A young people's history of the Chinese

Front matter

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Preface

The object of this small volume is to furnish our young people some general information about China and the Chinese. In a catalogue of two hundred and fifty books on China, now before me, I find but three intended specially for the young, and these are small biographies, containing little besides personal incidents. To add something, however little, toward supplying this deficiency in our juvenile literature, the following pages have been prepared. A consecutive history of the Chinese, running through the long and dreary centuries of their existence, was of covirse impracticable. To dwell upon their peculiarities only, might amuse but would not greatlv profit the youthful reader. I have therefore endeavored to select such salient features in their national character and history as would enable a person of average intelligence to form some just idea of the country and the people. How far I have succeeded in this attempt, the reader will judge.

Previous to the beginning of the present century, comparatively little was known in Europe or America concerning the people of China or their institutions. Enterprising travelers, from the days of Marco Polo, had now and then touched at points on the coast of China, and reported, with more or less accuracy, what they had seen; but until 1842 no foreigner was allowed to travel or reside on the sacred soil of the " Celestial Empire." So that China was, to the people of the West, practically an unknown land.

At the close of the "opium war" with England, in 1842, five ports on the coast of China were opened to foreign commerce where foreign merchants were permitted to reside and conduct

6 PREFACE.

business ^vith the natives. Christian missionaries were aUo granted tlie privilege to live and labor at the open ports; but the interior of the countrv ^vas still closed against all "forei£;n barbarians." Under these annoying restrictions missionaries and merchants remained in China until 1S58, when, by the terms of the Tien-Tsin treaty, their privileges were greatly enlarged. Four new ports were opened to trade; the navigation of the great river, the Yang-tse, was made free to all nations; foreigners were allowed to travel through the countrv; Christianitv was tolerated, and niissionaries given liberty to reside anvwhere in the empire. Such is the condition of affairs in China to-day, and such the privileges of all foreigners in treaty relations with this old Hermit of the nations.

The recent war between China and Japan attracted the attention of the civilized world. It shook the dragon throne of China, and disturbed the conservative order of things throughout Asia, and even in Europe. The signs of the times are ominous of great changes among the nations, especially in the East. What these changes will probably be, we may not anticipate. Our young people should inform themselves as to international questions, and as to the political and moral condition of the world.

In addition to my own personal observations while in China, I have consulted the best authorities accessible to me. I have endeavored to give due credit where I have borrowed directly an\thing from an author. If in any cas3 I have failed to do so, the reader will please believe it an oversight.

I am indebted to our Mission Rooms, and to returned missionaries, for most of the illustrations which embellish this volume — that is, for photographs from' which they have been engraved.

Contents

PAGE

IXTROnUCTIOX 9

I. AXTIQUITY OF THE ChIXESE I ;

Introduction

BY REV. COLLINS DENNY, A.M.

A QUAINT application of the familiar proverb, ''One good turn deserves another," is that a benefit conferred lays ground for the expectation of another benefit. It is certainly true that when one gives out of his resources what will be for the welfare of others, the act of giving tends to rouse in the giver an interest in those he benefits ; and interest frequently rouses love, and love is accompanied bythe feeling of obligation. The giver thus comes to feel himself the debtor to those for whom he has already done so much, and the pa3^ment of such debts is one of the most unalloyed pleasures of this life. The apostle to the Gentiles declares that he was debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians, and the payment of his debt was doubtless one of the sweetest drops in his cup of joy. No true mother considers what her love impels her to do for her child a hardship. He who is Lord of all became the servant of all, and died for all, because he loved all.

Dr. Cunnyngham has spent many of the years of his long life in work for the 3^oung people, yet this book is evidence that he has not lost his interest in those for whom he has labored. These long 3^ears of work give him many qualifications for the preparation of a new book intended chiefly for young people, not the least of which qualifications is his increasing love for his beneficiaries — his desire to promote their welfare.

lO INTRODUCTION.

