China's open door;

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. A Word at the Open Door 1

II. As to the Proper Reading of Chinese His-

Introduction

HIS book is a fit and much needed successor to the “ Middle Kingdom,” by Doctor S. S. Williams. As a digest of information touching China, the “ Middle Kingdom” must always rank first among the books which treat of that empire. Next to it this book will take its place in literature.

Splendid as Williams’s history is, the student sometimes complains of dryness; but no such charge can be made against the accomplished author of this book, to whom experience in many forms of writing has taught the lesson that the first requisite of success is to please the reader. In this, Mr. Wildman has preeminently succeeded. This book is written in pure English. It is clear and concise in language, easy to understand, and opens up vistas of information which, until now, have been unknown to the general reader. At the beginning the keynote is struck — the author knows his subject. One sees plainly that he has not drawn his description from books or from the vii

Vlll

INTRODUCTION.

chance observations of the harrying tourist, but from the passing of many days among the Chinese, and the watching, during many years, their actual life and the political phases of the imperial government. The author’s own sound declaration is that to understand Chinese history you must know the people. Knowing them, he has built up, step by step, a succinct history of China from its early days down to the uprisal of the “ Boxers.” I shall not undertake in this introduction to review, page by page, the contents of this volume, but simply to draw attention to the starting-point and the successive stages of historic lore which, in admira^ ble sequence, are brought to our attention.

At the beginning it is asserted that the characteristics and peculiarities of the Chinese must be understood in order to judge them aright, and then follows a succinct, but complete description of these characteristics. Lying at the bottom of Chinese character is respect for « face.” The foreign resident of China knows that he must not reprove his “ boy ” before strangers, that he must not unjustly punish him. Once, on one of our men-of-war, when a servant, as the other servants believed, was wrongfully discharged, every Chinaman aboard the ship left. The author illustrates this underlying principle by many examples, and

INTRODUCTION .

IX he carries his observance into the highest realms of governmental polity. I well remember that the members of the Tsung Li Yamen complained that some foreign representative made them lose “ face ” by pounding on the table and bawling at them. The portion of the book which discusses “ face ” is somewhat new in its treatment, and should be carefully considered, because it furnishes an explanation of many events in Chinese history which, before, were obscure.

To the Chinese, as Mr. Wildman intimates, “ face ” takes the place of patriotism. The discussion of politics, except in the secret societies, has been an unknown art in China. The struggle for existence has been too intense to waste time on the doings of the mandarins or the foreigners. Well does the author say that, in place of patriotism, you find “ untiring industry, marvelous economy, filial piety, and a calm respect for law.”

Americans are the most wasteful people in the world. I look out now from my window over thousands and thousands of acres on which the tall corn is waving its silken tassel. When October comes the harvesters will drive wagons along the rows, and they will pull the ears only, and leave the shuck, the fodder, and the stack untouched. Cattle will be turned in to feed on

X

INTRODUCTION.

these during the winter, but they will destroy more than they eat. In China each blade of grass is uprooted and put to some use. At Swatow once there were many refugees, Christians, who had refused to contribute to the fund for the gods and the temples. The missionaries were paying the adults for their support a Mexican dollar a month— then about seyenty-five cents of our money — and it sufficed. But the author has told of this better than I can.

The dress, the manners, the customs, of the Chinese are described with a master’s hand. On this plan of picturing the common every-day doings of Ms countrymen Macaulay wrote his history.

Ancestral worship — the fundamental principle of Chinese policy- — is well and forcibly explained. Chinese conservatism, which has held China fixed as the northern star, while the nations around her have tottered and fallen, is thoroughly elucidated.

