China in Transformation ... With ... maps and diagrams

Introduction

Recent events in the Far East have drawn the attention of the world to the condition and prospects of China. The problems which are in course of solution there, and the forces which are at work on them, are exciting an unprecedented interest throughout Europe and America. The moment seems opportune, therefore, for putting on record some results of the writer's observations during several prolonged visits to the Far East, a task which he has, for some time, had in contemplation. The work is strictly limited in scope to such an account of the actual China as may interest the general reader, and be helpful to men of business, politicians, travellers, and others who may wish to be further informed regarding China. It makes no kind of pretension to be a book for the student. The history, the literature, the religions, and the manners and customs of the Chinese are treated of in many works of various degrees of merit, accessible to all readers. A few indications of the sources of VI

INTRODUCTION.

information on some of these subjects will be found scattered over the following pages, but only so far as is necessary to render the actual situation generally intelligible. Such, then, being the purpose of the book, it will be for the public to pronounce on the success of the attempt. But, whatever may be their verdict, it seems incumbent on me to explain that the task has not been undertaken without reasonable qualifications and adequate preparation. Indeed, 1 may claim to have enjoyed in my life's training some exceptional advantages for work of this kind, both in the way of observing, and of correcting deductions by comparison with the conditions of other and different countries. Many years of service in Burma, first as an engineer, and later as Deputy-Commissioner ; repeated visits to Siam, the latter on a Government mission and in a private capacity ; prolonged stays in China as explorer, special correspondent of the Times, and, recently, in connection with important negotiations concerning railway questions — such, briefly, have been my qualifications in the Far East.

Nor has my experience been limited to Eastern Asia. As the first Administrator of Mashonaland, where I had to deal with the work of colony-making, and on a special mission to

INTRODUCTION.

VII examine the Nicaragua Canal scheme, and in visits to the United States and Canada, I may claim, and not merely as a student, but as a man of affairs, to have prepared myself for forming a judgment upon the events which are passing in the Far East ; for a writer on the Far Eastern problem should also have made a study of the West. In the East it has always been my special aim to draw upon the best sources of information, and it has been my privilege to have personally known Rawlinson and Yule, Alcock and Parkes, Baber and others, while it has also been my good fortune to have been aided in the preparation of this work by advice from various friends. It will not, therefore, be for lack of opportunities if I have failed to give to the reader a fair representation of the state of China, as it now stands in its relation to the Powers of the world.

The grand international problem presented by the affairs of China has been approached and treated from the point of view of the English-speaking and Teutonic races, because there is an obvious com munity of interest as well as community of sentiment among them, which may be expected, in the long run, to constitute a permanent factor in the world's affairs. But I have endeavoured to deal with facts and probabilities dispassionately, avoiding inter-

INTRODUCTION.

national recriminations, which are entirely out of place in serious discussions. The movements which are in progress in the Far East are of the gravest import, and I have not been able to resist the con viction that the immediate destinies of mankind are, to a considerable extent, dependent on the issue of these movements. And, although no race question be directly involved, one can scarcely avoid grouping the Powers in combinations which will ultimately place the Teutonic peoples on the one side and the Slav-Latin on the other. This would leave Japan as a mediating factor of great influence in the evolution of the Pacific States. The onward march of Russia cannot be stopped, even by her own rulers, unless it encounters a solid barrier, while the un checked advance of that Power seems certain to confer on her the mastery of the world.

Such is the general conclusion suggested by the evidence set forth in this volume, on which every reader can form his own judgment. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGES Introduction v I. The Geographical Question .... 1-27 II. Foreign Relations 28-57 III. The Economic Question 58-79 IV. The Question of Communications . . . 80-108 V. England's Objective in China .... 109-140 VI. Commercial Development 141-166 VII. Government and Administration . . . 167-198 VIII. Diplomatic Intercourse 199-227 IX. The Native Press 228-247 X. The Chinese People 248-282 XI. Chinese Democracy 283-303 XII. Hongkong 304-320 XIII. The Political Question 321-347 XIV. The Political Question — continued . . 348-382 Glossary of Terms 383-385 List of Books Consulted 386-388 Indf.x 389-398 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Li Hung Chang and the Author discussing affairs Frontispiece Map of Eastern China ....

