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CHrNA IN OUTLINE,

AND

WOMAN 'N CHINA.

REV. J. T. GRACEY, D. D.

Copyright 1900.

^J. T. GRACEY, ' --

177 Pearl Street, Rochester, N. Y.

TKE LtBRAitY Or CONGRESS,

OCT 30 1903

CnPVWfWT ENTRY

RI.ASS ^ 5©fc. No.

% cy 7- 1- C' Cnpv PI,

113709

Behold these shall come from far :

And lo I these from the north and from the west /

And these froin the land of Sinim.

Isaiah xlix, 75.

'' O rock! rock! when wilt thou open?'

Xavier.

"It is a great step towards the C hristianization of our pia7iei if Christianity gain entrance into China!'

Neander in 1850, eight days be/ore his death

CHINA.

i^HINA: "The Middle Kingdom," " The Flowery \M; Land," " Far Cathay," the '' Land of Sinim," studied in any aspect is full of interest.

I.— IT IS A VAST COUNTRY.

For more than 3000 miles its shores are washed by the ceaseless surges of the sea. It encloses a desert, vast as any over which sterility ever reigned ; it embraces plains as exuberant as were ever pressed by foot of man. The area of its largest plain is greater by one-half than all the German Empire.

Great rivers drain and irrigate the land. The Hoang-Ho is almost three times the length of the Ohio, while the Yang-tse is longer than the Mississippi, and drains a basin more extensive than the whole territory of the Republic of Mexico. One-tenth of the population derive their food from the waters of the country. According to the official catalogue of the world's exhibition in 185 1, the extent of its coal-fields was more than twenty times greater than those of all Europe, being 419,000 square miles, and side by side wii> the coal is iron ore. It has all degrees of altitude from the sea level to the perpetual snow line. Between Canton and Peking, the great road winds through a pass 8000 feet above the ocean. It has all varieties of climate. One may be ice-bound at Peking, while tha

CHINA,

thermometer seldom falls below 50° at Canton, and its inhabitants could subsist in comfort and luxury till the end of time. Make it a botanical garden and nothing grows that would not probably flourish in some part of the Empire. Try it as a zoological museum, and any animal on the globe might find congenial surroundings in some one of its valleys, hills or streams. It is not easy to make real to ourselves an Empire which comprises one-third of the continent of Asia, and one-tenth of the habitable globe ; which sweeps through seventy degrees of latitude and forty of longitude, whose circuit is half the circum- ference of the globe.

Professor^ Douglas thus describes it :

^* From one end of the country to the other the land blossoms as the rose, and yields to the diligent and careful tillage of the natives enough and to spare of all that is necessary for the comfort and well-being of man. Nor have these advantages become the recent possessions of the people. For many centuries they have been in full enjoyment of them, and on every side the evidences of long-established wealth and commercial enterprise are observable.

'^From the great wall to the frontier of Tong-king, and from Thibet to the China Sea the country is dotted over with rich and populous cities, which are connected one with another by well-trodden roads or water highways. In these busy centres of industry merchants from all parts of the empire are to be found, who are as ready to deal in the fabrics of the native looms, porcelain, tea and other native products, as in cottons, metals and woolens of Europe.

'^The rivers and canals are crowded, the vessels bearing silks and satins from Cheh-kiang and Kiang-su, tea from Gan-hwuy and Ho-nan, and rice from the southern provinces to parts of the empire which give in exchange for such gifts the corn and other products which they are able to spare,"

EXTENT COMPARED WITH OTHER COUNTRIES 5

Extent Compared with Other Countries, — ^Various are the expedients to which men have resorted to •* take the great idea in." Comparisons in geography are now popu- lar. The school atlases of to-day have what are called "Inlets." These are smaller maps in the corner of the greater ones giving an outline of a familiar portion of country, on the scale of the larger chart, showing how many times the one might be embraced in the other. A map of Rhode Island on the same page with one of Texas, would show into bow many such states Texas might be divided; or one of Illinois on the chart of China would aid the mind in measuring the more remote with the more familiar. Try France thus on the chart of China and you may sketch the one seven times on the other, and have space to spare. Try the British Isles and you may overlay China with eighteen of them. Try the Chinese Empire by this com- parative chartoiogy, and it will exceed Great Britain and Ireland forty-four times. It can be dissected into 104 Knglands or 776 Scotlands. Lay all Europe on China and you w\\\ have thirteen hundred square miles of the latter uncovered. It is one-third larger. Lay China on the United States, and it will overrun into the Gulf of Mexico, and four degrees into the Pacific ocean. Reverse the experiment and lay the United States including Alaska on China, and you may gem the edges with a half a dozen of Great Britain and Ireland ; that is, you will have a million anc a half square miles to add for good measure. Change it from its present shape to that of a belt of land a mile wide, and there would be room for a walking match from end to end, of thirty miles a day continued through niore th^n four 4nd a ha^f ceaturie^,

6 DIA GRAM OF COMPARA TIVE POPULA TIONS.

GREAT BRITAIN. 1 1
UNITED STATES.	Divide the population of China into equal four of those parts; that of the Russia, loj. The aggregate of the popul hundredths of that of China.
GERM/	(NY.
		PJ 1
FRANCE.	:iual parts, and the d States, xo parts ; c 3f these five great ■
	1	population of Great Britain would )f Germany, k^ ; of France, 5 ; of cations would only equal. 60 one-
RUSSIAN E	MPIRE.
	S 1

THE WHOLE SPACE REPRESENTS CHINA.

8 CHINA,

II.— CHINA AS A POPULOUS COUNTRY,

What the population of Chinese Tartary and Thibet is, it is difficult to tell, as no correct census is ever taken and the tribes are migratory. About China proper we are left less in doubt. For the regulation of the capitation tax throughout the Empire, and for deteriinining the propor- tion of rice to be stored in case of famine, a census is taken each year. Dr. Williams in his " Middle Kingdom" says the census of 1812 gave the population of China proper at three hundred and sixty millions. That of 1852, found in the official residence of Yeh, Governor General of Canton, gives the population as three hundred and ninety- six millions. The same rate of increase would make the present population of the eighteen provinces four hundred and seven millions. In "Middle Kingdom," Vol. i, pp. 206, 239, Dr. Williams estimates the population as 'less than it was in 181 2 because the Taiping rebellion probably destroyed twenty millions of human beings during eighteen years of carnage in the fifteen provinces to which It reached. Dr. Williams thinks few people competent to judge, place much confidence in the recent total of four hundred and fourteen millions given by a Russian at St. Petersburg, at least no one has supported it by independ- ent examination. He thinks the total of three hundred and sixty-three millions given in 1812 not a startling one considering the climate, soil, industry and economy of the land and people, but thinks the wars of late years must have reduced that number, though he does not forget that tney recuperate wonderfully, if asked to prove it he says in the " Missionary Herald," by such facts as' are known since the census of 1812 he would not now place the population higher than three hundred and forty millions

A POPULOUS COUNTRY. g

Mr. J. Hudson Taylor at the World's Conference in London, said, some think that possibly the population does not exceed 240 or 250 millions. He states that in one province seven millions of people recently died of famine, and in other parts of the country the population is not one-fifth of what it formerly^ was. Dr. Legge, forty years a missionary in China and now Professor of Chinese in the University of Oxford does not think that anybody can say anything more definite than the Chinese Ambassador in Paris, who recently stated the population at four hundred millions.

Populousness Compared with Other Countries. — But who shall enable us to realize such numbers ? By what comparisons shall we try to comprehend their barest out- line ? The best minds of Christendom have plumed their imagination, have taxed their ingenuity, have strained their rhetoric to bring this multitude home to western Christians. They point out, that in two provinces of China the Emperor reigns over as many people as the Queen of England does in Great Britain and Ireland ; that there are more people in Peking than in the whole island of Jamaica ; that the Samoan islands though a prom- ising group of the South Seas with a total of 35,000 population, would make but a speck of a city in China ; that one could find a dozen or more cities with as numer- ous a population, in a few days* journey ; that the four or five millions of people of Madagascar would only make one-seventh of the single province of Shan-tung. There are six times as many people in China as there are in the United States ; one-third more than in all the coun- tries of Europe combined ; twice as many as on the four continents, Africa, North and South America and Oceanica.

10 CHINA.

Fertile in expedients, the genius of the generation presses us anew by bidding us know that one-fourth of the human race is in China ; that every fourth person who lives and breathes upon this earth, who toils under the sun, sleeps under God's stars, or sighs and suffers beneath the heaven, is a Chinese. Every fourth child born into the world looks into the face of a Chinese mother ; every fourth pair given in marriage plight their troth in a Chinese cup of wine ; every fourth orphan weeping through the day, every fourth widow wailing through the watches of the night, is in China. Every fourth person who comes to die, or who sits in contemplation on his own dissolution, is a Chinese, One can but ask, What catechism will this fourth child learn ? What prosperity will follow this bridal ? What solace will be afforded these widows ? What watch- care will be given these orphans ? With what hopes will these multitudes depart ?

Depart they must, and the ghastly arithmetic startles us, as we estimate how rapidly they go. Make your parallel lines with pall and spade and grave. Thirty-three thousand Chinese die every day ! We pale and shudder at the dim outline of the thought. And yet they stay not ! Bury all the people in London in three months, and the rest of mankind would start aghast at the grim event. Yet we record and read with carelessness the statement that four times every year that number die in China. It is equal to burying all the people of England in a year and a half ; all of Great Britain and Ireland in thirty months; all of New York city inside of three months; all the people of the United States in less than five years ! Terrific ordeal of the imagination ! We stagger at the arithmetic, and hide our face from the pallid ranks.

We turn to the living. Put them in rank joining hands

A SURPRISING HISTORY. ii

and they will girdle the globe ten times at the equator with living, beating human hearts. Make them an army and let them move at the rate of one thousand a day, week after week and month after month, and they will not pass you in looo years. Constitute them pilgrims, and let 2000 go past every day and every night, under the sunlight and under the solemn stars, and you must hear the ceaseless tramp, tramp, tramp, of the weary, pressing, throbbing throng for 500 long years.

III.— CHINA HAS A SURPRISING HISTORY.

The history of Rome is compassed by about a thousand years. That of Greece varies but little from that of Rome. The history of the Jews from Abraham to the destruction of Jerusalem is double that of Rome. But China has had a settled form of constitutional gov- ernment for forty centuries. Ancient Turanian and Aztec nations, Greece, Rome, Persia, Assyria and Babylon have risen, culminated and declined, while the Chinese govern- ment has survived through thirty changes of dynasty. Its laws codified 2,000 years ago are revised every five years. China was consolidated as a government B. C. 1088 and substituted her present form of government for the feudal two hundred and twenty years before Christ, thus emancipating her people from the feudal system before the Christian era. In theory her government is despotic, but practically it is democratic, the equality of all men before the law being its fixed principle. The half-dozen nomadic tribes from the region of the Caspian sea, who settled in the basins drained by the Yellow and Yang-tse rivers, are to-day the greatest multitude of people gathered under one government to be found on the face of the globe, and Peking is the oldest existing capital of any country.

12 CHINA.

Compared with Classic and Sacred History. — What comparisons will aid us to a comprehension of this continuity of history ? A thousand years before Romulus dreamed of building the Seven-Hilled City the Chinese were a peaceful and prosperous people. While Solomon in all his glory was receiving the Queen of Sheba in Jerusalem, when the arches of Babylon first spanned the Euphrates, when the towers of Nineveh first cast their shadows into the Tigris, when Jonah threatened Nineveh with destruction, when Isaiah foretold the downfall of of Babylon, when Daniel prayed and prophesied, — through all these years the Chinese were engaged in agri- culture, commerce and literature. China was seven hundred years old when the Israelites crossed the Red Sea. She had existed fifteen centuries when Isaiah prophesied of her future conversion. — Isaiah xlix, 12.

IV.— CHINA HAS AN INGENIOUS, INTELLIGENT AND INDUSTRIOUS PEOPLE.

Her records reach backward through four thousand years. She had, 1,700 years ago, a lexicon of the language which is still reckoned among her standards. The earliest missionaries found the Chinese with a knowlege of the magnet.

Antiquity of Chinese Civilization. — Let us once more more attempt historic parallels. It is said that two cen- turies before Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees Chinese astronomers had recorded observations which have been verified by modern scientists. A half century earlier than that, the rocks of Hung Shan were graven to memoralize engineering works of her people, thought not to have been less extensive nor less difficult than those of Egypt. When Moses led the Israelites through the wilderness,

ANTIQUITY OF CIVILIZATION. 13

Chinese laws and literature rivalled, and Chinese religious knowledge excelled that of Egypt. A hundred years before the north wind rippled over the harp of the son of Jesse, Wung Wang, an Emperor of China, composed classics which are committed to memory at this day by every advanced scholar of the empire. While Homer was composing and singing the Iliad China's blind min- strels were celebrating her ancient heroes, whose tombs had already been with them through nearly thirteen cen- turies. Her literature was fully developed before England was invaded by the Norman conquerors. The Chinese invented firearms as early as the reign of England's First Edward, and the art of printing five hundred years before Caxton was born. They made paper A. D. 150, and gun- powder about the commencement of the Christian era.

A thousand years ago the forefathers of the present Chinese sold silks to the Romans, and dressed in these fabrics when the inhabitants of the British Isles wore coats of blue paint and fished in willow canoes. Before America v/as discovered, China had a canal twelve hun- dred miles long. Her great wall was built two hundred and twenty years before Christ was born in Bethlehem. It varies from fifteen to thirty feet in height and breadth and passes over mountains and through valleys in an unbroken line for 1,500 miles. Six horsemen could ride abreast upon it. It contains material enough to build a wall five or six feet high around the globe. It is said to be the only artificial structure that would attract attention in a hasty survey of the globe.

