The Chinese Empire. Forming a sequel to ... 'Recollections of a journey through Tartary and Thibet.'

Preface

. The Author of these volumes is already favourably known to the English public, by his " Travels in Tartary and Thibet," but the present work is one of greater interest and importance than the former. M. Hue has enjoyed such opportunities of becoming acquainted with China as have scarcely fallen to the lot of any European before. During the journey here recorded, — a journey through the very heart of the Empire, from the frontiers of Thibet to Canton, — he stood under the immediate protection of the Emperor, travelling in all the pride and pomp of a high Govern ment functionary, attended humbly by Mandarins, and surrounded by a military escort, and he was brought into constant and intimate relation with persons of the highest rank in the country. During a previous resi dence of no less than fourteen years in various parts of China, he had been in habits of familiar intercourse with all classes, but more especially with the poor, and while labouring in his vocation in obscurity and secresy, had looked into the domestic life, and watched the working of the hidden mechanism of society in that mysterious Empire still so imperfectly known, though extending over a surface greater than that of all Europe, A translator's preface.

VI and comprising a population of one-third of the human race. His knowledge of the institutions, religion, manners, and customs of the Chinese, was not taken on hearsay from the accounts of others, but gathered from actual experience, and he has communicated his know ledge to the reader, not in a heavy formal dissertation, but in a much pleasanter manner, apropos to the various incidents of his extraordinary journey. It will not probably be regarded as matter of complaint that this journey, undertaken in such anomalous circumstances, should present some incidents, surprising enough to be received with doubt did they come before us without any guarantee. But the well known and high character of M. Hue — the auspices under which the work has appeared — and the internal evidence of veracity that it everywhere presents, afford sufficient warrant, even for what is most singular and unex pected.

It is to be noted also that on that subject on which, of all others, the statements of a Missionary are usually to be received with hesitation, on the effect, namely, of the labours of himself and his brethren in the conversion of the Chinese, M. Hue betrays no tendency to the customary sanguine exaggeration ; and if he has resisted the temptation so often yielded to, of repre senting the prospects, from missionary labours, in a more favourable light than is warranted by the fact, we may reasonably give him credit for accuracy in cases where his personal wishes and prepossessions are far less, if at all concerned. The narrative is not at all less credible because many scenes of it are as amusing translator's FREFACE. VII as a comedy, and often not unlike one in the curious game carried on between the eternal shuffling trickeries of the Mandarins, and the courage, humour, and auda city of the missionaries.

In several instances, from the peculiar character of the Chinese, a kind of dashing effrontery afforded the only means of escape from perils to which a more timid and feeble traveller would pro bably have fallen a victim. In matters of opinion it cannot be expected that the views of the author should always agree with those of English Protestants ; he has of course looked at things with his own eyes, and not with ours, but it is never difficult to make allowance for the effect of the refracting medium through which (as it appears to us) he has regarded matters connected with the interests of his Church. His religion, it may be added, is evidently not worn as a garment, but interwoven with every thought and occurrence of his daily life, and it will therefore often attract the spiritual sympathies of those who may differ most widely from him on doctrinal points.

His account of the Chinese Empire, besides the information and amusement it affords, suggests matter for solemn thought, in the picture it presents of a civilised nation, almost wholly removed from religious influence, " without God in the world," and falling rapidly to decay, from no other cause than that of internal moral corruption. M. Hue mentions the (we believe) unpa ralleled occurrence of a late Emperor having in an im portant state document passed in review all the systems of religion known in China (Christianity included), and A TRANSLATOR'S FREFACE. VIII formally recommended his people to have nothing to do with any. The whole system of society and govern ment appears to be calculated with as little reference as possible to the moral and spiritual nature of man. As one example, among many others, we may mention the extraordinary idea entertained in China of the responsibility of public officers, making the punishment for misconduct in any department in the inverse ratio of the rank of the offender ; clerks and other mere in struments being punished most severely, and the highest officers scarcely at all : thus making it evident that the law takes cognisance only of the mere physical fact, and not of the evil intention, in which the whole moral offence consists.

Christianity alone, we conscientiously believe, can heal this inward corruption, and arrest the downward progress of this mighty nation, now no longer separated from us by almost impassable distance. Not merely the statesman and the merchant, but the humblest among us, are now often connected by strong and tender ties with countries equally remote. A breach too has been made in the hitherto impenetrable barrier surrounding these distant Asiatic Empires. The United States have obtained important commercial privileges in Japan ; Russia is striving for the same, and the secluded popu lation of China have come forth to mingle (in California and Australia) in some of the busiest haunts of men, and take part in the newest movements of the time.* * Recent accounts from Melbourne mention the arrival of Chinese immigrants in such numbers as to cause some serious apprehension on the part of the English residents. TRANSLATOR'S

PREFACE.