But Dr. Cunnyngham, who has planted so many of his days in the Hves of young people, has special qualifications for the work he has undertaken. He spent nine years in China, studying the people, working for them and with them. It has been said that the reason some people wear only one eyeglass is because they see through their one glass a great deal more than the}^ comprehend ; and a man may spend a lifetime in a community and not thoroughly know the communit}^ The knowledge a man brings back from a residence in any country depends very much on the man. In this instance the man is a Christian, a minister of the gospel, a former missionary; one who went to the people, lived among them, studied their language, yea studied them, that he might supplant their error with the truth of God. In addition to this long personal knowledge of the Chinese, Dr. Cunnyngham has not only been a close student of the literature relating to China and her people, but since his return to America he has also kept himself in close, living touch with many of the workers in that land. The book will be the best evidence that his residence in China and his close study of the literature of the subject qualified him to write a history of the people among whom he so long lived.

The subject of this book claims attention. It is a young peoples' history; but not a history of wars, of dynasties, of court gossip. It was a magnificent advance when historians presented the world with the results of their study, not of a ruler

INTRODUCTION. II

simply, but of a people. In this instance we are given the history of a people singularly ignored by the vast majority even of students of history, yet of a people from vv^hom the world can learn many interesting and profitable lessons.

All of us have read of nations whose course we followed from their strong youth to their graves. One by one those nations we are wont to call ancient went out of existence, and this is so constantly repeated that we are not surprised to be told of the islander who shall in some future time sit upon the remnants of London Bridge and gaze wonderingly on the ruins of the city's great cathedral. We no more expect, until the exceptional case occurs, to find a nation ending indefinitely than we expect to find a white crow. It may startle us to learn that the Chinese have a history of a life unbroken for more than four thousand years; that this people, substantially as we now find them, looked down on the cradle of nations we call ancient, nations long since vanished. The Greeks were great, in some important points great enough to be our recognized masters; but they were not great enough to lay the foundations of their national life so firmly as to endure. The Romans were strong, their legions tramped the world almost at will; but they were not strong enough to maintain a national life as long as that of the Chinese. Some nations have gone down because hollow within they could not resist the pressure from without; and some have been de-

12 INTRODUCTION.

stroyed because of internal conflagration. The Chinese show the world a nation not so hollow as to have been broken by the strongest pressure to which they have so far been subjected from without, nor so inflammable as to have been consumed by the fires kindled from within. The long life of this people commands our attention and presents us with a problem whose solution may be of the greatest profit to ourselves. Is their endurance due to some of the elements peculiar to their environment, or to their racial traits, or to some of the features of their dominant ideals? No single circumstance is ever the cause of an event; both the moving hammer and the whole stone must be included among the antecedents some of whose consequents are a broken stone and a hammer at rest. The long national life of the Chinese is a complex event whose cause must be an aggregate of different elements. Can we find the tough fibers of this strong cable that has enabled the Chinese to ride out the storms in which so many nations have been wrecked?

An isolated people, provided their territory be small and their numbers few, may escape for many years the disasters that break on the heads of others; but in the case of the Chinese we have a people w^hose territory is one of the most extensive of the earth, and a population far more numerous than any other nation. Surely students and readers cannot much longer ignore the Chinese ; it is not to their credit that they have so long passed them by.

" The greatest thing on earth is man," because

INTRODUCTION. I3

he is truly not a thing, but a person with possibiHties not yet fully calculated by our finite minds. If it be not correct to say the sole " proper study of mankind is man,*' it is true that man is a worthy study. Heretofore man has not been studied in all the variations of circumstances to which he has been subjected. He has not been looked at critically, lovingly, and exhaustively in what, from our point of view, are the narrower opportunities of Chinese civilization. But how can we expect to make valuable inductions about our race, or even complete statements of observations of the race, while we refuse to investigate carefully the phenomena presented by the millions in China? They lack many of the things esteemed by us to be necessities, yet from a worldly standpoint some of them may be called happy. Let the powers of the world to come take hold upon him, and without denationalizing him regenerate him, then who can doubt that the Christian Chinese may have as distinct a lesson for the world and as noble a work as the Christian Anglo-Saxon? A true appreciation of these strangers in the East will lead to a willingness to receive from them anything of good they may be able to contribute to the true development of the world, and to return to them what they lack of the greatest elements in our Christian civilization.