Its Survival to Present Times. — Nor is all this con- fined to the past. The Rev. Mr. Stevenson aptly remarked that " the Egypt of the Pharaohs has no living links with the E.gypt of the Khedive." But the civilization of China

U CHINA.

today is connected intimately by an unbroken line with the civilization of centuries of the past. She has at pres- ent 1,700 walled cities, the walls of which, in a straight line, would extend 6,000 miles. Include the great wall and they would reach twice from New York to San Fran- cisco, from the gulf to the lakes, and leave enough to enclose New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, and St. Louis. The longest of her canals is twice the length of the Erie. Her two thousand canals irrigate all parts of the empire, and are so connected with various rivers as to make a water communication from Peking to Canton, and goods and passengers can go from the capital to nearly every large town in the great river basins. She collects no tolls to keep these canals in repair. She bastinadoes a bridge builder whose work proves imperfect. Her public works are perhaps unequalled in any land, and by any people for the amount of human labor bestowed upon them.

Education and Literature. — Of the millions that com- pose the empire, a vast proportion are able to read and write. There is a universal system of self-supporting day schools. Every parent who has a few pence to spare in the month will try to educate his child. Only literary graduates are admitted to public office, and ten thousand triannually enter the competitive examinations at Peking. Some who fail to pass these, continue to try until they are old men. They have a list of all graduates during the past five centuries. Education is spurred on by inculca- tion of precepts of sages and by emoluments of office, open to every child in the empire who wins literary distinction. The literature of China is overwhelming in extent, and the literati have such a superstitious reverence for all papers containing letters, as to place receptacles on the streets for their preservation, and to employ men to collect them

MODERN PROGRESS AND ENTERPRISE, 15

that they may not be trodden upon and defiled. The knowledge of the classics is so diffused that it is said were they all destroyed there are a million men in China who could reproduce them from memory. In the matter of language Dr. Douglass says : " By means of their three classes of characters, the hieroglyphics, ideograms and phonetics, the Chinese have been able to express and pre- serve the thoughts and sayings of their greatest and wisest writers through a series of centuries which dwarfs into insignificance all Western ideas of antiquity. For thirty centuries Chinamen have been accumulating stores of literary wealth, which are of themselves sufficiently impor- tant to attract the attention of scholars and to stir the literary ambition of students, and which do so in almost every country. But by the fresh discoveries of Messrs. De Lacouperie and Ball, not only is a new interest added to the language but it is brought into close and intimate relation with the tongues spoken by the great civilizing nations of the world."

Modern Progress and Enterprise. — The Chinese have an antipathy to foreigners and often give credence to absurd stories about them, such as that they have " no joints to their knees," and that their sailors have '' webbed feet ; " that foreigners see a hundred yards into the earth, and missionaries extract the eyeballs of murdered Chinese children for the purpose of making charms.

In the face of all this, they are learning of the foreigner and accepting many of his improvements. Dock-yards and arsenals have been established, gunboats and cor- vettes built and equipped at the Foo Chow dockyard and superintended by French inspectors ; a post chaplain of the British navy taught the future officers of a Chinese fleet, and a frigate was soon built and launched at the

i6 CHINA,

arsenal at Shanghai. Retiring officers of the British army trained the Camp of Instruction at Shanghai, and Americans the drilled force at Ningpo. The Taku forts frowned with Krupp guns. An Englishman of great ability trained as a schoolmaster by the Bishop of Victoria was engaged as a special translator ; the coast pilot ele- mentary books on Arithmetic, Algebra, and Euclid have long since been rendered in China. A small treatise on coal mining proved such a success that the late Viceroy of Nanking sat up all night to read it. They have re-organ- ized their army, furnishing them with the Enfield, Colt and Remington rifles. The cumbersome junks are giving way on the coast and great rivers, to fine steamships owned and run by the Chinese Merchant's Steamship Company. By their enterprise and ability to form exten- sive combinations in commercial transactions they are proving themselves not mere imitators but successful and original competitors to Western traders. Chinese banks, insurance companies and boards of trade are to be found in all the leading ports. Their commercial agencies ramify through all the principal business centers of West- ern Europe, Siam, and Australia, and they threaten by their emigration to make the Pacific ocean a Chinese lake. They have appropriated the sugar trade of Amoy, the flour importations of San P^rancisco, and control all the rice trade of their coasts with foreign countries. In 1872 and again in 1876 their exports doubled their imports. The Imperial College of Peking, presided over by Dr. Martin, ere long became the West Point of China, with a hundred students mastering western sciences and lan- guages. Wheaton's International Law translated into Chinese, was quoted by the Chinese officials to the sur- prise of Western Ambassadors. Scientific and popular

MODERN PROGRESS AND ENTERPRISE. 17

magazines circulate among the literati and the ruling por- tion of society, and we learn of a native work on political geography giving information of the countries of Western Europe, and much of their history down to a very recent date in France, and to the visit of the Prince of Wales to India.

Rev. Young J. Allen, D. D., LL.D., read an able paper before the Shanghai Conference on this topic, m which he classified these changes as : (i) Compulsory, or those necessitated by force or treaty obligations. The compul- sory occupation by the allies, in i860, of the imperial capital was followed by a treaty which gave commerce and missions the right of unmolested access to the entire land. (2) The semi-compulsory changes, or those initiated with a view to adjustments. The Chinese knew that the treaty must be fulfilled, and that in reorganizing their govern- ment they could not do better than copy the strong points of their late adversaries. Hence, the innovations of foreign military camps, arsenals, customs, schools, coast surveys, etc. (3) Spontaneous-voluntary changes. Inter- national relations become cordial. The press is called into acquisition, newspapers and books are translated. China has become conscious of her wants ; a mint, banks, post-offices follow. (4) Imperial or those which define the position and policy of the country.

They exhibit great tact and skill in the use of modern appliance, and do not hesitate to migrate for business purposes. They are seamen on Pacific steamers, brake- men on Cuba railroads, miners in Peru ; are in the shoe shops, laundries, kitchens and woolen mills of the United States ; are on the sugar plantations of the West Indies, and are to be found from San Diego to Puget Sound. Dr. K. H. Graves says ; There are 50,000 of them in the

I8 CHINA.

Philippine Islands ; 50,000 in the English colony at Singa- pore, where they own four-fifths of all the real estate ; 50,000 more in the Malay Peninsula ; 1,300,000 in Siam ; thousands in Cochin China, and thousands more in Borneo, Java and Sumatra. The colonies founded by the Spaniards, Dutch, French and English are being rapidly filled up by Chinese. In the Sandwich Islands there are more Chinese men than men of the native race.

They are equal to every climate, whether that of the iceberg of the north, or the malarious tracts of the tropics. Their power of endurance of all climates is unequalled by those of any other race. A British writer has said, ** If the hard work of this world were to be farmed out to the lowest bidder, with political protection and honest pay, it seems likely that the Chinese race would take the contract."

v.— CHINA HAS COMPLICATED RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS.

The primitive religion of China was a species of nature- worship. Hills, rivers and ancestors received offerings. "Heaven,'* "the Supreme Ruler" and a fabled "Six honored Ones," were worshiped. Divination was practiced, but no rewards or punishments of conduct were inculcated.

Blending of the Three Great Religions. — There are three prominent religions in China at present, Confucian- ism, Taoism and Buddhism, but no person is exclusively of either. A Chinaman is a religious triangle, and when he becomes a Christian, Christianity wins a triumph over three opposing faiths at once, one of which has laid hold of the intellect, another of the conscience, and the third the affections of the people. The blending of these is seen in the fact, that while Confucianism is theoretically the only religion of the state, Taoism furnishes the gods of literature and of war, as well as the patron gods of

CONFUCIANISM, 19

each city and town, while Buddhist priests must be invited to assist in religious ceremonies, and the whole resolve themselves into the worship of gods and ancestors. Buddhist and Taoist priests attend the same ^weddings and funerals and pray side by side, as if their systems of religion were identical in origin and purpose, with merely an accidental difference of name.

I. Confucianism.— Confucianism stands pre-eminent, however, as indigenous and the most ancient of the exist- ing forms of faith. Prof. James Legge, Chinese Prof, at Oxford, says that the number of Buddhists in China is greatly over-estimated. Rhys Davids, in his Buddhism, estimates the number at 445,000,000 in China and Japan. Says Professor Legge : — " If we lop off 400,000,000 from this aggregate we shall not be doing injustice to Buddhism. Confucianism is pre-eminently the religion of China. Buddhism has long been tolerated, and is widely spread among the people ; still, it is an itwan — ^a strange system.' Excepting those who have adopted the Buddhist tonsure, the vast majority of people, however frequently they may be found in Buddhist or Taoist temples, would claim to be followers of the great sage. Of all religious systems, Confucianism, perhaps, has the greatest following ; then Christianity, then Hindooism, then Mohammedanism, and we would place Buddhism in the fifth place.' Faber says^ ''Confucius is the Chinese of the Chinese, the greatest personage of the largest empire of the world," and that he has exerted the greatest influence, when time and numbers are taken into the account, of any man who ever lived. M. Hue says : " Never has it been given to any mortal to exercise during so many centuries, so extensive an empire over his fellow creatures, although every one Vnows perfectly well that Confucius was simply a mortal

20 CHINA.

man, who lived in the principahty of Lausin, six centuries before the Christian era." He is not a myth, nor a demi- god, but a true historic person, who taught three thousand disciples. He was not an ascetic, not even a spiritual man. He lived a hundred years later than Buddha, and a hundred years earlier than Socrates. There are 1,500 temples in his honor, at which 62,600 pigs, rabbits, sheep and deer, and 27,000 pieces of silk are offered annually. The Chinese claim that while the different religions fluctu- ate from time to time, ^^Confucianism has not suffered attrition through myriads of ages, and it has regenerated China in government, morals, manners, and doctrines." The books of Confucius are the text boc)ks in the literary examinations for all positions in the government.

Confucianism not a Spiritual Religion. — Confucianism inculcates benevolence, propriety, knowledge and faith, but deals rather with morals and politics than religion, and with this life only. "I do not understand life, how can I know death," said Confucius. It has one part of the golden rule, teaching that " what you would not have others do to you do not to them." It fails to advance to the sentiment that we ought to return good for evil. The fundamental principle of Chinese law founded on the teachings of Confucius is that of the filial and parental relation. The inferior must venerate the superior. Government, general and local, is modelled on the family, those in authority are parents, the people are the children, and the Emperor himself is son of Heaven. It is the most ancient form of government, the patriarchial. Of the three thousand crimes punishable by law, none is reckoned so great as disobedience to parents.

The Doctrines of Confucianism. — Mr. Ernest Faber, a

DOCTRINES OF CONFUCIANISM. 21

missionary to China, in a Digest of the Doctrines of Con- fucianism thus summarizes its defects and errors : —

Confucianism recognizes no relation to a living God.

There is no distinction made between the human soul and the body, nor is there any clear definition of man, either from a physical or from a psychological point of view.

There is no explanation given, why it is that some men are born saints, and others as ordinary mortals.

All men are said to possess the disposition and strength necessary for the attainment of moral perfections, but the contrast with the actual state remains unexplained.

There is wanting in Confucianism a decided and serious tone in its treatment of the doctrine of sin, for, with the exception of moral retribution in social life, it mentions no punishment for sin.

Confucianism is generally devoid of a deeper insight into sin and evil.

Confucianism finds it, therefore, impossible to explain death.

Confucianism knows no mediator, none that could restore original nature in accordance with the ideal which man finds in himself.

Prayer and its ethical power, finds no place in the sys- tem of Confucius.

Though confidence is indeed frequently insisted upon, its presupposition, viz., truthfulness in speaking, is never practically urged, but rather the reverse.

Polygamy is presupposed and tolerated.

Polytheism is sanctioned.

Fortune-telling, choosing of days, omens, dreams and other illusions (of phoenixes, etc.,) are believed in.

Ethics are confounded with external ceremonies and a precise despotic political form.

The position which Confucius assumed toward ancient institutions is a capricious one.

The assertion that certain musical melodies influence the morals of the people is ridiculous.

The influence of mere good example is exaggerated, and Confucius himself proves it least of all.

In Confucianism the system of social life is tyranny

i2 CHINA.

Women are slaves. Children have no rights in relation to their parents, whilst subjects are placed in the position of children with regard to their superiors.

Filial piety is exaggerated into deification of parents.

The net result of Confucius' system, as drawn by himself, is the worship of genius, /. e. deification of man.

There is, with the exception of ancestral worship, which IS devoid of any true ethical value, no clear conception of the dogma of immortality.

All rewards are expected in this world, so that egotism is unconsciously fostered, and if not avarice, at least ambition.

The whole system of Confucianism offers no comfort to ordinary mortals, either in life or in death.

The history of China shows that Confucianism is incapa- ble of effecting for the people a new birth to a higher life and nobler effects, and Confucianism is now in practical life quite alloyed with Shumanistic and Buddhistic ideas and practices.

Confucius a Failure. — Bishop Wiley, says, "China can advance no further until she breaks away from and passes on beyond Confucius. He has been a beneficent con- servative power during the past centuries, but he is utterly unable to carry his people beyond the semi-civilized state in which they have been living for twenty centuries." Edkins says Confucianism has failed to make the Chinese a moral people. The habits of the people keep the stand- ard of principle low, commercial integrity and truth-speak- ing are less common than with Christian countries. Polygamy is a cause of moral weakness. There is no sense of shame at falsehood. Domestic slavery promotes a vast system of concubinage. Yet he places its morality higher than that of Buddhism or Taoism.