At commencement of vol The Distribution of Religions in Asia* io Loess Formation throughout North China* 22 Map showing Advance of Russia, to the Detriment of China . 37 The Density of Population in Asia* 40 The Distribution of Races* . . 41 The Navigation-Limits of the Yangtsze and its Tributaries . . 131 Sketch-Map, showing Navigation-Limits of the Sikiang or West River 137 Provinces Ravaged by Mohammedan Risings* .... 288 Regions Devastated by the Taiping Rebellion* .... 290 Map of Hongkong 308 Map showing Kaulung Concession of 1860 and Hongkong Extension of 1898 319 Comparison of Areas and Populations of England and Russia in Europe and Asia 323 Map of Manchuria At end 0/ 'vol. Map of Northern China Map of Central and Southern China * Reproduced ty permission of M. Hachette if Messrs. Virtue from the G^ographie Universelle of E. Riclus.

Chapter I The Geographical Question

The Chinese Empire comprised till lately : China Proper — composed of eighteen provinces — Man churia, Mongolia, Hi, Tibet, Kashgaria or Chinese Turkestan, and Corea. It extended over 60° of longitude and 400 of latitude. The total area was some four and a half million square miles, and the eighteen provinces of China Proper, including the islands of Hainan and Formosa, constituted about one-third of the whole Empire, containing, however, eleven-twelfths of the total population and most of the wealth of the country, the Central Asian dominions forming a very serious burden on the Chinese exchequer. Not very long ago the country as far north as the Yablonoi Mountains belonged to China. In 1858 a large slice of territory— namely, the Amur Pro vince, situated between the Yablonoi Mountains A on the north and the Amur River on the south — passed into Russian hands, followed, in 1860, by a large and most valuable region, the Maritime or Coast Province.

The enormous tracts lying outside China Proper, still almost terræ incognitœ, are, excepting always Manchuria, beyond the radius of profitable com mercial intercourse for England. Tibet, when opened up, must be approached through India. It can and should be done ; but if we delay, Tibet will be occupied by the Russians, crossing the Kirghis highlands, the necessary steps having already been taken for the purpose. The hill districts of Koko nor, the Gobi Desert, and Mongolia are all unsuited for advantageous trade relations. These table and highlands are in great part hill and desert, poor and sparsely peopled ; where fertile and moderately in habited, they are too distant. But they have a great strategical importance. Manchuria is now for all practical purposes Russian ; Mongolia, Hi, and Kash garia are the Tsar's whenever he chooses to stretch out his hand for them.

Corea no longer belongs to China, and, whatever her destinies may be, will never again be ruled by the " Son of Heaven." But we are dealing with the China of to-day, and therefore the region which interests us in our present examination is comprised by the eighteen provinces of China Proper. These are Chihli, Shansi, and Shensi on the north ; Yunnan and Kweichau on the south-west ; Kwangtung and Kwangsi in the south ; Kansu and Szechuan on the west ; Shantung, Kiangsu, Chekiang, and Fukien on the east ; and Honan, Anhwei, Hupei, Hunan, and Kiangsi in the centre. China Proper, speaking roughly, is bounded on the east by the Yellow and China Seas, reaching from Corea to the Tongking Gulf ; on the west by Kokonor and Tibet ; on the south by Tongking and the Shan States ; and on the north by Mongolia and Russia.

The principal islands still remaining to China, of the hundreds which fringe the coast, are Chusan and Hainan. The area of China Proper measures about 1,500,000 square miles, being about half the size of Europe, seven times that of France, and seven teen times that of Great Britain. Each of the eighteen provinces, therefore, is, on an average, almost as large as our own country. Though not so densely peopled as at one time supposed — mistaken estimates having been circulated by those who had not penetrated the country away from seaboard or river — it is yet thickly populated. Victor Cousin has said, " Tell me the geography of a country and I will tell you its future." For either theoretical or practical purposes a knowledge of the topography of a country is a necessity, and its practical value is at once apparent whenever an attempt is made at laying down a system of com munications, either by road or rail, or when some serious political question is under examination.

