China Mission \ METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from Columbia University Libraries https://archive.org/details/chinaoldnewOOgame lU 1 l.DINCS ()!■ NANKINC I' \I VIOHSITV CHINA OLD AND NEW MRS. FRANK D. GAME WELL PEKING, CHINA “This is the Greatest Opportunity which has confronted Christendom since the Reformation, if not since the Coming of Christ” — Bishop Bashford in October number of The Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal, Shanghai, China Second Edidon of the China Booklet THE MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH OPEX DOOR EMERGENCY COMMISSION 150 Fifth Avenue, New York 1906 PRICE TEN CENTS CHINA, OLD AND NEW “I EXPECT GOD WILL” In the beginning of eighteen hundred, a sneering shipowner said to China’s first protestant missionary, “And so, Mr. Mor- rison, you expect you will make an impression on the idolatry of the great Chinese Empire!” “No sir, I expect God will,” Robert Morrison replied. Now, after a hundred years of resistance and grudging con- cessions, in the first years of nineteen hundred, A WIDE OPEN DOOR confronts Christendom. It is God’s response to Morrison’s expectations and the prayers of the church and it is GOD’S COMMAND to “move .speedily and with large resources” * through these now wide-flung doors, beyond whose threshold lies the church’s supreme opportunity and the church’s supreme re- sponsibility. AREA— CHINA PROPER China is commonly understood to be that portion of the Chinese Empire which lies within the boundary of her eight- een provinces, and is known as China Proper. China Proper has an area aqual to the area of the United States ea.st of the Mississippi river with that of Texas, Arkansas, and Iowa added and a coast line of about four thousand four hundred miles. * Bishop Bashford THE CHINESE EMPIRE Besides her eighteen provinces, China has vast colonial possessions in Mongolia, Hi, Turkestan, and Tibet. The area of the whole Chinese Empire is as extensive as the sum total area of the United States, the provinces of Ontario and Quebec and half of Mexico.* ENVIRONMENT The Desert of Gobi — discouraging to invaders — occupies much of Mongolia and shuts China in on the north. Range after range of rugged and all but impassable mountains sweep between her and her neighbors on the west and south, and HAT.WEN TOWER, PEKING through almost the entire length of her eastern boundary, she faces the great Pacific — for centuries a trackless waste of waters that insured China against intruders from the east. CONFIGURATION Mountain ranges cover most of western and southwestern China, and hills, cultivated to the top in many instances, * Geography of Protestant Mi.ssions. Beach. Page 257. 6 occupy the southern and southeastern provinces. The mountain ranges increase in height going west, until the lofty ranges of Tibet are reached, and there are found some Mountains of the highest peaks in the world. Travelers say that the scenes among China’s mountains are not surpassed in sublimity and awe-inspiring grandeur by any other mountain scenery anywhere. Among the mountains are numerous fertile valleys and plains; and there are wide stretches of grazing land on the plateaus of Mongolia. The Great Plain of China lies between the Yangtse river on the south and the mountains beyond Peking on the north. The plain is about eight hundred miles long and varies in width from one hundred and fifty to five hundred miles. On the north, rough mountain passes give entrance from the plain to the high table-lands of Mongolia. On the west, trade routes and government roads, which are often little more than footpaths, lead through lofty passes and by peril- ous ways, to China’s western provinces, and to lands beyond. From the mountains on the west to the sea on the east, three great river systems cross the empire; that of the Yel- low River in the north, that of the Pearl or West river in the south, and between the two lies the wide-spreading system of the great Yangtse. POPULATION The people of the Chinese Empire, according to the latest statistics, number 436,000,000. Four hundred millions of this immense population belong to China Proper. In about one tenth of the habitable globe lives nearly one third of the human race, a people whose number is so great that if they should join hands in a single line, the line would reach ten times around the globe. And Herbert Allen Giles, LL. D., says of them in his volume of lectures entitled “China and the Chinese,” “ If the Chinese people were to file one by one past a given point, the interesting procession would never come to an end. Before the last man of those living to-day had gone by, another and a new generation would have grown up, and so on for ever and ever.” RESOURCES This immense empire with its population of bewildering proportions, lies almost entirely within the temperate zone. It is said that China Proper has 650,000,000 acres Arable of arable land, and that more than three fourths of Land China’s area produces two crops annually.* China has numerous canals, among which is the Grand Canal connecting Soochow' and the far south with Tientsin in the north. These canals so unite with the rivers as to form a network of waterways, that not only make China independ- ent of her coast trade in times of danger, but also afford fine facilities for irrigation which the Chinese have carried to a high degree of perfection. The fertility of her soil Water and the industry of her people supply China with Ways agricultural resources equal to the demands of her great population. Besides her agricultural riches, China has immense min- eral wealth. “Four hundred and nineteen thousand square miles are believed to be underlaid with coal,” and it Coal is said that the coal fields of the single province of Shensi could supply the entire world for a thousand years. Vast deposits of iron ore and rich mines of gold Iron and silver and copper and other metals await only improved methods of working to set flowing great streams of wealth and prosperity. HISTORY Wars, tumults, conquests, divisions and overturnings have made many changes in her boundaries, but China has Long Life had a continuous national existence and a known of Nation history — largely legendary for the first thousand 3 -ears — ever since the time of Abraham. * The Middle Kingdom, Vol. I., page 276, S. W. Williams, LL. D. Baron von Richthoven quoted in X6w Forces in Old China, page 18, A. J. Brown, D.D. 8 Through all the years, from the time of Abraham to the destruction of Jerusalem, tlirough the rise and decline of Persian, Grecian and Roman empires, through the turbu- lence and change out of which have come the present Eu- ropean nations and the Anglo-Saxon race, Chinese national life has flowed on and on, a continuous stream of dynasties and sovereigns, down to the present Ching (Pure) Dynasty, which was established in 1644, when the Manchus overthrew the Chinese and imposed the queue as the badge of their sub- jugation, and whose present nominal sovereign is the Emperor Kwang Hsii. This young Emperor came under the influence of the progressive party and edicts were proclaimed provid- ing for important administrative reforms. These proposed innovations precipitated a palace revolution in 1898 and led to his imprisonment. Since that date the Empress Dowager has been in authority over the affairs of State. LANGUAGE The Mandarin dialect is spoken over four fifths of Eight China, while the people of the remaining fifth speak Dialects seven different dialects, each as unlike the others as a different language.* The written language is idiographic and all over the empire the same. The meaning of each character depends entirely upon its form, not at all upon its sound, so the One Written same page may be read by men whose speech is Language unintelligible to each other. Thus China in spite of her many dialects, is united by a common literature. CIVILIZATION Though many wars have raged within her borders, China is a peace-loving rather than a warlike nation; and the *See China and Chinese, page 7, H. A. Giles, LL. D. 9 Chinese had developed a high degree of civilization long before the opening of the Christian era. The Chinese in- vented printing; they discovered the principle of the mariner’s compass; they were the first to grow tea and manufacture gunpowder; they constructed roads which Dr. S. Wells Williams says “ probably equ.al anything of the kind ever built by the lfomans;”and they built fifteen hundred miles of wall, through val- leys and over mountain tops, which stands, with the pyramids, a mon- ument of stupendous human energy, one of the wonders of BRONZE ASTRONOMICAL INSTRUMENTS PEKING, 1674. the world. Through the ages, the Chinese have always exalted learn- ing, developed literature and supported schools. During the Han Dyna.sty (202-221 A. D.), when brute Competitive force was the only way to preferment in the Examinations West, China established a system of examin- ations and made scholarship the only entrance to official position. The securing of a literary degree is at once the passport to official position and a sure mark of honorable distinction, and is therefore the prize sought by all the scholars of China. 