Problems of the Far East; Japan, Korea, China

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I

i t

35
SIS

*v

PROBLEMS

OF

THE FAE EAST

JAPAN— KOBEA - CHINA

BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

PERSIA AND THE PERSIAN QUESTION.

With 9 Maps, 96 Illustrations, Appendices,
and an Index.

2 vols, Svo., i2s.

London and New York :
LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO.

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PE0BLEM8

OP

THE FAE EAST

BY THE • 5

HON. GEORGE NfCUKZON, M.P.

FELLOW OF ALL SOUrJl COLLEGE, OXFORD
ALTHOIl OF 'KU8SIA IN CKXTKAL ASIA* AXD •rKRSIA'

JAPAN-KOEEA-CHINA

'And first we mast begin with Asia, to which the fir^t place is
due, as being the place of the first Men, first Religion, first Cities,
Empires, Arts; where the roost things mentioned in Scripture were
done ; the place where Paradise was seated, the Arke rested, the Law
was given, and whence the Gospell proceeded ; the place which did
beare Him in His fiesh, that by His Word beareth up all things '

PuRCHAS, Hw Filgriines

LONDON

LONGMANS, GKEEN, AND CO.

AND NKW YORK : 15 EAST 16" STREET

1894

All right* renrvtal

TO THOSE

WHO BELIEVE THAT THE BRITISH EMPIRE

IS, UNDER PROVIDENCE, THE GREATEST INSTRUMENT FOR GOOD

THAT THE WORLD HAS SEEN
AND WHO HOLD, WITH THE WRITER, THAT
ITS WORK IN THE FAR EAST IS NOT YET ACCOMPLISHED

THIS BOOK IS INSCRIBED

-1

PEEFACE

The work of which I here publish the first part,
though the outcome of two journeys round the world
in 1887-8 and in 1892-3, does not pretend to be a
book of travel. Eather is it an attempt to examine,
in a comparative light, the political, social, and
economic conditions of the kingdoms and princi-
palities of the Far East. By this title I signify the
countries that lie between India and the Pacifiq Ocean.
They include both the best known and the least
knowTi of Oriental nations — Japan and China in the
former category ; Korea, Tongking, Annam, Cochin
China, Cambogia, and Siam in the latter. In respect
of race, rehgion, and habits, Burma should fall within
the same class ; but since it is now an integral portion
of the Indian Empire, it will be purposely excluded
from this survey.

The above-mentioned countries have each their
special features of climate, scenery, architecture, reli-
gion, and life, differentiating them from each other,
and still more from the rest of the world. To the tra-
veller these idiosyncrasies cannot fail to appeal ; nor
can he be indifferent to the atmosphere of romance
in which those fanciful regions, when once he has

viii PREFACE

left them, appear ever afterwards to float. To such
aBsthetic impressions I would profess no invulnera-
bility ; and the descriptions which will be found in
these pages of the capitals of Korea and China, and
of other scenes, will prove the completeness of my
occasional surreiider. On the whole, however, I have
relegated these aspects of my journeys to the back-
ground, and have preferred to discuss the problems,
perhaps less superficially interesting, but incompara-
bly more important, and vastly more abstruse, which
are suggested by the national character, resources, and
organisation of those countries as affected by their
intercourse with foreign or Western Powers. What
is the part which they are now playing, or are capable
of playing, on the international stage ? What is the
political future that may, without foolhardiness of
prediction, be anticipated for the peoples and lands
of the Far East ?

In preparing and comparing my observations
upon these countries, I very early found that to
attempt to deal with the poHtical features of eight
different States within the compass of a single volume
could only be achieved at the expense both of unity
and exactitude — a conviction which was fortified by
the natural subdivision of my subject into a twofold
heading. Japan, Korea, and China suggest a number
of problems, substantially similar if not actually inter-
connected. Their maritime outlook is towards the
Pacific Ocean. The remaining countries of the Far
East are in a different stage of evolution ; and partly
owing to their intrinsic weakness, partly to the degree

PREFACE ix

in which they have already been brought under
European control, illustrate a different argument.
They are also alike in turning a backward gaze
upon the Indian Seas. Following this natural classi-
fication, I have confined the present volume to the
examination of the three first-mentioned States,
reserving for a future work the territories of the
Itido-Chinese peninsula.

In the case of Japan I must confess to having
departed widely from the accepted model of treat-
ment. There will be found nothing in these pages of
the Japan of temples, tea-houses, and bric-k-brac —
that infinitesimal segment of the national existence
which the traveller is so prone to mistake for the
whole, and by doing which he fills the educated
Japanese with such unspeakable indignation. I have
been more interested in the efforts of a nation, still in
pupillage, to assume the manners of the full-grown
man, in the constitutional struggles through which
Japan is passing, in her relations with foreign Powers,
and in the future that awaits her immense ambitions.

Similarly in China I have been more concerned
with the internal structure of that mysterious archaism,
with the policy of its rulers, the strength or weak-
ness of its resources, and with the pulse that throbs
so defiantly beneath the bosom of its amazing people,
than with the sights and scenes of Treaty Ports, or the
superficial features of native existence. In Korea I
hope that I may claim in some respects to break
almost new ground. In the few and singularly
inadequate accounts of that kingdom that have

X PREFACE

appeared in Europe, and that have left it, next to
Tibet, the least known part of Asia, no serious
endeavour has been made to examine its political
status — a question of great complexity and of inter-
national importance — or to determine its bearing
upon surrounding States; and I doubt whether to
most persons at home Korea is known except as a
land of white clothes and black hats. If a dispropor-
tionate space may appear to have been allotted to its
treatment, as compared with that of China and Japan,
it will be because of an intrinsic novelty that is not
yet exhausted, and of a general ignorance that in
view of present events deserves to be appeased.

If, in spite of a good deal of descriptive matter
that may perhaps interest or assist both the reader
and the traveller, it be objected that the trail of poli-
tics is over all this work, I answer that such is the
principal claim that I venture to make for it. Other
writers of great ability have recorded their impres-
sions of the social or artistic sides of Eastern life.
But, in their interest in the governed, they have too
frequently forgotten the government; nor does the
photograph of a fleeting moment lend much assistance
to the forecast of a wider future. For myself, in essay-
ing this more ambitious task, I can honestly disclaim,
on the several occasions when I have travelled in the
East, any a priori prepossession for this or prejudice
against that people. I have no anterior theor)'^ to sup-
port, and no party interest, unless the British Empire
be a party interest, to serve. But to my vision all the
nations of the East seem to group themselves as sec-

PREFACE xi

tions or parts, of varying age and utility, in the most
wonderful piece of natural and human mechanism that
the world now presents, namely, the poUtical evolu-
tion of the Asiatic Continent. What function is ful-
filled by each in the movement of this vast machine,
how far they individually retard its progress or con-
tribute to the collective thunder of its wheels, is to me
the most absorbing of problems. What will become
of this great fabric in the future, whether its minor
atoms will break up and spht asunder, thereby adding
to the already formidable strain upon the larger units,
whether the slow heart of the East will still continue
to palpitate beneath the superimposed restraints of
Western force or example, or whether as has been
predicted, some tremendous cataclysm may be ex-
pected, in which the tide of human conquest shall
once more be rolled back from East to West, are
speculations to the solution of which I have no
fonder wish than to subscribe my humble quota of
knowledge.