Confucianism a Barrier to Christianity. It presents strong resistance to the christianization of China. A Chinese preacher, chaplain to the English Bishop of Ningpo, sa

CONFUCIUS A FAILURE. 23

(i.) The Confucian religion is reverenced by all classes, from the king down to the meanest of his subjects. (2.) All power, authority and renown, come through the Con- fucian religion. (3.) Its roots are deeper ; it has been reverenced through so many ages, from its first beginning until the present day. (4.) Although some of its doctrines agree with Scripture, some are opposed to it ; men only know the parts that agree and pass over those that dis- agree. The greatest of all obstacles is the Confucian sect.

2. — Taoism. — Taoism originated B. C. 604 with Lautze or Laou Tsoo, a contemporary of Confucius. His follow- ers became astrologers, alchemists, geomancers or hermits, and in late years imitated Buddhist idol-worship and the monastic system. It is a profound system of alchemy and astrology. It has a great medicine-god from whom all people beg prescriptions. Thunder is produced by a god who strikes a hammer and drum together, and lightning by the reflections from his wife's mirror. Dragon-worship constitutes a prominent feature of the system. Many of the national gods properly belong to Taoism.

3. — Buddhism. — Buddhism is an exotic in China. It was promulgated by missionaries from India, when in its giant duel with Brahmanism, the latter succeeded to the sover- eignty of that land. Buddhism in its integrity does not obtain in China proper. Thibet has a definite but indige- nous form of Buddhism. It exerts, however, a great influence in the Chinese empire. Klaproth claims that *^ The wild nomads of Central Asia have been changed into amiable and virtuous men by it and its beneficial influence has been felt in Northern Siberia." Edkins says it has for the last hundred years been spreading in Siberia. He concedes the good result from the Buddhist teaching of the misery of vice and the benefit of self-restraint, but makes a terrific arraignment of its deficiencies. The crime

24 CHINA.

of killing, for instance, rests chiefly on the doctrine of the transmigration of souls ; insects must not be killed lest one cause the death of departed relatives, whose souls inhabit them ; monks are vegetarians for the same reason, not eating flesh because it involves the destruction of life. They keep reservoirs of water near mountains for the preservation from death of fish, snakes, tortoises, shell-fish, and succor goats and birds from the same motive. Thus Buddhist morality confounds men and animals as alike having an immortal soul. Ideas of sin and misfortune are also confounded. The forgiveness of sin is obtained through chanting of prayers, and an ascetic life.

Two popular forms of the religious thought and habit of the Chinese demand special notice.

{a) Ancestor Worship. — The worship of ancestors ante- dates, but was adopted by Confucius and is the most powerful religious custom affecting China. Mencius says : " The nourishment of parents when living is not sufficient to be accounted the great thing. This is only to be had by performing their obsequies when dead." It is the most universal and ancient form of idolatry found in the country. It hangs a curtain of gloomy superstition over the land. Ancestral halls are endowed and repaired and the cere- monies perpetuated thereby.

Tablets twelve to fifteen inches high are erected for departed relatives, before which incense is burned morning and evening. For a deceased father the ceremonial must be kept up for forty-nine days. A bridegroom's ancestors must be worshipped by his bride as well as himself. When a scholar obtains his degree, when an officer is advanced in rank, and on anniversaries of births and deaths, this worship must be performed. At the Festival of the Tombs in the spring time, the people universally have a family

ANCESTOR WORSHIP. 25

gathering to worship the dead. In ancestral halls, in private rooms, in the house, before a few tablets or hun- dreds, the worship ^oes on. A family is mentioned in Can- ton having eleven hundred tablets in each of two rooms, with the third containing an image of the ancestor, a dis- ciple of Confucius who lived B. C. 300 years. The tablets are arranged from above downwards, the oldest being on the top. The venerable amongst the living may have tablets also, but covered with red paper.

The object of this worship is two-fold, viz.: to secure the repose of the dead, to provide them with comfort, clothing, furniture, made of paper and transported to them by burning ; and also to secure the worshipper from dam- age in person, business or property, from the restless ghoists of these departed relations. One-half of the female population of China devote their time not occupied in domestic duties, to making articles connected with ances- tral worship.

The custom of infant marriages is largely connected with the desire for heirs who will perform the rites due to parents after their decease. The same notion fosters polygamy. It tends to increase the localization and over- crowding of the population. Chinese dislike to emigrate because they must leave the tombs and fail in the worship of their ancestors. The family of Confucius has con- tinued through sixty generations to the present day in the same locality. The eighteenth day of the second moon is kept sacred by the Chinese as the anniversary of his death. One form of public charity consists of offerings to the dead poor, or those whose burial places are unknown. A boy having lost his parents when young and unable to trace them, made wooden representations of them which he worshipped.

26 CHINA.

When a rebellion breaks out in any of the eighteen provinces the first step taken by the government is not to raise troops, but to despatch messengers to search for the ancestral tombs of the leaders in the rebellion, to open and desecrate these and scatter their contents, as the speediest method of spoiling their prospects of success. In the Taiping rebellion (1855) the Governor of the Province of Kwang-Si stated that the tomb of the leading spirits of the insurgents having been invaded, was found to contain a tortoise with green hair, which was killed and the tomb destroyed.

Of the five Tartar dynasties which have ruled in China not one has failed to adopt the national religion which always includes the worship of the ancestral tablets of the Emperors. Not a tithe of the money and thought is expended on other features of Confucianism and Buddhism combined, that is given to ancestral worship.

Estimated Cost of the Custom. — Dr. Yates in the Chinese Recorder some years since, and more recently, with a slight variation, in the Shanghai Conference, estimates that not less than $6,000 are expended at each of these festivals giving $18,000 annually in the Shanghai district for charitable ancestral worship. As there are eighteen provinces and ninety districts to a province, taking Shang- hai as an example, the amount per annum for the district deity would be $29,160^000. Add the expenditure for the Foo deities and the amount would reach $31,172,000, representing however only one public charity for the dead whose burial places are unknown, independently of the same sort of personal and private sacrifice.

The amount expended by each family in the worship of their own ancestors is apart from this. Our author esti- mates it at $1.50 per person, and in a population of four

COST OF THE CUSTOM. 27

hundred millions, this amounts to $120,000,000 to which at least $60,000,000 must be added for charitable ancestor worship.

All this is but a part of China's tribute to her servial superstitions. The living generation is bound to the dead generations. China does not think forward but back- ward.

Rev. H. V. Noyes, in the Chinese Recorder of July, 1881, gives as a specimen of general Chinese giving for idol- atrous purposes, the following: The statistics are for, ist. The yearly income. 2nd. The expenditure for idolatrous purposes. 3rd. The proportion this is, of the income.

1-4 1-4 1-4 1-3 1-5 1-5 1-5 1-5 2-5

We thus see that these expenditures range from a little less than one-fifth to a little more than two-fifths of the income.

(b.) Feng Shui. — The other popular superstition which we must note is that known as Feng Shui, and is closely allied with the preceding.

Translated in the vernacular of the western "bar- barian " it is the "' Science of Luck.*' A mysterious principle pervades earth, air and water — but is unequally distributed in different localities, on the presence of which depends bodily vigor, family prosperity, and busi- ness success. The fortunes of each family are involved in securing a spot most pervaded with it for the tombs of parents. Spots thus selected for tombs years before

	INCOME.	EXPENDITURE.	RATIO.
I	$120	$29.30	244-1000	almost
2	$ 60	$14.84 •	247-1000	almost
3	$84	$21.48	256-1000	more than
4	$ 60	$21.69	362-1000	more than
5	$33>^	$ 7.31	219-1000	more than
6	% 54	$12.20	226-1000	more than
7	$66%	$12.72	191- 1000	less than
8	$i33>^	$25.11	188-1000	less than
9	$48	$20.20	421-1000	more than

nS CHINA,

use, when opened, are reported to have been found with lamps burning in them, lighted years before. When the iuck doctors point out such an auspicious place for a tomb, if in a neighbor's field, it must be bought at any price.

Feng Shui determines as much the conduct of the living as the burial of the dead. It has a political status. Dr. Eitel says, "When there is anywhere in China a dispute between the people on the ground of alleged interference with the disturbance of the Feng Shui aspects of a grave or house, the judicial tribunals of China will entertain the claim, examine into its merits, and decide the case on the presumption that Feng Shui is a reality and a truth. not a fiction. When land had to be ceded to the hated foreigners up and down the China coast as a so-called * Foreign Concession,' the Chinese government would invariably select a spot condemned by the experts in Feng Shui as one that combined a deadly breath with all those indications of the compass which imply dire calamities upon all that settle down there, and upon their children's children. If the spot had not to be ceded by treaty it would be pointed out to the unsuspecting foreigner as the only one open for sale, and anyhow the ignorant barbarian sceptic would become the supposed dupe and laughing stock of the astute Chinaman. Witness, for instance, the views held by intelligent Chinese with regard to the island of Shameen, the Foreign Concession, so to say, of Canton. It was originally a mud flat in the Canton river in the very worst position Feng Shui knows of."

The Peking government was memorialized a few years since, the memorialists calling attention to the fact that the trees around the tombs of the deceased Emperors

FENG-SHUL 2g

were being destroyed. The government commanded its discontinuance if it should be found to interfere with the Feng Shui of the Imperial Burial Grounds. All this enters, too, into the common life of the people. A house can only be built on a certain spot or the corners of it set in a given way ; the doors set originally or changed subsequently ; the chimneys built above a determined height, or garbage thrown but on a prescribed side of the building, without interference with good Feng Shui. To have success in a business undertaking, a son born in a house, sickness averted, lawsuits successfully conducted, or to win literary honors, Feng Shui must be pTfoperly and carefully regarded.

Each person as well as each village has his own Feng Shui, and as these conflict, endless lawsuits grow out of disputes about interference with it. He is a bad man indeed who would cut down a tree, or change the course of a road, thereby disturbing the relations of Feng Shui. It has within a few years past been made the basis of objection to the erection of telegraph poles at Shanghai ; to railways because the embankment diverted the course of water ; to a road from Tientsin to the Chaitang coal mines ; to the erection of church steeples because, being higher than the surrounding buildings, they disturbed Feng Shui ; to the building of bridges, the working of coal mines, the digging of proposed canals, the height of foreigners' residences and warehouse, and to many other things which involved elevations or the relations of running water. Missionaries* residences have to be controlled by this species of divination, — *^ this blind groping of the Chinese mind," as Dr. Eitel considers it, "after a system of natural science.** The government at Hang Chow ordered the missionaries to another sitQ

9> CHINA.

altogether, because the place they occupied was near one of the most famous natural objects in the whole province, and the American missionaries had built on it a chapel so lofty, that it changed a most fortunate aspect into one sinister and malign and thereby occasioned apprehension to the citizens. The church and school architecture and the very sites of our missions must thus be controlled by the Science of Luck.

Inefficiency of the Chinese Religion. — Large benevo- lence and kindness to both men and animals have been claimed for the Chinese as the result of their religions. It is probable that the Buddhist doctrine of metempsy- chosis does superinduce some carefulness in the matter of destroying life, but the cruel and inhuman character of Chinese punishments at law, show the absolu.e failure of all these religions combined to master the barbarous element of heathenism.

In the Chinese army the penalty of opium-smoking consists of slitting the upper lip for the first offense and decapitation for the second. Cutting the flesh off a living criminal is mentioned as a Chinese reformatory measure. The editor of the China Mail published at Hong Kong, thus describes Ling-Chih :

"It means being tied to a cross and then subjected to tortures so fiendish that even the North American Indian has never invented anything more horrible ; that the death agony is prolonged through such operations as flaying the face, cutting off the breasts, excising the muscles, nipping off the fingers and toes, and finally disemboweling the wretched victim who even then has been known to manifest signs of life ! "

He then gives the following account of " everyday ** punishments in China: ^

INEFFICIENCY OF THE CHINESE RELIGION. 31

These are described by a well-known writer — and we can confirm most of his statements from personal knowl- edge— as follows : Compressing the ankles and squeezing the fingers, until crushed, between boards ; twisting the ears, kneeling on chains, striking the lips until jellied, putting the hands in stocks behind the back, or tying the hands to a bar under the knees and chaining the neck to a stone. Cases are officially recorded of nailing prisoners' hands between boards, using beds of iron, scalding with boilding water, inserting red hot spikes, cutting the tendon Achilles and burying the body up to the neck in lime, while the prisoner is forced to swallow large draughts of water. Finally, a lighter (?) punishment is to make the criminal kneel on a mixture of pounded glass, sand and salt until the knees are excoriated. Flogging to death with the bamboo is also not uncommon. There are many other minor punishments, but we have omitted one we knew to be practiced at Shanghai on some rebels captured by the Imperialists during the Taiping rebellion, driving fine spikes of bamboo down between the nails and the fingers or toes. If devilish ingenuity can go further than this, we shall be surprised.

The editor closes by saying :

In the name of common humanity — not of the picture- pocket-handkerchief sort — we call upon our colonial gov- ernment to take measures to remove from our flag the shame of participating in such doings.

Nor does such treatment of dead infants as Dr. Martin of the Imperial College at Peking describes, speak well for the humanitarism of Buddhism. He says :

Among the Chinese, infant funerals are unknown. * * * As soon as the last breath is drawn, the little body is committed to the hand of a stranger who buries it in some unknown spot, or casts it in one of those offensive receptacles for the untimely fruits of the tree of human- ity, which are known to Europeans by the designation of " baby towers." With no weeping father to follow the little coffin (if coffin it has), and no tender mother to plant flowers on the little grave (if grave it has), it is cast out as

p CHINA.

an unclean thing and consigned to speedy oblivion — often- times indeed abandoned to the beasts of the field and the birds of the air.

The reason of this strange anomaly — this seeming exception of the laws of nature — is found in the teachings of a perverse creed. Buddhism inculcates the transmi- gration of souls, and it resorts to a monstrous fiction in order to account for the death of children, at an age when they are unable to repay the kindness and care of their parents.