10 To the present day, reverence for learning and for the books of their sages everywhere prevails among the Chinese. Reverence Esteem for the scholarship of the official class has for Learning had much to do with a corrupt officialdom keeping so secure and influential a hold upon the people, generation after generation. MISSIONARIES AND DR. HO.MER EATON, AT SACRED TURTLE AND SHAFT, BUDDHIST TEMPLE. RELIGION China is commonly said to have three religions : Con- fucianism, Buddhism, Taoism. The fir.st is not properly called a religion. It is a system of ethics which furnishes no hint as to 11 the existence of any power outside of man which will help Confucian- attain, to its high standards. The highest power to whom Confucius teaches men to fulfill duty is the head of the state and the head of the family. Con- cerning the future he says, “Not knowing life, how can we know death?” Confucianism is a kind of agnosticism and all of the educated men of the empire are Confucianists. Buddhism originated in India about 600 B. C., in the teach- ings and practices of a prince named Seddhartha and some- times called Gautama. Buddhist monks came to China as early as 230 B. C., but it was not until 67 A. D., that Buddhism the religion was received with favor by imperial sanc- tion. Gautama, deified as the first Buddha, taught that by self-denial and good works through ages of transmigra- tion, one might finally escape the miseries of human exist- ence and be absorbed into Nirvana, which state may mean annihilation. Taoism is indigenous to China. It is a rationalistic sys- tem founded by one called Laotzu. The time and place of Laotzu’s birth are not accurately known; but he is said to have been born in the province of Honan 604 B. C., Taoism fifty-four years previous to the birth of Confucius. Laotzu taught retirement and contemplation as the way of purification and final return to the bosom of Tao — and none knows exactly what he meant by Tao. Dr. Giles WTites “ The famous doctrine of Inaction ... is really the criterion of Laotzu’s philosophy.” There is a so-called State Religion in which the Emperor officiates as high priest and only worshiper. It is based upon the assumption that the Emperor is the son of heaven, that he obtains his power and right to rule from State heaven and is the only mortal who may worship at the Religion Altar of Heaven and of Earth, and that if famine, drought, flood or other disaster visit the nation it is the fault of the Emperor, and he must atone to heaven and earth by prostrations, sacrifices and reformation. This religion is three thousand years old. Its greatest ceremony occurs 12 in the winter solstice. Tlie Emperor, in a chariot drawn by an elephant, accompanied a grand procession of princes and nobles, goes the day before to the Altar and Temple of Heaven, and in the Palace of Fasting, pre- pares for the grand ceremonial which occurs at midnight. The altar where the worship culminates is a triple circular terrace. Its base has a diameter of 210 feet, the middle 150 feet, and the top 90 feet. Each terrace is surrounded by a beautiful white marble balustrade and is ascended by four flights of .steps. On the marble paved top of this altar, under the niidniclit sky, the Emperor prostrates himself to Heaven in behalf of his people. The odor of burning sacrifices and the glare of their fires add to the solemnity of this remarkable ceremony. There are no images in the Temple of Heaven or connected with the worship there. The object worshiped seems to be the visible heavens. There are those who believe that the altar and the worship remain from a long-gone past, when the Chinese knew and w'orshiped the one true God. Dr. Legge, an English pioneer missionary and an eminent Chinese scholar, was so convinced that such was the fact, that when he visited the Temple of Heaven and came to the great open altar, he took off his shoes before placing foot upon its, to him, sacred steps; and standing on the top, with un- covered head, he sung, “ Praise God from w’hom all blessings flow.” The State Religion is closely connected with the Ju Chiao, or Learned Sect, called Confuci.anists, as all connected w'ith it are learned men and reverence Confucius; but the common people have no part in its worship. Dr. Williams calls attention to the fact that the Emperor’s relation to the state religion has produced two notable results. No Religious First, the Emperor, representing in his own person Hierarchy heaven and earth and all the people, and delegat- ing not one fraction of his great glory to any other, has never left any standing-room on which a religious 13 hierarchy might develop. Therefore, there has never been such a hierarchy to embarrass the government or oppress the people. Second, the theory that the Emperor — son of heaven, is responsible to the supreme powers for all disasters to the na- tion, and that every official is responsible to the Democratic Emperor for all that troubles the people of his dis- Rule in trict, implies the right of the people to vindicate Despotic themselves, when too hard pressed by sinning offi- Monarchy cials. The possibility of such vindication holds in check the extortion, injustice, and oppressions of the official class, compels many of the verdicts of the courts, and produces some vert" democratic developments in this long-lived despot i c m o n- archy. An inci- dent related by Dr. Giles* illus- trates the meth- od by which the people some- times rise to rule the hour, and in- dicates the rea- son why an offi- cial does not dare to try too far the endurance of his people. Dr. Giles wri tes, “My house and gar- GRE.4T BELL TEMPLE. NE.\R PEKING, den were on an eminence over-looking the arsenal (Foo- chow) which was about a half mile disant. One morn- ing after breakfast, the head official servant came to tell me * China and the Chinese, page 105. there was trouble at the arsenal. A military mandarin, em- plo3'ed there as superintendent of some department, had that morning early kicked his cook, a boy of seventeen, in the stomach, and the boy, a weakly lad, had died within an hour. The boj’^’s widowed mother was sitting by the body in the mandarin’s house, and a large crowd of workmen had formed a complete ring outside, quietly awaiting the arrival and decision of the authorities. “By five o’clock in the afternoon, a deputy had arrived from the magistracy at Foochow, twelve miles distant, em- powered to hold the usual inquest on behalf of the magistrate. The inquest was duly held, and the verdict was ‘ accidental homicide.’ “In shorter time than it takes me to tell the story, the de- puty’s sedan-chair and paraphernalia of office were smashed to atoms. He himself was seized, his official hat and robe were torn to shreds, and he was bundled unceremoniously, not altogether unbruised, through the back door and through the ring of onlookers, into the paddy-fields beyond. Then the ring closed up again, and a low, threatening murmur broke out which I could plainly hear from my garden. There was no violence, no attempt to lynch the man. That crowd remained there all night, encircling the murderer, the victim and the mother. Bulletins were brought to me every hour, and no one went to bed. “Meanwhile the news reached the viceroy, and by half-past nine next morning, the smoke of a .steam launch was seen away up the bends of the river. This time it bore the dis- trict magistrate himself, with instructions from the viceroy to hold a new inquest. “About ten o’clock he landed, and was received with re- spectful silence. By eleven o’clock the murderer’s head was off and the crowd had dispersed.” FOREIGN INTERCOURSE Through the centuries in which the “Star of Empire” has been pursuing its westward course by way of bloody battle* 15 Romans Persia and India, 500 A. D. Greece 643 fields, through the rise and decline of mighty empires, and the discovery and peopling of new worlds, China has con- tinued in unbroken course her national existence. What wonder certain of her people looked blank when told that the United States was celebrating her one hundredth anni- versary! What wonder if when brought into contact with the West, she understood the West as little as the aggressive West understood the people of her hoary empire! In some periods certain portions of the West were touched by the stirring Chinese people. Their records show that 100 A. D. the Chinese knew somewhat of the Romans in the first century. Chinese authors mention them in terms of praise. They mention the Roman gold and silver coin, the fact that they have only one price for their goods, and their commerce with Persia and India.* In the beginning of the sixth century, the Emperor Marco Polo of China received envoys from Persia and India, and 1264 the Greek Emperor sent an envoy in 643 A. D. Marco Polo visited China in the reign of Kublai Khan, whose reign began in 1264. He was received with honor and his writings first opened the eyes of the west to the wonders of this hitherto almost unkno^^■n country and people. Kublai Khan was himself a foreigner, the second ruler of a ^Mongol dynast which began its swa}' over the Chinese people in 1235 and was overthrown in 1368. After the overtlirow of the Mongols, the Chinese ruled under the ^ling dynasty, until 1644. Then the ^lanchus, who also are foreigners, seized the em- pire which they have ruled ever since. The rulers being themselves foreigners may the more readily fear the encroachments of other foreigners. How- ever, there is nothing to indicate that China’s first visitors from the M’est received other than kind treatment at the hands of her rulers. The Manchus, owing to the smallness of their numbers in this vast empire, were compelled to adopt stringent meas- Mongol Rule 1235-1368 A. D. Manchu Rule 1644 A. D. to Present * Williams’s “ Middle Kingdom.” page 162. 