates them from their fellows. Yet, as already indicated, it is not merely he- redity. Put the Chinaman and the Ja- panese in the same circumstances from childhood, and we doubt if the differ- ences would be great ; but the environ- ment has been different and with cor- respondingly different results. As we pointed out in the last chapter, the Japanese derived their civilization from the continent, Korea, China and India all contributing to it. In the seventh and eighth centuries of our era the Japanese were as eager to adopt the best as in our own time. They had been semi-barbarous when they became acquainted with a com- pleted civilization, and they set them- selves to master it, and in the course of three centuries succeeded. The 255 Cfie Spirit of tfie fiDrient higher classes began the work, and from them the new enlightenment spread throughout the nation. The native religion, Shinto, gave place to Buddhism ; the old form of semi-tribal government gave way to a central- ized empire ; the old huts which had done even for the emperor were re- built on Chinese models. The law, in- dustry, the whole life, was reformed upon continental models, with China- men and Koreans as instructors, and by and by with native Japanese who had visited the Asiatic continent as leaders. But while thus Chinese civilization was teacher and model, the Japanese were not simply imitators, for how unlike China is Japan in our day, in its houses, its gardens, its customs, its ideals, its ways of life, its social organization! The old civilization was not an indiscriminate adoption; there was no attempt to make Japan a sec- ond and an inferior China, but there 256 3[apan,ttg Spirit anp Pto&Iemg was intelligent adoption, and then adaptation. The needs were different, and the organization must fit the needs. In our own day the same process is going on. Again the Japanese came in contact with a civiHzation superior to their own. They saw at a glance that they could not compete with the wide-awake, scientific nations of the West if they were to continue on the old lines. As well might junks contend with steamships as the Chinese civil- ization with modern enlightenment. It was not a question as to which was better in the abstract, but it was the concrete question. What are we go- ing to do about it? There are foreign- ers who regret the transformation, the old was so unique and so attractive ; and indeed if the chief end of the Ja- panese is to furnish amusement to tra- vellers, then the old was better. But for men of ambition, for a people who wished to play an important part in 257 Cbe Spirit of tbe ©tient the world, there could be no question, and the intelligence of the Japanese is shown by their immediate compre- hension of that fact. The Chinese had known Europe for a longer time, but they had not grasped the situation, nor had they yet fully understood it, while meantime the Japanese saw, understood, and set themselves to conquer. Again, as in the first reformation in the seventh and eighth centuries, it was the higher classes which took the lead. It could not be otherwise. Only the samurai possessed the quali- ties which make for leadership, and only their intelligence was thoroughly trained. After the feudal wars ceased, say in the year 1600, there ensued a long period of peace. During this time the gentlemen studied the Chinese literature and philosophy. It was se- vere discipline, but it taught the value of learning and the process of acquir- ing it. Hence when Japan was opened 258 3Iapan,it0 Spirit anD Problems again to foreigners there were a large number of trained young men ready for modern learning. They thronged the schools where English was taught, and they visited foreign lands in com- panies. They did not doubt that what men had learned they could learn, and they wanted the highest and best in mathematics, in philosophy, in sci- ence, in the practical arts. Nor were they content with knowledge for them- selves. They knew the gulf between the common people and the gentle- men was caused in part by the pri- vileges and in greater part by the education of the latter, so privileges were done away with and provision was made for the education of all the people. But we may well ask ourselves what was the motive power in all this trans- formation. Why should a nation go to school with such enthusiasm, and why should men of a special class seek the elevation of the people? The 259 Cbe Spirit of tfte SDtient answer can be found only as we study again the character of the samurai . As we remember, he was the retainer of a baron. He lived the life of a sol- dier, and his ethics were those of a soldier. His first duty was loyalty. He was told stories of the men of old who gave up all things for the sake of lord and country; he was instructed that his body was not his own but his mas- ter's, and that his glory should be in unhesitating obedience and self-sacri- fice. He was taught that wealth and luxury might be attained by mer- chants, but should be despised by samurai . In some of the clans he was separated from home at an early age and put with other youths of his own age that his martial spirit might be fostered and he be brought up as the ward of his clan. Above all he was taught that his own life was not of importance. His education, whether through Buddhism directly or more likely through the Chinese philosophy, 260 3Iapan, its ^pitit atiD Problems impressed upon him the shortness of life and the certainty of death, and that whether soon or late was not of consequence. So too with all earthly happiness, it could not long endure, and what we call success is a small matter. What is of consequence is honor, and duty, and, above all, loy- alty. The boy was told the story of the national heroes and of his fami- ly. On certain anniversaries children were gathered together, and their pa- rents taught them that the spirits of their ancestors were present. Then the story of the family would be related and the boys and girls exhorted to live worthily, so that the honor of the family might be maintained and the spirit of the ancestors be gratified. With such training there was de- veloped a consciousness of social soli- darity and the perception that none liveth to himself A man's life was in his group, and he identified himself with its prosperity and adversity, so 261 Cfte Spirit of tfte ©rient that men and women did not