The Chinese and their rebellions;

Front matter

'Division 9

Section A*0

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Preface

the barbarian merchants ; and the two close trading companies continued to serve as international' buffers.

When, however, one of these was removed, by the abolition of the East India Company’s privileges in 1834, and British Imperial officers were appointed to support our interests, a collision between Governments, which were influenced by totally different views, became inevitable. After some lesser hostile acts on both sides, war was formally commenced in 1840, the immediate cause being the attempt of the Chinese Government to suppress, by coercion, at once opium smoking and the opium trade.

The misapplication of a word, viz. JE, Barbarian, was a deeper cause, which would in time have led to hostilities, even if nothing more capable of abuse than cotton cloths and teas had been an article of commerce between the two countries. In the course of their history, the Chinese had never met with a people that was at all to be compared to themselves in point of civilization ; all but themselves were barbarians, and accordingly met with a policy (pp. 234, 279) founded on a long experience and a just appreciation of their more or less barbarous characteristics. The maritime strangers from the Occident who first appeared on the sea board of China had, as adventurous and turbulent seamen, many of the outward qualities of the continental peoples hitherto known. It never occurred to the Chinese that these men might be among the least cultivated members of a large orderly community ; and they did not even inquire whether the resemblances in the specimens before them were anything but superficial. They called them barbarians, ascribed to them all the qualities of barbarians,

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and, very naturally, observed towards them that policy which experience had proved to be most advantageous in dealing with barbarians. As a part of this policy, the Chinese Imperial officers would not communicate directly with the “ barbarian headmen,” nor speak of them except in the style of superiors speaking of inferiors. On the other hand, the British Imperial officers could not communicate otherwise than directly with the “ semi-barbarous ” mandarins, nor as less than their equals. The mental agencies were denied all opportunity of efficient action, and the physical came unavoidably into play.

After two years of active hostilities, a treaty of peace was signed on the 29th of August, 1842, by which the island of Hong-kong was ceded to Great Britain, and the ports of Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo and Shanghae were opened to foreign trade ; making together with Canton what have since been known as the Five Ports.

In November 1841, about a year before the treaty was signed, I commenced the study of the Chinese language at the University of Munich. I had then been about three years in Germany, engaged in various studies. Happening to notice the announcement of a course of lectures on the language of the Chinese by Professor Neumann, the interest I had always taken in the people, induced me to employ an otherwise vacant hour in learning something of their tongue. But I presently began to devote my whole time to it, with the intention of seeking a place under our Government in China; — which country I reached, not in time to see anything of the war, already brought to a close by the abovenamed treaty, but in time to see the ratified copies

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of the latter exchanged at Hong-kong, and then to take the post of Interpreter in the Canton Consulate from the day that trade Avas opened there under the new system. My Chinese experience commenced, therefore, with the inauguration of a new era in Anglo-Chinese intercourse.

By the Treaty, trade was thrown open to every one, English or Chinese, avIio choose to engage in it, on payment of fixed duties ; and Englishmen, merchants or others, had the right to hire or build houses, and live with their families at any of the Five Ports without restriction. British subjects residing at these Ports were not amenable, as in other countries, to the laws of the land, but to those of England, modified in minor matters to suit the peculiar circumstances. It was to watch over the due observance of this Treaty, and to form Courts of first instance in matters criminal and civil, that Consulates were established at the Ports. They consisted each of five permanent members of the British Consular Service, viz. a Consul, a Vice-Consul, an Interpreter and two Assistants, besides a greater or less number of Chinese clerks, messengers, &c. The chief occupation of the Interpreter is to conduct the communications, Avritten and oral, between the Consul and the Chinese authorities ; — communications relating to a vast variety of subjects, especially at the two principal ports of Canton and Shanghae, which were my stations in China for ten years and a half. Besides a steady flow of cases of theft, and bad debts, and breaches of contract and disputes about the payment of duties, we had river-piracies committed by the Chinese on the English, and homicides, justifiable and unjusti-

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IX fiable, on both sides. The factories at Canton form a close block of buildings facing the river and surrounded by high walls ; and there the two or three hundred foreign residents — chiefly English, Americans and Parsees — had several times to stand a sort of siege from infuriated mobs who tried to fire the factories, and whom we had to repel by force of arms. During and after these affairs, the Interpreter had of course a busy time of it. But it was when taken or sent away by H. M/s Plenipotentiary on special missions, that I had my most interesting experiences. Some of these are described in the following pages ; and the scattered notices which the reader will there find of my avocations, will, together with what has just been said, give him a very sufficient idea of the opportunities which I have had to gain a knowledge of the subjects which I discuss.