16 ures to preserve their conquest. They carefully closed the ports of China against foreigners, hoping in this way to secure themselves from ambitious nations. EARLY CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES The Nestorians seem to have entered China about 505 A. D. The only record of their presence in the empire, now remain- ing, is engi’aved on a tablet of marble which was found in Hsanfu in the province of Shensi, in 1625. In 1859 Nestorians a Chinese gentleman showed his regard for the tablet 505 A. D. by setting it up and building a protection about it. In the breaking up of the Mongol dynasty (1368), all trace of the Nestorians was lo.st. The first Catholic missionary appeared in China in 1288 A. D. He was well received by the ilongol Emperor, and made many converts. But after the passing of the First Mongol dynasty, little is heard of the Catholic Catholics missionaries, until 1582. From that date to the 1288 present, they have pursued their work through varying fortunes, and many devoted men and women are on the roll of Catholic missionaries and converts. In considering the character of the work of the Roman Catholic Church and its relation to other religious agencies, it is well to remember that, apart from the membership, is the great hierarch]! of Pope and many orders of priests; that it is the genius of the hierarchy to scheme for civil power; that such scheming arrests spiritual development in the Cath- olic Church and constitutes the church a menace to all govern- ments which receive her missionaries, and a hindrance to Pro- testant missionary operations. To prove the membership of the church worthy does not lessen the menace of the hierarchy. PROTESTANT MISSIONS Protestant mi.ssions in China begun with the appearance of Robert Morrison on the southern coast of China in the Robert year 1807. He was sent out by the London Missionary Morrison Society, but came to America to take ship for 1807 China, because the East India Company objected to 17 carrying missionaries on their vessels. At the time of Dr. Morrison’s arrival. Canton was the only place in China where foreigners were allowed to reside, and the em- Closed China pire was sealed against any incursions of foreigners into her territory. In strictest seclusion, in spite of disheartening obstacles. Dr. Morrison gave his energies to the study of the language, the compilation of a dictionary, the translation of the Scrip- tures, and to the i\Titing of many books and tracts. DISTUICT WORKERS, 1904, CHUNGKING DISTRICT Tliough the East India Company would not transport him to China, once he was there, its representatives in Canton gave him countenance and support which enabled him to prosecute his work in security. They appointed him translator in the company with liberal salary, and when Dictionary the dictionary was ready for the press, secured its and Bible publication. The New Testament was published in 1814, and the entire Bible, four years later. In 1823 the last of the six volumes of the dictionary left the press. 18 Dr. Morrison had reli|iious services with the members of his own household, but never was privileged to see the gathering of a congregation for worship or to hear the First Con- gospel. He baptized his first convert in 1814. vert 1814 Not finding direct entrance into China, the 6 rst mis- ssionaries to follow Dr. Morrison gave their attention to the Chinese scattered through the islands of Malaysia, and made voyages along the coast of China, by junk or Island and foreign ship, on which voyages they distributed hun- Coast Work dreds of thousands of tracts, Testaments and other books. The first of these voyages was made in 1831. It is intere-sting to note that at that early day the experience of the missionary in contact wdth the people of China, was ex- actly what has been the almost universal experience of all missionaries to China. They found the people sociable and ready to receive foreigners “ when they could do so People without fear of their rulers.” Malicious stories have Friendly been widely circulated, and appeals against foreigners have been made to the superstitious fears of the people, which have decidedly modified this experience, but it remains true that, as a rule the common people, unless an appeal is made to their fears, are not hostile. After twenty-seven years of toil, Robert Morrison Death of died in Canton. At the time of his death. Dr. Robert Bridgman, America’s first missionary to China and Morrison another from America, Dr. S. W. Williams, author 1834 of The Middle Kingdom, were the only repre- sentatives of any missionary society then in China, and there were only three members for the church which was organized the following year (18351. A day of small things and long delayed at that! In the same year that Robert Morrison died, medical work, supported by the foreign community and interested natives, began its beneficent career, which has never been discontinued. It is odd to note that in the hospital established in Canton, as early as 1835, “ophthalmic cases and surgical opera- tions” were its chief work, for in some parts of China the 1 !) last thing a suspicious Chinese would think of, would be to submit his body to a foreigner with a knife in his hand. The medical work made favorable impressions concerning foreigners and helped prepare the w'ay for brighter Medical days whose dawning began soon after the death of Work 1834 Dr. Morrison. The British occupied Hongkong and later on stationed a small force at Amoy. In 1834, when the East India Company retired from China. JOHN L. HOPKINS MEMORIAL HOSPITAL, PEKING a British officer was sent from England to look after the in- terests of British trade. .\t the same time the Chinese government appointed a com- missioner, who undertook not only to suppress smuggling of opium, which was extensively practiced at Canton, but also to stop the regular importation of opium The official standing and powers of the English Super- Opium War intendent of Trade, were misunderstood by the Chinese; and he was subjected to indignities. The British in Canton were willing to help the Chinese commissioner to sup- press opium smuggling, and they finally surrendered immense 20 quantities of opium to the Chinese authorities; but the Chinese, not at all understanding their relations to foreign people, im- prisoned British subjects and inflicted them with other insults and injuries. So, out of misunderstanding and pride, devel- oped the conflict known as the Opium War, which closed Treaty of with the Treaty of Nanking in 1842, in which treaty the Nanking, Chinese government recognized the right of foreigners 1842 to residence and trade in Canton and Amoy, and extended the same privilege in Foochow, Ningpo, and Shanghai, thus making in all, five open ports into which missionaries as well as traders were privileged to enter. In the operations which led to the signing of the treaty. Missionary missionaries were in demand as interpreters. Their Interpre- services as such disarmed prejudice in foreign circles ters and they found favor among the natives who were glad to welcome men who could understand and speak their language. One who reads the history of those times cannot but sym- pathize with this really great people, in the bewilderment with which they felt the grasp of this, to them, rude force out of the west, whose manners and whose language were alike in- comprehensible. Possibly brute force was the only power which could break through the shield of ignorance and arrogant pride, in which ages of seclusion had encased the nation; the only power which could open up her vast resources; the only power which could make China’s great people accessible to the “ one thing needful” — the gospel of Christ. But one must always wish that, when China listened to messages from people flying the colors of Christian nations, she had heard more concerning righteousness and less of trade and commerce. Mission- aries in Treaty Ports The five treaty ports were soon occupied by various missionary societies, and a day of better things for missions dawned with the signing of the Treaty of Nanking; so have military and commercial move- ments been providentially used to serve that other movement by which China is to be taken for Christ. 21 Hatred and fear cf foreigners did not abate with the signing of a treaty of peace. There were other outrages, other mis- understandings, other outbursts, and finally more open war- fare, followed bj"^ another treaty — the Treaty of Tientsin, signed in 1858, and, after more bloodshed, ratified in I860. Two important concessions were gained by this treat}'. 1 . Representatives of western nations were granted resi- dence in Peking. 2. Provision was made by which foreigners might have passports to travel in all parts of China; and freedom of con- science was granted the natives with a guarantee that they should have protection in the exercise of their faith. Missionaries followed the diplomats, and in 1861 were established in the capital of the great empire as well as in Tientsin, the port of entry to Peking. In 1873, when Tung Chih came to the throne, the demand of foreign representatives in Peking to be received by the Em- peror himself, and without prostrations, such as Missions China demanded in acknowledgment of the sublime in Peking majesty of China’s ruler and the vassalage of all other nations, was granted. With the audience given .June 29, 1873, China yielded her last hold on the theory of exclu- siveness, which recognized no equals among the nations of the earth ; it brought the Chinese government into right ad- justment to the courts of other nations ; smoothed the way for future intercourse with foreign nations and indirectly advanced the cause of missions in China. The Treaty of Nanking had given missionaries access to the multitudes who inhabited the five ports opened to foreigners by that treaty; but their movements were practically Diplomatic confined to those five cities, and the hostility of the Movements government augmented the fears of the people, and and naturally prevented their coming to the missionaries Missions in a receptive attitude of mind and heart. The freedom of movement allowed foreigners by the treaty ratified in 1860, brought the mi.ssionaries into contact with a larger number of Chinese, and a better understanding 22 ensued. The fact that their government allowed such freedom and gave foreigners residence in tlie capital, in a measure dis- armed the fears of the people and awakened an interest to see and hear tlie new-comers from the west, all of which helped the missionaries’ cause. Then when the Emperor himself gave audience to ministers of foreign nations and recognized those nations as ef|uals and not vassals, the prestige of aU for- eigners, including mission.aries, was much advanced. As the missionaries moved among the common people, thej’ found that kindness dispelled fears; and where hatred existed, it gave way before patient teaching, and respect