wish to survive the defeat of their clan or party, but preferred to kill themselves and to perish when all hope was past. So a husband would unhesi- tatingly sacrifice his home ties for the sake of his feudal lord, and the wife was taught also to put husband and lord ever before herself Naturally so high an ideal was often violated, for no more in Japan than elsewhere have the ideal and the real been the same. But, nevertheless, a high ideal is a priceless possession. It stimulates he- roism, it promotes virtue and it estab- lishes a standard of judgment. There were traitors and self-seekers and disobedient sons and unfaithful ser- vants as in the rest of the world. In periods the ideal seemed to perish and corruption to triumph. Yet the ideal was never wholly lost, nor were there wanting "righteous" men who embodied it. The ideal itself was not perfect. It 262 3[apan, its ©pint anD ptotilems laid too great stress upon the organ- ism and too little upon the individual. Heroism and self-sacrifice would atone for all faults, and a man might live much as he pleased in his personal conduct if as samurai he maintained the standard of knightly devotion. In the story of the "Forty-seven Ro- nins," the most popular of Japanese tales, the leader, in his desire for ven- geance upon the enemy of his lord, debauches himself, drives away his wife, wastes his property, consorts with the lowest men and women, and lives a life of drunkenness and pro- fligacy, all in order that he might throw his enemy off his guard. Suc- cessful in this, he slew his foe and then committed hara-kiri, obtaining for himself and comrades the enthusiastic plaudits of the nation. The deed was done early in the eighteenth century, and still the people never weary of the story, and still the graves of the heroes are ornamented with flowers. 263 Cf)e%>pititoftf)eaDrient These men are called by way of pre- eminence the "righteous samurai." We indeed question the right of a man thus to transgress every rule of private virtue and to debauch him- self, but we cannot withhold our praise for such thoroughgoing loyalty. When Japan came into contact with the Occident loyalty supplied the power needed for its transformation. The alternative presented was, sub- mit to the West as India has sub- mitted or learn from it. With that alternative faced there could be no doubt as to the choice: Japan must be made the peer of the greatest. The passionate patriotism which lies be- neath the placid exterior of Oriental politeness forced forward the young men, whose labors and studies were always **for the sake of my country" and never for themselves. In these professions there was more or less hypocrisy doubtless, but it was un- conscious for the most part, and 264 3[apan, m %mit anP ptofalcmg mixed motives were present only as everywhere in this world of mingled good and evil. The patriotism was a living force, and the ideal a guide and a judge. Early in the movement some of the samurai set themselves to create a national patriotism. It had been the inspiration of a class; it was now to be made the virtue of a people. It was early seen that only a nation which commands the allegiance of all its children could take the place Japan aspired to reach ; hence the emperor was made the symbol of the nation, taking the place of the flag with us, and a loyalty to him was cultivated. He responded, giving up a part of his autocratic power, creating a constitu- tion, ruHng under it as a constitutional monarch, showing himself in public, looking after the welfare of his people in many ways, and making himself one with them so far as that is possible. He ceased to be a god, and became 265 Cfte ©pitit of tfte ©tiem the head of his fellow-countrymen. Thus he was more than a mere symbol, for he became an active agent in the transformation of his people. Great problems remain which require wisdom and perseverance beyond even the tasks of the past. In the compari- son it is easy to organize an army and to make over the machinery of the state, but the thorough training of a nation is of supreme difficulty. Let us take up the divisions of activity and set forth their problems. First of all is the government. Great as has been the advance, those who know the situation best will be the last to claim that the situation is sa- tisfactory. In the presence of the for- eign foe all domestic divisions disap- peared, but only for the time. Now that peace is declared the old es- trangement will show itself again. The empire is now under a constitution, with an emperor who has limited his own powers, a ministry subject only 266 3[apan. its ^y irtt a np Pto&lcms to him, a diet in two houses, with the lower in practical control, and with a bureaucracy which occupies a posi- tion of peculiar importance and inde- pendence. It is often the real power behindthe throne. The situation grows out of the history of the recent past. In the revolution of 1867-9 three great clans took the lead, and upon its successful conclusion they were in command of the empire. A small mi- nority fought the war, and a small mi- nonty was therefore in power. Soon a quarrel broke out among the victors, and one of the three clans withdrew from the coalition, while the second became involved in domestic strife and finally in war. As a result, a group of powerful, intelligent and intensely patriotic men, being few in number, had undisputed possession of all the sources of power. Their subordinates were given the offices in army, navy, police, education, finance ; all the places of vital control were parcelled out 267 C{)e§>pititoft6eSDrient among them, and the government was really by the samurai of two clans, Satsuma and Choshu. Hence in the course of a few years was built up a bureaucracy of great power. It still continues, though men from other clans have been admitted to positions of influence, and on the whole the scheme has been widened and liberal- ized. None the less it has made and unmade ministries and controlled the policy of the empire. Side by side with this is the Impe- rial Diet. Its formation was promised in the beginning of the new era, but its establishment was the result of a widespread agitation attended with intense political excitement. It has now been established long enough for the formation of a fair estimate of its value, and this, as perhaps we should have anticipated, has been neither as