Finally, these volumes are part of that scheme of
work, now nearly half reaKsed, which ten years ago
I first set before myself in the examination of the
difierent aspects of the Asiatic problem. What I
have already endeavoured to do for Eussia in Central
Asia, and for Persia, or the countries on this side of
India, i,e. the Near East — ^what I hope to be able
to do hereafter for two other little-known Asiatic
regions, directly bordering upon India, i,e, the
Central East — ^I attempt to do in this volume, and
in that which will follow it, for the countries lying

xii PREFACE

beyond India, i.e. the Far East. As I proceed with
this undertaking, the true fulcrum of Asiatic doioi-
nion seems to me increasingly to lie in the Empire of
Hindustan. The secret of the mastery of the world,
is, if only they knew it, in the possession of the
British people.

No EngUshman need grudge the splendid achieve-
ments and possessions of the mighty Power whose
hand is outstretched over the entire north of Asia,
from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific. He need
not be jealous of the new-born Asiatic zeal of our
next-door neighbour in Europe. He may respect
alike the hoary pride of China, and the impetuous
exuberance of renascent Japan. But he will find that
the best hope of salvation for the old and moribund
in Asia, the wisest lessons for the emancipated and
new, are still to be derived from the ascendency of
British character, and under the shelter, where so
required, of British dominion. If in the slightest
degree I succeed in bringing home this conviction to
the minds of my countrymen at home, I shall never
regret the years of travel and of writing which I
have devoted and hope still to devote to this con-
genial task.

My sincere thanks are due, for revision or advice
in different parts of this work, to Mr. Cecil Spring-
Eice, of H. B. M.'s Diplomatic Service, the delightful
companion of my later journeys ; to Mr. W. C. HiUier,
late Consul-General in Korea ; and to Mr. J. N. Jordan,
of the British Legation at Peking.

George N. Curzon.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

THE FAB EAST

PAGK

The enchantment of Asia — ^Her prodnots — Homogeneousness —
Contact with civilisation — Moral lessons — The Far East — Its
idiosyncrasies — India the pivot 1

JAPAN

CHAPTER II

THE EVOLUTION OP MODERN JAPAN

Japanese raHways — ^The streets of Tokio — The Diet— Public
opinion — Parliamentary symptoms — Rocks ahead — The Minis-
ters and Parliament — The Ministry of All the Talents —
Exx>e<^^^oi3B — Session of 1892-8 — Session of 1898 — The crisis
— General Elections of 1894 — Real points at issue — 1. Clan
government — Oligarchy v. Democracy — 2. Position of the
Sovereign — 8. Ministerial responsibility — The issue— Japanese
Navy — Army — Corroborative opinion — Finances — Trade —
Manufacturing industries — Attitude of Japanese towards
foreigners — Schoolboy patriotism — Chances of Christianity in
Japan 15

CHAPTER III

JAPAN AND THE POWERS

Treaty Revision — History of the Treaties— Postponement of Re-
vision— The case of Japan — The case of the Powers — Previous
attempts at Revision. Count Inouye, 1882-7 — Coimt Okuma,

xiv CONTENTS

TAOK

1888-9 — Viscount Aoki, 1890— Bases of settlement — Position
of the Codes — Further postponement — Address to the Throne
in 1898 — Anti-Mixed residence agitation — The Chinese Ques-
tion— Agitation against foreign ownership of property — Other
demands— Prospects of settlement ...... 60

KOREA

CHAPTER IV

LIFE AND TBAVEL IN KOREA

The fascination of Korea — Literature of the subject — The Treaty
Ports — Fusan — Gensan — Chemulpo — The Korean people —
Total population — Ethnology and language — National cha-
racter— The extremes of society — Necessities of travel — Visit to
the Diamond Mountains — Korean monks — Monastic life and
habits — Buildings — Korean religion— Spirit- worship and Con-
fucianism—Conditions of travel — Sport — Peasant life — Bural
habits — Memorial tablets — Tombs — Wayfarers — The Korean
inn 83

CHAPTER V

THE CAPITAL AND COURT OF KOREA

Name of the capital — Walls and gates of Soul — Its situation —
Beacon-fires — Population and streets — Dirt and ditches —
Houses — Street-life and costume — Dancing-girls — Hats —
Amusements — The Big Bell — Shops —Stone pagoda and pillar —
Temples — Red Arrow Gate — The painted Buddha — Execution-
place — Royal fortresses — Sovereignty in Korea — Royal Palaces
— East, or New Palace— West, or Old Palace — Great Hall of
Audience — Summer Palace — The King of Korea— The Tai
Wen Kun — The King's reign — His character — The Queen —
The Crown Prince — Theory of monarchy — ^Audience with the
Foreign Minister — Court dress and etiquette — Audience with
the King — Royal procession — Korean army — State review . 120

CONTENTS XV

CHAPTER VI

POLITICAL AND COMMEBCIAL SYMPTOMS IN KOREA

PAQB

An Asiatic microcosm — Korean administration — Bevenne and
debt — Foreign Treaties — Foreign Advisers — Projects and
speculations — The currency — New Mint and silver coinage —
Banks — Obstacles to commercial development. Means of
communication. Boads — Biver navigation — Coast navigation
— Bail ways — Growth of trade — Steamship service — Customs
Service — Smuggling — Native standpoint — Mines and minerals
— Gold — ^Future prospects — Missionary work in Korea. 1.
Persecution — 2. Toleration — English Protestant Mission —
Native sentiment • 171

CHAPTEB VII

THE POLITICAL FUTURE OP KOREA

Anomalous political status of Korea — Connection with Japan —
Tribute Missions — Friction and rupture — Becovery of influ-
ence. Treaty of 1876 — Convention of Tientsin in 1885 — Com-
mercial ascendency — Becent bluster — True policy of Japan —
Becent complications — Connection with China — Existing evi-
dences of Korean vassalage — Death of the Queen Dowager in
1890 — ^Thread of Chinese policy. 1. Bepudiation — 2. Neutral-
isation— Terms of the Treaties — Question of envoys — Ques-
tion of troops at Soul — 8. Practical sovereignty — The Chinese
Besident — Position of the King — Justification of Li Hung
Chang — Connection with Bussia — ^Aggressive designs — Ad
interim plans — ^Attitude of Great Britain — Occupation of Port
Hamilton in 1885 — The other Powers — The carcase and the
eagles — Conclusion 198