and cordiality were often manifested. When the Treaty of Nanking was signed. After First there had been thirty-five years of missionary Thirty-five Years labor and only sLx converts; and there were then only two missionaries of Prote.stant churches in all China. By the close of the next thirty-five years (1877) missionary agencies had so increased that a missionary conference was possible. Twenty-five societies (ten, American) had 458 missionaries on the field, and besides there were fifteen other workers, making in all 473; and there were connected with the various missions of the twenty-five societies, nearly 14,000 converts. However, only nine provinces had been entered in 1877. Tlie civil war in America developed a force which has since swung into line to mightily reinforce the mission field. The crisis arou.sed the womanhood of the country to the use of powers of organization, public speech and Women’s general executive ability, which they had here- Missionary tofore not known that they possessed. In the Organizations widespread organization of soldiers’ aid socie- ties, and the system of diet kitchens, under iirs. Anna Wittenmeyer, which followed the armies and served every ho.spital, and by less extensive agencies, these powers were developed and trained. l\'hen the war was 2.3 over, -women had leanied the lessons which fitted them for the next service of love, and women’s missionary societies sprung into being, just when the missionaries in China were made more free, and the work there called for single women laborers. At the time of the Missionary Conference in Shanghai (1877), sixty-three of the four hundred and seventy- three missionaries then in China, were single women; and the pulpit, class room, printing press and hospital, all had their representatives also on the missionary roll. In 1900, the missionary roll numbered 2,7So, and there were 112,808 native converts. Though the speed of missionary progress had constantly accelerated, yet the movement was so slow that it was only by looking back and comparing present re.sults with those of a decade or more ago, that one could be made to realize how very encouraging the progress had been. Where once had been no place in which to preach, now were hundreds of chapels and churches, and thousands of hearers THE ROGERS DAY SCHOOL FOR GIRLS. fed with the Word of Life by native as well as missionary pastors ; where once had been groups of six or more heathen boys intoning catechism and classic primer, were now sys- 24 terns ofCliristian schools, from kindergarten to college course. Hospitals and dispensaries were prospering in many large cen- ters; printing presses sending out floods of Bibles, periodicals, tracts and books all o\"er the eighteen provinces; and both schools and hospitals for girls and women, of later years, keeping pace with other agencies. But what was to be seen of outward results was Unseen little compared with the great unseen leavening which Leavening was quietly permeating the whole mass and would some day bring to view sudden and vast results. During the great famine of 1877-8, whose death rate Dr. Williams says is not equaled “ in any history of any other land,” large sums of money for relief of the sufferers were sent from Christian nations; and regular organized forces of foreigners distributed relief over the stricken provinces. Four missionaries, exhausted by their labors and the agonizing scenes among which they labored, fell victims to the fever which follows famine, and so gave their lives for the people. These ministrations and the sympathetic interest Famine expressed by the Christian world in sending to China of 1877-8 money for the relief of the famishing millions, worked mightily to make welcome the missionaries through the country and to create a confidence in the disinterested motives of the Christian people. For obvious reasons, no gathering in of converts was attempted in the regions where relief was in progress; but the hearts of many of the people were won and an impression was made by this philanthropic work, which prepared the way for the rapid multiplication of results which followed the preaching of the gospel later on. MISSIONS OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH Shortly after the provisions of the Treaty of Xanking had brightened a bit the outlook for missions, and before the Tai- ping rebellion began its strange and devastating career, Beginning the Methodist Episcopal Church began work in China 1847 by placing two men in Foochow, and appropriating S3,000 for their support and travelling e.xpenses. Judson Dwight Collins, of Michigan, who, in face of opposi- 25 tion had exclaimed, “ Engage me a place before the mast, and my own strong arms shall pull me to China and support me there,’’ and !Moses C. White were the pioneers. After a voy- age of nearh' five months, they arrived at their destina- tion, September 4, 1847. Missionaries of the American Board had preceded them to Foochow, so they were not quite alone in the field. They be- gan at once the study of the language and to call for Foochow reinforcements. Robert S. McClay, afterward founder Reinforced of the Japan missions, joined them in 1848, and three years later, 1851, I. W. Wiley, afterwards Bishop M'iley, reinforced the missions. Harry Hickok and ■wife went out with Robert S. 5IcClay, but, because of ill health, returned to the States the following year. From the start the missionaries had dispensan,’ work and distributed tracts. In 1848 a boys’ school, with eight pupils, was opened, and also a girls’ school, with ten pupils. It was ten years before the mission had the joy of receivins its first convert. In the meantime, many discouragements arose. Mr. Collins sickened and returned home in 1851, and died soon after. Mr. White had to go home with iirs. White who was broken in health. Then the Taiping rebellion obliged all who could go, to seek safetv in Hongkong. Only Dr. and Mrs. Wiley were left, and Mrs. Wiley soon died. Then Dr. AViley returned to the United States. Undaunted by discouraging conditions, the missionary au- thorities sent recruits to the help of Foochow mission. Eras- tus M'entworth and Otis Gibson — that stalwart who battled so valiantly for the Chinese in San Francisco after his work in Foochow was ended — arrived in 1855. Two years later the first convert was received, and from that time forward, a constant flow of visible re.sults rewarded the labors of our pioneer missionaries. The year 1857 gave them the joy of baptizing thirteen adults and three First infants ; and in 1858, a little church organization was Convert effected. In this same year the hearts of the workers, 1857 in this, the far-off field were gladdened by the arrival of Stephen L. Baldwin, whose talents gave him a place 26 of great influence and responsibility in the Home Cluirch, and whose loving kindness endeared him to all who had in- tercourse with him. With Dr. and Mrs. Baldwin, arrived the sisters, Miss Beulah and Miss Sarah Woolston, women of unusual talent and cul- ture, who, under the direction of the General Society, pio- neered the way for the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society, to whose roll their names were transferred, and into whose care their work was given in 1871 . PILCHER H.VLL, PEKING UNIVERSITY Over the lines usually followed in mission fields, the mis- sion work advanced with ever increasing hopefulness. Preach- ing in city and around circuits; boarding and day schools for boys and for girls; Sunday schools and the printing press, each added its quota to the multiplying results of the mission’s activity. In 1862 the mission forces convened in their first annual meeting. At that date there were on the field six married missionaries and two single women. The church member- ship numbered thirty-two, and there were eleven native help- ers. One of the missionaries, Nathan Sites, had made a new departure and, with a devotion which marked his whole mis- 27 [u p^iJeIIj /V /°'-r\>-^y i !- V X ^ il-cUlMOHs^o-- oA*£ijjS!^S8f^*' 'c ^ A 0 ° Of i C H \s A \ iH CHINESE EMPIRE fiCALtorMats 9 200 loa iZO IZ5 UO sionary course, had established his home twenty-five miles from the mission group in the city, and from there was extend- ing his preaching trips 150 miles further, thus by his own choice cutting himself from his daily intercourse with his own people, and giving his time exclusively to the natives. Five years after the annual meeting, the number of con- verts had increased to 450, and four now well known names were added to the missionary roll; Virgil C. Hart, Elbert S. Todd, Lucius N. Wheeler, and Hiram H. Lowry. Then came the time when the Missionary Society deter- mined to establish its agents in the vast territory occupied by the many millions who speak the Mandarin or Court New Fields dialect. Accordingly, Virgil C. Hart and Elbert S. Todd were stationed at Kiukiang, five hundred miles up the Yangtse River, from which point the great provinces Nganhwei, Hupei and Kiangsi, with their population of 85,000,000, were accessi- ble. With the establishment of a station in Kiukiang be- gan the work which was later organized as the Central China Mission. In 1869, the same year which saw the birth of “ The Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society,” L. N. Wheeler and Hiram H. Lowry journeyed from the far south, and began the Methodist pioneer work in Peking, the capital of the empire, and in a latitude nearly the same as that of Philadelphia. And so was made the beginning of the North China Mission. Bishop Kingsley visited the China posts in 1869 and ar- ranged that Foochow, Kiukiang and Peking should each be the headquarters of a separate mission, known re- Three spcctively as “South China,” “Central China” and Missions “North China” Mi.ssions. In the following year, two recruits reinforced each of the three missions : Nathan J. Plumb and Franklin Ohlinger, were sent to South China ; John Ing and Henry Hall to Central China ; and George R. Davis and Leander W. Pilcher to North China. This group of missionaries crossed the United States by waj' of the Union Pacific Railroad, then recently completed. 