Having pictured the Chinaman as he is, the author takes up the history of China from the remotest period, and brings it down to the present time. It is not necessary for me to follow him through the various dynasties whose chronicles are touched on sufficiently to fill out the great picture of China. From the reign of Fuh-lii, 2852

INTRODUCTION.

xi

B. c., the contemporaneous history of China commenced, and thenceforward the historical records are complete. The author pays admirable tribute to Confucius. Nowhere is there a more correct estimate of the character of the sage. Through the great invasion of the Mongols, who conquered China in 1276, and the conquest of the Manchus in 1 644, the book goes on, reading like the pages of a historical romance. Names that you have barely heard in your life, for instance, those of Kublai Khan, Marco Polo, the Chaus and the Hans, stand out here in interesting portrayal. It is wonderful what a mass of information has been collected in this book. Incidentally we learn about Burmah, Korea, Siam, Tonquin, Thibet, Japan, in fact the whole of Asia. It cannot be expected that I should agree with everything that the author says ; but as I am not reviewing his book, I do not feel called upon to specify the points wherein I differ with him. They are not many. He treats, I think, the missionaries rather cavalierly, and does not give them as a class the credit they deserve. It is strongly brought out in this book that China has never lost its individuality. Indeed, the Chinese have absorbed their conquerors. Nominally the Manchu dynasty reigns to-day; but the fate of China will be deter-

INTRODUCTION.

xii

mined by the people, and, excepting twenty millions of Manchus, they are Chinese.

On the opium question the author is lenient. It will not do to compare opium with alcohol. The drug is always simply brutalizing, and deleterious. All things are either good or bad, and the use of opium is unquestionably bad. It is the curse of China. I cannot too highly commend the author’s history of what may be called our own times in China — say from 1842 down to 1900. A correct and most interesting account is given of a period which has been treated with accuracy by Williams, but to whose treatment Mr. Wildman has added the touches of glowing and sparkling style. He has brought out many new facts, and his chronology of events is perfect. In the sweep of this panoramic book, we come at last to the reign of Hienfeng, the Taiping Rebellion, the making of the treaties of 1857, the advance on Peking in 1859, the repulse of the allies at Taku, the renewal of the attack in 1860, the taking of Peking, the ratification of the treaties, the induction of China into the family of nations, and the outbreak of 1900. A fund of anecdote and character painting is found in these pages, much of which is absolutely new. Alas, in some respects, books

INTRODUCTION.

xiii

about China will have to be rewritten! Japan “ turned a new leaf ” when she taught the sleeping giant what modern fire-arms could accomplish. Mr. Wildman describes Eastern diplomacy with many touches of satire, but recent events have changed its tone. New men are coming on the stage ; and if China is not to be partitioned, she will demand the rights which international law insures; then there will be no more pictures of vacillation, evasion, trickery, but a stand-up fight for justice, in which the conscience of the world will be at her back.

Books on China are greatly confined to disquisitions. The “ tenderfoot ” seems driven to advising China. He sees at a glance how necessary are schools, railroads, trained soldiers, and especially is he conscious of the bad morality of the Chinese officials. When a gentleman, who wanted to sell something, once gave me a splendid essay, showing up all Chinese corruptions, and asked me to translate it and send it to the Yamen, I inquired whether, if he wanted to- sell locomotives in England, he would prepare an elaborate attack on the House of Lords, and primogeniture, and the Prince of Wales and all the officials. He said he did not think he would, and then I asked him why he did this thing

XIV

INTRODUCTION.

in China. He did not have any satisfactory answer.

Mr. Wildman has not fallen into this error. The book is valuable, because it tells you accurately, with dates, things you know, and many things that you do not know. From 1860 to the summer of 1900 the history is minutely accurate. The old, spectacular, historic Li stands out in his well-known lineaments, and the Semiramis of China, the Empress-Regent Tzi Tsu, fills some pages of description. The treatment of Korea, the episode with France, the Japanese war, are all told of, with many side-lights which illumine the bare facts. At the last we have the account of the seizure of Chinese territory by Germany, Russia, England, and France, and a luminous recital of the conduct of our Government touching the “ Open Door,” and we are brought down to the beginning of the “Boxer” movement. With this uprisal for a text, some future writer will unravel the tangled skein of the Chinese situation.