He then explains that such infants are regarded as creditors, who in a former state, failing to obtain their dues, have come thus into the family in the form of infants, and staid long enough to get the equivalent of the arrears, principal and interest. A sick child, he tells us, is watched with tender solitude, but when dead they endeavor to efface every trace of the child's existence, carefully obliterating the footsteps of the stranger who bore it away, and smiting with a knife on the threshold as it passes the door in token of severing the last link that bound it to the family.

Nor do we suppose it unfair to hold ancestor worship responsible largely for the infanticide of female children. Prayer is never offered for female children^ and their com- ing is viewed as a calamity. A Chinese official report says, " Many of them are consigned to the nearest pond or stream.** They are often drowned in tubs of water, strangled or buried alive as one might a litter of kittens, and all this largely and often wholly because they, as girls, cannot make offerings of food at the family tombs and in the ancestral halls. To secure these infants from death, mothers often obtain the promise of their adoption by some family as wives for their sons, or sell them at an early age at the highest price, in the same terms they would describe any other sale of property, as additional

EARLY MISSIONS, 33

wives, concubines, or slaves, the buyer having right to re-sell.

We charge much of this on ancestral worship, as we do the ambition which is inspired in widows to starve, drown or otherwise destroy themselves as " virtuous and filial,'* that tablets on which their names are inscribed may be placed in the temples and incense offered them by the Chinese gentry.

VI.— CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA.

Early Missions. — It is probable that Christianity was introduced at a very early date into China. In the sixth century the Nestorian Christains had missious there [See Gibbon and Mosheim.] These became flourishing a century later. Six or seven emperors of the Tang dynasty favored Christianity, and parts of the Bible were translated and placed ^4n the library of the palace." In the ninth century, persecution sent three thousand Christian priests into private life, and subsequently "scattered the Christians and changed their places of worship into heathen temples." A century later than this (the seventeenth), the Jesuits found traces of these Nestorian missions.

The Roman Catholics have had missions in China for nearly six hundred years, though with a fluctuating for- tune. After seventy-six years they were almost wholly broken up. Recently they have increased their force of workers ; in 1870 they claimed 404,530 adherents.

The Greek church was established in Peking in 1685, and four years later a treaty, formed between the Russian and Chinese governments, resulted in the permanent establishment of a college of Greek priests at the Chinese capital. It was not until recent years that they attempted to make proselytes.

34 CHINA.

Modern Missions. — Protestant missions in China were begun by the London Missionary Society sending Rev. Robert Morrison to Canton in 1807. Morrison's temper was manifest when he prepared for the Divinity school at night, after making boot-trees all day. He was indomit- able. Unable to do direct missionary work, he labored as a servant of the East India Company in compiimg a Chinese dictionary and translating the Bible into that tongue. For six years he labored alone, then he was joined by William Milne, of like spirit, who at sixteen was wont to spend whole evenings in prayer in the sheep-cotes of his native Scotland. In 1814 Morrison baptized his first convert, and issued the New Testament in Chinese. In 1818 he and Milne jointly published the whole Bible in that language. Up to 1841, fifty-eight missionaries reached China and the Maylayan Archipelago. In 1842, the missionaries outside of China proper, feeling unsafe, removed to the treaty ports in China. For eighteen years they labored at these five ports and at Hong Kong. In i860 ten new ports were opened in North China and up the Yang-tse river, where missionaries were soon established. Since then the whole country has been opened, and Hon. Wm. B. Reed, the American Ambassador, said toleration was introduced into the treaty at the suggestion of the Chinese themselves.

This was done by Article XXIX of the Urlted States treaty with China, which is as follows :

** The principles of the Christian religion, as professed by the Protestant and Roman Catholic Churches are recognized as teaching men to do good, and to do to others as they would have others do to them. Hereafter, those who quietly profess and teach these doctrines shall ' net be harassed or persecuted on account of their faith.

MODERN MISSIONS, 35

Any person, whether citizen of the United States or Chinese convert, who according to these tenets peaceably teaches and practices the principles of Christianity shall in no case be interfered with or molested."

An emphatic decree from the throne was issued in 1891, which says :

^'The right of foreign missionaries to promulgate their religion in China is provided for by treaties, and by im- perial decrees which were issued prior to those treaty stipu- lations. The authorities of all the provinces were com- manded to afford them protection as circumstances might require.

**The religions of the West have for their object the in- culcation of virtue, and, though our people become converted, they continue to be Chinese subjects. There is no reason why there should not be harmony between the people and the adherents of foreign religions. The whole trouble arises from lawless ruffians fabricating baseless stories.

" We command the Manchu generals, the viceroys and governors everywhere, to issue proclamations clearly explaining to the people that they must on no account give ear to such idle tales and wantonly cause trouble.*'

Chinese Converts. — Christianity is the power of God to the salvation of Chinese. Witness the testimony of con- verts, their endurance of persecution on account of Chris- tianity, their zeal in propagating it, and the testimony of others to their integrity.

Let us glance at a few instances :

I. A Confucian temple keeper named Ch'e at the city of Poklo, on the Canton East River, received the Scrip- tures from a colporteur of the London Mission, became convinced of the folly of idolatry, and was baptized by

36 CHINA.

Dr. Legge. He gave up his calling, and set to work among his acquaintances and friends as a self-appointed Scripture reader. He would go through the streets of the city and the country round with a board on his back rcn- taining some text of Scripture. So successful was he that in about three years' time, about one hundred of the people were baptized. And so mightily grew the word of God, and prevailed, that surprise and hostility were excited, and a fierce persecution broke out. The Christians were driven from the villages and their property was plundered. Ch'e, the colporteur, was seized, and twice within forty-eight hours dragged before the Literati, and called upon to recant. This he steadfastly refused to do. He was there- fore tortured by being suspended by the arms during the night. The next morning he was brought forward in an enfeebled state, pale and trembling, for a second trial. The officials and mandarins were cowed into submission by the gentry ; but this brave old man was still firm in his resolve to cleave to the Bible and to Christ, and expressed a hope that his judges would some day embrace the new doctrine. This was more than they could tolerate, and, like the judges of Stephen, they ran upon him with one accord and killed him by repeated blows of their side arms, and threw him into the river. Thus perished the first Protestant Christian Martyr of China.

2. A Chinese merchant came into the American Bap- tist Mission Chappel in Shanghai and after talking with him for a short time, Dr. Yates sold him a copy of the New Testament. He took it home, 200 or 300 miles away, and after about three months appeared again in the chapel. He came back to say that he was under the impression that the book was not complete, that surely it must have other parts, and so he came to get the Old Testament, as

CHINESE CONVERTS. 37

he had read and studied the New, What lad he done with the New Testament ? He had taken it to his home and shown it to the schoolmasters and the reading people They said, ^' This is a good book. Confucius himself must have had something to do with it.*' As there was only one copy, they unstitched this one^ and took it leaf by leaf^ and all those who could write took a leaf home. They made twelve or fifteen copies complete of the New Testament, and introduced it into their schools without any " conscience clause." It was introduced as a class-book, throughout that district, for heathen schools,

3. "I am addicted to every sin you can imagine," said Liu Kin Shan to Rev. Griffiths John. "I am an opium smoker, a fornicator, a gambler, a drunkard, an unfilial son, and everything that is bad. Can Jesus Christ save me ?** He had strolled into the chapel at Hankow The preacher said ''Yes." They prayed, and instantaneous conversion followed, and Liu, now more than fifty years old, is the center of a gospel work in his own locality, where he was widely known as a riotous libertine.

4. A proprietor of a gambling hell in Cheh Kiang Province heard a Chinese Christian preaching in the streets of his own city, unaccompanied by a foreign missionary and all alone. " The Saviour of whom I speak is mighty to save," said he ; " He is able to cure the opium smoker of his opium smoking. He is able to cure the gambler of his propensities for gambling, the debauchee of his bad habits, and you know very well that it is useless for men who are addicted to these evils, to try to cure themselves. But the Saviour whom I preach, Jesus Christ, is mighty to save." The gambling hell proprietor saiu : " If this Jesus can save me he shall," and he went home, closed that gambling place, sent all the bad women away, and a part

38 CHINA,

of the house has since been used for preaching the gospel.

5. Rev, Dr. Baldwin of the Methodist Episcopal mis- sion says : " A man who had been an opium smoker, and an opium seller, by name of Ling Ching Ting was con- verted at Foochow.

In 1863, accidentally hearing Rev. S. L. Binkley preach- ing, he went to him and said : ^' Did you say that Jesus (I never heard of Him before ; I don't know who He is) ; but did you say that He can save me from all my sins ?" *'Yes," replied Mr. Binkley, '^that is just what I said." " But," the Chinaman responded, **you didn't know me when you said that ; you didn't know that I had been a gambler and a sorcerer for many years ; you didn't know that I had been a licentious man ; you didn't know that I had been an opium-smoker for twenty years, and every one knows that any man who has smoked opium for that length of time can never be cured of the habit. If you had known all this, you wouldn't have said that Jesus can save me from all my sins — would you?" -^Yes,'* replied the missionary, "I would have said just what I did ; and I tell you now that Jesus can save you from all your sins."

The poor, sinful Chinaman was bewildered. It seemed to him impossible of belief. Yet there was a charm about the very idea of a Saviour, who could deliver him from all his sins. He went away in deep thought. The next day he sought Mr. Binkley at his residence, to talk with him about this wonderful Saviour ; and day after day for many days he came, examining the proofs of Christianity, and bringing his objections to be solved by the missionary But one day he came to the missionary's study with a radiant countenance, exclaiming as he entered : " I know it ! I know it ! I know that Jesus can save me from my sins ; for he has done it ! "

One day he came and said : '' I don't want to smoke opium any more ; I don't want to do any of the evil things I have been doing ; but I want to go and tell the people of Hok-chiang that Jesus can save them from their sins." When his friends heard of his purpose, they tried to dissuade him. sayings '* Don't go down there ; the people

CHINESE CONVERTS. 39

are fighting all the time ; they will soon take your head, off, and that will stop your preaching. If you will preach the ^foreign doctrine/ stay here at Foochow and preach it where you will be safe." But he replied, ^^ No, I must go to Hok-chiang. The people there need the Gospel, and they are my people. I came from there and I must go there and tell them about Jesus."

There was no time for a theological course or for theo- logical training. He went out with the word of God in his hand, and the experience of his Saviour's love in his heart. His simple message to the people everywhere was, "Jesus can save you from all your sins ; I know it, for he has saved me from mine ! " He suffered much persecution — stoned in one place, pelted with mud in another, beaten in another, he pressed on with indomitable energy, pro- claiming everywhere his simple message of salvation. Many listened to his earnest words and became followers of Christ.

After a time he was caught by his enemies in the city of Hok-chiang, and brought before the district magistrate, with false charges against him, and false witnesses to testify to them ; and the too-willing heathen magistrate sentenced him to be beaten with two thousand stripes. This cruel sentence was executed with the bamboo upon the bare back of the victim. I well remember the day he was brought to our Mission premises, apparently almost dead. I well remember the sorrowful countenance of our good Scotch physician, as he came out of the room after examining his patient, and said, *^ I don't think we can save him. I never saw such terrible injuries from beating. The flesh on his back is like quivering jelly. But we will do our best to save him." I remember how I thought over some of the comforting words of Jesus, as I made my way toward the room, that I might try to comfort my brother in his great distress ; and I remember, too, the smile with which he greeted me, and how he, speaking first, before I had a chance to say anything, said : ^* Teacher, this poor body is in great pain just now ; but my inside heart has great peace. Jesus is with me ; and I think perhaps He will take me to heaven, and I will be glad to go." And

40 CHINA.

then I could see the old fire flashing again in his eyes, as with effort he raised himself a little from his bed, and said, " But if I get up from this, you'll let me go back to Hok-chiang, won't you ? "

He was in a precarious condition for some time, but soon began to mend ; and before the missionaries thought he ought to leave the premises, he was off again to Hok- chiang, preaching to the very men who had persecuted him, and with such effect that some of them were con- verted and became members of our church in that city.

He continued to preach with much energy and success for a period of fourteen years. He was ordained by Bishop Kingsley, in 1869. Soon after he was appointed to Teng- tiong in 1876, finding himself very ill, he went to his native island of Lam-yit, hoping to improve in the sea breezes, and under the care of physicians there. But when, after some weeks, they told him that his case was hopeless, and that he could not live many weeks, he said : "Then I must go back to my station. I only came here in hope of getting well, so as to do longer service ; but if I cannot, then I want to go where my work is, and die at my post." So, in his feebleness, he made his way back to Teng-tiong ; and when he could no longer stand to preach, he sat down, gathered the Christians close around him, and talked to them of the love of Jesus, and his power to save from sin.

While on one of the islands off the coast he preached earnestly. A number of the poor islanders were soon added to the Church. Among the inquirers was a man who had been a wicked pirate. He came to Ching Ting saying that he was convinced that the religion he preached was true, and he wanted to be a Christian. He would immediately give up his piracy ; but there was one little thing he thought he would hold on to. Said he, "You know that some time ago we made a covenant with the fishermen here, by which we agreed to leave their nets alone at all times except the ist and 15th of each month, and they agreed that we should have all the fish we should

as ■

CHINESE CONVERTS, 41

find in them on those days. Now that is an agreement between us, and I think it will be right for me to continue to take the fish/' Ching Ting thought that the man was being led by the Spirit, and not wishing to discourage him, he expressed no opinion about his taking the fish, he said : "Well, I'll put your name right down as a probationer in the M. E. Church, and I will pray God to lead you into the right, about all things." So we had a probationer in the M. E. Church who was purposing to steal fish twice a month from the poor fishermen. He could not have done it more than once, however, after this, for about three weeks after that time he came to Ching Ting, and said with tears, "Oh, Ching Ting, this fish business is all wrong, too. It is stealing from the poor fishermen. I must give it up, I want to be a whole-hearted Christian , and you must pray for me and help me to be one." So this great burly pirate became a humble servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. The work spread southward from Hok-Chiang through the Prefecture of Hing-Hwa where there are now five hundred communicants in the M. E. Church. Ling Ching Ting died in good ministerial standing in 1877.