Maps of China are to this day to be found on which are projected systems of railways carried across quite impracticable ground, in ludicrous defiance of mountain systems and other obstacles. Our political geography, too, seems to be quite as much at fault. The physical characteristics are as yet but imperfectly understood, both in Europe and China, though the Jesuit surveys,* the narratives of many recent travellers, and especially the masterly studies of Richthofen, have done much to make the Euro pean geographer, if not the general public, acquainted with the subject. In China Proper itself, dismissing the more or less savage tracts forming a fringe to the west and north, there still remains a vast Empire of most varied character. The chief phy sical characteristic of China is that, in the region north of the Yangtsze, it is divided into two almost equal sections, at the noth degree of longi tude, representing, roughly, the level and moun tainous country.

South of the Yangtsze, the interior is shut off from the sea, as regards trade purposes, by what may be termed a palisade of very broken hills running generally parallel to the seaboard. The main features of China in clude high tablelands, broken mountainous country, rivers breaking through stupendous ranges, and the deltas of the Pei ho, the Yellow, the Yangtsze, and the Si kiang (or West) rivers. Looking at the map, it will be seen that the whole country, with the exception of the Great Plain and the * In 1708 the Jesuits made a survey of the great wall for Kanghi, in 1709 they made a map of Manchuria, in 1711 one of Shantung, and by the end of 171 7 they had completed a map of the whole Empire. A few years later they surveyed Tibet, and the maps prepared by them are practically those still in use to-day. deltas, is divided into a number of compartments, each of these being cased in by impounding hills.

The gorges, by means of which the drainage is carried through these enclosing ranges, form a marked and imposing feature in the character of the hill country. A few words are necessary regarding the general mountain system of China. Knowing, however, that, though " geography is good, brevity is better," I shall be brief. The ranges that penetrate the region south of latitude 45° N. may be said to have their nucleus in the Pamir plateau, the " Roof of the World." From this plateau extend the Tian Shan, or Celestial Mountains, separating Mongolia from Chinese Turkestan and the Gobi Desert. To the south of the Tian Shan the Kuenlun range takes its exit, and, proceeding due east, separates Chinese Turkestan, the desert of Gobi and Kokonor from Tibet, ultimately striking the Yungling Mountains near 1040 E. At the south-east corner of the Pamirs a huge range leaves the plateau, and, join ing the Kuenlun with a cross spur, forms the western border of the central Tibetan tableland ; thence, making a great curve, it continues as a barrier round the southern and eastern sides of the high plateau, until it joins the Kuenlun about 95° E. Under the name of the Himalaya it sepa rates that portion of Tibet drained by the Sanpo or Bramaputra from India, some of its peaks being 30,000 feet in height.

East of Assam it is broken through by the Bramaputra. Continuing in an easterly direction, it throws out a huge arm southwards, which forms, with its plateau and mountain ranges, the primary base of Indo-China. This arm is cleft lengthwise by the Salween and Mekong rivers, and partly in its length and in part trans versely by the Yangtsze and its branches. The Irrawaddy rises in its western armpit ; the Si kiang (West River) and the Song koi (Red River) in its eastern one. The main range then continues in a north-north-east direction, and, under the name of the Yungling, impinges on the Bayan Kara, which springs in 950 E., 35° N. from the eastern flank of the hill barrier that encloses the central Tibetan tableland. Running nearly due east, and known on most European maps (but only there, as Richthofen has shown, for "ling" is applied in China only to a mountain pass) as the Pehling and Tsingling ranges, it forms the water parting between the Yangtsze and Yellow River systems.

The mountainous belt of the south-eastern provinces forms the northern watershed of the Canton River, and is the divide between it and the Yangtsze system. All the ranges which penetrate China Proper, with the exception of the mountains of Shantung, jutting out south of the Gulf of Pechili, are connected with the western Tibetan system. The average heights of the western China highlands may be roughly given as follows: the Pamir plateau, 15,000 feet; Tibet, 15,000 feet; Kokonor, 10,500 feet; the Mongolian plain, 4000 feet ; the Shansi tableland, 3000 feet to 6000 feet ; Yunnan, 5000 feet to 7000 feet. The chief rivers of China, from south to north, are : The Si kiang (or West River) and its tributaries; the Ta kiang (Yang-tsze)* and its affluent, the Han; the Hoang ho, or Yellow River, called "China's sorrow," and the Pei ho.