. IX Of the tremendous insurrection that has broken out in the bosom of the Empire itself, as well as of some mis taken ideas entertained concerning it, the author has himself spoken sufficiently. A word of explanation may be permitted concerning the plural pronoun constantly used by the author, the nos majesticum as it is called, not very correctly in this instance, for it is obviously employed by M. Hue, as by many others, rather to avoid the appearance of egotism and veil the individual personality. Since it seemed in some measure characteristic, the translator has not ventured to change it for the more customary singular. But whatever may be thought on this and other trivial points, there is reason to hope from the subject of the work, the means of information enjoyed by the author, and his vivid and dramatic manner of conveying his impressions, that his book will be received in this country with favour, equal to that which has already welcomed it in his own.

When in a former work we retraced the recollections of our journey in Tartary and Thibet, we were compelled to interrupt our narrative on the frontiers of the Chinese Empire. We expressed, howeve'r, in a postscript the wish to complete some day the task that circumstances compelled us then to leave unfinished. We said, "we still have to speak of our relations with the Chinese Mandarins and the tribunals, as well as to cast a glance on the provinces that we traversed, and to compare them with those that we visited on our former journeys through the Celestial Empire." " This chasm," we added, " we will endeavour to fill up, during whatever hours of leisure we may be able to spare from the la bours of our holy ministry." * The present opportunity has seemed extremely fa vourable for the accomplishment of this design, and, in default of any other merit, our observations on the Chinese will at least have that of being well timed, since we are making them public at an epoch when the * Recollections of a Journey through Tartary and Thibet. political situation of this great nation is exciting the most general and lively interest.

This vast Empire, which for so long a time has appeared to be sunk in the most profound political apathy, and which even the warlike operations of the English scarcely seem to have disturbed, — this Colossus, has been suddenly shaken to its very foundations by one of those terrible storms that can scarcely pass over a nation without effecting some change in its ancient forms; which leave behind them sometimes better institution but always much of desolation and ruin. If the original causes of the Chinese insurrection are almost entirely unknown in Europe, its more immediate occasion is not so. In the first instance, this was an isolated act of highway robbery; then followed the asso ciation of several villains of that description, endeavouring to resist the efforts of the Mandarins to re press them, and soon from the very dregs of the population a little army was raised, which began to occasion serious uneasiness to the vice-roy of the province of Kouang-si.

At length the captain of this gang of robbers, now become the chief of an armed force, pro claimed himself Generallissimo, called in politics and religion to the assistance of his revolt, summoned around him the secret societies that swarm in the Empire, de clared himself the restorer of Chinese nationality, against the usurpation of the Mantchoo Tartar race, assumed the title of Emperor, under the pompous name of Tien-te, (Celestial Virtue,) and denominated himself also the younger brother of Jesus Christ. By means such as these has an Empire of three hundred millions of men been brought to the brink of destruction. It may appear scarcely credible that a petty revolt of banditti should have increased to such an extent as to become formidable, and assume a sort of national character ; but for those who are acquainted with China and its history it will not seem very surprising.

This country has always been the classic ground of revolutions, and its annals are but the narrative of a long series of popular commotions and political vicis situdes. In the period of time between the year 420, when the Franks entered Gaul, and 1644, when Louis XIV. ascended the throne of France, and the Tartars established themselves in Pekin, a period of twelve hundred and twenty-four years, China underwent fifteen changes of dynasty, all accompanied by frightful civil wars. Since the invasion of the Mantchoo Tartar race, the nation, has appeared, it is true, quite indifferent to the political situation of the country, and altogether ab sorbed in material enjoyments ; but in the bosom of this sceptical and avaricious people, there has always re mained a powerful and vivacious spark that the Tartar government has never been able to extirpate ; secret societies have been formed all over the Empire, the members of which have seen with impatience the Mantchoo domination and cherished the idea of over throwing it to obtain a national government.

These innumerable conspirators were all ready for revolt, and pi-edetermined to support it, let the signal come from whence it might, whether from a discontented viceroy, or a highway robber. On the other hand the agents of Government had contributed not a little by their con duct to provoke the outbreak. Their unheard-of exac tions had filled up the measure of wrong doing and great numbers of the Chinese, some driven by indignation, and others by poverty and despair, joined the ranks of the insurgents, for the sake of even a remote chance of ameliorating their condition, certain that they could not be more oppressed let the new government be as bad as it might. It is also far from impossible that another cause, but little apparent, may really have exercised considerable influence in the explosion of this Chinese insurrection ; namely, the latent infiltration of European ideas put in circulation in the free ports and along the coast by the commerce of the Western nations, and carried by the missionaries into the very heart of the Empire, and to the most remote provinces.