6. One day a mandarin entered the shop of an old cloth merchant, a convert in the Amoy region where the English Presbyterians were labormg. The old man surmised their intention to oppress and persecute him. "I know what you have come for,*' said he, and taking down some of the goods, pointed to them and to the rest in the shop and said, " Take them and take me also. I am an old man and very deaf. You may take my boys also and my little girl. We are all Christians and willing to go to prison." This man was amongst the first converts of the mission which numbers more than seventy stations and 3,312 communicants.

42 CHINA.

7. When tne Methodist chapel at Ing Ching was dam- aged by a mob in 1878, the government awarded one native Christian 30,000 ^'^ cash'' on account of physical injuries, but he declined to take it as he did not wish to appear to receive money-compensation for his persecution for Christ's sake. *^They can cut off our heads,*' said some grave (^hristians to Rev. Mr. Stevenson, ^' but they cannot behead Christ."

8. Ling Seng-Ki is a steward in the Methodist circuit of Hung-ting. On a Sunday evening in March, 1878, when returning home from church, he was waylaid by three men of the village, close by his house. They took him to the house of one of them, where they gave him supper, then deliberately led him to the newly repaired temple, for which he had refused to give aid, and there, in the presence of over twenty villagers, his hands were tied with a cord behind his back, a rope was then attached to this cord and passed over a beam, by which he was drawn up a foot or more from the ground, and thus suspended in excruciating torture for more than an hour. He prayed aloud for his persecutors. They continued to demand c:. him pledges of money. He finally said, " If you want my little property, take it ; if you want my life, that, too, is in your power." Then they let him down. They did take his property to the amount of half his little all. "I saw r^rother Ling a month afterward, happy in the love of Jesus and no words of bitterness against his persecutors," writes the missionary.

9. Another account lies before us, of a Chinese woman who describes her husband's state of mind, while under conviction for sin, thus :

" In the eighth year of the Emperor Lung Tai (19 years ago) first month, twelfth night, I saw my husband in a very

GENUINENESS OE THE WORK. 43

Wunderful condition. He would cry, then kneel down, get up again then kneel down again, and so for a long time. Then suddenly he seemed very happy. I did not seem to understand the business at alL Afterwards I saw he was very much changed from what he was before. Seeing this I was very glad, but I could not understand why or how he had been changed." She adds a word about herself : "When I saw him reading a book of hymns I read it with him ; also the colloquial New Testament. Then I quickly understood the whole by heart, and my heart was very glad and greatly rejoiced to receive the Doctrine Preacher, and trusted him to teach me how to be saved, how to believe and trust and how to hope for heaven's happiness. The Holy Spirit made it plain to me."

Genuineness of the Work. — The Chinese converts are mostly poor, but the genuineness of the work is shown by their contributions to it. At the Shanghai conference. Dr. Yates said in 1876 the contributions averaged $3.50 per head, though probably one-half gave nothing. Native Christians contributed in 1876, $10,000 for Christian objects; in 1886, $12,874, and in 1890, $37,000. Dr. Sheffield said at the Ecumenical Conference in New York that at the Pekin University in ten years they had gradu- ated twenty-eight students, all of whom studied English, and were prepared for business, and could have entered business at a salary of about 15 oz. of silver a month for the first year, 20 oz. a month for the second year, and 25 oz. a month for the third year. Some of them were offered much better salaries. But twenty out of the twenty-eight preferred to enter the church to preach or teach the gospel, some of them on a salary of three ounces of silver a month — about two dollars in gold — with the chance of making $20 or $30 besides, and some entered the church to preach or teach at five ounces of silver a month — less than four dollars per month, even when thev Vnew they would be persecuted.

44 CHINA.

Dr. Legge, after forty years of missionary service in China, acknowledges the failings and peculiar weaknesses of many Chinese Christians, but at the London conference said :

^* I have been by the bedside of men and women who have died in Christian peace and hope. I have heard men who had at one time been great criminals and afterward lived good lives, comforting with their latest breath, and stimulating their friends who stood weeping around. I have known not a few who took submissively their spoiling of their goods because of their faith. I knew well one who sealed his Christian profession with his blood, and died a faithful martyr. Yes, the converts are real.'*

Rev. George Smith, missionary of the English Presby- terian mission, thinks that :

" Some of these women, in regard to faith and zeal and patience and self-denial, might take their places beside of the most honored sisters at home. Many of them, by enduring persecution and risking their lives unto death, .ave won triumphs for the gospel in villages and towns where it would have been unsafe for man to enter at first."

Rev. C. F. Turner also at the London Conference, said :

" I have worked with Chinese Christians who have borne ;n their bodies the marks of the Lord Jesus ; men with great burnt scars on their bodies, where they had endured the tortures of fire, in the service of the gospel. I have trodden in the footsteps of a Chinese martyr who laid down his life for the Lord Jesus, and I have looked upon the spot where they cast his corpse into the river.

Advantages and Helps. — Rev. Dr. Williamson pointed out some while ago, in Evangelical Christendom^ that there is a providential preparation in China for the reception and spread of the Gospel.

I. There is an educational preparation. They say : " The mind is the man." The competitive examinations have quickened the intellect of China. This gave rise to

ADVANTAGES AND HELPS. 45

schools. Hence the large percentage of readers. Then there is one written language for the whole empire. There is a social preparation. Through the observance of filial obligation has trained the nation to subordination to law and order. There is no communism nor nihilism here. Vivine authority can be easily taught.

3. There is a moral preparation. The heart is recog- nized as the seat of morals. Benevolence is urged in every form and righteousness too. The doctrine of mediation is recognized.

4. They have some knowledge of a true and living God a power on whom country, family and individual prosper-

ity depends.

5. They possess an implied knowledge of immortality. Their emperors never die, they ascend.

Mr. Hudson Taylor has pointed out the significant fact that the physical conformation of China is favorable to this. To the west of the 12th degree of longitude the country is mountainous and therefore less densely popu- lated than the more easily accessible regions on the east of the line. The geographical center of the country is not the center of population. ► Divide the eighteen prov inces equally at no degrees east longitude, and only one- fifth of the population will be found west of that parallel. We have access to the whole seaboard, and four-fifths, or 320 millions of the population lie in that half of the coun- try. Divide the country laterally by the 30th degree of latitude and the northern half is the more healthy, and contains nearly double the population of the southern half of the territory. Thus the health conditions are favorable for reaching the greatest number, as one-half the people are in one-quarter of the territory, and that the most salu- brious prrt.

40 CHINA.

It has been, over and over, pointed out that the written

language affords great facility for communication with all the people of the empire. It is not so difficult of acquisi- tion as was formerly supposed. Mr. Wesley is reported to have said that " the devil invented the Chinese language to keep the gospel out of China," but nothing facilitates irs spread more than this. It has been generally supposed that the Chinese language has 80,000 separate characters of which the dictionary of Kawghi explains about 40,000, but the number met with in books is only about 5,000. The spoken languages vary with every province, and except where missionaries have reduced them to writing, are as a rule unwritten, while the written language is uni- versal throughout the empire, but is unspoken. Though a Canton and a Foo Chow man cannot understand each other's speech, they will each know what the other writes, as a Frenchman, a German, and an Englishman would know the written Arabic numerals though not each other's words for them.

The written language is greatly venerated. The cloth- ing, chopsticks, fans, vases, cabinets, and almost everything belonging to the Chinese are decorated with the written character. It is intelligible not only to scholars, but to shop-keepers and dealers throughout the eighteen provinces as well as to all Chinamen in Manchuria, Mongolia, Thibet, Korea, Japan, Cambodia, and in the islands of the sea.

The water communications afford a highway to every province of China. Rev. Mr. Knowlton points out the auxiliary facilities of the clanship of families and the cus- tom of living together in villages and cities ; the social habits contributing to the communication by one to others what is heard; the settled habits of the people; the similar- ity of characteristics, so that objections met and hindrances

ADVANTAGES AND HELPS, 47

dealt with in one part ot the country, by any set of argu- ments may be so dealt with in other parts, the experience in one place being thus useful in all. Protection is afforded.

Amongst the specially favorable things, there is the fact that the people's confidence in their religious systems was disturbed by the Taiping rebellion. " The idol- destroying rebels ever worsted the idol-worshipping imperialists, ever subdued the idol-trusting masses," and the rebels who broke down temples, drove out priests and made widows and orphans were only subdued by the aid of "Foreign Devils." This was a terrible stroke to the prestige of the idolatrous systems of China. The same British guns which had broken the sea-rampart of China had to preserve the " Son of Heaven " at Peking, from insurgents who for fourteen years had despised China's religions. In the province of Canton alone this rebellion was quelled at the cost of half a million of lives, 80,000 of which perished by the sword of the executioner. All this has made a deep impression upon the national mind.

We have read of the favorable disposition of the people of North China superinduced through famine. The Chinese have a natural distrust for foreigners, and this has been greatly increased by the course of Great Britain in the matter of the opium traffic. The disinter- ested benevolence of foreigners in the late famine which swept off five millions of people had a good effect. At first they met the movement with distrust. Rev. A. H. Smith, writing of Shantung, one of the fanzine-stricken provinces, says of the people :

At first they were too much famished and too bewil- dered to do more than open their mouths. They ate and were silent. But by degrees they began to talk, and the

48 CHINA.

theories advanced were unique. Some said that it was the deeply laid plan of these foreigners to purchase land, when it was to be had for next to nothing, and thus, gradually introducing the thin edge of a wedge, to usurp the land after the manner of the Egyptian Joseph, others supposed that the whole population — men, women and children — were to be removed to Tien-tsin, and perhaps to foreign parts, where they were to be employed accord- ing to their capacities, as teachers, artisans and servants, perpetual bondservants of their farsighted benefactors. But as month after month elapsed, and no land was sold, and no one was deported, this theory was abandoned, and many came to the conclusion that the relief was really some form of the practice of virtue, of which in China we hear so much and see so little.

It was in this province, too, that since the famine, a Buddhist temple was given to the missionaries of the American Board for Christian uses. This did not occur till the pressure of famine was over, and the people were in the midst of a plentiful harvest. The deed of gift was drawn up at a feast, at which the temple-keeper, the eighteen managers of the temple, and the missionary were present. *^ Here," says the missionary, "was an absolutely heathen gathering, in a heathen town, voting away their temple and its lands to a foreign religion, of which most of them had never heard six months ago, and none of them until within a few years. They did il of their own motion, and without solicitation on our part." The deed runs thus :

The authors of this document, to wit, the whole body of managers (of the temple), together with the whole body of villagers, deliberating in a public capacity, volun- tarily agree to make over the temple buildings to the church of Christ, for the purpose of fitting up a meeting- house, in order to the public preaching of the sacred doctrine, and for the purpose of establishing a public school, that the youth of the village may become virtuous, a benefit to future generations.

ADVANTAGES AND HELPS. 49

Another incident is recorded. Rev. Albert Whiting of the American Presbyterian mission, fell a victim to famine fever, in this very province of Shan-Si. His body was enclosed in a strong coffin until his wife and friends should be communicated with, and their desires ascertained as to its disposal. Their message was that he should be buried where he fell. Mr. Richard accordingly sought to pur- chase a piece of ground for the grave. Before the pur- chase was completed, he communicated with the governor of the province, as foreigners have no legal right to hold land in the interior. The first answer was an order for 400 taels (about ^130) on the public treasury. The order was accompanied with an intimation that as Mr. Whiting had died in the service of the suffering Chinese, the least that the province could do to show its gratitude was to bear the expense of sending his body home to America. The governor, of course, thought that what is so dear to a Chinaman — namely, to be buried beside hif ancestors — must be equally dear to a foreigner. On Mr. Richard explaining the Christian feeling in this matter, and the express desire of Mr. Whiting's friends that he should be buried at Tai-yuen-fu, the governor insisted that in that case all expenses connected with the purchase of the land should be borne by the treasury.

At the funeral, twelve Chinese carried the coffin to the grave. A short service was held there, and at its close one of the Chinese came forward, saying to the foreign missionaries present : " Since you have shown your respect to Mr. Whiting, who has lost his life in seeking our good, let us pay our respect." Mr. James, of the China Inland mission, adds : " Before we had time to stop him, he had suited the action to the word, and was down on his knees before the grave ; the others would have done

so CHINA.

the same had we not restrained them, and more fully explained our meaning."

A native Chinese paper of Shanghai, that has been an opponent of Christianity, closes an article in which it speaks of the missionaries' work during the famine thus :

** Let us then cherish a grateful admiration for the charity and wide benevolence of the missionary whose sacrifice of self, and love toward mankind can be carried out with earnestness like this. Let us applaud too, the mysterious efficacy and activity of the doctrine of Jesus of which we have these proofs. We record the same in wricing for the information of all noble minded within the seas."

" A dozen wars," says an eminent authority, " would not have so much to open China as the ministrations to their relief have done."