Mr. Wildman’s position as consul at Hongkong has given him great facilities to acquire knowledge as to trade, and the steps necessary to secure it. His chapter on that subject will be worth the price of this book to the merchant.

INTRODUCTION.

xv

Trade is a field which the ordinary tourist leaves severely alone. There is more competition in China than in almost any land on the globe. The syndicates of many nations are on the ground, and, since the appearance of the Germans in the arena, prices are cut to the lowest figure. China is overrun with articles marked, “ Made in Germany ; ” but goods of English and American make excel them in quality. Labels are counterfeited, but I always found the Chinese officials ready to arrest and punish the offenders. There was, at Tientsin, a notable case involving the putting of “Indian Head” labels on cotton cloth made in China.

One of the most readable and most accurate chapters in the book is the one on Canton. This bewildering bazaar city is described in the most pleasing style. It is a vast show-shop, where silverware, jewelry, articles in ivory, embroideries, rare furniture, everything that the mind can conceive of, is made under your very eye. You may stand in a street six feet wide, and watch the evolution under the workman’s hand of the most precious curios, and when they are finished you can buy them at reasonable prices.

Canton is the most interesting city in China, or, perhaps, in its own realm of the manufacture of

XVI

INTRODUCTION.

objects of art, in the world. It is the typical city of the empire as Peking is its metropolis. A chapter on the capital city of China, supplied at Mr. Wildman’s request, embodies my own study of Peking, and will, it is hoped, fall in line with the other descriptive matter.

This book is a splendid production. It does honor to the learning, the faculty of composition, and the indefatigable industry of the author.

O evt*.

Chinas Open Door.

I. A Word At The Open Door

CHINESE HISTORY becomes interesting when you know, or think you know, the Chinese. Even a superficial acquaintance explains many things in their national records that on first introduction strikes one as both inane and impossible. Chinese history cannot be compared with that of other nations any more than you can parallel the character of the Chinese with that of any contemporary race. It is a repetition of itself, many times repeated. The same causes have produced the same effects for four thousand years. The causes lie in the character of the Chinese, and are seemingly unchangeable. The Chinamen of 8000 b.c. are the identical Chinamen that greeted us at the opening of the Treaty Ports. A story like Mark Twain’s delightful “ A Yankee in King Arthur’s Court ” would be impossible from

CHINA’S OPEN DOOR.

a Chinese standpoint. If Confucius had returned to China a thousand years after his death, he would have found everything substantially as he left it. The greatest change in Chinese life was wrought by Confucius himself. He remodeled the entire system of thought, and gave his countrymen an intellectual life, — a feat that, to one who has lived among the Chinese and daily experienced their inertia, suspicion, and conservatism, seems little short of the miraculous.

It is not necessary, however, to personally know the Chinese to admire and marvel at their history when taken as a grand result, an accomplished fact. Since the dawn of history China has been a civilized and religious nation with a written history. She has had a continuous national life, and has never been driven from her “ Garden of Eden.” She has had wars as sanguinary, as admirably conducted, and of as great magnitude, as any of the nations have had from Egypt to America. Her arms have generally been successful; but if she were conquered it meant the absorption of her conquerors. There have been good kings and bad kings in tiresome rotation; there have been famines and floods ; but there has been no permanent decay or death in her national life up to the coming of the European. And who knows

A WORD AT THE DOOR.

but that the “ break up of China ” will be but another case of Chinese history repeating itself, and that she will absorb the white man as fast as he gains admission to her walled cities, and so establish within the next century — and what is a century to China ! — a new dynasty that will insure her existence as a nation for another thousand years.

Why have not other nations of the past discovered the secret of China’s everlasting life, and modeled their own upon it? It is because the secret lives in every Chinaman’s face, in his every act, a secret only to those who will not see. The Egyptian, the Persian, and the Greek would have to be born a Chinaman in order to take advantage of this — the so-styled secret ; they would have to possess fully the Chinese character, which is as different from their own in every point of contact as is the atmosphere of Mars from that of the earth.