The people at large care little enough about what is thought or done by Euro peans, whose very existence is all but unknown to them ; but the educated classes do at present think much of foreign nations, and cultivate geography with great success. We have often in our journeys met with Man darins, who had very correct notions of European affairs, and it is these learned men, who give the tone to opinion, and regulate the course of popular thought, so that the common people may very well be following the impulse of European ideas, without knowing so much as the name of Europe. One of the most remarkable aspects of the insurrec tion is the religious character that its chiefs have sought from its very commencement to impress upon it. Every one must be struck with the new doctrines with which the proclamations and manifestoes of the Pretender and his generals have been filled.

The unity of God has been distinctly expressed ; and around this funda mental dogma have been grouped a number of ideas borrowed from the Old and New Testament. War has been declared at the same time to idolatry and to the Tartar dynasty ; for after having defeated the impe rial troops, and overthrown the authority of the Man darins, the insurgents have never failed to destroy the pagodas and massacre the Bonzes. As soon as these facts became known in Europe, it was eagerly proclaimed everywhere, that the Chinese nation had decided on embracing Christianity, and the Bible Society did not fail to claim the merit and glory of this marvellous conversion. We do not, however, give the slightest credit to the alleged Christianity of the insurgents, and the religious and mystical sentiments expressed in these mani festoes inspire us with no great confidence.

In the second place, it is by no means necessary to have recourse to the Protestant Propaganda to account for the more or less Christian ideas remarked in the proclamations of the revolutionary Chinese. There exist in all the provinces a very considerable number of Mussul mans, who have their Koran and their mosques. It is to be presumed that these Mahometans, who have al ready several times attempted to overthrow the Tartar dynasty, and have always distinguished themselves by a violent opposition to the Government, would have thrown themselves with ardour into the ranks of the insurrection. Many of these must have become gene rals, and have mingled in the councils of Tien-te. It is therefore not wonderful to find among them the doctrine of the unity of God, and other ideas of Bib lical origin, though whimsically expressed.

The Chinese have also for a long time had at their command a precious collection of books of Christian doctrine, composed by the ancient missionaries, and which, even in a purely literary point of view, are much esteemed in the Empire. These books are diffused in great numbers throughout all the provinces, and it is more probable that the Chinese innovators have drawn the ideas in question from these sources than from the Bibles prudently deposited by the Methodists on the sea-shore. The new faith proclaimed by the insurrectional go vernment, though vague and ill-defined, does neverthe less, it must be acknowledged, indicate great progress ; it is an immense step in the path that leads to the truth. This initiation of China into ideas so opposed to the scepticism of the masses, and their coarse ten dencies, is, perhaps, a symptom of that mysterious march of all nations towards unity, which is spoken of by Count de Maistre, and which, according to the ex pression which he borrows from the sacred writings, we ought to " salute from afar ;"* but for the present it appears to us difficult to see in the chief of this Chi nese insurrection anything else than a kind of Chinese Mahomet, seeking to establish his power by fire and Soirees de Si.

Petersburg — Premier Entretien. sword, and crying to his fanatical partisans—" There is no God but God, and Tien-te is the younger brother of Jesus Christ." And now, what will be the result of this Chinese insurrection ? Will its promoters succeed in their de sign of establishing a new dynasty, and a new worship, more in harmony with their lately adopted faith ? Or will the Son of Heaven have power to re-establish the throne so roughly shaken ? The recent course of events is too imperfectly known to us, and appears also too little decisive, to enable us to determine these questions. Yet, notwithstanding the impossibility of forming any well-grounded opinion on the probable issue of the struggle, the journalists of Europe have declared that were the Tartar dynasty once overthrown, the nation would merely return into its traditional course.

It seems to us that this is an error. What is called the Chinese system has really no existence ; for this ex pression can be understood in no other souse than by supposing it opposed to a Tartar system. Now there is not, and never was a Tartar system. The Mantchoo race has, indeed, imposed its yoke upon China, but has had scarcely any influence on the Chinese mind; it has not been able to do much more than introduce some slight modifications into the national costume, and force the conquered people to shave their heads and wear a tail. The Chinese have been governed mostly by the same institutions after as before the conquest ; they have always remained faithful to the traditions of their ancestors, and have, in fact, in a great measure, vol. I. a absorbed the Tartar race, and imposed upon it their own manners and civilisation.