Encouragements to Renewed Efforts. — The encourage- ments are not small. A native preacher at Ningpo writes:

As to the fact that the doctrine is beginning to strike root here, there are several signs, (i.) The hearts of the people are turned. Formerly they looked on the "doctrine" as bad, and the preachers as wicked men, who either wanted to entrap men, or spoil them of their goods, or swallow up their houses and kingdom, whence arose many bad and false reports ; now most men praise the doctrine and its preachers. (2.) Formerly the converts were all of the lowest class ; now there are also some from among the literati and gentry. (3.) There is much less persecution. Formerly those who entered the religion were looked upon as scarcely human ; now, although, alas ! there is still hatred, yet Christians are no longer looked upon as brutes. (4.) False religions are decaying. Formerly the Buddhist religion was very powerful ; now the magistrates hate, and are trying to suppress it; the convents and monasteries are being turned into free schools, and other public offices. The Taoist and Buddhist religion are alike; the Buddhist having fallen, the Taoist will also fall, whence we may know that Christianity is beginning to flourish.

MISS ION A R V RESUL TS AND PROSPECTS. 51

Missionary Results and Prospects. — At the Shanghai Conference, May, 1877, the number of communicants in the several missions of China was reported at 13,033, and the Christian community estimated at 40,000. The Shanghai Conference of 1890, returns 31,000 communicants and 100,000 native Christians. This represents the gain for about forty -five years, as work was only fairly begun in 1842 when China first became open for resident missionaries at the treaty ports. But it does not indicate the present ratio of increase. The conversions in 1878 were more than those of the whole five years previous.

The statistics compiled by Rev. Harlan P. Beach gave the number of communicants for 1900 at 80,682, as care- fully enrolled in fifty-four separate protestant missionary societies operating in China. There were then 2,461 foreign workers in these missions, with 5,071 native Christian mission agents. There were over 30,000 pupils in day schools and 5,000 in the schools of higher learning.

Obstacles and Difficulties. — i. To the heathen becoming Christians. No one can state the case of the Chinese better than the Chinese, and so we let a native Chinese Christian minister state the point of the difficulties of the native Chinaman in learning about Christianity.

Rev. Y. K. Yen, speaking at the Shanghai Conference, said :

*^We must understand the peculiar character of the Chinese, (i) They have hazy ideas about gods. A Chinese who went to the United States was written to by his father that his sixth mother was well. What can a man who has six mothers know of a mother's love? (2) The Chinese have hazy ideas about sin, which they confound with crime, treading on one's toes, being late to dinner — the same character for all. (3) They have hazy ideas about a

52 CHINA.

future lite. At a Chinese death-bed there Is never a word about future happiness, but only about mourning and money. If they did not think the gods could affect men's bodies the temples would be deserted and ancestral worship would decline. They are not to blame. It is their misfor- tune and not their fault. The Chinese cannot see Christian- ity as we see it."

2. To native Christians. This same Christian native, already quoted (Rev. Y. K. Yen), said again at the great missionary conference last year, some very sensible things about the difficulties to the mission work growing out of the conservatism of the Chinese. He said :

** The Chinese Christians are not in the same favorable circumstances as Christians in other lands. The former have fifty generations of heathenism behind them. They have much to contend with. We should not expect the same enterprise, activity and piety as from foreigners. Missionaries often speak disparagingly of Chinese Christians. This, considering the circumstances, is unreasonable and unjust. Western civilization is marked by diversity. Eastern civilization by uniformity. Chinese are not active physically, morally and spiritually. If I were active physically I should not have this queue to-day. If any other Chinese would cut off his hair and shorten his skirts I would do so too. They have a load upon them. All Chinese worship is for selfishness. They have no knowledge of God ; no recognition of being His sons.

** A single province of hers converted would be equal to the conversion of whole nations elsewhere. Convert any one of her eighteen provinces and you would have more than all Brazil and Mexico. Any one of a dozen of her provinces would be more than the conversion of all Italy. As goes China, so goes Asia. She is to-day the citadel of paganism. Secure her to Christ, and you secure all her dependencies, as Thibet, Turkistan, Mongolia, Manchuria and Korea. Break down her idols and you dethrone- the greater part of heathenism at a stroke ! "

THE CRISIS Op ic^oo, 53

THE CRISIS OF 1900.

It is quite certain that many causes have contributed to rouse grave apprehensions in the minds of the Chinese for the integrity of their government, their natural resources and their social and religious usages.

The Manchu dynasty sought from the first to exclude all foreigners. It was only after the Opium war that the first five ports were opened. When a British officer named Margary was murdered in the western provinces, ports on the Yangtse were opened as an indemnity. The right of foreign ministers to reside in Peking was obtained by force. For two centuries and a-half this exclusive policy has been maintained. The western powers, except the United States, have forced all concessions from China by the "gun-boat policy." In 1884 a French fleet entered the Min river to frighten the Peking government into paying an indemnity for alleged aid of Chinese in Tonquin against the French seizure of that country. Later came the Japan war, in which China was humiliated by **a nation of dwarfs", her navy practically driven from the seas, her suzerainty over Korea lost, the Laou Chow peninsula given to Japan, her great forts leased to other powers and two-hun- dred million dollars indemnity had to be paid. Up to the year 1897 the province of Shantung had been tolerant of foreigners and kindly toward native Christians. A riot occurred in which two German (Catholic) mission- aries were killed. A fortnight later the German admiral landed troops at Kiao Chow and demanded the cession of the territory already seized, the Bay of Kiao Chow and two railway and mining concessions.

The bitter feeling created by this action was intensified by the Imperial decree (March 15, 1899), demanded by France, that the Roman Catholic bishops and missionaries

54 CHINA.

be given civil power to establish courts for Roman Cath- olic converts, and rank equal to that of provincial judges taotais and prefects. Thus the coast defense had been destroyed, territory had been seized, and now a segment of civil jurisdiction over a half-million Chinese subjects was handed over to the control of foreigners, with possible unlimited extension to other nationals under the " most favored nation " clause.

It is little wonder that a bitter anti-foreign spirit should manifest itself. All things foreign came under the ban of the conservatives. In all parts of the empire disaffection became rife, and the President of the Tsung-li-Yamen, and a half-dozen of the viceroys declared their inability to protect foreigners. Outrages were perpetrated against foreigners without distinction of nationality, class or office. Above Hankow they sacked the Japanese Consulate and the Swedish mission. An officer of the British Legation, chief engineer of the Imperial railway, was assaulted and left in a bleeding condition. In Yunan the French Con- sulate was plundered. The foreigners operating silver mines were frequently mobbed. All who were allied with foreigners as native Christians or employees came under ban.

A riotous mob of 8,000 in Szechuen (West China) in 1899 sought to drive out all the « foreign devils." In Kwangsi (the extreme south) 7,000 organized rioters rose up to expel " the foreign dogs. " One, Chang, called together 300 philo- sophical scholars, 3,000 military officers, and 30,000 brave soldiers, and held rebellious sway for months. Father Fleury, a Roman Catholic priest, was taken from place to place, that Christians might be murdered at his feet. Shun- ching, Hoochow, Kweifu, Kiangpeh, were all subjects of riotous demonstrations against the missionaries as « foreign

THE CRISIS OF ipoo. 55

dogs." In Kuichow, Mr. Fleming, of the China Inland Mission, and his evangelist, were deliberately murdered. On the Yangtse the rioting was directed against the Roman Catholics, with the cry ^' Destroy the foreigners ! " Later came the massacre of Roman Catholic missionaries in the north, and of the Church of England, near Foochow, under the cry, ^' Rise and kill every foreigner ! "

These demonstrations occurred in twelve out of the eighteen provinces ; they were made against all classes of foreigners. Of the attacks on missionaries, the greater pro- portion were made against Roman Catholics. Thus it does not appear that these riots have arisen from antagonism to missionaries as such, though the prejudices and fears of a superstitious people have been appealed to, under charges that they killed children to make medicine out of their eyes, just as they attacked engineers because railway levels disturbed their ancestors and fengshui. The Man- darins have antagonized missionaries on political grounds. The Buddhists have shown some antagonism at times on religious grounds, ascribing the drouth to the neglect of the gods, to the tolerance of foreigners' residence and to native Christians abandoning the worship of ancestors. It was chiefly as foreigners that the missionaries were included in the revolt. Hon. Mr. Denby says, ** The in- cidents of riots in the past do not indicate a general antagonism among the people to missionary work." He says that missions have been established all over that great empire, many of them in most isolated and unprotected places, and disaster has come to comparatively few of them. The missionary penetrates the interior where the merchant does not; in some instances small towns have been laid out by them. They constitute nearly one-third of the foreign population of the empire.

S6 CHINA,

The Boxers.— China has numerous secret societies in all parts of the empire. They are all more or less available for revolt. The province of Shantung, where the Boxers first publicly made their demonstration, is honeycombed with secret societies. The Boxers are a patriotic society whose origin it is difficult to trace. It was not till 1899 that they attracted attention by depredations against foreigners. Until then t hey gave no trouble to missionaries or other foreigners, or to native Christians. That they came to be in favor with the Empress Dowager and the conservative element is conceded. That the Imperial troops, sent ostensibly to suppress their revolt against foreigners, joined their ranks according to a pre-concerted plan of the government to drive foreigners out of the land, and to offer to native Christians the alternative of apostasy or death, seems well established.

It is estimated that 10,000 Roman Catholic and 4,000 Protestant native Christians were put to death. By a word they could have saved their lives, but they gave themselves to suffer cruelties and death in their constancy to Christ.

The Reform Movement.— China's war with Japan pro- duced a wide-spread conviction amongst a great number of Chinese, that preservation of the empire could only be secured by following the example of Japan and adopting many parts of western civilized life.

The young Emperor, just come to the throne, championed reform. Peking was to have a University modelled after that at Tokyo. Great schools of agriculture, engineering and medicine were projected. Reformation in the national Budget of Taxes ; reduction of expense of the six Boards of Ceremony ; pushing of railroads ; western arms for Tartar troops ; patent and copyright laws, were among

THE MISSIONAR Y FUTURE, 57

the features of proposed national reform. The Reform party included some of the ablest men of the empire.

This reform movement cannot be long suppressed. Its greatest importance is that it shows that the watershed of China's future lies with the Chinese themselves.

The Missionary Future. — Rev. Dr. Judson Smith forcibly uttered the feelmg of all missionaries respecting the "Boxer " demonstration when he said : — ** Unless all signs fail, this day of bloodshed and loss is sure to be followed by an immense enlargement of our missionary opportunity in China. And for this the churches need at once to gird themselves. When we went to China with the gospel it was to stay and to conquer ; and nothing has happened to change our purpose. And all the voices of earthly wisdom, and all the trumpets of the skies, and all the examples of Christian history, and all the blood of our martyred dead, summon us to these later and greater deeds until the night is gone and China is won."

There is certain to be a New China, One of China's own most eminent sons prophesied, " In process of time a Holy One will be born who will redeem the world. The nations will wait for him as fading flowers desire the sum- mer rain. He will be born of a virgin. His name will be Prince of Peace, China will be visited with his glory.'*

Let our motto be,

CHRIST FOR CHINA, CHINA FOR CHRIST !

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ROLL OF MARTYRED MISSIONARIES IN CHINA IN 1900.

Condensed from list furnished by Rev. John R. Hykes, Shanghai, China, published m the Missionary Review of the World, Dec, 1900.

American Board (Congregational) Mission. — Rev. H. T. Pitkin, Miss A. A. Gould, Miss M. S. Morrill, Rev. and Mrs. D. H. Clapp (one child), Rev. G. L. Williams, Rev. F. W. Davis, Miss R. Bird, Miss M. L. Partridge, Rev. and Mrs. E. R. Atwater (two children), Rev. and Mrs. C. W. Price (one child). (Two children of Mr. Atwater were previously killed.)

American Presbyterian. — Rev. and Mrs. F. E. Simcox (three children), C. V. R. Hodge, M. D., and Mrs Hodge ; G. Y. Taylor, M. D.

Christian Missionary Alliance. — Mr, and Mrs. O. Bingmerk.

China Inland Mission.— Rev. and Mrs. B. Bagnall (one child), Rev. William Cooper, Miss Whitchurch, Miss Searell, Rev. and Mrs. G. McConnell (one child), Miss King, Miss Burton, Rev. and Mrs. D. B. Thompson (two children) Miss Desmond, Miss Manchester, Rev. and Mrs. G. F. Ward (one child), Miss Sherwood, Miss T. Thirgood, Miss Rice, Mr. Saunders* children, Isabella and Jessie, Mrs. E. J. Cooper (one child). Miss Huston, two of Mr. Lutley's children. Rev. and Mrs. A. P. Lundgren, Miss Eldrid, Dr. and Mrs. Miller Wilson (one child), Miss J. Stevens, Miss M. E. Clark.

Church of England Mission. — Rev. S. M. Brooks, Rev. H. V. Norman, Rev. C. Robinson.

English Baptist Mission. — Rev. and Mrs. G. E. Farthing (two children). Miss Stewart, Rev. and Mrs. T. J. Underwood, Rev. and Mrs. Whitehouse.

Independent Baptist Mission. — Miss Coombs.

Sheo-Yang Mission.— Dr. and Mrs. Lovitt (one child), Rev. and Mrs. C. W. Stokes, Rev. and Mrs. J. Simpson, Rev. A. J. Hoddle, Miss Duval, Rev. and Mrs. W. W. Pigott.

British and Foreign Bible Society. — Mr. and Mrs, W, E. Beynon (three children).

There are others entered as '* missing."

CHINA, 6 1

CHINESE PROTESTANT CENTENNIAL,

A mass meeting held in Kuling China, August 7, 1903, had for its central thought a three years' enterprise looking to the celebration by some fitting movement of the Chinese Protestant Centenary Year, 1907.

From this meeting went out an appeal to all Protestant Christendom throughout the world to join them in thanks- giving, confession and prayer ; the special object of prayer being that they may get re-enforcement all along the line The proposition is to secure

IN THE NEXT THREE YEARS

A large increase of members.

More Chinese workers.

Double the present Missionary Force.