May the young who read this history become so interested in the wonderful people of whom it treats that when older they may help to solve some of the problems the Chinese present to the world.

Vanderbilt University, April 13, 1896.

A VODNG PEOPLES' HISTORY OF THE CHINESE.

w

CHAPTER I. Antiquity of the Chinese

E are indebted to the Arabs for the first definite information we have concerning China and its inhabitants. In A.D. 850, and also in A.D. 877, two enterprising Arabian travelers visited the eastern coast of Asia, and among other countries, then unknown to western nations, which they explored was the empire of China. They spent some months among that strange people, stud3dng their language, customs, and manners, their arts and manufactures, and on their return to their own country reported what they had seen and heard. During their travels they kept a journal, which was afterwards translated and published. Their account of China and its people agrees so exactly v/ith what we know of them to-day, though more than a thousand years have passed away, as to give great credibility to their narrative.

In 1274 the great Venetian traveler, Marco Polo, entered China and spent seventeen years at the court of the Mongolian conqueror of China, Kublai-Khan. His report of the countr}^, the i6

HISTORY OF THE CHINESE.

population, wealth, and resources of China, was received with incredulity by his countrymen, and by Europeans generally. These doubts have, however, long since given place to admiration for the simple and faithful statements of the honest and truthful Venetian.

Pope Nicholas, in 1288, sent John De Carvino as a missionary to China. He was the first successful agent of the Roman Catholic Church in the East, and a man of great learning and zeal. His descriptions of China and the Chinese confirm the reports of the Arabian travelers, of Marco Polo, and others who visited that country in the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries, showing that China has changed but little through the ages of her long national history. She is substantially the same to-day that she was three thousand years ago.

When western scholars first began their researches into Chinese history, they discovered that some native writers claimed a very great antiquity for their country, even tens of thousands of years. This fact was eagerly seized by European skeptics as casting discredit upon the comparatively recent account of Moses. They declared that Chinese history proved that " the Bible is unreliable;" that "the Bible history is contradicted by the authentic records of ancient nations;" that " according to Chinese chronology the people of China were laying the foundations of their empire at the time when, according to Moses,

ANTIQUITY OF THE CHINESE. I7

God was creating the heavens and the earth; and that the Chinese husbandman was tilhng his farm at the time Moses represents Adam as cultivating the garden of Eden," etc.

Subsequent and more careful investigation of the subject, however, showed that the Chinese divide history into three periods : ' ' The Unknown, ' ' ''The Fabulous," and "The Known." "The Unknown " belongs to the age of the gods, and has no record in time — its events are known only to the gods. " The Fabulous " embraces the prehistoric period between the age of the gods and the appearance of the first man, or the age of the sages. The first period has no chronology, and no history. The second period is characterized as m^^thological, by reputable Chinese w^riters, in which appear the fabulous rulers : ( i ) The ' ' celestial emperor," who reigned forty-five thousand years; (2) His successor, the "terrestrial emperor," who reigned fifty thousand years; (3) After these the " human emperor," whose reign lasted only eighteen thousand years. The third period begins with the first real character in Chinese history, the Emperor Yu, and continues down to the present time.

It will thus be seen that the Chinese, like most other heathen nations, have a mythological period of indefinite duration, covering the unknown ages which passed away before the appearance of man on the earth; and a chronological ^ej'iod^ beginning with the first recorded event in authen- 2 tic history, and coming on down to the current year. No reputable Chinese historian has any more respect for the absurd legends of the mythological age than we have. It was these mythological fables that led the early students of Chinese history into the mistake of supposing that there were authentic records in China running back into the misty ages of antiquity far beyond the beginning of our biblical chronology. The European skeptics enjoyed but a short season of exultation over the friends of Moses and the Bible. It was soon discovered that Chinese history, so far from casting discredit upon the record of Moses, tends strongly to confirm it. The argument, therefore, against the authenticity of our Scriptures, based upon the supposed historical records of China, like a similar argument founded upon the fabulous legends of the Egyptians and Hindoos some years before, had to be abandoned by its advocates, and Moses is still read and believed by millions of intelligent and good people.