If Chinese character can be given an individuality and pictured so that the reader will know and see the Chinaman as we know and see him in China, then Chinese history will have a throb and Chinese life a fascination. We will be standing before China’s slowly opening door with one foot within the threshold.

CHINA'S OPEN DOOR.

II. As To The Proper Reading Of Chinese History

|l ^HE Westerner must assume a new view i\ in attempting to understand the history of China. He must first know of Chinese peculiarities and characteristics, and this, of itself, is a new study. For instance, to the Occidental the performance of saving “ Face ” is a comedy. We attend its rehearsal on the street and in our own compounds until its plot becomes so familiar that it fails to arrest our attention unless we happen to remember that the impassioned actors are giving us an object lesson that typifies one of the all-controlling features of Chinese fife. When there is bad blood between Ah Ming our “boy” and Chung the “ Cookee ” they do not come immediately to blows, which would be dangerous. They go into the street, and commence to revile each other and each other’s ancestors at the top of their voices. As a croAvd collects they grow more intense, and every minute

« SAVING face:

threaten to spring at each other’s throat. When they have worked themselves up to a pitch of maniacal delirium that promises apoplexy, two men step out of the crowd, and grasp the boy and the cookee by the arm. Both go through a fierce theatrical struggle for freedom. Then they. turn the phials of their wrath on their peacemakers, and to the simple on-looker it would seem that the keepers of peace would be killed for their pains. In the meantime Ming and his peacemaker, and Chung and his, are some rods apart, and separated by an interested crowd. Then with a final appalling burst they tear away from their guardians, and depart calmly on their separate “ pidgins.” They have let their bad blood preserve their “face,” and, save for mutual hoarseness, are unhurt. Time and again I have watched one of these theatrical exhibitions. In the gathering crowd will often be one or more native policemen. No one smiles, unless some mishap occurs, then every one will scream with laughter. No one thinks of interfering until the right moment, and every one knows exactly what the end will be. It is purely a forensic contest. A boat-woman whose husband has corrected her in the morning and put her in a temper, will wait until he is out of sight, and then go to the most crowded spot along the wharves,

CHINA'S OPEN DOOR.

ascend a pile of lumber, and commence to revile her daughter-indaw, who is not present, or any member of the crowd who may address a scoffing word to her. She will go on for an hour, jesticulating, running through the entire gamut of the Delsarte school, until the audience leave, or it is time for her to get back to her boat. She has asserted her rights to the free speech which her husband denied her, and said all the things to the world at large that she would like to have said to him. Her “ face ” is saved. The saving of face starts at the Pink Palace at Peking, and goes all through Chinese life. It has changed history, wrecked dynasties, remade religions, and caused a multitude of law-suits. Its complexities and ramifications are beyond the comprehension of the Westerner. An Occidental synonym might be prestige, in its commonest definition. A Chinaman who loses his face loses his credit, his standing, his prestige among his fellows, and becomes the laughing-stock of the meanest coolie. In 1796 Lord Macartney was sent to Peking by the British government to try and open diplomatic intercourse. The Emperor Chien Lung feared to refuse to receive the ambassador ; but he saved his face before his people by flying over the vessel on which the noble lord ascended the Peiho, a flag,

'•FACE ” IN CHINESE HIS TORT. 7 which read in Chinese “ Tribute Bearer from the Country of England.” In June, 1873, the Emperor Tung Chih, to the gratification of the foreign ministers, graciously condescended to reoeive them in audience. It was looked upon for the moment as a triumph of Western diplomacy and firmness until it was discovered that Frederick E. Low, the American minister, and the ministers for England, France, Russia, Netherlands, and Japan, had been received by the Son of Heaven in the Pavilion of Purple Light, where his majesty received the envoys of tributary states. Again the Chinese face had been saved. The suicide of gallant Admiral Ting, after the occupation of Port Arthur, was but the last of a long succession of like cases of saving face by means of death. This characteristic is not confined to individuals ; it governs the attitude of one village or clan towards another, and the strife that takes place to preserve the balance of face often becomes a vendetta that lasts for generations. The history of China when read in the light of a knowledge of this national characteristic will reveal the reason for many acts that before seemed without sense or rhyme.