CHINA

CHAPTEB VIII

THE COUNTRY AND CAPITAL OF CHINA

Transition to China — ^Tientsin — The Viceroy Li Hung Chang —
Interview — Journey to Peking — Chinese rural life — Entrance
to Peking — Groimd-plan — The three Pekings — Panorama of
the streets — Native practitioners — The Imperial Palace— The

xvi CONTENTS

PAOS

Emperor Tung Chih — The two Empresses Regent— The Em-
press Dowager — The Emperor Kuang Hsu — Palace routme —
The Temple of Heaven — Difficulty of admission — The Annual
Sacrifice — The Observatory — Examination building— Drum
and Bell Towers — Temple of Confucius — Hall of the Classics —
Great Lama Temple— Outside the walls — The Great Bell —
The Summer Palace — Yuan-ming-yuan — Wan-shou-shan— The
Great Wall— The Ming Tombs— British Legation . . . 237

CHAPTER IX

CHINA AND THE POWERS

Relations between Chinese and Europeans — The Tsungli Yamen
— ^A Board of Delay— Chinese diplomacy — The Right of Audi-
ence— History — English embassies Lord Macartney in 1798
— Lord Amherst in 1816 — Interval — Audience with Tung Chih
in 1878 — Audience with Kuang Hsu in 1891 — Subsequent
audiences — Sunamary of achievement — True significance of
the dispute— Foreign policy of China— Attitude towards Russia
— China and the Pamirs — Attitude towards Great Britain —
Anglo-Chinese Trade — Opium Question — Missionary Question
— Protestant Missions — Their good service — Sowing the seed —
Objections and drawbacks — 1. Religious and doctrinal. Hos-
tility to Chinese ethics— Disputes as to name of the Deity — As
to the form of religion — Unrevised translations of the Scrip-
tures—Christian dogma — Irresponsible itinerancy — 2. Political
— History of the Treaties — Subsequent understanding — Impe-
rial Edict of 1891 — Chinese sentiments — The appeal for gun-
boats— Privileges claimed for converts — An imjperium in
imperio — Plea of political agitation— 8. Practical Mission Hfe
— EmplojTnent of women — Situation of buildings — Refusal of
converts to subscribe — Belief in witchcraft— Horrible charges
—Summing up— Results — The right policy. Respect for the
Treaties — Stricter precautions — Choice of material . . . 280

CHAPTER X

THE SO-CALLED AWAKENING OF CHINA

Is China awake? — A tactical surrender— Railways in China —
Manchurian Railway — Line to Peking— Great Trunk Line —
Hankow Line and factories— Formosa Railway— Other com-

CONTENTS

XTU

PAOB

mxmicationB — Military reform — ^The Manchu and National
Armies — Discipline — Native officers — European officers — Cost
— Alleged socoessee — General Gordon^s opinion — General
Pijevalski — Colonel Bell — The Chinese Navy — The fiedse and
the real dangers — The mercenaries of Europe — The Press in
China — Native enterprise — The curse of officialism — ^The Man-
darinate — ^The Chinese standpoint — The picture of progress—
The reaUty of standstill 886

CHAPTER XI

MONASTICISM IN CHINA

Chinese Buddhism — Its superstitious sanction — Contradictory
opinion of monks — Its explanation — Original conception of
monasticism — Its inversion — A spiritual insurance — Ostracism
of the cloister — Popular odium — Conmion imposture — Different
classes of recruits — Means of subsistence — Monastic temples —
Entrance gateway — Main temple — Service — Vox et prceterea
nihil — Tenants of glass houses — Procession — Reliquary —
Domestic premises — Cremation 872

THE PROSPECT

CHAPTER XII

THB DESTINIES OF THE FAB EAST

Summary — The future of Japan — The Chreat Britain of the Far
East — Future of Korea — Future of China — The Chinese as
aliens — ^The theory of Chinese resurrection — Mr. Pearson's
arguments in its fiEkvour — The new march of the Mongols —
Lords of the future — Objection of unoccupied area at home —
Reasons for disputing Mr. Pearson — ^Alleged successes of China
— ^The Colonial question — Character of Chinese colonists —
Military weakness of China — Chinese reconquest impossible —
The dream of social apotheosis — Influence of national character
— Lessons of history — Danger of rebellion — The real destiny —
Race and empire 898

a

xviii CONTENTS

CHAPTER XIII

QBEAT BRITAIN IN THE FAB EAST

PAGE

The role of Great Britain — Keflex influence upon England — Com-
mercial supremacy of Great Britain — Our rivals — Contraction
of business — Christian Missions — English life in the Far East
— The Press — Domestic life — English character — British diplo-
macy— British representatives — Suggested libraries of special
reference — Diplomatic anomalies — Future of Great Britain in
the Far East — The English language 418

INDEX • . 437

LIST OF ILLUSTKATIONS

FULL-PAGE ILLUSTBATIONS

PA OB

His Majesty Li Hsi, King of Korea . . Frontispiece

The Japanese Houses of Parliament at Tokio . To face 16

Japanese House of Peers „ 18

Japanese House of Bepresentatives ... „ 22

House of Bepresentatives in Session ... „ 82

The Emperor of Japan Driying to the Diet . „ 88

Japanese Infantry „ 46

Monastery of Chang An Sa in the Diamond

Mountains „ 104

Abbot of a Korean Monastery .... „ 108

Mountain of Pouk Han „ 124

The Kikg*s Corps de Ballet .... „ 184

Temple of the God of War at Soul ... „ 140

Gateway of the Old Palace .... „ 148

Three Korean Dignitaries ,, 162

Korean Cavalry and Boyal Standard ... „ 166

The King in State Procession .... „ 168

Modern-drilled Korean Infantry .... „ 170

The Viceroy Li Hung Chang .... „ 240

Walls and Gates of Peking ,, 246

Temple and Altar of Heaven .... ,, 262

Great Wall of China „ 276

ILLUSTBATIONS IN TEXT

Count Ito 25

Port and Japanese Settlement of Fusan 88

Gate of Native Town, Fusan 90

Port of Chemulpo ^2

XX LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

Korean Villagers 94

Korean Schoolmaster and Bots 95

A Korean Magistract 100

KEtTM Kang San, or Diamond Mountains 108

Street in a Korean Village 114

A Korean Peasant Family 116

South Gate op Soul 121

East Gate and Wall of Soul 123

Beacon Tower on Nam San 125

Ground Plan of Soul 127

The City and Old Palace, Soul 129

Korean Secretaries 132

A Korean Waiting-maid 138

The King's Band 184

Korean Mourner 186

Archway of the Chinese Commissioners 143

The City and the Kew Palace 147

Tbe Great Hall op Audience 149

Interior of the Old Palace .151

The Tai Wen Kun 158

The Crown Prince 357

A Korean Minister 161

A Korean Colonel ......... 164

Street in Peking .... 250

Southern Altar of Heaven 264

MAPS

Korea and Peking To face 232

Japan, Korea, and China At the end.

"X:

CHAPTER I

THE FAB EAST

The youth who daily farther from the East
Mast travel, still is Nature's priest,

And by the vision splendid

Is on his way attended.

Wordsworth, Ode on Intimations of Immortality.