Among other things, he will observe that I was sent to the Loochoo islands by Sir G. Bonham. About a year afterwards, the Japanese expedition of the Americans under Commodore Perry visited the same place. An educated Chinese, who accompanied the expedition, wrote a description of the little State, a translation of which appeared (4th March, 1854) in the “North China Herald.” In describing the Loochoo officials, the writer says of one of them : —

“ Yung kung is well practised in the literary art, has good abilities, and speaks the mandarin of Peking. This accomplishment he acquired from having accompanied an embassy in 1835, when he remained six years in the Capital. Pie has in consequence a perfect knowledge of my country’s manners and institutions, and is unquestionably without a rival in all Loochoo,

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Last year when T. T. Meadows, Esq., was here, he was interpreter, and admired that gentleman’s command of the Peking dialect. Pie often invited me to take wine with him and write verses with a certain rhyme. Then when poetizing was over, he praised my productions highly. When he came to see me, as he frequently did, our conversation was upon poetry or the news of the day. Sometimes we talked of the institutions of the country.”

No compliment on the subject of the Chinese language has afforded me so much gratification as the perfectly spontaneous praise, which was given in the above conversation between these two curious Asiatics, over their “ wine and verses ” out in that little island principality of the Pacific. The Loocliooan Yung kung I remember, but his Chinese interlocutor is quite unknown to me, and I do not know who translated his narrative for the Shanghae Journal; in which it did not appear till some months after I had left for England. Under the circumstances, I may hope to be pardoned for quoting a certificate so impartial.

A year or two before leaving China, I had planned three books. The first was to have been a description of the Chinese people, rigorously based on the principle of proceeding from the general to the special. It was to have commenced with an exposition of the fundamental beliefs of the Chinese, and then to have given a view of their legislation, their administration and their social customs, as based on these fundamental beliefs. This would have been accompanied by the corresponding historical sketches, viz. a sketch of the history of philosophy and of political history ; together with a

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XI notice of political geography, and of the physical features of the country in so far as they have influenced the national mind. Some portions of what would have constituted this proposed work have been embodied, in a less systematic manner, in the present volume. And it is still my intention to execute, at some future day, the work as originally planned ; for, though all the subjects have been handled in already existing works, the method of representation would, I conceive, throw much new light on the whole.

The second work was to have been a narrative of all that I thought amusing or interesting in my own movements and experiences from the time I left England in 1842 till my return in 1854, together with a view of the present Chinese rebellion. This latter portion has been completely executed in the present volume ; while some of the experiences and movements have found their way naturally into Chapters XV. XVI. and XVII., as also into some portions of the Essay on Civilization.

The third book was to have been on the Union of the British Empire and the Improvement of the British Executive. It would have consisted of a detailed plan for the effectuation of these two objects, — chiefly (though not altogether) by one and the same means, viz. a system of Public Service Competitive Examinations. The present volume dwells frequently on the effect that such Examinations have had on the Chinese people ; and I shall close this Preface with an enumeration of some of the leading features of the plan for the British Empire. At some future time, I shall go into the whole subject, unless forestalled by some one in the enjoyment of better health and more leisure.

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It is ill-health that has prevented the preparation of the above three works, and which has caused even the present to be less systematic than I should otherwise have made it. Chapter V. was written upwards of a year ago, and was originally intended to form, with some other matter, an article in a quarterly review. When I gave up that idea and wrote Chapters I. II. and III., I had no intention that the volume should extend to a third of the size which it has finally reached. Hence I therein shortly noticed some points that are dwelt on at length in later Chapters. The Essay on Civilization was originally intended for separate publication. That Essay and the first fifteen Chapters were in the hands of the printer six months ago ; the remaining five long Chapters, comprising nearly the half of the volume, having been since written as my strength permitted.

But though ill-health has greatly retarded my labours by making them exceedingly uphill work at times, and partially prevented a systematic arrangement, the same leading ideas and principles pervade and give unity to the book. Eurther, the reader may rest assured that the after extensions which took place were made solely to give greater completeness to the view of the whole subject. For instance, I regard Chapter XVIII. on the Philosophy &c. &c. as the most valuable portion of the work ; while as to arrangement, if the reader will peruse the Essay on Civilization first, then that Chapter, and afterwards the other Chapters in the order in which they stand, beginning with the first, — he will find that he is led along a nearly straight path from general and remote principles to special and recent occurrences. I strongly recommend this course to those who may have

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XIII reasons for wishing to get all the information that the volume affords, and who may resolve to go through it for that purpose.