The first real character in Chinese history, according to the most reliable authorities, native and foreign, was the Emperor Yu, who began to reign somewhere about the year B.C. 2204. The exact date cannot be ascertained, for at that early day there were no written records, and the historians who subsequently wrote of the beginning of their national annals were entirely dependent upon tradition, a most unreliable and unsatisfactory source of information. The earliest authen-

ANTIQUITY OF THE CHINESE. I9

tic written history of the Chinese people belongs to the age of Confucius, B.C. 549; not that there was no written history, or what claimed to be history, before that age, but it is to the great sage that we are indebted for the first authentic and digested history of the Chinese people, their customs, manners, and institutions. The great Chinese historian, Chu-foo-tsz, next to Confucius, is an authority on all matters of ancient history. " From these and other native writers modern historians have gathered all they know about the early history of China, and they all agree in regarding the Emperor Yu as the first authentic historical character.'' *

" If, then," says Dr. Medhurst, " we consider Yu to be the first real character in Chinese history, and place the beginning of his reign at B.C. 2204, or one hundred and four years after the flood, about the age of Peleg, when the earth was divided, we shall find that it gives time for such an increase of the human family as would admit of emigration, and yet allow for China being in such a state of marsh as to require draining for the sake of cultivation, which service was ascribed to the labors of Yu. Thus the empire of China, when deprived of its fabulous and traditionary periods, is still very ancient. The Chinese must have branched off from the ""reat human family immediately after the Dispersion (Genesis x.), and, traveling to the farther East,

* Medhurst: "State and Prospects of China."

settled down on the borders of the Yellow River, coeval with the establishment of the Babylonian and Egyptian monarchies."* Thus, ere Rome was founded or Trov was taken, before Thebes and Nineveh were erected into kingdoms, China was a settled state, under a regular form of government, with customs and institutions similar in many respects to those it now possesses.

If Confucius were to revisit his native land to-day, he would find things generally pretty much as he left them more than two thousand years ago. He could read the last book published, if not the last bulletin posted. He would find hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of scholars w^ho could repeat verhati7n et literatim all he ever wrote; and he would also find himself still enthroned as "the peerless and unapproachable master," whom millions worship at myriads of altars.

The question has been asked again and again, but never satisfactorily answered: "How is it that China has thus lived through so many centuries, successfully resisting the laws of national decay, while every other nation that began its course with her has long since disappeared from the face of the earth, or been so changed as to lose its national identity?" Babylon, Egypt, Nineveh, Greece, and Rome, once the contemporaries of China, lie buried in the dust of the dead past; yet China survives in all her original

*See Parke's Historj of China, 1588; Chinese Repository, Vol. X., No. 3.

ANTIQUITY OF THE CHINESE. 21

integrity, the one lone monument of antiquity on the plains of time that has not been destroyed or dismantled by the hand of decay or the storms of revolution.

What has China done for the world to entitle her to such distinction among the nations? What promise does she give of service to mankind? Her great longevity is as much an historical enigma as the preservation of the Jews through so many ages of national vicissitude. But we know what the Jews have done for the human race. They have preserved through the dark centuries of the past a knowledge of the true God, his word and his worship, and above all they have given the world its Messiah. Besides, many believe that they are yet destined to bless the world as "the chosen people of God." China, on the contrary, has been atheistic and idolatrous, has dishonored God and despised his law. She has lived in wantonness and pride through all her generations, and in her self-sufficiency has hated and scorned all other nations. She has neither feared God nor regarded her fellow-man, and now in her withered old age still clings to the traditions and customs of her earl}^ days ; she is still selfish and egotistical, arrogant and insolent toward other nations.

Some writers have attributed the great longevity of China to natural causes, such as " geographical position, the generally favorable climate, the average fertility of the soil, great facility of internal commerce," etc.* Some have attributed it to moral causes, such as the fact that the Chinese have never deified vice in any form; others, to the observance of the fifth commandment.