low as its opponents feared, nor as great as its advocates prophesied. Its life, excepting during periods of war, 268 has been a continual struggle for greater powers. The ministry is sub- ject only to the will of the emperor, but the Diet has sought to subject it to itself. In general we may say the contest has been between the German and the English parliamentary sys- tems, with the probability at times that the latter would prevail. The pecul- iar character of Japanese politics has always prevented, for great parties after the fashion of American and English public life are not found, but groups, somewhat in the French fash- ion. The old loyalty continues, a loyal- ty to individuals; so that great states- men have their devoted followers who care little for principles but much for men. Thus the personal element pre- dominates, the real divisions have centred in men, and the incessant struggles have resulted in the sub- stitution of one set of politicians for another rather than in measures of high utility. Before the outbreak of 269 Ct)e@pitttoft{)e®ricm the late war there were signs that the people were losing interest in the con- test, and that the nation would relapse into an attitude of passive compla- cence whoever should rule. Evidently the problem which must be solved in the years to come is this: How shall the forms of constitutional govern- ment be made a reality? Is it possible that the ancient principle of loyalty to the individual can be replaced by loy- alty to principles, and can the ancient soHdarity of the clan, which so readily becomes the solidarity of a great bu- reaucracy, give place to the real gov- ernment by and for the people? Mani- festly it is easier to change forms than to regenerate the spirit; and perhaps more has been accomplished already than could have been expected. For elections with free discussions, and a free presswhich reaches all intelligent people, and the interest in the proceed- ings of the Diet, are powerful engines for the production of the material out 270 Japan, it0 Spirit anD ptofilcms of which really constitutional and mod- ern states are formed. But on this issue depends largely the future of the empire. No more in Japan than elsewhere can a bureau- cracy be trusted with the control of a people. Government for the people in time inevitably becomes government for a group of men. Neither creed nor race nor excellence of intention can prevent the operation of that natural law. Japan has already shown that it is not exempt. While the statesmen who have controlled it have been pa- triots of high purpose, yet Tokyo has been filled with stories of "govern- ment merchants" whose contracts would not stand examination, and of monopolies of various kinds estab- lished by government grants and with profits shared by men who granted them. The results are inevitable in the future, whatever may be the false- ness of the rumors now; but there is evidence that not even the patriotism 271 CfieSpftitoftftefiDtient of the Japanese in its transition pe- riod has been proof against sordid gain; while if we turn to the past, un- der the old feudal system, there is proof in plenty of widespread misman- agement and corruption. The system at the end was rotten, and had it then been brought to the supreme test it would have collapsed as completely as has Russia. The same causes will in time show the same effects, and the hope of escape is through the com- plete carrying out of the plans now begun. It is true the Diet itself has not been free from corruption nor from petty and disgraceful intrigue. Human na- ture everywhere asserts itself in its evil as in its good. But, while the Diet has been far from perfect, and while its members have shown themselves unable to form effective combinations, still its publicity and its responsibili- ty to the people will aid in educating an electorate which shall require not 272 31apan, it0 ©pitit anD Problems only patriotism but honesty, as indeed the pubHc already requires these vir- tues. The one real advantage of the parliamentary system is this : while a bureaucracy may conceal its faults, a parliament commits its faults in the sight of Heaven. There are commercial problems of great seriousness. Japan, as we have seen, has not been a commercial land, and its ethical code has been that of the soldier. Hence commercial hon- esty has not been cultivated, and in our age the people are at a great dis- advantage. Already the manufacturers and merchants are notorious, and the friends of the people are kept busy with explanations. A thoroughgoing reformation, root and branch, is ne- cessary if the empire is to take a place in peace corresponding to that which it has won in war. The most hopeful sign is that the leading men are awake to this serious deficiency and are seek- ing by education to remedy it. 273 CbeSpititoftfteaDtient On the material side also the pro- blems are very great. Japan is poor, it cannot compare with a third-rate Eu- ropean state, yet it seeks to maintain itself as a first-class power. It finds poverty a check to its advance, for modern civilization is expensive. A Japanese could live in the United States as cheaply as in Japan, but he will not. None so lives here, and our poverty would be a sufficiency there. A man with a dollar and a half a day in Tokyo even would count himself well off*, and could live much as he chose. But that is because of the sim- plicity of life, a simplicity which gives way through contact with foreign ways. Hence there arise a new re- spect for wealth and a new desire for it. Art has been commercialized, as have literature and the aspirations of young men. But how shall these new aspira- tions be gratified, how shall even the rightful measure of added comfort be attained? For the vision of a regener- 274 3Iapan, iw Spirit anD IPtoblems ated Japan must include a certain ad- vancement in material resources. Al- ready the air of some of the towns is black with coal smoke as a partial an- swer, while all the natural resources of the empire are studied with scien- tific thoroughness, and the newly won lands beyond the seas are looked to as affording an outlet for the too dense population. But with these new methods come new problems, new to Japan but old to us, of strikes and child labor and exhausting hours for adults, of the distribution of profits, of the forma- tion of a wealthy, monopolistic