NATIONAL MEMORIAL TO CHRISTIAN MARTYRS IN ALL CHINA.

A movement was inaugurated at Shanghai, July i, 1903, looking to a proper memorial of the Protestant Martyrs of all China. The form of Memorial suggested is a great Connexional building at Shanghai.

This will commemorate the martyrs and perpetuate their testimony. It will be a perpetual witness to the world that China has a martyr church. The essential unity of the Christian Church will manifest itself in this united effort as a concrete example of how to honor the dead and bless the living. The Committee having it in charge are composed of leading ministers and laymen, such as Rt. Rev. Bishop Graves, Canton ; Bishop David H. Moore, Shanghai; Griffith John Timothy Richards; Young J. Allen, A. P. Parker, and others.

The Circular about which the movement at present is materializing reads in part as follows : —

62 CHINESE PROTESTANT CENTENNIAL.

TENTATIVE SCHEME FOR A MARTYR*S MEMORIAL IN CHINA.

Preliminary^ It has been in the minds of many for some time that there should be some appropriate National Memorial to perpetuate the memory of the Christian martyrs of the Protestant Missions who have fallen in China, in the service of Christ and His Church, during the last century, but more especially in memory of those who were faithful unto death during the terrible storm of 1900, It is now proposed to erect in Shanghai a large building which shall serve in many ways the cause for which the martyrs died. A worthy monument in a public spot might be sufficient as a local memorial, and may yet be erected in Shanghai, but in addition to the numerous local memor- ials to the martyrs, both at home and in China, it is felt that the widespread character of the martyrdoms of 1900 calls for something greater. The fact that Memorial Churches, Colleges and Halls are scattered up and down in all lands, is sufficient indication of the unanimous judg- ment of the Christian world that such buildings are the best way of commemorating the dead.

We believe that this is the most fruitful and sensible way of commemorating the martyrs and perpetuating their testimony, * * * The project too happily synchronizes with the approaching Centenary of Protestant Missions in China. * * * It will commemorate the first hundred years of missionary work in China.

China is rapidly opening up, and missionary work and the growth of the native church is keeping pace with advance along other lines. Hence some such building is necessary as an Exeter Hall for China, to accommodate the union meetings of Chinese Christians, the great national conference and other religious gatherings which cannot now be accommodated in any other building open to the Chinese. It will also be a great advantage to have the various sister societies grouped in one common build- ing. These at present hold a precarious tenure of rented buildings, and could be given 2. permanent home at a proper rental sufficient for the upkeep of the building.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY.

CoLQUHOUN, A. R. — China in Transformation. Harper and Brothers, New York. CoLQUHOUN, A. B.— The Mastery of the Pacific. MacMillan Co., New York

DooLiTTLE, Justus— Social Life of the Chinese. Harper and Brothers, New York. Davis, J. A. — Chinese Slave Girl, a Story of Woman's Life in China.

Presbyterian Board of Missions. Davis, J. A. — Lang Tso, The Chinese Bible Woman, a sequel to the Chinese Slave Girl. Presbyterian Board of Missions.

Douglas, R. K. — China. Putnam, New York.

Douglas, R. K. — Society in China. London.

Edkins, Joseph — Religion in China. James R. Osgood and Com.pany, Boston. FiELDE, Adele M. — Pagoda Shadows. Baptist Publication Society, Boston.

Gracey, Mrs. J. T. — Eminent Missionary Women. Eaton and Mains, New York. Gray, W. J. H. — China, Laws, Manners, Custom, 2 vols. MacMillan Co.,

New York. Hart, Virgil C. — Western China. Ticknor & Co , Boston.

HoLCOMBE, Chester— The Real Chinaman. Dodd & Mead, New York.

Legge, James — The Religions of China. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York.

Lewis, R. E.— The Educational Conquest in the Far East. Revell Co.. New York. Martin, W. A. P.— A Cycle of Cathay. Revell Co., New York.

Martin, W. A. P. — The Chinese. Harper and Brothers, New York.

Miner, Luella — Two Heroes of Cathay. Revell Co., New York.

McNabb — The Women of the Middle Kingdom. Jennings and Pye, Cincinnatti. Nevius, J. L. — China and the Chinese. Presbyterian Board of Publication.

RoBSON, W.— Griffith John ; Founder Han Kow Mission. Revell Co., New York. Stafford, Miss A. C. — Typical Women of China. (Translation from Chinese Work.) The Worth Co., Wilmington, North Carolina. Smith, Arthur H. — China in Convulsion, 2 vols. Revell Co., New York.

Smith, Arthur H. — Village Life in China. Revell Co., New York.

Smith, Arthur H. — Chinese Characteristics. Revell Co., New York.

Smith, Arthur H.— Rex Christus. MacMillan & Co., New York.

TowNSEND, W. J.— Robert Morrison. Revell Co., New York.

Wilson, James H.— Chinese Travels and Investigations in the Middle Kingdom.

Appleton & Co., New York. Williams, S. Wells — The Middle Kingdom. John Wiley & Sons, New York.

li^^ Chinese Reeorder^ 34 Volumes,

WOMAN IN CHINA.

A wife should excel in four things: virtue, speech, person, needlework.

A virtuous woman is^a source of honor to her husband, a vicious one disgraces him.

A stubborn wife and a stiff necked son no law can govern.

— Chinese Sayings,

The character, in written^language ; for peace, is one woman in isolation under a roof ; that for a quarrel is two \^omen ; for a wife, a woman under a broom.

It is said, the most beautiful spots in China are dedicated to the dead.

*'We shall never have a nation of noble men in China till we have enlightened Chinese women.'*

WOMAN IN CHINA.

THE CHINESE WOMAN AT HOME.

The population of China may be reckoned nearly equally divided between the sexes, notwithstanding the low esti- mate in which the birth of girls is held. A variety of causes contribute to the restoration of the comparative equilibrium. Thus it would appear that it is quite safe to say that the number of females, alone, in China, equals, twice over, the aggregate population — men, women, boys, girls and children — under the United States government, at home and abroad.

Dowager Empress — China has had many eminent women some of whom have reached great political prominence and power. In the Tang dynasty, Empress Wu ruled the Empire for forty years. She was a cruel but great governor. The present Empress Dowager, Tszchi Toanyu Kanghi Chuangeheng Chinhien Chung Sih, has exercised imperial sway for a third of a century, or during the life time of an entire generation. She has no thin scarlet thread of royalty in her veins, but is of ** noble blood,*' says Dr. Martin — daughter of a Manchu soldier, governor at Wuhu, says Curtis. Stories of her having been a slave-girl are proven apocryphal. Her beauty won her admittance across the threshold of the Imperial palace, her capacity elevated her to be second wife of the Emperor, and since his death to be the Monarch of the Middle Kingdom. In stalwartness and strength of character she but symbolizes the solidarity of the millions of women whom she rules, **A Jezebel," a *^she wolf," though some have called her, she yet exercises a vigor as administrator to which every-

6S CHINA.

thing in China yields and to which the combined embassies of all the powers in Europe and America pay court.

To the women of Christian countries all that is not so much as is the fact that she is the representative of one in four of all the mothers in the world. We speak of the Chin- ese woman as degraded — "a slave" — subordinated to the will of her father and husband, as a rule unlettered, and yet she has contrived to secure the recognition of every authority sacred or secular in the Empire, of the right of absolute obedience to her on the part of her children. By all the laws of the land, by all the power of custom, through centuries beyond record, her children have obeyed her while living and worshiped her after her death. This world will never be a christian world with China left out. China will never be christian without the consent and co-operation of the mothers of the Empire.

Woman in Society. — Society in China is no accident. It has been from the first consistently developed from its initial principles. No nation can exist without a basis of ethics. Confucius but rehabilitated that on which China has stood from a time antedating its own centuries- old records. The small book of translated extracts by the late Miss Safford of Soochow shows how the women of China have been moulded by that standard of moral culture, and maintained it. It is only a brochure called *^ Typical Women of China." It demands but rewards patience to study it. It consists of selections from a great work of 313 chapters in four volumes, parts of it nearly two thousand years old, treating of ^* The Virtues, Words, Department and Employment of the women of China.** We

*A very readable and reliable popular work just issued is The Women of the Middle Kingdom?' P. L. McNabb, Jennings and Pye, Cincinnati ; Eaton and Mains, New York, pp 160, 75c. net.

WOMAN AND RELIGION. 69

are told that it is read by all cultured Chinese women. It has furnished the ideals of the homes of the Empire for twenty centuries. It is the foundation, granite base of ** manners" and Sir William Jones in his preface to the Code of Manu says: ** Laws without manners are of no avail." On the whole this outlines a quite fair condition of culture, though some of the noblest examples are dark enough. The outside world will never understand China without considerable acquaintance with the authority and models on which the conduct of its women rests.

** In her own domestic circle," says Dr. Wells Williams — the most exhaustive writer introducing us to China — *' a Chinese female, in the character of daughter, wife or mother, finds as much employment, and probably as much enjoyment as the nature of her training has fitted her for. She does not hold her proper place in society, chiefly because she has never been taught its duties or exercised its privileges." [Middle Kingdom Vol. II, p. 54.]

The peculiarities of the life of Chinese honies as it affects the comfort, health, protection, education of women, their childhood and youth, their dress, work and amusements, status in the home and society, betrothal, marriage and burial, are treated in hundreds of fragmen- tary sketches and in larger volumes, accessible in profu- sion. None of them can crush Olympus into a nutshell.

Woman and Religion. — The women of China are the conservators of its religious systems. Apart from all else in it, Confucianism holds them by its obligation of ancestor worship. Having three souls, one must go iftto the ancestral tablet where incense, food and wine are necessary to it. The woman in China is willing to be a slave to her father, her husband, her son, if only her descendants at

70 CHINA,

her death will erect an ancestral tablet in the home at which they will offer to her sacrifices of food, burn paper, money and clothing to be spiritualized for her necessities, and offer incense to her. These tablets are the last things which the Chinese will yield. A writer says: **They will turn from Confucius, will leave their temples, will some- time profess Christianity, but the real test of the convert's truthfulness, usually comes when the ancestral tablet is doomed to destruction."

She turns to Buddhism for the destiny of a second of her souls through transmigration.

Dr. Nevius says the worshipers in Buddhist temples are for the most part women advanced in age. The young women are chiefly confined to their homes. It is one of the sad sights of Buddhist lands to witness mothers going about looking into the eyes of animals trying to discover , the image of a dead child, re-born as a beast.

The pity of it is much the same in all Buddhist countries. An instance is told by a missionary surgeon of a blind old woman of eighty years and beyond, who came seeking from him *^ New Eyes." He declined to operate ; she persisted, saying she would sell all she possessed and give it to him; would endure any pain if he would give her sight but for five minutes. He asked her what good that would be to her. Her reply as the surgeon reports it was : " Son, listen ; I had but one son, Vou know what it means to be a widow, I brought the lad up in all the sorrow of widowhood, and now he is dead and gone. I have lost my sight in weeping for him. Since my lad died a grand-son has been born to me. I have never seen him, and I will give my all to see his face just once before I die." **You know," she added, ** When I die I shall transmigrate into a cat or dog, or frog or whatever my fate may be, for we must pass through

WOMAN AND RELIGION. 7 1

many thousands of re-births. When the lad dies he will become a camel, a cow or somewhat else. When we have once passed through our present state we will never come into touch again. Forever and forever we are nothing to each other.**

In Buddhism she finds the Goddess of Mercy a deified nun, a sort of Chinese equivalent for the virgin Mary in Romanist Countries. She has special power in deter- mining the sex of unborn children, and every Chinese woman hopes to"^ have sons. This Goddess of Mercy is " thousand handed " to help women.

Taoism holds out to women the hope of "soul repose." "The Kitchen God " helps her in the home, a special goddess has; to do with bestowing boys and not girls at birth. In motherhood she wants the care of the Goddess of Midwifery, and yet another god protects her growing children.

Evil Customs. — The innumerable instances of the low level of life which, often with the sanction of their faith, the women and girls of China are forced to or are content with, shows the inability of the religions of the land to elevate women to even as high a level as the glamour of tradition shows them to have reached in past ages when society was more simple. There is no hope of any resurrec- tion or possibility of progress to be brought from any resources at present within the Empire itself. It is still the highest ideal of excellence that to meet obligations of filial piety the woman shall volunteer the martyrdom of her virtue.

There are cruel customs of fashion too, in which the woman is mercilessly held, apart from all religious obli- gation whatever. Foot-binding is possibly the cause of misery to a hundred millions of females in each succeeding

72 CHINA.

generation. It kills multitudes, it causes disease with tens of thousands, it cripples hundreds of thousands, it deforms and limits millions. It is not based on any known principles of their doctrine nor even defended as a necessary condition of morals. It appears to have come down from antiquity out of a dimly identified origin and to have been extended and perpetuated, only as a gigantic illustration of the power of custom. The Manchu Tartars do not practice it and the Dowager Empress perhaps would discourage it, but even the decree signed by the vermillion pencil of the Imperial palace would be powerless against it, and might shake the throne.*

II.— CHRISTIAN WOMEN IN CHINA.

Joshua Marshman is credited with having translated Genesis, the Gospels, Paul's Epistles to Romans and Cor- inthians into Chinese. He reached India 1799, Robert Morrison arrived in China 1807, William Milne 1813, H. W. Medhurst in 181 7. The first American woman missionary who arrived in China was Mrs. Henrietta Shuck, wife of Rev. J. Lewis Shuck, sent by the American Baptist Mission Board who reached Macao September i%i6 and died at Hong Kong November 27, 1844. No Protestant Society in the world thought of sending an unmarried woman as missionary to China then. In 1837 Miss Mary Ann Aldersey of England reached Borneo as an independ- ent missionary under the patronage of Dr. Medhurst. She did not enter China at Ningpo till 1844. She was the first single missionary woman to China. The first unmar- ried woman sent by any Missionary Society, was Miss

°" The Record of the Women's Conference in China, Nov. 1900," held in Shanghai, Lady Blake presiding : Foot-binding, Betrothal of Young Children and Infants, Girl Slavery, Marriage and Funeral Customs. No publisher, nor printer nor price is given on the book.