30 Heretofore the missionaries’ route had been by way of “the Cape,” and later by w'ay of Panama. Increased transporta- tion facilities also worked to speed the missionary cause. The Woman’s Foreign Missionary Societj’’ sent its first mis- sionaries to India. They had three there when, in 1871, they sent four to China. The sisters, Beulah and Sarah Woolston, were adopted by the Woman’s Board, while at home on a vacation; and in 1871, they returned to their old work, to be conducted W. F. M. S. thereafter under the auspices of the Woman’s Board; 1871 and in their company went Maria Brown, from New England Branch, and Mary Porter from the Western Branch, (whose territory is now divided between the Des Moines, Minnesota and Topeka Branches,) bound for North China. The party arrived on the coast of China after navigation was closed; and the vessels plying between southern ports and the north, were already off on the last trip of the season. That such a failure to make connections could occur, indi- cates how limited the knowledge of conditions in China was among the people of the United States; and besides shows how limited transportation facilities in China were at that time. In tho.se days, mail from the west only arrived once a month, and every stamp cost ten cents; and papers and peri- odicals, bound for the north, accumulated in Shanghai all winter, to go north in a bunch by the first steamer after the opening of navigation in early spring. The Misses Brown and Porter spent the winter in Foochow, and went north in the spring. Gertrude Howe and Lucy Hoag were sent to Central China in 1872. Thus the Woman’s Board had its representatives in each of three missions. In 1873, they sent Lucinda Combs, M. D., to Peking, and their first medical missionary opened their first dispen- First sary and hospital for women and children. In 1877 Woman Leonora Howard, M. D., arrived in Peking and after- Physician wards, at the call of Lady Li, wife of the Viceroy L. Hung Chang, went to Tientsin. There she won fame 31 and the lifelong affection and confidence of Lady Li, by the skillful professional services she rendered her ladyship. Lady Id furnished and paid the expenses of a large dispensary near her home, and under the’care of Dr. Howard. A munificent gift from Dr. Goucher, whose missionary in- terest compa.sses the world, built a beautiful and commodious hospital for women and girls in Tientsin, which was dedicated to the memory of Isabella Fisher, and whose benefi- Isabella cent work has continued through the years, bringing Fisher blessings of restored health and release from pain to Hospital thousands; and giving them besides the choicest bless- ing of ah — the gospel’s message of salvation through Christ. Other physicians, women and men, were added to the corps of workers in each of the three missions, and other generous friends built hospitals and gave large sums to help the soci- eties build churches and .school houses, which midtiplied in ah the missions. In 1877, the Sotith China Mission became the Foochow Conference. At that time there were connected First Annual with the mission five missionaries of the General Conference 1877 Society and seventy-six native preachers, and 1,241 native church members; besides these, were the wives of the five missionaries and three missionaries of the Woman’s Board. Another advance was made by the Missionary Board in 1881 ; and Dr. Wheeler, who had left North China for America, on account of his health, was sent to found a mission beyond the rapids and gorges of the upper Yangtse, 1,600 miles from the coast, in the Empire province of Szchuen. Dr. Wheeler and family, with Rev. and Mrs. Spencer Lewis and Dr. and Mrs. Crews, were the pioneers of the far-away mission, with headquarters in Chungking, a wealthy city and West China important trade center, of 200,000 inhabitants. Dr. 1881 AVheeler’s daughter Frances, on leaving school in the United States, was sent by the Woman’s Board to West China, where she remained when the family again left China on account of Dr. Wheeler’s health. Frank D. Game- 32 well was sent from North China, to take Dr. Wlieeler’s place in West China, where he and his wife spent two eventful years, and then, after a furlough home, returned to North China. Miss Howe, who had been so long connected with the Central China Mission, went at the .same time to join Miss Wheeler. She also returned to Central China, after the riots of 1886 had destroyed all mission property, and driven the missionaries out of the province; and Miss Wheeler joined her there, after a visit to America. Their places were filled by others on the re-e.stablishment of the mission. These changes are interest- THE HIRONS DAY SCHOOL FOR GIRLS ing because they illustrate certain facts concerning the lan- guage. While the Foochow Conference and Hinghua Mission lie in the region of local dialects, the three other missions and conferences command practically one language. Their boundaries are within the limits of the provinces where the Mandarin, or Court dialect, is spoken. So one going from Peking to Chungking, a journey which requires more time than is needed for a trip from Shanghai to New York, is able to converse at once with educated natives; and the same is true of those who come up the river from Cen- 33 tral China, thougli the speech of the uneducated people of West China contains so many localisms, as to make practi- cally a distinct dialect, and the missionary must learn to speak it in order to communicate directly with the common people. From year to year progress in the missions has seemed slow, but when one looks down all the years to the beginning of our mission work, and follows it through changing condi- tions, over obstacles and through hindrances, to its present development, the advance appears swift and mar- institutions velous. From schools of a half dozen or more boys. Developed gathered from heathen homes, have developed great Christian institutions such as the Anglo-Chinese Col- lege in Foochow; the Kiukiang Institute, and the Nanking Tmiversit)' on the Yangtse; the Peking University in the north; the high schools in West China; and the sj'stems of schools which prepare pupils for these institutions; besides the schools of the Woman’s Board, from primary to high school. Formerly the missionary was the only preacher, and his hearers all heathen; now there are organized conferences of native preachers and, in all the centers of conferences and missions, hundreds of Christians assemble in Sunday services, and take part in the prayer and class meetings. The heathen are gathered in the Sunday schools, a thousand or more in one, as in Peking, and Christian young men and wo- men from the mission schools, are their teachers. All over the country, around these centers, so laboriously traveled in search of hearers through pioneer da 3 's, are chapels and school houses, where graduates of the universities and high schools preside. In North, South, Central and West China, there are great hospitals and numerous dispensaries of both the General Society and the Woman’s Board, and Bible schools and training schools for both se.xes all thronged by natives, who are being brought, through the work of these institutions, into intelli- gent relations to the whole world. There is the F oochow print- ing press, which, in one year, sent forth 24,031, .545 pages of literature to do its .share of the leavening work. 34 AVLth the development of institutions in the missions, great changes have occurred in the conditions attending missionary labors. 'Wliereas, in the pioneer days of each mission, all work was confined to efforts to get into sympathetic Christian touch, or come to some degree of understanding Communities with heathen people; now a missionary will find large Clwistian communities at these missionary centers, homes of native Christians to welcome him; and intelligent, cultivated natives ready for comradeship on a basis of mutual under.standing. In classrooms, churches and hospi- tals, everywhere native men and women, some the third generation of Christians, greet him. If a new missionary were so disposed, he now might find full employment for all his time among the Christians, and never come in contact with the pioneer phase of the work which deals directly with the heathen or Christless Chinese. If the outward development is so marvelous, how much more is that inward development of Christian character, which makes the other development possible, and gives to it its worth. A great testing time came to thousands of Chinese Chris- tians in 1900; and they who only thirty years before, had not so much as heard the name of Jesus, went down before the slaughterer by the hundreds, rather than deny their faith in Him. Men, women, boys and girls gave their lives for the faith. And when the .storm had swept by, there were those who sought father and mother, brother and sisters and the old home, only to find parents and brothers and sisters slain, and the home destroyed; and then in all compassion, they preached the gospel to people who had bereft them. Chenn Wei Ping, son of North China’s first preacher, is now preaching in the city where his father was preaching when the perse- cutors slew him. Nearly all, who survived the persecution, lost relatives in the great slaughter. There were many orphans among the pupils in the schools; and many whose homes were totally destroyed. What wonder, if in the bitterness and grief of those chaotic days which followed in the wake of the storm, 35 some had cried against a Faith that had brought them Christians into such direful straits! \Miat wonder, if there had T ested been brooding over wrongs, and thoughts of vengeance working havoc in Christian hearts. Fmm Chinw Iferotg, Headlatni. By permtsaon of Eaton A Main*:. TOU LIEN MING. The fact is. when a reorganization of forces was