Asia has always appeared to me to possess a fascina-
tion which no countr}'- or empire in Europe, still less
Tj^ any part of the Western Hemisphere, can

S'of^ claim. It has been the cradle of our race,
^^ the birthplace of our language, the hearth-

stone of our religion, the fountain-head of the best of
our ideas. Wide as is the chasm that now severs us,
with its philosophy our thought is still interpene-
trated. The Asian continent has supplied a scene
for the principal events, and a stage for the most
prominent figures in history. Of Asian parentage is
that force which, more than any other influence, has
transformed and glorified mankind — ^viz. the belief
in a single Deity. Five of the six greatest moral
teachers that the world has seen — ^Moses, Buddha,
Confucius, Jesus, and Mohammed — were born of
Asian parents, and lived upon Asian soil. Eoughly
speaking, their creeds may be said to have divided

2 THE FAR EAST

the conquest of the universe. The most famous
or the wisest of kings — Solomon, Nebuchadnezzar,
Cyrus, Timur, Baber, Akbar — have sat upon Asian
thrones. Thither the greatest conqueror of the
Old World turned aside for the sole theatre befit-
ting so enormous an ambition. * Cette vieiUe Europe
m!ennuie' expressed the half-formed kindred aspira-
tion of the greatest conqueror of modern times.
The three most populous existing empires — Great
Britain, Bussia, and China — are Asian empires ; and
it is because they are not merely European but
Asian, that the two former are included in the cate-
gory. From Asia also have sprung the most ter-
rible phenomena by which humanity has ever been
scourged — the Turki Nadir Shah, the Mongol Jinghiz
Khan.

Yet for such crimes as these has Asia paid to us
no mean compensation. For to her we owe the
Her noblest product of all literature, in the Old

product. Testament of the Hebrew Scriptures; the
sweetest of lyrics, in the epithalamium of a Jewish
king ; the embryos of modern knowledge, in the em-
piricism of Arabian geometers and metaphysicians.
In Asia the drama was born. There the greatest
writer of antiquity chose a scene for his immortal
epic. There, too, the mariner's compass first guided
men over the pathless waters. In our own times
alone it is with her aid that we have arrived at
the evolution of three new sciences — comparative
mythology, comparative jurisprudence, and philo-
logy. From Asia we have received the architecture

THE FAR EAST 3

of the Moslem — that most spiritual and refined of
human conceptions — the porcelain of China, the
faience of Persia, Ehodes, and Damascus, the in-
finitely ingenious art of Japan. On her soil were
reared the most astonishing of all cities, Babylon ;
the most princely of palaces, Persepolis ; the state-
liest of temples, Angkor Wat ; the loveliest of
tombs, the Taj Mahal. There too may be found
the most wonderful of Nature's productions ; the
loftiest mountains on the surface of the globe, the
most renowned, if not also the largest, of rivers, the
most entrancing of landscapes. In the heart of Asia
lies to this day the one mystery which the nineteenth
century has still left for the twentieth to explore —
viz. the Tibetan oracle of Lhasa.

Of course, in displaying this panorama of Asian
wonders or Asian charms, while claiming for her an
Homoge- individuality which her vast extent, her
"'"'""^^ historic antiquity, and her geographical
features go far to explain, I do not claim for her
any absolute unity of product or form. On the
contrary, the distinctions of race, irrespective of
cUmate, are perhaps more profound in Asia than in
any other continent. There is, on the whole, less
exterior resemblance between a Japanese and a
Persian than there is between a Prussian and a
Spaniard. A Dutchman is more like a Greek than
a Turkoman is like a Malay. There is a wider gap
between the finest Aryan type and the aboriginal
barbarian in the recesses of Saghalin, Formosa,
or Laos, than there is, for example, bet^veen the

B 2

4 THE FAR EAST

Egyptian and the Hottentot, or between the French-
man and the Lap. Not less marked are the distinc-
tions of language and habits, of caste and creed. The
Western world in the Feudal Ages was less sundered
and split up than is Hindustan at the present
moment. And yet, after visiting almost every part
of Asia, I seem, as soon as I taste her atmosphere
or come within range of her influence, to observe
a certain homogeneousness of expression, a certain
similarity of character, certain common features of
political and still more of social organisation, certain
identical strains in the composition of man, that
differentiate her structure from anything in Europe
or even in America, and invest her with a distinction
pecuUarly her own. The sensation is strengthened
by the impression left upon most minds since the
days of childhood by the two best books that
have ever been written upon the East — viz. the Old
Testament and the Arabian Nights. If I strive still
further to analyse it, I find that in scenery, as I have
elsewhere endeavoured to explain,^ the dominant note
of Asian individuality is contrast, in character a
general indifference to truth and respect for success-
ful wile, in deportment dignity, in society the rigid
maintenance of the family union, in government the
mute acquiescence of the governed, in administration
and justice the open corruption of administrators
and judges, and in e very-day life a statuesque and
inexhaustible patience, which attaches^ no value to
time, and wages unappeasable warfare against hurry.

^ Vide Persia and the Persian Question^ voL i. pp. 18-16.

THE FAR EAST 5

The impact between this solid amalgam of
character and habit, and the elastic and insinuating
Contact force which we denominate civilisation, is
UaaJUon a phenomenon which now in many countries
1 have set myself to examine, and which, I venture
to think, surpasses all others in human interest. In
Asia the combat is between antagonists who are
fairly matched. It resembles one of those ancient
contests between the gladiator and the retianxis^ the
man with the rude blade and the man with the
supple net, that filled with straining crowds the
Imperial arena at Eome. For though craft and
agility and superior science will, in the long run,
generally get the better of crude force and the naked
weapon, yet there are moments when, in the twinkling
of an eye, the tables are turned, when the swordsman
slashes the netman in twain, when the untutored
Oriental makes short shrift with the subtleties and
sophistries of the West. If Japan, for instance,
illustrates the easy victory of the European, China
so far registers an equal triumph for the Asiatic.
In Africa and America, where no serious contest has
been possible, because of the vast moral and intel-
lectual disparity between the organisms engaged, but
where civilisation advances like the incominsr tide
over the castles built by children with wooden spades
in the sand, the spectacle is devoid of any such
interest.

The same train of reflection may lead us to avoid
a common pitfall of writers upon the East — viz. the
tendency to depreciate that which we do not our-

6 THE FAR EAST

selves synjpathise with or understand, and which we
are therefore prone to mistake for a mark of infe-
Morai riority or degradation. Mankind has built for
lessons j^^ moral habitation different structures in
different lands and times. It has adopted many-
divergent styles of architecture, and has entertained
widely opposite views upon material, ornament, and
design. Sometimes the fabric would seem to have
been erected all aslant, or even to have been turned
topsy-turvy in the course of construction. And yet,
just as there are certain common laws observed in all
building that has endured, so there are points of con-
tact in all civilisations, common principles which lie at
the root of every morality, however contradictory its
external manifestations. It is among the ancient
races of Central Asia and in China that these reflec-
tions are chiefly borne home to the traveller's mind.
When he meets with a civiUsation as old, nay older,
than our own, when he encounters a history whose
heroes have been among the great men of all time,
religions whose prophets have altered the course of the
world's progress, codes of morals which have endured
for centuries and still hold millions within their
adamantine grip, a learning which anticipated many
of the proudest discoveries of modern science, and a
social organisation which has in places solved the
very problem of reconciling individual liberty with
collective force, whereupon the new-fledged demo-
cracies of the West are expending their virgin ener-
gies— he feels that it is absurd for him to censure,
and impertinent in him to condemn. The East has

THE FAR EAST 7

not yet exhausted its lessons for us, and Europe may

still sit at the feet of her elder sister.