From the sketch of the first work that it was my intention to have prepared, it will be observed, that it formed no part of my plan to deal with inanimate nature in China, or even with the state of material civilization there except in the most general way. Up to the period when I commenced the study of the Chinese language, I had devoted most of my time to mathematics and the physical sciences. And so loth was I to give up one of the most attractive of the latter, Chemistry — in which I had advanced so far as to make (qualitative) analyses — that I had a chest of Reagents constructed at Munich with the intention of taking it out to China. But before starting from London I began to perceive that it was only to animate nature, and to one, though by far the most important section of that, viz. to man, that I should thenceforth have to devote my whole attention. Accordingly I left my Reagents behind, and have never since allowed myself to be attracted by the scientific study of inanimate nature in any of its features. Subdivision of labour requires (and this may be considered a portion of what I have to say on the improvement of the Executive) that international agents should devote themselves first to languages, — their means of operation, — and next to the study of man, as an individual and in communities ; from the general principles of psychology, through ethnology and morality, to the details of practical legislation and of family customs. That is assuredly a sufficiently wide field — one which few will ever venture

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to hold themselves fully acquainted with. For a Diplomatic or Consular officer to occupy his time with botany or geology or practical chemistry or meteorology, is a complete misdirection of his energies. For instance, it in nowise affects the discharge of his duties, whether a Consul in China regards the stout bamboo pole of the goods’ porter as a bit of wood or, what it botanically is, a bit of thick grass ; but it may very much affect the right discharge of those duties in Anglo-Chinese disputes, if he is ignorant of the requirements of the doctrine of filial piety, which would justify the same porters in insisting on absenting themselves from the business of the British merchant, their employer, for the time necessary to sacrifice at their forefathers’ graves. All military officers may usefully apply themselves to the physical sciences, and those of the Engineers and Commissariat must severally study certain of them. But apart from these members of the Executive, it must be left to professional students to make discoveries as to the state of inanimate nature in foreign countries; to such men for instance as Mr. Fortune, — who has thrown light on the botany of China.

There is, unfortunately, in British official life still so much ignorance of, and consequent inattention to fundamental beliefs and general principles, that, in presenting a work which professes to deal with such beliefs and principles, I feel compelled in self-defence to advert particularly to the circumstance. Men of cultivated minds know very well that “ les institutions et la condition d’un peuple sont toujours 1’application de la morale qui y est dominante and that consequently, in every really sound political procedure, the dominant

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XV morality should constantly be kept in view. To the merely closet speculator, however sound his speculations may be, the British public is slow to give attention. This being a well known fact, I may hope to be excused for reminding the reader that the present writer is no merely closet thinker. The enumeration given above of the various kinds of business I have had to deal with as Interpreter, as also the events narrated in the following pages will show him that my life, for eleven years, has been eminently practical. I have constantly been brought into contact with, and had opportunities of observing, people — officials and others — just when they were engaged in affairs likely to affect their fame, or their pecuniary resources, or, not unfrequently, their very lives. Now a result of this really positive, this factual, experience has been to convince me that, so far as British official procedure is concerned, a large proportion of our errors arises from our neglecting to connect our practice with corresponding theoretical principles ; the mere attempt to do which would often expose the unsoundness of measures, before we were irrevocably embarked in their execution. There are numbers of men — and those, men who have great interests to watch over, to advance and to defend — who do not even know what a general principle is. Such men take refuge in what they call practical views, though they are, of all people, the most unpractical; especially when placed in totally novel circumstances, — when precedents fail them and they are called upon to think as well as to remember. So extreme is their ignorance, that with them, “ visionary speculation,” “theory,” and “mental philosophy ” are “all the same thing.” In opposition to that, they set up their

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“ common sense.” But common sense is a term, which if not originated by the mental philosophy of Reid certainly owes its now very extensive use to his metaphysical discussions. It means the convictions, opinions or feelings — the sense — of human beings generally or in common. But this philosophical use has become perverted into a nearly opposite signification, viz. the crude and vague notions, on any subject, of each single person. When the self-styled “ practical ” man says : “ Let’s have no theorizing about the matter ; I take a common sense view of it ■” he does not mean common sense at all, but only his own individual nonsense.