None of these suggestions seem to be entirely satisfactory. Other countries have enjoyed as great natural advantages as China, as friendly climates, as fertile soils, as good water, and all other favorable conditions, and yet they have not passed the average age of the nations. As to the moral causes — that the Chinese have never deified vice in an}^ form. In this matter they can claim only a limited negative virtue, for they have enshrined in their hearts and practiced in their lives all that Bacchus and Venus represent. There is not a more sensual people on earth than the Chinese, their own writers being witnesses. There is not a sin mentioned by St. Paul, in the catalogue of vices enumerated in the first chapter of Romans, of which they are not guilty. I do not say all the Chinese are thus guilty, but the sins referred to are practiced more or less by them as a people.

That the Chinese do, in a sense, observe the fifth commandment is true — they do reverence their parents, and after their death they worship them ; but they know nothing about the command of God requiring children to honor their fathei and mother, and do not do it as an act of obedience to God, but as an act of idolatry. They

*Sir John Davis.

ANTIQUITY OF THE CHINESE. 23

have made reverence for their parents an occasion of sin. Ancestral worship is the most universal form of idolatry in China. All worship at the ancestral shrine, the old and the young, the great and the small, the rich and the poor, from the emperor on the Dragon Throne to the beggar in the street — all worship their dead ancestors. They may worship at no other altar, but all worship here. That this universal sin could become a reason why God should specially bless the Chinese as a nation, and preserve them through so many ages, is a species of logic I cannot indorse. Of all the obstacles in the way of the Christian missionary in China, the most formidable is ancestral worship. The Chinese will give up all other forms of idolatry before they will this. To neglect the tombs of their ancestors is an act of ingratitude and sacrilege at which they obstinately revolt.

That China is the oldest nation in the world there can be no reasonable doubt, but what causes have operated to preser^^e her tlirough so man}^ centuries we are unable to say. Revolution after revolution has swept over the land, and her dynasties have been changed twenty-five times, and two hundred and forty-three emperors have occupied the Dragon Throne ; but still China remains substantially the same through all these changes that she was when Abraham was in Chaldea, or Joseph in Eg3'pt. From the first emperor, Yu, to the present " year of grace '" ( 1896) is four thousand and one hundred years. What great events in human history have taken place during these forty centuries I The Chinese were Hving where they are now, and quietly cultivating the soil, or fighting the "barbarians," when Israel marched out of Egypt; when God gave the law to Moses amid the awful scenes in Sinai; when David was king; when the Queen of Sheba visited Solomon ; when Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem ; when Alexander conquered Egypt; when America was discovered; and — to-day. We dare not predict anything for the future. Recent events have awakened a deep interest throughout the Christian world in the fortunes of China. War with Japan, internal commotions, foreign complications, and national imbecility seem to threaten the integrity of this ancient empire.

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CHAPTER II. Geography of China

THE present empire of China consists of five great divisions: Manchooria, Mongolia, Turkestan, Thibet, and the Eighteen Provinces, or China Proper. It is to the last that reference is usually made when speaking or writing of China. The others are provinces of great extent, but thinl}^ inhabited, and of a low grade of civilization.

Manchooria is the home of the Manchoo Tartars, a half-civilized and half-nomadic race, which has attracted the notice of foreigners chiefly because of its connection with China. The present imperial dynasty is descended from the Manchoos.

Mongolia lies immediately north of the Eighteen Provinces, and is a wild and desert country, consisting mainly of barren wastes. The inhabitants are roving nomads, who live in tents, and follow their flocks as they wander from place to place. They are devout Lamaistic Buddhists, fierce and fanatical.

Turkestan is situated in the northwestern borders of the Eighteen Provinces, and is inhabited by a settled Turkish race of Mohammedans. It contains the two celebrated cities of Cashgar and Yarkand, with several smaller cities.

Thibet is west of China Proper, and is inhabited (26)

GEOGRAPHY OF CHINA. 2^

by a settled people, and is the headquarters of the Lamaistic form of Buddhism. The chief or high priest of this strange sect claims to be the incarnate Buddha. The capital of Thibet is Lassa.