group, of strikes and socialism and the en- tire list so familiar,questions which Ja- pan must answer as we must answer them, with no royal road for either. Allied with this is the educational problem. As in politics, the forms of the most enlightened nations are adopted, but the system is handi- capped by the use of Chinese, a form 275 Cfte @>pitft of tbe ©tient of writing which makes disproportion- ate demands upon the strength and time of the student for mastery over the mere mechanism of education. As a result the vast majority of chil- dren cannot study long enough to gain a really intelligent notion of the world they live in. Even less than our own children who end their train- ing with the primary school can the Japanese boys and girls be regard- ed as prepared to take an interest in intellectual affairs. They are poorly equipped even for the reading of the newspaper or the most ordinary lit- erature. Then a smaller proportion than with us go on to the secondary and high schools; while, instead of our great multitude in college and in uni- versity, only an extremely select mi- nority, very small in numbers, can en- ter the corresponding institutions. Here the want of wealth makes itself felt, stern necessity compelling the vast majority to forego the higher ed- 276 3lapan, its ©pint anD Problems ucation. Yet the great majority thus hindered is the real source of the na- tion's strength, and if trained it would add to it incalculably. Again, none is more alive to the situation than are the leading Japanese, and none clearer in the knowledge that it is a condition and not a theory, a condition which can be met only by long continued efforts for generations. The moral problem has already been indicated in part, so far as it concerns business. We may not discuss here the question of the relation of the sexes, but it is even more serious. A thoroughgoing reformation is needed in the domain of sexual ethics, with new ideals and new laws and cus- toms. Here is the second blot upon Japan's fame, and here the apologist has a more difficult task, as he cannot fall back upon the peculiarities of the feudal ethics. But here too there are indications of the coming of a better state of things. In Tokyo, for example, 277 C6e ©pitit of tfie ©tient a group of gentlemen of high social position and of correspondingly great influence have formed a league for personal purity of life; in some of the provinces laws have been passed a- gainst public prostitution, and Chris- tianity increasingly makes its influ- ence felt. The general moral problem is also serious. Beautiful as was the loyalty of old Japan, its defects were appar- ent. As already indicated, it was the ethics of the soldier, with his virtues and his vices. To a soldier all is per- mitted which is necessary for success, and "laws are silent amid arms," for that which would be crime in the peaceful citizen is applauded in the warrior. Hence in Japan the notion obtained that loyalty excused all else, and indeed that loyalty might require the commission of the most abhorrent deeds. Such a code emphasized for generations could not fail to produce a willingness to admit all means as 278 3[apan, its Spirit anD ptotilemg sanctified by the ends. With loyalty to lord or country as supreme there could be no "higher law" to which even patriotism must bend, and no more holy ideal which should be held sacred though the heavens fall. Such an ideal requires an ethical re- ligion, and in our day this is Japan's greatest need. It has been the ten- dency of the people to worship the wonderful and the extraordinary in nature and in man, miraculous power calling forth the feelings of adoration and submission. This sensitiveness to the wonderful has been a main source of the people's progress. But it must be supplemented by the conviction that the highest is found not in the fire or the wind or the earthquake, but in the still small voice, which is the word of God. Through the Confu- cian philosophy the conviction that righteousness is more than all success and more truly divine than all wonders was taught to the elect,— to the intel- 279 Cfte ©pitit of tbe ©tient lectual few, — but it could not be made effective with the masses of the people. A more potent religion, with its doc- trines of the holiness of God, of the righteousness of his law, and of the soul's accountability to him, will fur- nish the transforming power which shall complete the regeneration of the people. Finally, because our limit is reached, not because we are now at the end, the problem is how to adopt the new without destroying the old; how to adapt the new and make it the ex- pression of the true Japanese spirit. But this is beyond our province, per- haps beyond human province, and it must be left to the Japanese spirit, the spirit which in the past took the Chinese civilization and made it Japa- nese, and which, we believe, will take our modern enlightenment and trans- form it so that the new shall be bet- ter than the old, and yet, like it, unique. IX Cfte Ji3eto motID IX ci^e j^eto mom HE victory of Japan over Russia is an event of more than local or of Asiatic sig- nificance; it is a turning- point in the history of the world. For the first time in millenniums has the East defeated the West, and for the first time in centuries has an Eastern power contended on equal terms with a European empire. Not in a thousand years has such a spectacle been seen. With this victory new problems emerge. The sympathy of the Ameri- can people was with the Asiatic against the European, with the so- called "heathen" against the so-called "Christian;" but even during the con- tinuance of the conflict voices were heard which in warning tones an- nounced the arrival of the "yellow peril." With peace these voices are still heard, and we are told that the 283 C6e Spirit of tfie ©tient predominance of our civilization is threatened, and that the time comes when the Asiatic and not the Euro- pean will be supreme. Our too cursory survey of Asia, its people and their problems, has shown us how little there is in these fears. India is not yet aroused, and how long a training must it undergo before it can put itself upon an equality with the West in material things! As we have seen, its ablest sons do not ask it; they are content with the "Ultimate and the Absolute," leaving the world to more materialistic and more