No introduction is needed in presenting the Far

East to an English audience,^ since, on the whole,
Th« Par ^^ ^s better known to them already than the
^^*^ Near East, or than the Central East, if these

geographical distinctions may be permitted. Asia
Minor, the Caucasus, Persia, Beluchistan, and Trans-
ca^pia, are each a terra incognita to the majority of
our countrymen compared with the coasts of China
and the cities of Japan. The situation of these, on
or near to the ocean highways, and the advanced
state of civilisation to which their inhabitants have
attained and which has long attracted the notice of
Europe, and the extent to which they have in recent
years been made accessible by steam-traffic by land
and sea, have diverted thither the stream of travel,
and have familiarised men with Tokio and Canton
who have never been to Syracuse or Moscow. Com-
fort too plays a large part in the discrimination
of traveL Were there a railroad from the Caspian
to Teheran, more people would visit the capital of the
Shah. Were there an hotel at Baghdad, we might
shortly hear of Cook's parties to the ruins of Babylon.

^ It may have been forgotten by most readers, but it is nevertheless
the fiEU^t, that the historical connection of £ngland with the Far East
was antecedent to her connection with India. The East India Trading
Company had trading stations in the Malay Peninsula, in Sumatra,
Java, and Borneo, before they had opened a single factory in Hin-
dustan, the spice trade being the bait that drew them so £B.r afield.
The British advance of the past century has therefore been merely a
reappearance upon a scene where the English flag first flew nearly
dOO years ago.

8 THE FAR EAST

f

Nevertheless there are portions of the Far East which
the precise dearth of those communications of which
I have been speaking has still left isolated and almost
unknown. The number of Englishmen who have
travelled in the interior of Korea mav be counted
upon the fingers of the two hands. I know of none
who have selected Annam as the scene of their
explorations. Perhaps, therefore, in including them
in my survey of the Far East, I may help to fill a
gap, at the same time that I subserve the symmetry
of my own plan.

There are certain main distinctions which separate
this region from those parts of the Asian continent
Its idio- ^^^ border upon the Mediterranean and the

syncrasies ^pg^^jig^^ g^g^ Much of it, COmprfsiug thc

whole of the Indo-Chinese peninsula, lies south of the
Tropic of Cancer, and accordingly presents us with a
climate, peoples, and a vegetation, upon which the
sun has looked, and which possess characteristics of
their own. Greater heat has produced less capacity
of resistance ; and just as in India all the masculine
races have their habitat above the 24th degree of
latitude, so in the Far East is there the greatest con-
trast between the peoples of China, Korea, and Japan,
lying north of that parallel, and those of Burma,
Siam, Malaysia, and Annam, which lie below it. The
one class has retained its virility and its freedom,
the second has already undergone or is in course
of undergoing absorption. Throughout the Far East
there is abundance of water, and the scorched and
sullen deserts that lay their leprous touch upon

THE FAR EAST 9

Persia, Central Asia, and Mongolia, are nowhere re-
produced. In tlie Near East, i.e. west of the Indus
and tlie Oxus, there are absolutely only two rivers of
any importance, the Tigris and the Euphrates ; and
the main reason of the backwardness of those
countries is the dearth both of moisture and of
means of communication which the absence of rivers
entails. A further striking difference, of incalculable
importance in its effect upon national development,
is that of religion. Western Asia is in the unyield-
ing and pitiless clutch of Islam, which opposes a
Cyclopean wall of resistance to innovation or reform.
In Eastern Asia we encounter only the mild faith of
the Indian prince, more or less overlaid with super-
stition and idolatry, or sapped by scepticism and
decay ; and the strange conglomerate of ethics and
demonolatry which stands for religion in Cliina and
its once dependent states. Neither of these agencies
is overtly hostile to Western influence, though both,
when aroused, are capable of putting forth a tacit
weight of antagonism that must be felt to be appre-
ciated. Finally, whereas in the Near East popula-
tion is sparse and inadequate, in the Far East it is
crowded upon the soil, cultivating the well-soaked
lands with close diligence or massed behind city-
waUs in seething aggregations of humanity. These
conditions augment the complexity of the problem
which their political future involves.

Midway between the two flanks of the continent
whose rival differences I have sketched lies India,
sharing the features, both good and evil, of both.

10 THE FAR EAST

She has wide, waterless, and untilled plains ; but she
also has throbbing hives of human labour and life.
India the Her surface is marked both by mighty
p*^<>*^ rivers and by Saharas of sand. Among her
peoples are Mohammedans of both schools, mixed up
with diverse and pagan creeds. Of her races some
have always subsisted by the sword alone ; to others
the ploughshare is the only known implement of iron.
She combines the rigours of eternal snow with the
luxuriant flame of the tropics. Within her borders
may be studied ever)'' one of the problems with which
the rest of Asia challenges our concern. But her
central and commanding position is nowhere better
seen than in the political influence which she exer-
cises over the destinies of her neighbours near and far,
and the extent to which their fortunes revolve upon
an Indian axis. The independence of Afghanistan,
the continued national existence of Persia, the main-
tenance of Turkish rule at Baghdad, are one and all
dependent upon Calcutta. Nay, the radiating circle
of her influence overlaps the adjoining continents,
and aflects alike the fate of the Bosphorus and the
destinies of Egypt. Nor is the eflect less remark-
able if examined upon the eastern side, to which in
this book I am about to invite attention. It is from
jealousy of India and to impair the position which
India gives to Great Britain in the Far East that
France has again embarked upon an Asiatic career,
and is advancing from the south-east with steps that
faithfully correspond with those of Eussia upon the
north-west. The heritage of the Indian Empire has

THE FAR EAST 11

within the last ten years made us the land-neighbours
of China, and has multipUed threefold the area of our
cUplomacy at Peking. Even the fortunes of remote
Korea are in a manner bound up with the politics
of Hindustan, seeing that it is by the same foe that,
in the last resort, both are threatened, and that the
tactics which aim at the appropriation of the smaller
unit have as their ulterior objective the detriment of
the greater. Such and so supreme is the position
enjoyed in the Asian continent by the Empire of
the Kaiser- i- Hind. Towards her, or into her orbit,
a centripetal force, which none appears able to resist,
draws every wandering star. Just as it may be said
that the Eastern Question in Europe turns upon the
dismemberment of Turkey, so the Eastern Question
in Asia turns upon the continued solidarity of
Hindustan. In what relation to that problem stand
the countries and peoples of the Far East, what is
their present pohtical condition, and in what way
they are engaged in constructing the history, or re-
constructing the maps of the future, it is my object
in these pages to determine.