CHRISTIAN WOMEN IN CHINA. 73

Lydia Mary Fay who arrived in China 1850, sent by the American Protestant Episcopal Church. The first unmar- ried ladies appointed to China for exclusive work among women by a missionary society were the sisters Miss Beulah Woolston and Miss Sarah H. Woolston of the American Methodist Episcopal Church who arrived in Foochow in 1859. (The Berlin Female Hospital in 1857 sent Miss Ladendorff to China.) Miss Oxlade arrived in China in 1864, sent by the Society for Propagation of Female Education in the East; and this same year Miss Elizabeth Broxholme reached China under the English Wesleyan Society. In 1866 Miss Adele M. Field, Amer- ican Baptist, and Miss C. B. Downing, American Presby- terian, arrived. In 1868 the American Board Mission was re-enforced by Miss M. Andrews, Miss M. A. Porter and Miss J. S. Peet and the American Presbyterian by Miss H. Noyes.

Then and now. — These comprise the total force of single women missionaries in China for the first sixty years after Morrison's arrival. At the close of 1863 there were mar- ried and single missionary women to the number of ninety- three on the field. In 1887 there were but twenty unmarried women missionaries to represent all the societies of -Christendom, except those enrolled in the China Inland Missionary Service which were about fifty, making the total list at that time seventy. The number has in the inter- vening fifteen years (1887- 1902) risen from seventy to seven hundred and eighty-three!*

Sixty years ago no European or American woman was allowed to land at Canton, They were forbidden entrance

♦Farnham's Directory of all Missionaries in China for the first eighty years. Shanghai, 1887. List of Protestant Missionaries in China [and Japan, i902» Shanghai. On sale Eaton & Mains, New York. Net, $1.00.

74 CHINA,

by the Chinese Authorities to land even at Macao, the government of which was half Portugese. Mrs. Shuck in 1836 could land only in a foreign boat belonging to the ship. No Chinaman dared to carry her ashore. It was not till 1838 that even these Portugese ventured to admit foreign .women surreptitiously to the Portugese Custom House. In striking contrast with that is the fact that at the close of 1899 there were fourteen hundred foreign ladies in China, wholly engaged in missionary work, threading all parts of the Empire, often unattended by European men, living in safety in isolated places in the interior, and travelling unattended except by native Chinese.

The force and success of this work among the women of China could scarcely have a better endorsement than the fact that as early as 187 1, when from the beginning over three hundred missionaries had entered the field, that the Imperial Government addressed a circular letter to all European Embassies, which was presented to both houses of the British Parliament, demanding the discontinuance of female schools and disallowing the attendance of Chinese women at religious services.

Encouragement. — **In the spring of 1900 question blanks, making inquiries concerning many of the problems con- nected with the education of Chinese girls and women, were sent to every girls' school and Bible training school in the Empire. The returned blanks represented nearly every Province in China, twenty-two mission boards, and sixty-seven schools with an attendance of 2810 students. A large number of these were filled out by missionaries of long experience in China and intimate acquaintance with the people. One question was, *Do Chinese girls after being educated develop into strong women' ? All who

1

ENCOURAGEMENT, 75

answered this question gave an affirmative reply, with one exception, and that a person who had been in the country so short a time she was unable to give a judgment. It was stated that after conversion a wonderful change is to be seen in the intellectual life. The girl or woman at once plans for the uplifting of her associates. Wives of pastors have filled the vacancy in their husbands' absence. In Canton a prize was offered for the best written exegesis on selected portions of Scripture, the competition being open to the women as well as all the Chinese helpers, and one of the graduates of a girls' school won the first prize."*

Three Chinese women graduates of a medical school in America have the entire control of two hospitals, and are held in high esteem not only by the Chinese but by for- eigners who have confidence in their ability. These women are treating successfully thousands of patients annually. Beside intellectual development there is great improvement in character, christian education, bringing out an independence and stability wholly lacking in the lives of uneducated heathen. They are now beginning to exert a great influence, and take a stand against evil customs, such as foot binding, infanticide and the use of opium. Instances are given where girls refused to allow wine used at their wedding feast, another would not be married with heathen ceremonies, and these christian girls not only resist evil customs but bear with a beautiful spirit the jeers and persecutions of their heathen parents or friends.

Their personal christian influence is often marked. Some have been instrumental in the conversion of their entire families and communities.

*See paper of Mrs. Brockman, Y. M. C. A., in Woman's Work in the Far East, March, 1903.

76 CHINA.

These educated Chinese women make excellent mothers, training their children carefully and making model chris- tian homes.

Educators are waking up to the fact that Chinese women are worthy of the name of woman, and have ability in many directions. The women of China are now finding vocations along the line of their special training and inclination. Out of the need of the people has grown a demand for woman physicians. A consecrated educated woman physician can come in closer touch with a sufferer and do more for mind and body than a foreigner. In many instances hospitals would have been closed had their been no native woman competent to step in and fill the breach.

The women of Christendom owe a duty to the memory of the great company of Chinese mothers and beautiful maidens, who rather than deny their Lord, gave themselves over to the lusts of the pander and the mercies of the Boxer, and whose souls are *' under the altar." Rev, vi.^ p.

With Dr. Chauncey Goodrich we may say —

'' HALLELUJAH ! THE EMPIRE OF CHINA IS TO BE THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST.

HALLELUJAH ! "

WOMAN'S MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS FOR WOMEN.

Under 30 Different Societies.

Location

Amoy (**Hope")-.

Chefu

Chentee

Chinanfu

Chinchow

Chining Chow

Chinkiang ...

Chuwang

Chenchow .

Foochow

Hangchow

Hankow

Hongkong

Kien Ning

Kiukiang

Liaoyang .

* Of these some 15 are Survey, pp. 196, 201.

Location

Ming Chiang

(Foochow)

Moukden

Nanking

Paoning-fu = .

Peking

Sam Kong

(Canton)

Shanghai

Soochow

Suichau-fu

Tientsin

Tsunhua

Wei Hien

Wuchang ,

memorial institutions. See Dennis Centennial

ORPHANAGES, ETC.

Amoy — Children's Home for sick and deformed.

Canton — Girls' School founded by Mrs. B. C. Henry.

Foochow— Mary E. Crook Memorial Orphanage and Boarding School.

HuiGHUA— Rebecca Orphanage.

Hong Kong — Berlin Foundling Asylum.

Hangchow — Leper Hospital for Women and Cottage Home for untainted

children. Nan King— Hussey Orphanage and Infirmary. Lo Ngwong — Felix R. Brunot Children's Home. Pakhai— Leper Asylum for Women and Children. Hong Kong — School for Blind Girls. Nu KiANG-FU— Hakka Children's Home.

Amoy— Anti-Foot Binding Society, first organized 1874, membership 1000. Chingchow-fu — Shantung Anti-Foot Binding Society. Chung King — Natural Foot League. Foochow — Anti-Foot Binding Society.

Shanghai — Natural Foot-Society organized 1894, many branches throughout Empire.

LofC

APPEAL OF TWO HUNDRED WOMEN : SHANGHAI GENERAL MISSIONARY CONFERENCE, 1890.

TO ALL OUR HOME CHURCHES.

Beloved sisters, if you could see their sordia misery, their hope- less, loveless lives, their ignorance and sinfulness, as we see them, mere human pity would move you to do something for their uplifting. But there is a stronger motive that should impel you to stretch out a helping hand, and thaty we plead — the constraining love of Christ. We, who are in the midst of this darkness that can be felt, send our voices across the ocean to you, our sisters, and beseech you by the grace of Christ our Saviour that you come at once to our help.

Four kinds of work are open to us :

1. There is school work connected with our various missions, which, in many cases, the men have handed over to the women, in order that they themselves may engage more directly in evangel- istic work.

2. There is a work to be done for the sick and suffering women of China, in hospitals, dispensaries and homes, for which skillful physicians are needed. Most of this work can be better done by women than by men, and much of it can be done only by women.

3. There is work for us in the families of the Church. There are converted mothers and daughters who need to be taught the way of the Lord more perfectly, and to be trained in whatever is nec- essary for their full development into lively members of the great \} ousehold of faith.

4. There is a work of evangelization among women similar to iiiat being done by men among the people at large. It is not claimed that the evangelization of women cannot be done at all by men — but that there is more of it than men can do, there is much of it that never will be done unless women do it, and much that men cannot do as well as women can. There is noth- ing in this kind of work transcending the recognized scriptural sphere of women. Women received from the Lord Himselr upon the very morning of the resurrection their commission to tell the blessed story of a risen Saviour. What they did then we may continue to do now.

But you will ask, "Who are needed for this work ? " Knowing the conditions of life and work, in China, we would answer that :

I. They should be women of sound health, of good ability and good common sense, also well educated — though not necessarily of the highest education — apt to teach, kind and forbearing in disposi- tion, so that they may live and work harmoniously with their asso- ciates, and win the hearts of the Chinese. Above all, they should be women who have given themselves wholly to the Lord's work

CHINA, 79

and are willing to bear hardship and exercise constant self-denial for Christ's sake.

2. It is desirable that they should pursue a systematic course of Bible study before coming to China, and have some experience in Christian work at home.

Further, we would suggest that they should labor in connection with established missions in order that the good results of their v/ork may be preserved, and that they may have when needed, the assistance and protection of their brother missionaries.

Open doors all around us, and though idolatry lifts a hoary he^ \ and ancestral worship binds the people as with chains of adamant, yet with God '' all things are possible," and mountains of difficulty melt like snowflakes before the rising of the Sun of P*N[-hteousness.

Jod is on the side of His own glorious, life-giving Word; we ask you to come in the power of consecration and faith with sober expectations and readiness to endure hardness as good sol- diers of Jesus, and take your share in the most glorious war that was ever waged on earth — the war against the powers of darkness and sin, assured that God will accomplish His own purposes of love and grace to China, and will permit you, if you listen to this call, to be His fellow-workers in "binding up the broken-hearted, proclaiming liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound."

That the holy and loving Spirit of God may incline your hearts to respond to His call, is our earnest prayer.

Signed on behalf of the two hundred and four ladies assembled in Conference at Shanghai.

Mrs. Mary Lees, London Mission Society.

Mrs. A. Elwin, Church Mission Society.

Miss C. M. Ricketts, English Presbyterian Mission.

Mrs. J. R. Watson, English Baptist Mission.

Miss L. S. Sugden, M. D. Wesleyan Mission.

Vliss \. Newcombe, Church of England, Zenana Mission,

V[rs. E. Tomalin, China Inland Mission.

drs. John Ross, U. P. Church of Scotland.

.virs. W. E. Soothill, United Methodist Free Church.

Mrs. T, C. Fulton, Irish Presbyterian Church.

Mrs. Arthur H. Smith, American Board.

Mrs. J. M. Foster, Baptist Missionary Union.

Mrs. C. W. Mateer, American Presbyterian Mission (North).

Miss L. H. Hoag, M. D., Methodist Episcopal Mission (North),

Miss E. F. Swinney, M. D., Seventh Day Baptist Mission.

Mrs. Eliza M. Yates, Southern Baptist Mission.

Miss Laura A. Haygood, Methodist Episcopal Mission (South).

Miss K. M. Talmage, American Reformed Mission.

Miss R. E. Reifsnyder, M. D., Woman's Union Mission.

Mrs. J. L. Stuart, American Presbyterian Mission (South).

OCT 30 1903

INDEX.

PAGE.

Ancestor Worship , 24-69

Antiquity of Chinese Civilization 12

Appeal from Shanghai Conference 62

Appeal from 200 Women 78-9

"Boxer" Uprising 56

Buddhism 23-70

Chinese Empire, Extent of 3

" " ** Compared with other Countries 5

Christianity in China 33

Confucianism 19-69

*' Doctrines of 20-22

" a Barrier to Christianity 22

Converts to Christianity, Character of 35-43-75

Comparative Population, Diagram of 6

Comparative Area, Map showing 7

Education and Literature . , 14

Famine, Results of to Missions 48-50

Feng Shui , 27-30

History of China.. 11

" " Compared with other History 12

Language 46

Roll of Martyred Missionaries 58

Map of China 59

Missions, Encouragement of the Work 50

*' Difficulties in way of 51

" Facilities for Work 45

'* Genuineness of the Work 43

" Results and Prospects of 57

Modern Progress and Enterprise of the Chinese 15

Population of China 8

*' Compared with other Countries 9

Punishments in China 31

Religions of China Blended 18

" Inefficiency of 30

Riots.. 53

Statistics of Missions 1900 60-61

Taiping Rebellion, Effects of 47

Taoism 23-71

Treaty with China 34*35

Water Communication over China 46

Woman— Chinese at Home 67

** Christian in China 67

" Medical Statistics 11

*' in Society *«. ♦ 68

and Religion , ! M . : : 69-7 1

Woman's Work, Encouragement 74

BB

Eminent Missionary Women

By MRS. J. T. GRACEY.

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"The missionaries portrayed in these pages are as unlike in their special characteristics as are their several fields of labour. Each reflects her Lord on some special side — each has some distinctive beauty of her own, won from companion- ship with Him whom she so faithfully followed."

** EMINENT MISSIONARY V^OMEN," 85 CENTS, MAY BE ORDERED OF J. T. GRACEY, I77 PEARL ST., ROCHESTER, N. Y.

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