They have even succeeded in nearly extinguishing the Mantchoo language, and replacing it by their own. They have nullified the Tartar action on the Empire, by engrossing the greater part of the offices that stand between the governors and the governed. Almost all employments, in fact, if we except the chief military posts, and the highest dignities of the State, have become the exclusive in heritance of the Chinese, who possess, more frequently than the Tartars, the special kinds of knowledge neces sary to fill them. As for the Tartars, isolated and lost in the immensity of the Empire, they have retained the privilege of watching over the security of the frontier, occupying the fortified places, and mount ing guard at the gates of the imperial palace. It is not at all surprising that the state of affairs in China should have resisted the Mantchoo invasion, and should not have been in the slightest degree altered by the accession of a foreign dynasty.

China differs in this, as in other respects, widely from Europe. The countless revolutions and political convulsions of which it has been the theatre have destroyed nothing, and for the simple reason, that one of the most distinctive features of the Chinese character is a profound, in some measure religious, veneration for ancient institutions, and all things ancient. After every successive revolution this extraordinary people has applied itself to re-constitute the past, and recal the antique traditions, in order not to depart from the rites established by their ancestors, and this is one of the circumstances that may serve to explain how this nation, which at so early a period attained so remarkable a degree of civilisation, has re mained stationary and made no progress for centuries. Can it be hoped, nevertheless, that the present insurrec tion will bring any modification in this state of things ?

We must be permitted to doubt this. It is even pro bable that the unsympathising disposition of the Chinese towards the nations of the West will remain what it has always been. China is far from being open ; and what ever may be said, we believe that our missions have very little to hope there. We must not forget, in fact, that Christianity is in no way concerned in the crisis which the Empire is now passing through. The Chris tians, too wise and prudent to hoist a political stan dard, are also too few in number to exercise any sensible influence on the affairs of the country, and they have remained neutral. For this reason they have be come equally suspected by both parties, and we fear will be hereafter equally exposed to punishment, which ever side may be ultimately victorious. Should the Mantchoo Government triumph over the insurrection, which already more than once has displayed the cross upon its standards, it will have no mercy on the Chris tians, and this long struggle will have only served to redouble its suspicions and embitter its wrath; if, on the contrary, Tien-te should gain the victory, and succeed in driving out the ancient conquerors of China, since he claims not only to found a new dynasty, but also a new worship, he will, in the intoxication of victory, break through every obstacle that may oppose his projects. a XX Thus the conclusion of the civil war may be to the Christians the signal of a new persecution.

These ter rible trials need not, indeed, induce us to despair of the future prospects of Christianity in China : for we know that the Almighty rules the nations at his pleasure, that He can, when He pleases, bring good out of evil, and that often, where men think all is lost, it is then pre cisely that all is saved. In fact, notwithstanding the worship professed by the Chinese for their ancient institutions — if circum stances should at length force the European element to quit its neutrality, and mingle in the affairs of the Celestial Empire, this intervention would probably be the source of remarkable changes, and might gradually produce a complete transformation of China. It may be even, apart from the hypothesis of an intervention, that the new ideas introduced by the revolutionary Chinese will of themselves prove active enough to exercise considerable influence over the destinies of the Empire.

Then will regenerated China assume a new aspect, and who knows whether it may not ultimately succeed in placing itself on a level with European nations. These prospects, uncertain as they are, have en couraged us in the execution of our task. The moment, in fact, when the Tartar-Mantchoo dynasty appears to be tottering to its fall, and China on the eve of a oreat social and political transformation, is the most suitable for saying what we know concerning this great Empire. Should it be destined to undergo a total chano*e, we shall have contributed to preserve the memory of what it was, and to rescue from oblivion those ancient customs which have rendered it in our own day an enigma to Europe. Whilst the insurrection is proceeding in its work of demolition, we will labour in construction ; and if we can succeed in conveying an exact idea of Chinese society, as it appeared to us in the course of our long peregrinations, our object will have been attained, and we shall have nothing more to say than, as the authors of former days used to do, " Soli Deo honos et gloria."

In our former work, " Recollections of a Journey," we related our travels across the deserts of Tartary, and the incidents of our residence in Thibet, — a residence shortened by the ill-will of Chinese politicians, and finally, our return to China, under the escort of Man darins. We are now about to resume our narrative where we then laid it down, that is to say, from the moment when, having just crossed the frontiers of China, we were carried by our conductors towards the capital of Sse tchouen to be there brought to trial. This second part of our narrative will turn exclu sively upon China, and we will endeavour to correct as much as possible the erroneous and absurd ideas that have prevailed from time immemorial concerning the Chinese people. The efforts made by learned Orien talists, and principally by M. Abel Remusat, to rectify the errors of Europeans on that subject, have not had all the success they merited, for the most contradictory statements are constantly being uttered and printed concerning them.