JAPAN

' Much have I travelled in the realms of gold,
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen,
Bound many Eastern islands have I been/

J. Keats.

15

CHAPTER n

THE EVOLUTION OP MODERN JAPAN

Me vestigia terrent.
Omnia te adverstim spectantia, nulla retrorsum.

Horace, Ep, I. i. 74-5.

DuBiNG the five years that elapsed between my first
and second visits to Japan, in 1887 and in 1892, 1
, found that many things had changed. The

**^* Europeanisation of the country proceeds
apace, though perhaps with a slightly less headlong
rapidity than before. In 1887 short lines of railway
ran only in the neighbourhood of the two capitals,
Tokio and Kioto, and of the Treaty Ports, Kobe and
Yokohama. Now it is- possible to travel by rail
within a single day from Tokio to Kioto, and also
from Tokio to Aomori on the northern coast; 1980
miles of the iron road are recorded as already open
to traffic ; and a great programme of railway con-
struction, according to which a sum of 8,500,000/. is
to be spent upon further extensions during the next
twelve years, has received the sanction of the Diet.
In a few years' time those to whom the discomforts of
a marine voyage are inadequately compensated by
the fairy landscapes of the Inland Sea, will be able

16 JAPAN

to travel overland, without leaving their compart-
ment, from Kioto to Shimonoseki ; while there is a
talk of bridging the Straits that bear the latter name
with a fabric that shall excel in monstrosity even the
Forth Bridge. From Tokio to Nagasaki it will then
be as commonplace an incident to travel by rail as it
is from London to Wick ; and the jinriksha will
relapse into the dusty limbo of the postilion and the
stage-coach.

Where the * iron horse ' has rushed in, it may be
certain that minor forms of Western invention will

The 8treefc8 ^^^ ^^^^ ^ trcad. lu Tokio tramways clat-
o£ Tokio |.gj. ^Xoiig the streets ; gas flames in some

of the principal highways ; and the electric light is
uniformly employed in the public buildings, in many
of the residences of ministers and nobles, in the tea-
houses which figure so largely in the holiday life of
the Japanese gentleman, and in quite a number of
stores and even small shops. Telephones and tele-
graphs stretch a web of wires overhead. The long pic-
turesque lines of yashikis or fortified city residences
of the feudal lords and their sworded retainers, that
covered so great an area within the moats, have
almost all disappeared, and have been replaced by
pubUc oflices of showy European architecture and
imposing dimensions. An immense pile of scaffold-
ing, surrounding a space much larger than the Law
Courts on the Strand in London, conceals what will
presently be known as the new Ministry and Courts of
Justice, where will be dispensed a jurisprudence that
has been borrowed, with a truly Japanese eclecticism,

^

THE EVOLUTION OF MODERN JAPAN 17

from the codes of half the nations of Europe. The
perpetual bugle-note, and the sight of neat figures
in white cotton uniforms and black boots, are indica-
tive of a national army, whose mobilised strength in
time of peace is 50,000, and whose discipline, phy-
sique, and weapons are the admiration of European
critics. Out in Tokio Bay the smart white hulls of
gunboats, lying at anchor, represent a na\y whose
creation has forcibly stirred the national ardour, and
which is destined in the future to be no mean factor
in the politics of the Pacific. Finally, after a twenty
years' travail, Japan has given birth to a Parlia-
mentary Constitution ; and an unpretentious but
roomy temporary structure, built of wood, like its
predecessor which was burnt down in 1891, and with
no trace of native art or architecture about it, accom-
modates the nominees of royalty or the representatives
of the people, who, in the two Chambers, created by
the Constitution of February 1889, and respectively
entitled the House of Peers and the House of Eepre-
sentatives, constitute the Imperial Diet of Japan, and
are swiftly introducing her people to the amenities
of Parliamentary existence — obstruction within the
Chamber, platform oratory out of doors — to the
phenomena of Radical and Progressive parties, and
to the time-honoured palcestra of begging and refusing
supplies.*

* The Japanese Diet approximates more closely to the Prussian
than to any other European or foreign model. The House of Peers is
partly hereditary, partly nominated, and partly elected. Under the
first heading come the Imperial Princes and the higher nobility sitting
in their own right ; the second category is composed of persons nomi-

18 JAPAN

In the three and a half years of its existence, since
its first meeting in November 1890, the Japanese
Diet has passed through six sessions and
three General Elections. The two Houses
meet in Chambers identical in size and design, almost
the only difference being the presence of the Imperial
throne behind the President's chair in the House of
Peers. Their ground-plan has been borrowed from
that of the bulk of foreign Legislative Chambers, the
seats and desks of the members being ranged in the
arc of a circle fronting a raised platform, upon
which are the presidential chair, the speaker's
tribune, the desk of the official reporters, and — a
speciality of the Japanese Diet— on either side of this
centre a row of seats occupied by the Ministers or
delegated officials of the various departments, who
are in the Chamber, yet not of it, and who sit there
not compulsorily, but of their own option, and with-
out votes, to defend their departments, to make

nated by the Emperor for meritorious services to the State, or for
erudition. The members of both these classes sit for life. Under the
third heading are included the bulk of the peerage, sitting only for a
term of seven years, and consisting of a nmnber of counts, viscounts,
and barons, elected by their own orders, and of representatives of the
various provinces, retiuned, subject to the approbation of the Emperor,
by small electoral bodies composed only of the highest tax -payers.
The House of Peers, thus constituted, contains at the present time
270 members. The Lower House, which contains 800 members, and
sits for four years, being bound to assemble at least once every year
for a session of three months, is whoUy elective, and composed of the
representatives of the principal prefectures and towns, returned in the
proportion of one to every 128,000 of the people, upon a tax-paying,
residential, and age franchise, the qualification for electors being the
possession of land of the taxable value of j?600, or cf an annual
income of j?l,000, a twelve months* residence, and the minimum age
of twenty-five.

THE EVOLUTION OF MODERN JAPAN 19

speeches, or to answer questions.^ The Japanese
appear to have acquh-ed with characteristic facihty
the external features of Parliamentary conduct.
They make excellent speeches, frequently of great
length, and marked by graces of style as well as by
quickness of reasoning. On the whole, considering
how immature is the Lower House, and how inevi-
tably, as I shall presently explain, it is by its con-
stitution afflicted with the vices of an irresponsible
Opposition, it succeeded till lately in conducting its
operations with a creditable decorum. Very full and
accurate reports of the speeches are published by a
Government staff of reporters, whose stenographic
attainments are on a par with the most highly-trained
experts of Europe or America; and a condensed
version of the debates in English appears in the
columns of the * Japan Daily Mail ' from the able pen
of its well-known editor. Captain Brinkley.