aggres- sive men. To make India a factor in an aggressive "yellow peril" would re- quire the complete reversal of its whole stream of tendency. So too with China, it cares little for the "Ultimate and the Absolute" and very much for material success, but it is not a conquering land. Its people firmly believe that "the meek shall in- herit the earth," and it is beyond the 284 Cfie iSeto motlD dreams of the most visionary that its multitudes shall set themselves in mo- tion for conquest beyond the moun- tains and the seas. For centuries de- fenceless states have maintained them- selves upon the borders of the Middle Kingdom,— Korea^ and Siam and Burmah,— but the resistless power of the Chinese has not been put forth for their overthrow, and no ambitious general has dreamed of universal em- pire. To start upon a career of con- quest would be to reverse the tradi- tions of all time, and to run counter to the most firmly established convic- tions of the people. Nor will Japan lightly go to war again, nor will it be led into ambitious projects of distant conquest. Its lead- ers are too intelligent and understand * The relation of China to some of its semi-dependencies is oddly shown by the fact that the Koreans in the past asked permission in vain to increase the tribute paid in Peking, desiring to render it more frequently. But after all there was reason in their request and in China's refusal, for the carrying of the tribute was made an occa- sion for profitable barter, the merchants who accompanied the am- bassador being permitted to take in their wares free of duty, and gaining much more than they paid. 28s CfteSpirftoftfteSDrient too thoroughly their powers and their limitations. Japan's position as a mili- tary power is established, and it will not need to seek for further recogni- tion; its problems are those of com- merce and of industry and of all that belongs to peace. It will give itself to these, and will not commit the su- preme folly of going around the globe to contend with European powers in their own waters and upon their own shores. If it attempt such an enter- prise it will be because it is as foolish as the Russians; and whom the gods first make mad they destroy. But while few men seriously contem- plate the possibility of military ag- gression, more are apprehensive of a commercial struggle. The Chinese es- pecially, with their patience, industry, frugality and perseverance, seem for- midable competitors, while even the Japanese, notwithstanding their want of large experience, may prove them- selves formidable when they bring the 286 Cl)e il3eto motli} same scientific intelligence to bear upon the pursuits of peace as they have already on those of war. But again, summarily and for the moment, let us dismiss these idle fears. The thorough awakening of China is still only among the possibilities, and Japanese com- mercial aggression on a large scale is also of the future. But granting it all, China progressive, manufacturing, awake, Japan increasing in wealth as it increases in the scientific use of elec- tricity and of steam, does any one sup- pose that these empires will be less valuable as customers when thus rich than at present when poor? Does the merchant prefer a community which is poverty-stricken and bound hand and foot in conservatism to one which is alive with enterprise and rich in productions? Most certainly it is not in the continuance of present condi- tions that our hopes for future gain rest, but in the entrance of Asia upon the path of progress, and in its success 287 C6e Spirit of tfte SDtient in utilizing the forces of nature as it already employs to their limit the un- aided powers of man. If indeed our ideal is the unapproach- able supremacy of the white man, if we regard Europeans and Americans as predestined to rule, and if our as- piration is the division of China and the government of the earth by the great military powers, then the vic- tory of Japan is portentous. But such we are persuaded is not the dream of Americans. The arousing of Japan means better things and things which pertain unto salvation. In the beginning of this book we de- scribed the differences between East and West as the result of our mutual separation. Once, long ago, there was no East nor West in the modern sense, but all were one, with differences in de- grees of barbarism and of archaic ci- vilization. On the whole Asia preceded Europe in the race, and Europe en- tered into the fruits of the Asiatic heri- 288 Cfte il3eto aXHotlD tage, in philosophy, in science, in reli- gion, in art, and in most of the depart- ments of civilized life. Asia was teacher, Europe was pupil. Then came separa- tion, and after that hostility and a more complete isolation. During long cen- turies Asia remained unchanged, or slowly and steadily deteriorated. There seemed no inherent power capable of producing new life. Thought revolved perpetually around the same subjects; literature repeated the same stories, centred its poetry in the same themes, and found delight in an increasing mi- nuteness of style and ornament. Gov- ernment discovered no new system, and wars or revolutions simply re- placed one set of rulers by another. In neither rulers nor ruled were great ideals of human liberty or progress produced. So was it in India and in China and in Japan. Under varying conditions, with varying civilizations and varying developments, the same spirit was in all and the same results 289 Cbe Spirit of tfie ©tient were produced. Everywhere the end had been reached, and there seemed to be "no new thing under the sun." The spirit of Asia had exhausted it- self; it had no new inspirations and no new visions. Its thought of the uni- verse was of a vast living organism circling round and round forever; over all was Fate, ruling spirit and body alike. Suddenly upon this repose came the foreign invasions, an incursion of barbarians from the outer world. It was all unwelcome, for it disturbed the calm and excited alarm. These men were uncultivated and rude; they were aggressive. And as in the past war had always been because of such incur- sions of savages, so now violence was the natural accompaniment of this disturbance. In India the people soon submitted to the inevitable, and found that they had gained by the change in masters. In China the rulers put their heads in the sand and refused to look at the world around them. In 