effect- ed, when out of the chaos of those terrible days somewhat of order was restored, at once revival work commenced. The faith of the broken church was refreshed and strengthened. .36 and new accessions more than filled the vacancies left by the persecution. \ revival is now sweeping the eastern districts so recently desolated by fire and sword. Letters from there relate that, in these revivals, a deep sense of a holy Presence often reduces a whole congregation to tears at once; tears of joy for the renewed believer. “Every convert at once seeks the unconverted and there are convictions, tears, prayers and re- joicings. ” The genuineness of the Chinese Christians has been proven by terrible testings ; with cheerful devotion they bore the toils and perils of the siege of Peking, under the observation of many critics of missions; and when the trial was over, the former critics hastened to bear witness to the sterling char- acter of the converts. In the great persecution. Chinese Christians went to their death rather than let go their hold on Jesus. And, when the call for w'ork in the reorganized church rang out, the renewed believer and recent convert were alike ready. The whole world now knows that the Chinese Christians are stalwarts and genuine. PRESENT CONDITIONS The Treaty of Nanking, the Treaty of Tientsin and the con- clusion of the audience questions, each marked a distinct period in diplomatic and commercial relations between China and the West; and through these periods, the missionary movement pressed steadily, though slowly, forward. Treaties its fortunes inextricably associated with those other and movements and advanced by them The fact that Missions Christian missions were mentioned and provided for, in those Treaties made by Western governments with the Chinese government, no doubt brought the missionaries under suspicion of being agents of their respective govern- ments; and in so far as that suspicion prevailed, it hindered the work of missions. 37 On the other hand, when the armies of the West opened the doors of China to the diplomats and the traders, they at the same time prepared the way for the missionary, and without the privileges contained in the treaties which the armies ex- torted, the missionary enterprise could not so soon have reached its present development. The year 1898 marked the beginning of another distinct period. Starting with that j’ear, a succession of astounding events have raced across the field of China before the New Period startled gaze of the West, and developed and inten- 1898 sified with constantly accelerated speed, until just now there is nothing on earth moving quite so fast, as this long-time-called-slow old China, Through all these developments is seen the missionarj' cause advanced, halted, threatened, released, and then set down before such possibilities of advance, as should thrill the Christian world, and call the whole church into instant and unceasing action. When Japan was seen to be adopting things W'estern, China called her people “make-believe foreign devils,” and possibly despised her more than she despised the real foreign Japan’s devils. But her disesteemed little neighbor, made Influence powerful by the lessons learned from the people of the West, went over and all too easily vanquished China in battle. Then China opened her eyes and began to study the ques- tion as to whether there were not lessons which it would be for her advantage to learn from the West. Russia, Germany, England and France fortified themselves on Chinese territory; and the foreign press discussed the dis- memberment of China. More and more, China was made to feel desperately the need of doing something to save herself. The powerful Chang Chih Tung wrote a book, which was Reform widely circulated, in which he advised reform measures. Edicts Then out of the seclusion of the palace issued those remarkable reform edicts of the Emperor, which startled not only his own empire, but the rest of the world as well. 38 And no less startling than the edicts themselves, was the large and immediate following which the young Emperor had. By his edicts, a university was established in Peking; bureaus of commerce and mines and railroads were formed. Si.x powerful but unnecessary government offices were closed. Schools were opened in the provinces, and the Buddhist tem- ples were used as schoolhouses. And so, through a long series of edicts, the Emperor found a prompt following. Prob- ably no edict promulgated by the Emperor was more remark- able than that which discontinued the literary essay in the civil ser\dce examinations, and sub.stituted for it questions on science, mathematics, engineering, etc. For years past, leading men of the empire had studied the We.st, and after a season abroad, returned to China, hoping to CHUNGKING INSTITUTE, OR BOYS’ HIGH SCHOOL. be able to arouse the government to the pressing need of more enlightened courses. Then having effected an almost imper- ceptible fraction of what they had hoped for, have died disap- pointed; but in each case a little advance was made. Con- stantly, quietly, the attentions of a younger China were bent upon the West. Many men of means went abroad to study, and with those for a while attached to the many Chinese legations established in foreign countries, returned to China to form there a steadily increasing class of young Chinese, in- telligent enough to see China’s need of reform, and earnest in their desire to see China make a place for herself among the 39 nations of the earth commensurate with her talents, resources and powers. To the surprise even of foreigners who knew China best, thousands of the younger generation of China, and not a few of the older wise men of power, stepped into line to follow the Emperor's lead. A tremor of new life was felt all over the empire. Deadly hostility was there too, but it was hidden for a while. As in every former period, the tlu-oes of this new period affected strongly the work of the missionaries. The\' pos- E.\TR.\XCE TO EXAMINATION BOOTHS, NANKING. sessed the books and the knowledge whieli future candidates for examination must acquire; so to the missionaries came many of the literati to purchase books and ask questions, and subscribe for peri(>dicals, and some entered classes of certain missionary institutions. By such means, a leavening of better understanding was spread in literary circles, and missionary as well as secular journalism received an impetus. The demand for books in the palace ahnost emptied the 40 shelves of the Bible societies’ Peking store-house, and those of the Mission Depository as well. A Chinese gentleman purchased a phonograph from the Peking University for the palace. Rumors to the effect that the Emperor was a student of the Bible, and was con- Phonographs templating cutting off the queue and adopting the and Moving Western costume and many others as startling, were Pictures rife over the city. Finally “ The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Ivnowledge,” brought to Peking a cabinet of pictures showing moving trains and similar won- ders and by invitation of his majesty arranged to set the pictures mo\’ing before the Emperor. Just one day before the day set for this remarkable enter- tainment a sharp sudden halt was called to all the exhilar- ating movements of the preceding few months. The city awoke to find the Emperor in prison, the Empress Dowager on the throne, the heads of five young reformers al- ready off, and K.ang Yii Wei a refugee, with a price Reaction on his head, because he, as tutor to the Emperor, had stimulated and instructed his sovereign over the re- markable course he had been running. The reformers went into hiding. By other edicts, the Em- press Dowager annulled the reform edicts of the young Em- peror, and made it a crime to introduce new ideas into the regular examinations. Tung Fu Hsiang, in command of the imperial troops, proposed to “drive the foreigners into the sea” and destroy all their works in the land. The reaction- aries’ program contemplated retracing the steps, by which foreign representatives had been given audience in Peking, by which the Treaty of Tientsin, and before that the Treaty of Nanking, had opened China’s doors to foreigners. It would be strange if such violence of action and reaction did not produce mighty disturbances in an empire. From the beginning of missionary operations in China, the common expectation of foreigners concerning China was expressed in the phrase — “ The leavening process will quietly do its work,” and China will quietly rise and shine in her ap- pointed place among Christian nations. 