^ The merely optional attendance of ministers in the Lower House
has excited an already perceptible irritation among the champions of
Parliamentary onmipotence and ministerial responsibility. For in-
stance, the published Report of the Proceedings during the session of
1892-8 contained the following interesting passages. A motion was
made by a private member, and was carried, that the President be
asked to inquire when the Cabinet Ministers could be in their places.
Subsequently, the Government repUed, with some curtness, that
ministers having the power to attend whenever they pleased, there
was no necessity for members to put themselves to the trouble of
addng them. On a later occasion a member said he believed that
some of the ministers were in an anteroom, and requested that a
secretary might be sent to see, as in that case he desired to make an
urgency motion. Finally the urgency motion, so moved, was carried,
on the ground that the Cabinet had ignored its responsibility to the
Emperor, the country, and the Diet. The main reason, other than
constitutional law and practice, for the absence of ministers is that the
House of Peers meets between 10 and 11 a.m., and the House of
Bepresentatives at 1.15 p.m., ix. at hours wtien the ministers are at
work in their offices.

c 2

20 JAPAN

The new Parliamentary regime has developed a
prodigious mushroom growth of native journals, few
Public enjoying at all an extensive circulation, but
opinion Q2ic\\ attached to the creed of some party or
section, or inspired by some leader. In this way is
being manufactured, with almost bewildering haste,
a body of public opinion whose movements it is im-
possible to forecast, and with which Japanese states-
men already find it difficult to grapple. In the
country we read of political clubs, of large meetings
held in theatres and public places, of eloquent
speeches, of cheering audiences, of the virtues and
the wickedness of public men ; and we realise that in
Japan, as elsewhere. Demos, having found belated
articulation, is repeating, for the comfort of the
scientific historian, the familiar and venerable
accents.

There are other evidences that Japan is in the
bondage of a universal law. Though the level of
Pariia- poUtical intelligence in the Chamber is rea-

mentary t i i • i • i

symptoms souably high, it does not appear that that
of character or prestige is equally so. The attrac-
tion of a salary (for each member of both Houses ^
receives a compulsory yearly allowance of >^800,
equivalent at the present rate of exchange to
not much more than 100/. a vear — no inconside-
rable income in Japan) is not believed to add much
to the popularity of a political career, since it is

^ Except the ex officio and hereditary Peers, i,e. the Princes and
Marquises. The Imperial Princes are in receipt of personal grants
from the Emperor ; but the Marquises have no salaries, and are many
of them very poor.

THE EVOLUTIOX OF MODERN JAPAN 21

estimated that, though a member receives i8^800
annually, he has to spend i^2,000 at least, and since,
also, the strongest discredit attaches, theoretically,
to any suspicion of pecuniary motives. But the sys-
tem of education organised after the fall of Feudal-
ism— a system based on the aspiration of bridging,
with all possible rapidity, the gulf that centuries of
isolation had produced in Japanese knowledge —
proved disproportionate to the practical needs of the
nation, and called into existence a set of youths who
regarded official and political life as the only sphere
befitting their superior attainments. From the
ranks of this class there has gradually been formed
a numerous body of professional politicians, who find
in platform and Parliamentary publicity a compen-
sation for the closed doors of rank or office. These
individuals are in a position of perpetual freedom
and no responsibility ; they can enjoy the luxury of
attacking and paralysing every Government in turn ;
and, whilst by their votes they can neither form nor
oust a Ministry, they can fetter its limbs with any
number of LilUputian cords. The predominance of
this class at first deterred many of the older and
more influential men from offering themselves for
election; but there are signs that their reluctance
is yielding to the necessities of the situation. It may
be said, indeed, that the Parliamentary experiment is
being watched by the more stable elements of the
community from a suspicious though narrowing dis-
tance, and that a sense of national obligation to the

22 JAPAN

highest duties of citizenship has not yet been at all
widely aroused.

At the same time, charges of Government nepo-
tism and electoral tyranny are freely bandied about.
Roots I^ IS alleged that the Imperial nominations
*^®*^ to Life-peerages, which are reserved by the
Constitution for the reward of distinguished public
service or erudition, are distributed among Mi'niste-
rial adherents. At the General Election early in 1892
oflScial interference appears to have been openly and
flagrantly exercised. At least, such was the declared
opinion of both Houses of the Diet ; for, whilst the
Lower House only failed to pass by three votes a
motion for a memorial to the Throne, declaring that
in the elections administrative oflScials had wantonly
perverted the authority of their office by tempting
and inveigling voters or by resorting to force for their
compulsion — and seeking to fix the responsibility
upon the Government— a motion which, if carried,
would have amounted to a direct vote of censure —
both Houses passed by large majorities a representa-
tion to the Government urging them to punish the
implicated officials ; and the new Cabinet so far ac-
cepted the instruction as to dismiss five of these
offenders from their posts. The General Elections of
1892 and 1894 were also distinguished by a good
deal of rioting, and by a notable percentage of broken
heads. We may detect similar reproductions, as yet
in miniature, of Western forms, in the commencement
of an agitation for the reduction of the franchise,
which is now based upon a high assessment to direct

THE EVOLUTION OF MODERN JAPAN 23

taxation : while the minimum a^fe Umit of members
of ParUament — viz. thirty years — implies a mistrust
of precocious genius which is naturally distasteful to
the self-conceit of young Japan.

Xone of these * Rocks ahead/ however, can be
compared for seriousness with the main question of
The Minis- the relatious of the Chamber with the Govern-

tors sDd

Psriiament mcut, which Teproducc in a different but not
less acute form the controversial impasse that is from
time to time presented in England, not between the
House of Commons and the Ministry, but between a
Radical majority in the House of Commons and a
Conservative majority in the House of Lords. Japan,
though governed by party men, is not blessed or
cursed with party government. The Ministers in
Japan, like the President's Cabinet in America, are
the nominees and servants of the Emperor. They
are not responsible to the Diet, and can remain in
office as long as the Sovereign honours them with
his confidence. But whereas in America a majority
hostile to the Executive in both Houses is a phenome-
non extremely rare in occurrence, and certain to be
terminated in a short period of time, in Japan there
is no a priori reason why such a situation should not
exist in the first place, or be indefinitely prolonged.
The theory of the Japanese Constitution, therefore,
being the rule of a Government legislating through
two Chambers, but not responsible to either, and
treating their representations with comparative in-
difference, it may readily be understood that the
popular Chamber at any rate, which rests solely upon

2t JAPAN

election, though on a narrow franchise, becomes an
almost automatic machine of opposition. There is a
more or less rough subdivision of parties, with sup-
posed supporters or adversaries of the Government.
But these do not in either or any case sit in groups ;
nor can their votes be relied upon with any certainty,
the ' Below the gangway 'attitude being as popular in
Tokio as it is in Northampton. The largest combina-
tion in the last House only numbered 96 out of
a total of 300 ; and the two main sections of the
Eadijcal party are irreconcilably opposed. So far the
Japanese House of Eepresentatives has rendered itself
as disagreeable to successive Governments as it could,
obstructing their measures, defeating their budgets,
and generally betraying an attitude that might have
been studied in Irish academies. Nor can I imagine
a more fruitful occupation for the student, be he
.partial or prejudiced, of representative institutions,
than a perusal of the proceedings of the Lower House
of the Japanese Diet during its last four sessions.
There will be much to interest and inform him ;
some things to reassure ; but not a little to dispirit
and dismay.