290 Cfte il3cto motlt} Japan the leaders, remembering an- cient examples, sought at first to com- prehend and then to master the mar- vel. They could really comprehend only the spirit of the West, and they un- derstood that this spirit is not the guardian of the white man, but is the guide of all races, impartial, beneficent, potent. What really has taken place in Eu- rope and America during the ages of separation which made the white man invincible when at last isolation was no longer possible? The answer is on the surface and it is as true as it is plain. In the Occident man has be- come at once scientific and free. The first made him master of the powers of nature, the second made him mas- ter of himself It is wonderful how few have been the men and how narrow the line by which modern civilization has attained its present height. A few great scholars discovered the method by which nature should be interro- 291 Cfte spirit of tbe aDtient gated, and a comparatively few men were born with the instinct for liberty. Yet all our progress rests on these two things. Examine for a moment more closely into their nature. Liberty in its true sense has been possible only where men are thought of as sons of God. That breaks down the artificial barriers which man has made, and gives equal opportunity for development. But only here and there, under specially favoring conditions, has the teaching of Christianity on this subject taken root and brought forth fruit. Yet how intimately is the wel- fare of humanity bound up with it! Progress, civilization, the higher life, all these come from men of genius, who are God*s best gifts to man. The great benefactors are few, and they come as the breath from heaven, we know not how or when. We do know that genius may be crushed, and that the man of highest gifts in a wrong environment will accomplish nothing. 292 Cbe iSeto anotlD Now, man has crushed and misshapen himself by tradition, by social cus- toms, by political organizations. He has made power and opportunity a matter of birth and privilege. Now he opens the door and utilizes the powers and the possibilities not of the select few but of all. In such freedom is the hope of the race. Evermore, the world over, without regard to race or land, exclusive privilege breeds corruption. It is not only that the denial of liberty injures the masses ; it is still more in- jurious to the classes, keeping them bound to the system as it is, check- ing all originality and fostering ty- ranny and corruption. Ultimately in these conditions the life of a people decays, and it is capable of no high purpose. From all this liberty delivers, and though it has its own perils and sins, it none the less is the prime con- dition for advancement. Science goes hand in hand with lib- erty. It knows neither 293 Cfte Spirit of tfte ©tiem "East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth," but is the product of all times and places and races who participate in the common life which is its source. Science is simply truth and the search after it, nothing more and nothing less. Modern science differs from other sci- ence only in method, in its attention to minute details, in its beUef that no- thing is insignificant or to be over- looked, in the creed that man is to learn from nature and not to impose his guesses or wishes upon it, and in the conviction that the truth of nature is better than all poetry or visions or dreams. Let us repeat and emphasize: Science is the search for truth, for the knowledge of things as they are, a pos- session which makes man master, giv- ing him the key which unlocks the treasure-house of earth and sky and sea. In the past man has learned in the hard school of experience in a hap- hazard way; in our day scientific me- 294 Cfte il3eto JaJotlD thod reduces instances to principles, and teaches in the shortest and the most effective manner. Now the victory of Japan simply in- dicates that it has learned these two principles. It gave up its old traditions which were guesses at truth, and its old forms of organization which were the offspring of a narrow experience, and it entered upon the pursuit of sci- ence, that is, of reality. What it has won has been in this fashion. It has no distrust of scientific theory, but it has asked where were the profound scho- lars, the best teachers, the most suc- cessful results. Germany, France, Great Britain, Russia, the United States were all alike to its students, the one question being. Where shall we find the truthand obtain thebestPThe outcome shows the merits of the method and makes plain the pathway to success. Is it possible for the other Asiatics also? Why not? Can they follow where Japan leads? Certainly, if they awake. 295 C&e^pitttoft&eSDtiem When Japan again became acquaint- ed with the West, as I have shown, it discovered that it must learn from us or submit to us. So it is with na- ture and us all; we must learn from it or we must suffer from it. There is no room for argument, nor is there any difference in China, India or America. One rule is over all and one choice open to all. If we learn from nature she gives her treasures to us; if we re- fuse to learn we remain weak, poor, miserable. In the presence of facts as clear as day it is idle to argue, and our one problem is. Can Asia be taught to see what Japan hasseen? The victoryover Russiagiveshigh hopes. All across the continent goes the thrill of a new life. China feels it and begins to say, "What Japan has done we can do." India feels it and there awakes a new sense of patriotism and a new aspiration for a national existence. In every little king- dom the news arouses a sense of pos- 296 Cfie iQeto aaJorlD sibilities. To make the situation ap- parent required nothing less thain a world conflict with a power like Rus- sia, whose prowess was everywhere known and whose name brought terror throughout the continent. And on the other hand, only Japan with its intelli- gence, its patriotism, its intense self- consciousness, its warrior training, its homogeneity and its spirit of devotion could have ventured into the breach and taught the lesson. What then can be the danger if the lesson be learned ? If it be not learned all things remain as before, with a deeper hopelessness and a profounder misery. But if it be learned it is nothing more than this, that man must understand truth and live by it. From that no