These four great divisions of the Chinese empire are not inhabited by the Chinese, but by separate and distinct races, each race speaking its own language, and distinguished by its own peculiar national characteristics, customs, and manners. The Chinese speak of them as " outside the gates" — that is, outside of China Proper.

As the following pages will be devoted to a brief description of China and the Chinese people, no further notice will be taken of the provincial dependencies. The reader will please therefore remember that what is hereafter said about China refers to the Eighteen Provinces, or what is known as China Proper.

China is situated on the eastern coast of Asia, and contains about one-half of the whole territory of the empire. It is 1^474 miles in length, and about 1,355 miles in breadth, with a coast line of 2,500 miles. Its area is 1,399,609 square miles, "comprising within its limits every variety of soil and climate ; watered by large rivers, and producing within its borders everything necessary for the support and comfort of man." *

Most of the great empires of Asia extend along its southern border, chiefly upon the shores of the Indian Ocean, and are bounded on the north by the

*'* Middle Kinedom."

snowy peaks and pastoral wilds of Tartary. China, on the contrary, is situated on the Pacific, at the extremity of the Asiatic continent. The climate is generally salubrious, but, like all other countries situated on the eastern side of a great continent, is subject to extremes of heat and cold at different seasons of the year, not always corresponding with the degrees of latitude. Thus in the northern part of China the mercury often rises to 80° and 90^, and in the southern part frequently falls below zero in the winter.*

The whole surface of the country is diversified by mountain ranges, extensive plains, and undulating highlands. The lofty mountains which wall in the territory of Thibet and Tartary as they enter China sink down into elevations of moderate altitude. Two great rivers, the Yang-tse (child of the ocean) and the Wong-hoo, or Yellow River, corresponding to the two great rivers of our country, roll through the land from west to east, fertilizing extensive valleys, and furnishing the means of trade and travel for the millions of central and eastern China. There are other rivers that afford facilities for inland navigation, which, with the Yang-tse and Wong-hoo, give the people of China unequaled advantages in water ways. There are several lakes in China, but none of sufficient size or commercial importance to require special mention in this place.

The Grand Canal is a stupendous work,

* Sir J ohn Davis : " Middle Kingdom."

GEOGRAPHY OF CHINA. 29

equaled only by the Great Wall of China. By means of its connections with the rivers which flow into it, an almost entire water communication is completed across the country from Tien-Tsm, near Peking in the north, to Hang-Chow in the south, a distance of six hundred geographical miles, or "fort}^ days' travel," as the Chinese estimate its length. It is sometimes said to be fifteen hundred miles long, but this is in Chinese miles, or lee, which is only about one-third of our mile. It is a great artificial river, costing millions of dollars to construct, and millions more to keep it in repair, and therefore entitled to a place in any description of the physical geography of China. It crosses the Yellow River about seventy miles from its mouth, and for ninety miles (between the Yang-tse and Yellow River) runs parallel with the latter, being carried through all this distance upon a mound of earth not less than twenty feet above the level of the surrounding country. The embankment of earth on each side of the canal is held in place by strong stone walls, or heavy earthen banks. Its depth varies from a few feet to several fathoms, and its width from one hundred feet to half a mile, according to the character of the country through which it passes. Stone abutments and floodgates are used to regulate the flow of the water, and occur at irregular distances according to the inequalities of the surface of the land. Hundreds of thousands of men were employed for an indefinite time on this great work. If the age in which this great national work was completed, and the character of the princes who planned it, be considered, few labors of human hands in any country in the world can be compared to it for extent and usefulness. The Grand Canal passes through some of the most beautiful scenery in China — rich valleys covered with highly cultivated farms, villages, hamlets, and cities, tea gardens, mulberry orchards, peach orchards, and all the variety of rural scenery to be found in any country. Again, it follows along the foot of an extensive mountain range, and winds its way through natural passes into the plains beyond, then on by Soochow, Nankin, and the "Golden Isle" to the terminus. As it approaches the province of Canton in southern China, its way has been cut by immense labor through a range of mountains which separates the province of Kiang-Si from Canton. This part of the work is said to have been done by an individual during the Tang dynasty, more than a thousand years ago.*