It must be borne in mind, however, that this struggle to preserve face is not to be confounded with patriotism or love of country. There is no

CHINA'S OPEN DOOR.

National Face that the 400,000,000 of China are sworn to protect with their lives. With them it is every man for himself, and the country for itself. I will wager that the Japanese-Chinese war, a historical fact, is not known to one-tenth of the population of China ; and if they did know of it, they would not feel any more interest in it than did those who were supposed to have taken an active part in the campaign. Public spirit is absolutely wanting. In its place is a deep-seated indifference, that is tempered with a calm respect for law and power. The law may be bad and the power tyrannical, hut that is no business of those who have to obey. The life of China has been preserved through the centuries by moral rather than physical forces. Early in 1898, just after Russia had occupied Port Arthur, Germany Kia Chou, England Wei Hai Wai, and France Kwang Chowan, and it looked as though the dismemberment of China was at hand, a delegation of rich merchants from Canton waited upon me by a previous appointment, and proposed to buy from the viceroy of the Two Kwangs, and from the individual owners, all the property on the Honam side of Canton, build wharves, reclaim the waste land, and then remove all their big mercantile interests there. In fact, they proposed to create a rival to

LACK OF PATRIOTISM.

Canton, and then cede it to the United States if we would give it the protection of our flag. If we deemed it not feasible to go into inland China, they further proposed to buy a large island adjacent to Hong Kong and make it their emporium. In reply to my many questions they showed no love foi their own flag, or interest in the “ breakup ” of China, further than it affected their persons.

I was in San Francisco during the Chinese- Japanese War. The little colony of Japanese in that city raised a patriotic fund, and offered their services to their fatherland, while “ Chinatown,” numbering over 70,000 souls and representing many millions of capital, did nothing nor made any pretensions. The Chinaman pays his taxes, and submits to all the “squeezes,” and rightly considers it as so much money lost, as it never reappears in roads, canals, or public buildings. He does not even have police protection or justice for it. There is no such thing as politics in the empire outside the court, where it is nothing more than intrigue. Appointments to office are either the result of literary examinations or court favoritism. Even the claim of a successful candidate at a triennial examination has to be backed by a substantial kumshaw at Peking

CHINA'S OPEN DOOR.

before be obtains the coveted official appointment. The salaries of all officials in China are merely nominal, and in themselves would not be worth the endeavor of an honest man to obtain. The government is in a sense patriarchal, and like all patriarchs is supposed to be old enough, wise enough, and strong enough to do without the advice of its children. In the war of 1860 between England and China, the invading army employed Chinese not only for carrying baggage and throwing up intrenchments, but a corps of several thousand strong was carefully drilled to plant scaling-ladders and handle ammunition ; and at the storming of the Taku forts it showed unexpected bravery and an exultant pride in the success of its new master. Patriotism in its native land was an unknown quantity, while rations and good pay were something that every Chinaman could understand. Curiously enough Chinese officialdom did not look upon the members of this corps as actual traitors, and the only punishment they received was to have their queus cut off. The Chinese government itself, the moment the war was over, turned around and begged of their conquerors the loan of a number of English officers to drill their men so that they would equal this corps of, what the world would style,

ECONOMY A SCIENCE.

traitors and renegades. When Kublai Khan was struggling for the conquest of China, he found his progress stopped by the strongly fortified city of Siang Yang on the hank of the Han River. His general, Ashu, soon discovered that its capture without the aid of ships would be impossible. He set about the construction of a fleet of war-junks. The Mogul soldiers were, however, not sailors ; and proclamations were posted all over the enemy’s country, offering good wages and good rewards for men who were able to manage ships. More than 70,00 Chinese responded, and enlisted to fight their own fatherland under the banners of its most inveterate enemy.