dan- ger can arise, but from it all blessings and progress come. Such national transformation will not be accompUshed in our generation. With all its energy, Japan has only entered upon the right path, and its 297 Cfte Spirit of tftefiDrient good will be reaped in the dim future. It took three hundred years for old Japan to assimilate the Chinese civili- zation. The pace is faster now, but let us be content nor ask impossibilities. The achievement will be unprecedent- ed if the end of the twentieth century sees the tasks completed which were set in the nineteenth ; and with these completed more will be urgently call- ing for attention. India and China present situations far more difficult. The patriotism which is the motive power must be created andanational self-consciousness born. The immensely greater power of an- cient custom and of immemorial usage must be weakened, a race of leaders must be formed, and then, instead of a homogeneous people separated by small distances, there are continen- tal empires with endless varieties of speech and race. Slowly then through generations must the process go on, and we and our children and our grand- 298 Cbe Ji3eto motli} children shall pass away before it is completed; but we at least may wit- ness the start, and firm in hope we see in faith the vision afar ofT. The victory of Japan makes oppor- tunity for the East. That is all which men or nations may ask. America es- tablishes a Monroe Doctrine, saying to European aggressors, "Hands off." Japan establishes its doctrine of like import, "Asia for Asiatics." This too is of prime importance for the world. Had Russia won, Manchuria would not have satisfied its greed, and with its at- tack on China the other powers would have claimed their share. The last great independent empire would have lost its freedom, and a few great mili- tary powers would have divided the earth. Such a thought suggests end- less visions of disaster, a real "white peril," for Europe as for Asia. How could so great a spoil have been di- vided? What opportunity for strife as the birds of prey descended upon so 299 Clje ©pittt of tfte ©tient vast a carcass! What possibilities of evil for the conquerors as for the con- quered! Besides, what European na- tion has such store of capable and honest men that it can spare enough to govern an empire in the Far East? England only has succeeded in part, and India taxes its resources; while German and French experiments do not lead us to wish their extension, and our own efforts in the Philippines are not yet such as to warrant boast- ing. China, too, is the hardest of na- tions for foreigners to govern, unless they drop their strange ways, adopt the native customs and ideals, and become Chinese. Japan has freed Eu- rope from its greatest danger and from responsibility to which it is unequal, and it merits our thanks as it main- tains "Asia for Asiatics." For the Chinese themselves the de- liverance is great. What conquered people has ever produced that which is great? And China is still virile, with 300 Cfte jfQeto saiorlD its strength unexhausted and its pow- ers scarcely yet in their fulness. It has had its proportion of distinguished sons of genius, and why should not the ages to come show their equals, men who shall rival the greatest of the past and make contributions not only to China but to the world? Let us review our great subject. The Spirit of Asia, nourished by its environ- ment and coming to an early self-con- sciousness, soon stopped in its devel- opment. Its great mission was accom- plished in the remote past, only Japan being a nation born out of due time. But with its early maturity it ex- hausted itself, in part because of the influence of adverse physical condi- tions (India), in part because of im- memorial isolation (China). Without new impulses it had no further gifts to bestow upon man, but was in part con- tent with its attainment, in part dis- couraged in the pursuit of happiness. For the future it had no great outlook, 301 Ct)eS)pitttoftfte©rient but stagnated, its highest thinkers lost in the search for the ** Ultimate and the Absolute," its greatest statesmen and generals satisfied with the achieve- ment of personal power and the indul- gence of luxury. For long periods the people continued unchanged, or deteri- orated to less satisfactory conditions. To them there came no great visions but only now and then revolt against the evil administration of systems which seemed identical with the laws of the universe. Neither intellectually nor religiously nor morally nor materi- ally were there movements which pro- mised better things. No new religion arose, though Asia has been the cradle of all great religions, nor scientifically was there any advance as scholasti- cism riveted its scheme more and more securely upon the intellectual world. Then came the modern era, when the West, vigorous to the point of insolent aggression, ambitious with dreams of a world conquest, scientific in its mas- 302 Cfie ii3eto 9:^orID tery of nature, and religious with its ideals of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, came in con- tact with it. At first the touch was paralyzing and Asia seemed doomed to conquest. But already in India there were evidences of renewed intellectual life and the dawn of a better day in religion and in intelligence. China, ob- tuse, self-satisfied and repellent, would not learn its lesson, but tried to live within its walls, through which none the less the forces of modern civili- zation were making breaches. Finally in these last years Japan arose and showed the better way. The great problem now emerges: Is the Spirit of Asia capable of assimi- lating the Spirit of Europe? As we pointed out, Japan makes the attempt. Confident in itself, it believes that it can combine the best of both and pro- duce a new civilization better than any the world has known. It is a great ef- fort, with endless difficulties in the way, 303 Cfte S^pitit of tbe ©mm and yet upon its success depends the future of the larger part of humanity. It is not to be hoped that Japan, still less Asia, will be Europeanized. It would be a sorry outcome were the empires of the East to be mere copies of the empires of the West. The ideal is not a dull identity but a true diver- sity. When one has crossed the Amer- ican continent he has had enough of the sameness, enough of the hotels and cities and houses built on the same plan, enough of conversation in the same tones and on the same top- ics, enough of a life which is actuated by like impulses and characterized by like equalities. However good it is, one craves a change and can sympa- thize with those who, weary of it, re- gret the new movements which intro- duce modern methods and ways in the East. But Japan again is our guide. As we have pointed out suf- ficiently, its early civilization was Chi- nese but the completed result unique. 