The Min kiang in Fukien and the Tsien Tang kiang in Chekiang may also be mentioned, but they are of quite minor importance. Regarding the rivers of western China draining southwards, such as the Salween and the Mekong or Cambodia, nothing need be said here. They are all mighty in dimension, but quite unnavigable, and therefore do not come within the present discussion. Of the Chinese rivers, the Yangtsze is indisputably the most important, being the main artery, indeed the only real channel for trade, between eastern and western China. It has a navigable length of about 1600 miles, of which the 600 between Shanghai and Hankau are now traversed by large sea-going and river-steamers, while Ichang, some 360 miles beyond, is regularly reached by light-draught vessels, and Chungking, another 360 miles farther on, has been proved to come within the navigation limit.

Indeed, according to Hosie, the obstacles that exist lie between Ichang and the Szechuan frontier, a distance of about one hundred miles ; all beyond that being plain sailing, not only as far as Chungking, * The Yangtsze kiang, usually called by the Chinese the Ta kiang (great river) or Kiang (river), is the " Quian " of Marco Polo. Like other rivers in China, it bears different names in different parts of its course, the name Yangtsze being properly applied only to its lower reaches. but even to Sui fu, some 200 miles farther west. But of the Yangtsze I shall have more to say hereafter. The Hoang ho, the river of northern China, which has so often, and with such terrible results, shifted its mouth, (since 600 B.C., nine times), may be said to be nearly unnavigable. The amount of silt brought down by it is encroaching on the sea at the rate of 100 feet annually.

The basin of the Pei ho is formed by a number of streams, flowing mostly in independent channels to within a short distance of the coast, where they converge towards the treaty port of Tientsin. For purposes of navigation it is only practicable for light-draught boats. Surveys and travels have enabled us to clearly estimate the value of the Si kiang River,* which traverses the entire provinces of Kwangsi and Kwangtung and part of Yunnan. Information regarding this water way will be found elsewhere, but, briefly, the river can be ascended some 350 miles by light-draught steamers, more than half the distance from Canton to the navigation limit. On the upper portion junks can travel 250 miles to the borders of Yunnan. The importance of this river to China and the advisa bility of opening it effectively need not be dilated on here.

The peculiarities of Chinese nomenclature are remarkable. No river or chain of mountains, as Reclus points out, has the same denomination throughout its length ; no town even keeps its primitive name * Explored and mapped by the author in 1882. from one dynasty to another. " There is no national term to designate China itself, or its inhabitants," he says ; " every one of the names in common use at different periods has kept its former meaning and can be replaced by synonyms ; not one has yet been transformed by use into a purely geographical appellation. It is the same with the names of mountains, rivers, provinces, and towns ; these names are only epithets — descriptive, historical, military, or poetical — changing with each rigime and replaced at will by other epithets." The population of China Proper has so suffered from insurrections, famines, and their usual accom paniment, pestilence, that it is now generally allowed to comprise no more than 350,000,000.

Indeed, some believe it to be not more populous than India, and, as it is about the same size, they assume the population to be under 300,000,000. Knowing both India and China well, I am inclined to believe that 350,000,000 will be found no extravagant estimate.* * The population in 1887 was estimated at 383,138,000, Szechuan alone containing 73,178,000, equal to 295 inhabitants to the square mile. At various periods the population has been estimated as follows : — Pfere Amiot . . . 1743 ... 150,265,475 Lord Macartney . . 1792 ... 333,000,000 Official Census . . . 1813 ... 360,279,897 Sacharoff .... 1842 ... 413,686,994 Vassilivitch . . . 1868 ... 404,946,514 Chinese Customs Reports 1881 ... 380,000,000 Any statistics based upon the census of 1842, so often quoted, must be erroneous, on account of the devastating rebellions and terrible famines which have occurred since then.