China has no national airl

The very absence of patriotism shows again that comparisons with China are only possible by contrast, and that patriotism is not necessary to insure the existence of a nation. There are other characteristics that take its place, among which are untiring industry, marvelous economy, filial piety, and, as has been before said, a calm respect for law. No Occidental can comprehend the full significance of Chinese economy. Economy to the Chinese is more than a moral principle. It is an art and a science that has been perfected through the centuries. They realize better than we that the

CHINA'S OPEN DOOR.

Lord, made nothing without a purpose, and they have discovered what we have not — the purpose. The animal and vegetable kingdoms are as open books to the most ignorant villagers. Every weed has its use, and no part of the animal goes to waste. Two cents a day is a fair estimate per head of what it costs to feed 390,000,000 of China’s 400,000,000. Rice, beans, garden vegetables, supplemented with any kind of fish, make up their daily diet; and as simple as this is, often ten mouths have to be fed from a little plat of ground the size of a New England farmyard, and the water with which to irrigate it brought from a long distance. Again, the soil has to be often literally made, and when made, held in place by embankments for fear that during the rainy season it will be washed over on a neighbor’s land. They rake the seas with the same untiring thoroughness with which they cultivate the land ; and I often wonder when I see them returning with a catch of fish — none of which are larger than a corkscrew — if any ever escape to become respectable in size. The moment the tide goes out — no matter what the hour — the muddy ocean reaches are swarming with delvers for mussels, crabs, and seaweed. Men, women, and children, each armed with a board

AS OLD AS CHINA.

The Wheelbarrow, a mode of travel in use for ages in China.

UN CHANGEABLENESS OF CHINA. 13 skate, that will bear the weight of one leg while they propel themselves over the mud with the other, explore every inch of space for anything that can be eaten. I have watched them on a cold, bitter morning thus gleaning, the women carrying their month-old babies on their backs by the side of their bags of sea-plunder. The chilling water was up to the children’s bare feet, and a wind was blowing in shore that made me turn back on my bicycle, and ride a mile to get warm. A pagoda stood against the sky above a bunch of low-spreading banyans, and a little colony of junks swung idly on the incoming tide, their great matting sails slowly drying in the early morning sun. It was a picture for the artist and the political economist. The grinding industry and dwarfing economy of it all was, however, horribly revolting. If any one benefited by these hardships, in this generation or the next, there would be some hope for the betterment of the race ; but the Chinese coolie lives and dies by rule as his ancestors have been doing for six thousand years. If all our missionaries in all our treaty ports could teach them, by precept or example, that cleanliness is next to Godliness, they would do more for China than even Confucius did. They would bring about a reform in the lives of Chinamen and in the body politic that

CHINA'S OPEN DOOR.

would mean the opening of China’s ports to Western civilization and Western trade. As long as the Chinese are content to live in huts with their pigs and their fowls, and sleep and eat in their own filth, it is hard to open their eyes to the desirability of a clean heart or of American-made prints. I have been in country districts of China that were almost idealic in their beauty; every inch of cultivatable land was blooming with generous crops, dotted at intervals with workers, their backs bent over a paddy-field, and on the lands of the foot-hills which were non-productive stood the stone huts of the population. From a distance the houses looked substantial, clean, and inviting. A group of a half-dozen would he sheltered by the branches of a guard of massive trees. The whole scene was charming; but, as you drew near, the beauty of the place faded away into a picture of such unnecessary uncleanliness and squalor, that you were conquered by the usual disgust. There was no reason for it, as all about there were hundreds of dry acres, and scores of clumps of trees.