41 The rising proved to be more after the fasliion of gunpowder explosions than a quiet yeast effect. Violence in the Palace was followed by violence in the Violence provinces; then came the Boxers, and their adoption in Palace by the government; the siege of the legations by and Imperial troops, aided by the Boxers; the slaughter Provinces of 135 missionaries and fifty-tlrree children, and tens of thousands of native converts. From Chine^t fleroen, Headland. By peraiission of Eaton & Mains. CHEN TA YUNG, THE MARTYR The great viceroys in the south appreciated the madness of the Imperial program, and, at the risk of losing their 42 own heads, quietly ignored orders from Peking to destroy foreigners. Among these great men was Tuan Fang, one of the Com- missioners recently in the United States. He sent foreigners out of his province under escort of troops who had orders not to turn back until they had delivered their charge into the care of Chang Chih Tung’s soldiers, who were advancing from the south to meet them. These grand men of China, with magnificent intellects be- hind impassive faces, not only lessened the crime in- Great tended, but also saved the government from extinction Viceroys in the day of reckoning which followed the arrival of the armies from the West. The allies landed on the coa.st of China. Then followed hard fought battles, in which Chinese batteries and infantry, trained by foreign drill masters and armed with Krupp guns and the best rifles made, proved how well they had taken to heart the lessons learned when China’s raw troops fled before the forces of Japan. Only five years since, yet what advances China’s army had made! Tientsin, native city, was assaulted and reduced; then be- gan the march to Peking. In the columns that fought and marched over that one hundred weary miles in ten of the hottest davs of a China summer, were troops from empires whose armies had fought each other on many bloody fields: Russian, English, French, and German, and, taking the brunt of it all, valiant little Japan. United in a common cause, urged by a common purpose, on they came, through bursted gates, over walls, under a wall by way of the “water-gate on the run and shouting into the lines of the besieged — amidst what rejoicings who has words to tell! The armies went into camp in the city; the British with headquarters in the sacred precincts of the Temple of Allies in Heaven; the American over the way in the Temple of Peking Agriculture, and so on, until all the troops were pro- \fided for. 43 44 The deserted and desolated city was policed by the armies, each nation having jurisdiction over a selected portion. When trades people and hucksters and the like began to venture back they crowded wliere flew the colors of the United States, Great Britain and Japan, and shunned all other sections. These three were not the perpetrators of the horrors which stain the records of those days of International rule in Peking. Whatever may be the case now, America was then recog- nized as China’s friend, and her soldiers, though often boister- ous in talk, showed kindness to the Chinese which they keenly appreciated in their bewildered, bereft and suffering China’s hearts. Humiliation After the fight, diplomacy began its more subtle and cautious work; but all the time China’s humilia- tion was being perfected. The palaces were invaded. The laws were laid down; China should not import arms; no examinations should be held in places where foreigners had been slain; she should pay a big indenmity; she should send men of rank to stand before the German Emperor and sue for pardon. A great memorial arch should be erected over her street to tell how she had treacherously slain the German Minister; many additional acres should be given to the Legations that they might fortify themselves in her capital; and so on to the bitter end. The Empress Dowager, invited by the allies, came Return of from her retreat in a western province, and was again Empress seated upon the Dragon Throne; this time by favor of Dowager the nations whose people she had slain, whose Legations she had outraged. Her superstitions had received a check in the slaying of the “ in\Tilnerable ” Boxers. The collapse of her proposed war with the world in disaster and humiliation to her nation, surely must have enlightened her concerning China’s limita- tions and needs, and concerning the possibilities of the West. Would she profit by the lesson ? Whatever may have been her real feelings, she assumed a friendly attitude at once. When on her way into the city 45 she left her chair to visit a temple near the gate; looking up she smiled and b.oved to foreign ladies who were on the city wall. Once reinstated, she began to invite the ladies of the Legations to the palace, and ladies of the royal family visited not only the Legations but some of the missionaries, Mrs. Headland, a physician, who wins the hearts of the Chinese and is very popular among them, wTites of some touching interviews which she has had with several princesses and other ladies of rank. “ One dear old princess, when Gospel in told how Jesus died on the cross for us, said, during Palace the Boxer troubles, ‘ I often heard about the Cross, that it was an evil thing and used to bring evil influ- ences against China , — 1 understand now.’ We gave a copy of The Evidence of Christianity to the daughter of a mem- ber of the Pri'V'y Council, an intelligent lady who is interested in the Gospel; she remarked, ‘The Emperor believes in the religion, and had it not been for the coup d’etat, he would have made one day in seven, a day of rest; I have heard that he still pra\'s to the foreign God.’ ” Another high-born lady had a little Christian slave girl, and the famil}' feared trouble and wanted the little Christian turned out. . . . Finally the lady, who would not give the little girl up, dressed herself and the little one as beggars> so made her way to the home of an uncle who took them both in. The lady commented on the experience, “ How could I expect compassion in the hour of my extremity, if I did not protect her in her danger ?” Later this lad\' was stricken, and as the end was fa.st approaching, she took iirs. Head- land’s hand and said, “ Tell me more about the God whom you worship, and who you say came to save men.” As to the princess’ story about the Emperor believing the Gospel, during the time when he was calling into the palace Bibles and tracts and scientific works, many reports concerning his faith in Christianit}' were current in the city. The details of some of the stories were so direct and possible, that many were convinced of their entire truthfulness. One such, in which a Christian barber figures, is full of the flavor of oriental humor, and suggests a touch of pathos 46 as well. The barber in question was connected with the London Mission in Peking. A lady of that mission, who had his story direct from the barber himself, told it to the writer. It seems that this particular barber went periodically to the palace to shave the heads of men serving there. When the excitement caused by the Emperor’s reform measures was at its height, the barber’s patrons in the palace gathered about him on each visit and besought him to teach them The Emperor the Christian Catechism. In explanation of their and the zeal, the}' told the barber that his Majesty theEm- Catechism peror was reading the Catechism, and liked to line up fellows and put the questions to them. These particular fellows were afraid of consequences if their turn to answer the Catechism questions should find them unprepared; so here was a humble barber teaching the Christian Catechism to retainers of the young Emperor, they dreading the day when they might have to appear before his august majesty, the son of heaven, and recite their lessons on Christian doctrine. It is not impossible that the young ruler did read and be- lieve; that he did pray to the God of whom he read in the Bible; that he did tru.st the foreigner’s God to guide him, and therefore dared to run swiftly the new course. The above story has a hint of confirmation in the following fact, recently told to the writer by an eyewitness: “Certain missionaries went through the palace in the wake of the armies, and, in the Emperor’s room, they found Cate- chisms and other Christian books. ” The persecution advertised the Christian religion all over the Empire. The faithfulness of the Christians attracted the amazed attention of many officials, who asked: “ What is this religion for which these people are willing to die?” The Chinese are not particularly religious. Their bent is rather toward materialism. To their indifferent minds, while it might be no great matter to die, yet it was surprising to find anyone who thinks it worth while to die for a religion; hence the question, “ What is this religion?” 47 The great explosion, which culminated in the siege of Peking, has blown down barriers, and opened wide avenues in every direction for the progress of this now widely adver- tised Gospel. So is the wrath of man made to praise Him. By such tokens of His leadership, does the great Captain bid his people move forward. While missionaries were gathering the remnants of the scattered church, rebuilding the houses, churches, hospitals, schoolhouses and chapels which had been destroyed, and Japan were receiving crowds who came to the preaching services, and and making place for those who knocked at the doors of Russia their schools, political matters in the East were marshaling to another crisis. Thus, while an anxious and doubtful world looked on, like the little Monitor steaming to meet the monster Merrimac, plucky little Japan took the field against China’s foe, great Russia, and worsted her in every battle. FUNERAL PROCESSION ENTERING RESTORED ASBURY CHURCH, PEKING. China, looking on, learned her final lesson concerning the might of modern methods; no longer afraid of her old foe on the north and assured by Japan’s alliance with England of the integrity of her^territor}^ China makes up her mind and 48 is off at once on a career of reform, and evidently means thorough work. All the edicts which brought on the crisis of 1898 again appear, and this time it is the Empress Dowager herself who is issuing them. She goes further than the Emperor did. More She abrogates entirely the great examinations, and makes Reform a Naval Academy on the great premise.s where formerly Edicts 15,000 used to assemble for civil sertdce e.xaminations. For these examinations .she substitutes examinations in the provincial schools which are b^ing established: and the sub- jects of the examinations must hereafter be mining, engineer- ing, railroading, mathematics and the sciences. Under the present order of things post offices have been established with headquarters in Peking. Buddhist temples are turned into school houses, journalism is encouraged, and there are abeady six papers and periodicals published in Peking. Where formerly there were not more than five news- papers in the whole empire, they now flourish in large and increasing number. China now lays her plans for an army of 1,250,000 men, to be equipped -n-ithin twenty years. Before the end of the present year, there will be a trained army of 400,000 men armed with magazine rifles and proffided with modern field guns. At present China has orders out for one million rifles and plans for three hundred modern batteries. China is sending himdreds of her young men to the Japan- ese Military Academy. While her o^m government schools Chinese are numerous, many of her young men seek instruction in Students mission institutions, and give as their reason that the in Japan work of the mission schools is more thorough and earnest, and that there is a healthy moral atmosphere there. Chinese are studying modem law in the schools of Japan, in view of the coming reformation of the Civil and Criminal Laws of the Chinese Empire. The North China Herald, from which the above is taken, also reports a suggested reform that is far-reaching in its im- port. It is urged that military grades be made equal to civil grades. 