This amount of population at first sight seems a large one, but it is only twelve times that of THE DISTRIBUTION OF RELIGIONS IN ASIA. England, while the area which supports it is thirty times greater. The extent of population, therefore, is not excessive, but, as noted by Wingrove Cook, its distribution is most remarkable. The pressure upon the eastern seaboard and on the great waterways, where they open out into valleys and deltas, is unparalleled elsewhere. Away from these the population diminishes rapidly. The most populous provinces have as much, it is believed, as 800 per square mile, the average being 270. The most thinly populated provinces are Kwangsi, Kweichau and Yunnan. The latter, which, before the Mohammedan rebellion, counted some 16,000,000 inhabitants, has now only some 6,000,000, giving 50 to the square mile.

The eastern part of Szechuan is very populous ; but the west, abutting on Tibet, is mountainous and poorly peopled. The density of the population will be found to be in some degree an index — but by no means an accurate one, owing to the defective communications — to the agricultural capabilities of the country. We may take half the area of the eighteen provinces — that is, 650,000 square miles, or 400,000,000 of acres — as being land cultivated and capable of bearing good crops. The metropolitan province of Chihli, with an area of about 57,000 square miles, and a population of probably 36,000,000, is the most northern portion of the Great (delta) Plain, with the exception of the ranges defining its northern and western frontiers. On the east it is bordered by the Gulf of Pechihli and Shantung, on the south by Shantung and Honan, on the west by Shansi, and on the north by Inner Mongolia and Liaotung.

This pro vince contains the present capital, Peking, and the chief northern treaty port, Tientsin, on the Pei ho. The province of Shansi — the original seat of the Chinese people— is bounded on the north by Mon golia, on the east by Chihli, on the south by Honan, and on the west by Shensi. It occupies an area of 66,000 square miles, and contains besides its capital, Taiyuen fu, eight prefectural cities. The population is returned as being 17,000,000. The con figuration of Shansi is noteworthy, its southern portion, including the region down to the Yellow River— in all an area of about 30,000 square miles forming a plateau elevated from 5000 to 6000 feet above the level of the sea, the whole being one vast coal-field. In agricultural products the province is poor, and, as the means of transport at present existing are rude and insufficient, it is liable to famine, and even in good years grows food-stuffs sufficient for its own wants only.

The province of Shensi is bounded on the north by the Great Wall, on the west by the province of Kansu, on the south by the province of Szechuan, and on the east by Shansi, from which it is separated by the Yellow River. It contains an area of some 80,000 square miles, and its population was said to number upwards of 10,000,000 before the outbreak of the Mohammedan rebellion of 1860-1875. Its capital, Sian, is next to Peking in importance, and enjoys the distinction of having been the capital of the Empire for a longer period than any other city. The Wei basin,* in Shensi, is the greatest agricul- * The cause ofthe vitality of the Wei basin, remarks Richthofen, is that " Singan-fu (Sian) occupies a dominant position, such as few tural region of the north-west, and on this account, as well as its geographical position, has played a prominent part in the history of China, especially in its early epochs.* It is well termed by Colonel Mark Bell the centre of gravity and resistance of Mid-China.

Cut off from the rest of China by the Yellow River and its bordering mountainous region to the eastward, and the Tsingling shan range to the southward, the Taiping rebellion never was able to cross from the south into northern Shensi, nor did the Mohammedan rebellion of Kansu and Shensi ever spread southward. As regards products and commercial intercourse, the two districts have been also widely divided. The importance of the region to China is evident. Railway connection with the eastern provinces is a necessity, for it requires no special insight to see that China is open to attack from Central Asia by the very road which she, in the past, herself always followed in her invasions. inland cities enjoy that are not built at the places of confluence of navigable rivers. It is situated at the confluence of those few roads of traffic which are the only possible connections for mediating the intercourse between the Wei basin and the eastern and northern provinces, and occupy, therefore, indeed, in some measure, the place of rivers." * The antiquarian finds, says Richthofen, nowhere in China such opportunity for collecting objects of interest as on the classical soil of the Wei basin.