It is not difficult, to trace those a errors and contradictions to their sources, in the accounts published at various epochs by those who have pene trated into China, and also by those who have never set foot in it. When, in the 16th century, the Catholic missionaries arrived, bearing the message of the Gospel to the in numerable nations who form collectively the Chinese Empire, the spectacle that presented itself to their observation was calculated to strike them with astonishment, and even with admiration. Europe, which they had just quitted, was in the convulsions of intellectual and political anarchy. The arts, industry, commerce the general aspect of cities and their population, was totally different from what we see at the present day The AVest had scarcely entered on the path of material civilisation.

China, on the contrary, stood in some measure at the zenith of her prosperity. Her political and civil institutions worked with admirable regularity. The Emperor and his Mandarins were truly the " Father and Mother"* of the people, and by both high and low the laws were faithfully observed. The imaginations of the missionaries could not but be powerfully affected by this immense Empire, with its numerous and orderly population, its fields so skilfully cultivated, its great cities, its magnificent rivers, its fine system of canals, and its entire and prosperous civilisation. The com parison was certainly at that time not to the advantage of Europe, and the missionaries were inclined to admire * A title by which in China the representatives of authority arc designated. everything they saw in the new country of their adop tion.

They often exaggerated what was good in it, and they did not see the accompanying evil, and thus they have often published, in perfect good faith, descriptions of China that were much too flattering to be correct. Modern missionaries have perhaps fallen into the contrary extreme, Europe has been of late years marching from progress to progress, and almost every passing day has been signalised by some new discovery ; China, on the contrary, is in a state of decay ; the vices that disfigured its ancient institutions have increased, and whatever good may have been mingled in them has almost wholly disappeared. It has happened, therefore, that the missionaries, setting out with magnificent ideas of the splendour of Chinese civilisation, and finding the country really full of disorder and misery, have come to conclusions respecting it the very reverse of those formed by their predecessors three centuries ago.

Under the influence of these sentiments, they have given us pictures of China drawn in gloomy colours. They have, without intending it, exaggerated its evils, as their predecessors had exaggerated what was good; and these different estimates have produced contradictory accounts, which were not likely to throw much clear light on the facts of the case. Mere tourists, too, have of course furnished their contingent to increase the confusion. Few of the travellers who have been attracted either by curiosity or interest to visit the Chinese shore have not felt the desire to make the fact known to the world, at least through the newspapers. They have seen little a indeed, but that has not prevented them from writing much, and often from slandering the Chinese, for no other reason than that the missionaries formerly over praised them.

Very frequently they have drawn largely in their writings from the accounts of embassies, which unfortunately are regarded as great authorities, although M. Abel Remusat has more than once endeavoured to reduce them to their just value. " The ideas unfavour able to the Chinese," says this skilful and impartial critic, "are not new, but they have been recently diffused and credited. They are partly due to the authors of the Narratives of the Dutch and the two English Em bassies." " The missionaries had boasted so much of Chinese manners and Chinese policy, that in order to say some thing new on the subject, it was necessary to take the other side. There were also many persons disposed to believe that as they were professedly religious men, they had yielded in their writings to the prejudices of their profession, and the interests of their calling.

Lay observers are much less suspected, and in their eyes a missionary is hardly a traveller. How could a man who was neither a Jesuit nor a Dominican fail to be a model of veracity and impartiality ? " Nevertheless, if we consider the matter a little more attentively, we shall see that the travellers, on whom so much reliance has been placed, have not quite as many claims to confidence as has been supposed. No one of them was acquainted with the language of the country, whilst the Jesuits could even write in Chinese, so as to equal the best native literati. No one of them ever saw the Chinese otherwise than on occasions of ceremony, in visits of etiquette, or at festivals strictly regulated by the " Rites," whilst the missionaries made their way everywhere, from the Imperial Court to the most remote provinces, and the most humble villages.

These travellers never fail to speak very well of the productions of the country, the manners of the inhabitants, the genius of the Government, for they had under their eyes, while writing their narrative of their travels, the collection of ' Lettres Fdifiantes,'' the compilation of Duhalde, and the memoirs of the -missionaries. You never find, therefore, an idea of any importance in one that has escaped the others, for they have copied faithfully, and that was the best thing they could do. What could the most able men have said in their place ? " The situation of travellers in China is not usually an enviable one. At their departure from Canton they are imprisoned in closed boats ; they are guarded care fully from sight all along the great canal ; they are what we may call put under arrest immediately on their arrival at Pekin; and, after two or three official recep tions and interrogatories, they are hastily sent back again.