304 Cfie iQeto aaJotlD As has been said, it first adopted, then adapted, and finally improved. It was too distinctive and too virile merely to copy. So is it with ourselves. What diverse elements have entered into our civilization! what great debts do we owe to all kinds and conditions of men ! And yet the result is our own, so that we are already widely differ- entiated from our nearest neighbors across the seas. So must it be when great nations receive gifts and teach- ing from others. It is a sign of self- confidence thatthe Japanese are ready to borrow without fear and to follow foreign guidance implicitly. They know that their national genius will assert itself and that the final outcome will be unmistakably their own. So shall it be with India and with China: learn they must, but modify, adapt, and in their own way improve they will. Thus we shall see a new world, with a civilization vastly superior to any history has known. It will be one in 305 Cf)e©prtitoft6effl)tient its acceptance of science, the princi- ples which all must acknowledge, but different in the specific application of the truth, for the clothing of the life will differ with differing races and en- vironments. Thus the new will be bet- ter than the old because based on a fuller knowledge of truth, and as di- versified as the old because human nature in varying circumstances will variously assert itself. To such end the various great move- ments contribute. There was the dan- ger that the West would be untrue to the principles of the religion it pro- fesses and attempt by brute force to compel compliance with its ambitious will. But that dream is dispelled. We must now depend upon other means. Conquer the East by arms we cannot; we must depend upon truth, in science, in religion and in commerce. Compel obedience we cannot ; win agreement we must by the force of sympathy. With this outlook we must conclude 306 Cfte il3eto moxlD by asking what gifts the Spirit of the East has to bestow upon the West. We are already its debtors, but it has more to give. We widen our view of the world as we learn that we are not **the people," but that God has an equal care for the multitudes in Asia, and that they have their rights, their dignity, and their claims upon respect and reverence. But beyond this the East may teach us lessons of which we stand in need. The material and phy- sical elements of our civilization are too prominent beyond all question. Our life is burdensome and compli- cated. We are intent upon the means of life, and not sufficiently interested in life itself We are absorbed in the concrete, the external, the particular, and not reverent of reflection, medi- tation and patience. We are individ- ualistic and personal, too certain of ourselves, too mindful of our position in the organism. The East may cor- rect these errors and teach us that 307 Cfte %pixit of tbe ©tient our life is not in the abundance of the things which we possess. In the East the organism is supreme ; in the West the individual. The Spirit of the East there had finished its course, but coming to us it may lead us away from our absorption in the things of sense and introduce new elements into life and thought; and we shall teach the East the value of personality, and the world shall be the dwelling-place of the children of God. From this union of East and West shall come the higher and better hu- manity and the new world in which abide peace and truth. Cfte OEnD 'Bibliogtapftg 'Biblfograpl^l? India , Asiatic Studies, Lyall, 2 vols., London, 1899. The Indian Village Community, B. H. Baden-Powell A Brief History of the Indian People, W. W. Hunter. New India Cotton. (Trubner & Company.) Indian Life in Town and Country, H. E. Compton. Hinduism, M. Williams. (Society for the Promotion of Chris- tian Knowledge, London.) Buddhism, T. W. R. Davids. (Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, London.) China The Middle Kingdom, 2 vols., S. W. Williams. (The au- thoritative work on the empire, its geography, history, literature, religion, government, &c.) Chinese Characteristics, A. H. Smith. (An exceedingly acute and brilliant study of people, somewhat too severe in its judgments.) China in Convulsion, A. H. Smith. (The best study of the Boxer troubles and the siege of Peking.) Village Life in China, A. H. Smith. The Religions of China, J. Legge. (Scribner.) Buddhism in China, S. Beall. (From the excellent series of small handbooks published by the Society for the Pro- motion of Christian Knowledge, London. Brief and au- thoritative.) Confucianism, R. K. Douglass. (From the excellent series of small handbooks published by the Society for the Pro- motion of Christian Knowledge, London. Brief and au- thoritative.) Chinese Life in Town and Country. (Putnams.) 311 TBililiograpte Japan The Mikado's Empire, W. E. Griffis. (Harpers.) Ninth Edi- tion. (A good popular account of the mythology, history and customs.) Things Japanese, B. H. Chamberlain. (The best summary, with a brief paragraph upon all topics of interest by the man who is the highest authority.) Japanese Girls and Women, A. M. Bacon. (By far the best account of its topic, though rose-colored.) Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, Isabella Bird Bishop. (Though written more than twenty years ago this remains the best book by a traveller.) Tales of Old Japan, A. B. F. Mitford. (A delightful account of the old Japan which passed away with the coming of foreigners.) The Gist of Japan, R. B. Peery. (A brief and interesting ac- count of the people as they appear to a missionary.) Japan : An Interpretation, L. Hearn. (Japan as it appears to a man of highly artistic temperament.) The Evolution of the Japanese, S. L. Gulick. (Full of inter- esting and acute observation.) Japanese Life in Town and Country, G. W. Knox. s£p 2s Idas ■iiil ,.yBRARY OF CONGRESS 028 323 033 8 mi^ ^^■liiil^iMi