The remarks made above with reference to abstinence from the physical sciences on the part of international officials, have of course no application to works, original in some portions, but in others avowedly compilations, because intended to give, in the compass of one book, a view of the state of a country generally. The best Avork of the kind with reference to China is decidedly “ The Chinese,” by Sir John Davis. I may state, in support of my oavu views (given at pages 400 — 404) that though he, in the outset of his chapter on “ Government and Legislation,” adverts to “parental authority” as “ the model of political rule in China,” and quotes a passage from the senior English lay sinologue, which points to the doctrine of submission to that authority as the cause of the long duration of the Chinese, still Sir John Davis, by other quotations and by his oavu language, in subsequent portions of the same chapter, obviously indicates the principle of ride by moral force, coupled Avith the institution of public examinations, as the real causes of that long duration.

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To those who can read German, I strongly recommend a work whose title prevents it from obtaining that attention which its real value deserves. This is “ Die Yolker cler Mandschurey,” by J. IT. Plath, 1831. It was not until I began the study of the Manchoo language that I got this book from Europe ; when I found it, to my surprise, to be a very informing work about the Chinese ; — though informing less from massing of details than from the philosophic spirit in which the writer deals with his subject. It might be called the History of the Chinese Empire under the domination of the Manclioos. It has the merit of being written in a clear untechnical German. A rendering into English with an historical continuation, would be a decided boon to English and Americans interested in Eastern Asia.

Next to the work of Sir John Davis, in point of general usefulness, stands the Middle Kingdom (i. e. the Chinese Empire) by Mr. (now Dr.) Williams, 1S48. This, being compiled some ten years after the former work, is fuller as to recent history ; and, with the help of translations made in that period, gives more details on the geography of China Proper, and also some good notices of the other great divisions of the Chinese Empire.

These three works, — the first by a British officer who had served both the Company and the Queen, the second by a philosophic Gottingen Professor, and the third by an American Missionary, twelve years a resident in China, — are comprised in six volumes, which, together with that now laid before the public, form a very complete library about the Chinese Empire and the Chinese peop>le.

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In an historical point of view, the present volume may be regarded as a supplement to the above works, detailing as it does the chief political occurrences of the last six eventful years ; while Chapter XVIII. professes to give an entirely new view of the national fundamental beliefs, and more particularly of the language in which these are enunciated in the Sacred Books.

My maps specially indicate that physical feature which gives a peculiar character to the South-Eastern portion of China Proper and its inhabitants. Apart from that, they are intended exclusively as illustrations of historical, and of political or administerial geography. The smallest shows roughly the five great divisions of the Chinese Empire, with the object of more effectually limiting attention to the chief one, China Proper. The purpose of the largest is sufficiently explained by its title and observations. Of district cities, I have only entered in it such as have been occupied by the Tae pings, together with a few on the coast which have been visited by myself. The sketch of Kwang tung is an enlargement and improvement of one which I drew for a former work. The reader must conceive all the other seventeen provinces of the large map as divided in a similar manner into Circuits , Departments and Districts, and as each containing, on the average, a proportionate number of District Cities.

With regard to the yellow shading on the large map, which indicates the country commanded by the Tae pings, I have now to state, by way of supplement to Chapter XIV., that the last mail brought intelligence of the re-occupation of Loo chow by the Imperialists. On the other hand, it would seem that the Tae pings had penetrated up the Great River into Sze chuen, and also

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XIX extended the range of their operations further to the south in IIoo nan and Keang se. We learn nothing more of the reported movement of the Eastern Prince with a large army on Hwuy chow.

The chief source of information respecting the origin of the Tae ping sect and their first resort to arms against the Imperial authorities is a little hook compiled by the late Mr. Hamberg, a Protestant missionary at Hongkong ; who got the details from Hung jin, a relative (pp. 191, 192) of the founder of the sect, the now Heavenly Prince at Nanking. The extracts in Chapters VI. VIE and VIII. are from this book, of which there exists a cheap London republication under the title of “ The Chinese Rebel Chief.” A number of extrinsic corroborative circumstances, as well as certain of its intrinsic features, convince me of the perfect truthfulness of this narrative. The manifest errors of Hung jin and certain delusions he labours under are precisely those which a Chinese, such as himself, was likely to be subject to, while desiring to give the most faithful account.