49 For centuries the military mandarin has always ranked beneath the civil officer and might, if he offended, be bam- booed; therefore, military and naval offices are not accepted bv men in the best families unless they are first Military Status made civil mandarins, in which case, they may Advanced take military or naval office without fear of being despised or bambooed. The change suggested will stimulate ardor for military achi-vement, and so ad- vance China’s plans for perfecting a great armj'. The Chinese government has sent a commission around the world to study the institutions of Western governments, with reference to further reforms to be introduced into China. The Commissioners, His Excellency Imperial Tuan Fang and His Excellenc}' Tai Hung Chi, Commissioners were the guests of honor at a great banquet given them in New York city, Feb. 2, 1906, on the eve of their departure for Europe. In the course of an address made by His Excellency Tuan Fang on that occasion, he said, concerning missionaries in China: “ They have borne the light of of Western civiliza- tion into every nook and corner of the Empire The awakening of China, may be traced in no small measure to the work of the missionaries.” Perhaps no change, among the many now being accom- plished in China, is more remarkable than the right-about- face movement in regard to the women of China. Hereto- fore held as an inferior, and treated on the theory Recognition that lack of opportimity was all that would keep and Education womankind from going astray, now at length their of Women kingdom seems to be opening to them. Chinese gentlemen are saying, “ If we would be a strong nation, our women must be educated.” Schools for girls are being opened, and to make their emancipation complete, in many cases unbinding of the feet is made a condition of entrance. Girls of influential families are brought to mission schools and there mingle with humble folks in fine accord. Num- bers of Chinese ladies are beinar sent to schools in Japan. 50 The Cliinese are thorough people and stop at no half-way measures when moved by a conviction. A Mongol prince and his wife appeared in Peking some months ago, bringing with them ten bright young girls. He has a school of sixty girls somewhere in Mongolia, and came to visit our girls’ school in Peking to get suggestions for the improvement of his school; and brought his ten girl pupils along At to let them “open their eyes” in Peking. Chi- Miss Roosevelt’s nese ladies mingled with other guests at the re- Reception ception given Miss Roosevelt in Tientsin — another new departure showing the determination of the Chinese to conform as rapidly as possible to the customs of the rest of the world. A letter from Mrs. Whiting of Peking in Woman’s Work ' (Paper of the Presbyterian Woman’s Board), is intensely suggestive. Of a new daily now published in Peking, she writes : “ It is called the ‘Peking Woman’s Paper,’ and already has a large circulation. It is not a missionary enterprise, not Christian ; but it is strongly in favor of progress and re- Peking form. Within a few days it has printed articles on the Woman’s following subjects: ‘ Evils of Obtaining Evidence by Tor- Journal ture,’ ‘Proof that the AVorld is Round, and that the World Moves,’ ‘Care of Children,’ ‘Importance of Truthfulness,’ ‘Kindness to Animals,’ ‘Story of Sagacity of Animals,’ ‘Evils of Opium Taking: Suggestions for Forma- tion of Anti-Opium League,’ ‘Importance of Education,’ ‘Love of Country.’ “ Each edition contains the latest telegrams and advertises schools, sewing machines, fire extinguishers; gives the days of the week, and is delivered at the door daily, all for ten cents a month. Newspapers are multiplying rapidly, and are aU printed in the common talk of the people. “Reading-rooms are established all over Peking, and at certain hours the papers are read aloud, and discussions foUow; if in the discussion the speaker who has the floor Reading says a word in favor of idol-worship, he is immediately Rooms called down. To us, who remember the old days when 51 there was but one newspaper in the whole Empire, all this seems truly wonderful. ” Papers from China report that the temples of Peking are deserted and are being changed into schools; and one paper reports the conversion to Christianity of the Buddhist abbot of a monastery in the province of Hunan. Several of the monks also were converted, and there was a general smash- up of the idols of the monastery. The most far-reaching result of the revolution in pro- National cess in China, is the birth of a National Spirit. Spirit The newspapers, rapidly increasing in number, foster this spirit. The violence which bursts forth so often, is due very largely to a body of half-instructed students who, in eagerness for progress, indulge in unwise speaking and WTiting; while the government has made wide reaching reforms and continues to advance, it does not move fast enough to suit these hot- heads. Many cross purposes are at work, and other outbursts may be expected. But the violence does not indicate another rise of the Boxer movement. The so-called Boxer uprising of 1900 was an effort to revert — to put foreigners and their works out of China and shut the nation up as of old. The present movement is an attempt at progress and Advance — rerfom — it is forward. Not Revert In 1900 the Chinese government sought the lives of foreigners and rewarded violence. In the present disturbance the Chinese government is against violence and undertakes to protect foreigners. The different attitude taken by the government in the two cases makes them as unlike as night is unlike day. A great nation, at last awake to its needs, is pressing for a place among the advanced nations of the earth. She needs the support of a Christian nation to help and steady her in her transition. Who so near and so strong to help as our own United States ? Bishop Bashford says, “China to-day is where Japan was thirty or forty years ago.” 52 Blit China has the advantage of Japan’s example ; and severe experiences of her own have quickened her acquisitive powers. China will come abreast of Japan in much less A Crisis than thirty or forty years. To be sure, her bulk is huge and Japan is little com- pared with her; but large bodies, while slow to start, acquire tremendous momentum after they begin moving. The Rev. Arthur H. Smith, D. D., says: — “ In the last five years China has made more progress than any other nation on the earth,” meaning not so much the development of railroads, mines, and telegraphs, but the awakening of a National Spirit, by which the people are being united, and her assimilation of progressive methods. Sir Robert Hart, Inspector General of the Imperial Chinese Cirstoms, says: “For forty years I have lived in China, and tlmough the years China has been like a sealed room stifling with dead air; China of today has the doors and windows wide open, and through them the air blows freely. To be sure, the breeze may develop cyclones; nevertheless, there is gain in having unobstructed circulation.” Dr. Ilallock, Presbyterian missionary in China, says: “China is like hot iron, ready for the molding; more is to be accomplished in the shaping of China in the next ten years, than has been done in the last century. ” Bishop Bashford says: “More can be done for China now in two or three years with two or three hundred thousand dollars, than can be accomplished ten years hence with mil- lions of dollars.” The present crisis in China is a turning point in the history of the world. English rule controls the millions of India, and English and European forces are supreme in Africa. But China is the one great non-Christian empire of the earth, who flies her ovm flag and rules her own people. If, with her four hundred millions, she swings into line as a military nation , without becoming Cliristian, she wiU bring trouble to the Christian world. Selfish interests alone counsel prompt and generous action in China’s behalf on the part of Christian nations. 53 God has answered the prayer of tlie church by His over- ruling, whicli lays China wide open for the advance of the church. China calls across the water to us. By manifest providence God points the way for us. To-day is a day of supreme opportunity for our nation and our church. Tt is a day of supreme responsibility as well. If the church moves “speedily and with large resources” to meet its responsibilities, a cloud of materialism already .shadow- ing Japan, shall be dissipated, and can never drift thence to shadow our own land. And our generation may see flying above the dragon flag, the white pennant with its sign of the all conquering cross of Christ. Missionary Totals for China 190.5 1904 METHODIST ALL EPISCOPAL SOCIETIES Missionaries 19C 3,107 Native Membership Other Adherents, (Baptized Children . . 27,35T 1.31.404 and Inquirers) 18.471 101.172 Total Christian Community Native Helpers, (Preachers, Teachers,. 4.5,828 232,570 Bible-Readers etc.) 1..518 8,313 Elementary or Day Schools 242 2.1()() Higher Institutions of Learning 45 275 Total Students and Pupils 7.801 50.558 Sunday-Schools 4o;i Sunday-School Scholars 15.35(1 38.572 Hospitals and Dispensaries '20 318 Printing Presses 2 () Pages Printed in One Year 1(1.013,314 — I