At a comparatively recent epoch of Chinese history, during the Tang dynasty, arts and sciences flourished at the Court of Chang-ngan, the present Sian fu. Dr. W. Williams says of this celebrated line of princes : " During the 287 years they held the throne, China was probably the most civilised country on earth, and the darkest days of the West formed the brightest era of the East." The province of Yunnan lies in the extreme south west of the Empire, its southern and western borders forming the northern frontiers of Tongking and Burma respectively. On the north it is bordered by Szechuan, and on the east by Kweichau and Kwangsi. It is the third largest province of the Empire, its area measuring 122,000 square miles, but, as elsewhere remarked, owing to the devasta tations of the Mohammedan rebellion and ensuing plague, its population has been greatly reduced, and now is not more than 6,000,000.

Yet its mineral wealth is greater and more varied than that of any other province. Its capital is Yunnan, between which town and Burma a considerable trade is carried on. The other south-west province, Kweichau, is the poorest of the eighteen in agricultural products, but in minerals it is nearly as rich as Yunnan. The population is about the same as that of Yunnan, in an area of 64,000 square miles. The means of communication, however, are so defective, that its resources have hitherto been almost undeveloped. The province of Kwangtung lies between Kiangsi and Hunan on the north, Fukien on the north-east, Kwangsi on the west, and the ocean on the south. Its area is over 90,000 square miles, with a popula numbering 20,000,000. Its capital is Canton, on the Pearl River, the largest town in China and the one best known to the West, as for a long time it was the only place to which foreigners were allowed access, and is easily visited by the itinerant traveller from Hongkong, while en route to Japan.

The natural facilities of the province for internal navigation and an extensive coasting trade are considerable, its long line of littoral affording many excellent harbours, and its waterways, the West River and its affluents, radiating into the districts in the west and north, even beyond the provincial frontiers. The province of Kwangsi extends westwards of Kwangtung to the border of Tongking, and has an area of over 80,000 square miles and a population of 8,000,000. Both Kwangsi and Kwangtung are fairly well watered by the West River and its tributaries, and intercourse is easy. Wuchau and Nanning, on the West River, are the largest trading towns in the province. The province of Kansu projects like a wedge into the Tibetan plateau, and is the largest of the eighteen provinces, measuring 260,000 square miles, with a population of some 20,000,000.

Its im portance politically is very great, as it commands the highway between Central Asia and China Proper. The province of Szechuan, treated fully else where, was the largest of the eighteen provinces before Kansu was extended across the desert, and is by far the richest and most populous. It is bounded on the north by Kansu and Shensi, on the east by Hupei and Hunan, on the south by Kweichau and Yunnan, and on the west by Tibet and Kokonor. Its area is estimated at over 180,000 square miles, and its population at varying amounts : in 1882 it was 35,000,000 according to the Customs Report, but since then it has been generally assumed to be not under 60,000,000. The province of Shantung, the resources of which are dealt with in another chapter, is bounded on the east by the Yellow Sea, on the south by Kiangsu and the Yellow Sea, on the west by the province of Chihli, and on the north by Chihli and its gulf.

A population variously estimated, but probably numbering as many as 30,000,000, is found within its area of 53,000 square miles. Possessed of enormous mineral wealth, Shantung is also a great agricultural province, as is proved by the revenue from the land-tax, the largest derived from any of the eighteen provinces, viz., taels 2,600,000. South of Shantung lies the province of Kiangsu, between the ocean on the east and Anhwei on the west, with Chekiang to the south. Its area com prises over 40,000 square miles, with a population of some 40,000,000. A great portion of the province is covered with lakes and marshes, but it is generally very fertile. Amongst its many fine cities are Shanghai, Nanking (the capital), and Suchau. From a.d. 317 to 582 Nanking was the metropolis of China, and once again during the Ming dynasty, from 1368 to 1403.

Suchau is situated close to the Tahu Lake, whence streams and canals place the city in communication with various parts of the province, especially with Shanghai, the road between the two cities being a continuous line of towns and villages. In 1859 Suchau was a city which, for industry and wealth, was not to be matched in China, and had then a population esti mated at over a million. Suchau and Hangchau in Chekiang represented to the Chinese the terrestrial Paradise. " To be happy on earth," said they, " one must be born in Suchau, live in Canton, and die in Hangchau." Following the coast-line southwards the next province is Chekiang, bordered by Anhwei and Kiangsi on the west and Fukien on the south. It is the smallest of the eighteen provinces, being only 35,000 square miles in extent, its population numbering 8,000,000.