With reference to one number in this volume, that of eighty thousand on page 64, it has been taken from a work by Dr. Ryan on the subject. The dates and numbers with respect to dealings between Chinese and Occidentals, I have myself taken from the accounts of these latter. All the purely Chinese dates and numbers, whether referring to the present rebellion or to the previous history of the Chinese, I have taken directly from the best Chinese authorities. This has formed one of the greatest labours connected with the preparation of the volume. Por instance, the general nature of the occurrences narrated on the three pages, 108, 109, and 110, had long

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been familiar to me in China ; but in order to ensure accuracy in the few dates and numbers there given, I read, here in London, some three volumes of a work entitled “ Shing woo ke, Record of the Holy Wars,” and which is a history of the various wars by which the Manchoos fought their wray to power in Eastern Asia. There is, in the present volume, not a single statement as to facts connected with Chinese political history or Chinese philosophy that I have not verified on various original works of acknowledged authority ; of which I brought upwards of 300 volumes home with me for that purpose.

I take this opportunity of publishing the fact, that after having been at the trouble of selecting and packing all these books, and at the expense of bringing them home overland, I had to pay a considerable sum in the shape of duties and the cost of clearing them at our London Customhouse. In a book that treats of civilization, I feel bound to denounce this infliction of a fine on endeavours to advance knowledge, as a piece of sheer barbarism or savagery. In China, not only is the press free, but books are, at every Customhouse throughout the country, maritime or internal, exempt from all duty. I believe the most extortionate mandarin would be shocked at the notion of levying a tax on the great means of diffusing instruction.

Returning to what I have stated about the trouble taken by me to secure accuracy, I think more attention should be directed to the fact, that writers who publish on foreign nations, without taking such trouble, are deserving not merely of close criticism, which all must expect, but of severe reprehension. Great social and international mischiefs are the ultimate consequences of

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XXI the loose statements thereby put into circulation. Most reprehensible of all is that style of sweeping assertion of moral worthlessness, or even of utter vileness, as the ascertained character of whole nations. The same assertions, indulged in with respect to individuals or to families, would subject the offenders to heavy damages for libel. False praise cannot in the end be useful to human progress, but it is at least an amiable error. False vilification, on the other hand, directly engenders mutual contempt and loathing : both without real grounds, yet both certainly leading to overt insults, to fights and to wars. The reader will perceive that I have given myself some trouble to refute those who have written on the Chinese in this spirit of wanton depreciation. With other writers whose positions I have disputed, as Drs. Medhurst and Williams, my differences are only questions of correctness as to philosophical literature ; a subject of great importance certainly, but where errors may, after much care, be made on either side ; and where they do not, moreover, at once lead to those mischiefs of which flippant abuse is the direct cause. I trust these words will show the true bearing of my criticisms ; — and, in every case, no future writer on China must conceive himself personally attacked if his labours are criticized by me.

In the Essay on Civilization, I have explained how it was that the examination of that subject forced itself upon me. In other respects also, the Essay speaks for itself; and as the subject is one which thousands of home residents are as well enabled by opportunities to judge of as myself, I leave it, without further comment, to public consideration.

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At pages 606, 607 and 608, I have shown that nine years ago, I published a volume entitled “Desultory Notes on China,” one of the main objects of which was to urge the institution of Public Service Competitive Examinations for all British subjects, with a view to the Improvement of the British Executive and the Union of the British Empire.

About the time when I published that volume, I actually employed Competitive Examinations for the British Service. Having discovered three of our permanent Chinese clerics — men whose salaries appear in the Downing Street accounts — engaged in taking illicit fees from a Chinese suitor, I turned them off ; and, with the sanction of the then Consul, Mr. Macgregor, had a printed official notice posted throughout Canton, (a city containing from seven hundred thousand to a million of inhabitants;) whereby educated men, acquainted with native public business, were invited to appear as competitors for the vacant posts. The salaries were two hundred and forty dollars a year, a sum which, taking into consideration the difference in the style of living, may be about equivalent to ,£200 a year in England. That was not much ; but the number of educated men whom the National Examinations call into existence is so great that, in spite of the stigma which rested then, still more than it now does, on Chinese serving in the barbarian factories, some did make then’ appearance among the forty or fifty competitors who came forward within the few days to which I limited my Examinations. I saw each candidate separately, and commenced his examination by placing before him an Imperial preface to one of the Sacred Books ; which I desired him to explain to me sentence by sentence and, in portions, word for word. As these prefaces touch historically and descriptively on the contents of the works to which they are prefixed, a man, ignorant of literature and literary history, could not go through two pages of them without grossly exposing himself ; and I was, by this test alone, enabled to divide the competitors rapidly into three classes, viz. : — first, well educated and well read men, whose acquaintance with the literature in all respects vastly exceeded my own; secondly, men not equal to myself in some points, though superior in others ; and lastly, a number of more or less illiterate fellows, who came in the hope of imposing by high pretensions on the