At the time of my visit in September 1892, a new
Ministry had recently assumed the seals of office, and
The Minis- as I writc thcsc pagcs (1894*) is still in
the Talents powcr. Couut Ito, tlic Minister President,
or Prime Minister, is probably the best-knowm
Japanese statesman outside his own country; the
adventurous exploit of his early career, when, with
his life-long friend and colleague Count Inouye, he

THE EVOLUriOy OF MODERX JAPAX 25

was smuggled in disguise on board an English ves-
sel for conveyance to England, there to study the
manners and institutions of the We.st, being as
familiar to most foreigners as is the part which he

COUNT ITO

subsequently played in the Eestoration, and as a
pioneer in the evolution of Modern Japan. In his
own country hia experience, his tact, and his indi-
vidual responsibility for the new Parliamentary

26 JAPAN

Constitution/ render him the most respected and
influential of Japanese public men. Already once
Prime Minister and President of the Privy Council,
and the first President of the House of Peers, he now
returned after an interval in which he had seen
other Ministers come and go in the prehminary flux
consequent upon a new order of things, in order to
mould into durable shape the offspring of his own
political creation, and to endeavour to give some-
thing like stability to the administration of his
country. With him were associated in the Cabinet
his old friend Count Inouye, a former Minister for
Foreign Affairs, and, perhaps, the most daring and
original of Japanese statesmen; Count Yamagata,
himself a former Premier, to whom was entrusted
the portfolio of Justice ; and Mr. Mutsu, a travelled
and highly-accomplished statesman, who had repre-
sented his country at Washington before being trans-
ferred to the Foreign Office. The only public man
of the very first rank who was and who remains out-
side the new Ministry was Count Okuma, the author
of the famous attempt at Treaty Eevision that cul-
minated in an attempt upon his life, and who, for no
very well ascertained reason other than that he is
the acknowledged leader of the Progressionist party
in the House of Kepresentatives, was supposed to be
more or less in opposition. The new Government
might almost claim to be a Ministry of All the
Talents ; and, undoubtedly, the summons of Count

^ Count Ito has himself published a learned commentary on the
Japanese Constitution, which has been translated into EngUsh and
is published in Tokio.

THE EVOLUTION OF MODERN JAPAN 27

Ito by the Emperor upon the fall of the Matsukata
Cabinet in the summer of 1892, and the composition
of his Administration, had excited the livehest satis-
faction in political circles in Japan. A few caustic
censures on Clan government scarcely broke the
general consensus, on the one hand, of congratula-
tion that the true leaders had at length consented to
lead, on the other hand of judgment held in suspense
until they had shown of what stuff they were made.
I enjoyed the pleasure on several occasions of meet-
ing and conversing on the political situation with
^Jounts Ito and Inouve, and with Mr. Mutsu; and
a foreigner may perhaps be allowed without im-
pertinence to compliment the country that can pro-
duce such public men.

The question of the hour was the attitude to be
adopted by the Government towards Parliament
^Ea^cc^ when it should meet that body in November.
"^^ In the Session of 1891-2, the Budget had
been so systematically opposed that it was never
passed at all, and recourse had to be made to an
article in the Constitution, admitting in such a
case (with wise foresight of the idiosyncrasies of
Japanese character) of the readoption of the estimates
of the previous year.^ The repetition of such a

^ It is amniring, in the light of what has actually happened, to
read Count Ito'8 sangnine commentary upon this article of the Con-
rtitotion (No. LXXI.) : '• When the Diet has not voted on the Budget,
or the Budget has not been brought into actual existence, the result will
be, in extreme cases, the destruction of the national existence ; and, in
ordinary ones, the paralysis of the machinery of the Administration.
But tueh a state of affair* being possible only in countries where
dermoeroHc principles are taken as the basis of their political institu-
tions, it is incompatible with a polity like ours,*

28 JAPAN

rebuff could not lightly be endured by the strongest
Government that modern Japan could produce ; and
public opinion exhausted itself in surmise as to the
probable bearing of Count Ito and his colleagues
towards this obstreperous nursling. How was it
to be controlled — by a policy of cuffs, or by a pro-
gramme of caresses? Should the Ministry rule in
despite of the Chamber, or should it make terms
with the latter, and treat it with that assumption of
deference that is so grateful to injured pride ? The
answer that was returned to these questions by the
experiences of the two Sessions of 1892-3 and 1893,
sheds so luminous a ray both upoa the internal
polity of modern Japan, and upon the dangers by
which it is threatened, that I make no apology for
referring to them.

The actual facts were as follows. The Govern-
ment met Parliament with a programme whose two
Session of ^hicf itcms were a scheme for the reassess-
1B92-8 ixient of the Land-tax — a time-honoured griev-
ance in Japan ever since the Restoration * — ^which

^ After the Revolution in 1868, the Japanese farmers, who were in
theory though not in practice tenants-at-will, received certificates of
ownership, with freedom of transfer and sale. Henceforward they
paid their rent as a direct tax to the Government, which had resumed
possession of the national property. Since the days of the Shogunate
the tax has been reduced by one-half, while the proportion which it
bears to the entire revenue has largely diminished, owing to the
increase of receipts from other sources of taxation. Nevertheless the
one great domestic question in Japan is the reform of the land-tax,
promised by every Government and introduced in every Session. The
assessment is said to be both obsolete and unequal; the State as rent-
collector is not prone to mercy ; and the tax being paid, not, as for-
merly, in kind, but in cash, is seriously affected by the fluctuations in
the price of grain.

THE EVOLUTION OF MODERN JAPAN 29

scheme would involve a reduction of jS'3,750,000 in
the revenue so raised; and a plan for the increase
of the Navy by the expenditure of ^16,000,000, to
be spread over seven years, the appropriation re-
quired for these two purposes being raised by an
increase of the tobacco- tax, the sake-tdiX^ and the
income-tax. From the very first the House showed
its temper in the most uncompromising fashion.
The two sections of the Opposition, the Kaishinto or
Progressionists, under Count Okuma, and the Jiyuto
or extreme Radicals, under Count Itagaki, gleefully
joined hands in order to embarrass the Government.
The new taxes were refused ; a private bill for the
immediate reduction of the land-tax, independentl)"
of reassessment, was carried by the Lower House ;
even the Upper Chamber pa*^sed a representation in
favour of the reduction of all official salaries (with
the exception of those in the military, naval, diplo-
matic, and consular departments) from 12 per cent.
to 7 per cent, of the total revenue, and of the dis-
missal of superfluous officials ; and when the Budget
was finally introduced in the House of Eepresenta-
tives its items were ruthlessly cut down, wholesale
reductions were made in official salaries, and the
appropriations for the new ship-building programme
were absolutely refused. Three times did the in-
exorable Opposition send back the amended Budget
to the Government; three times the Government
refused to accept it. Then came the crisis. The
leader of the Opposition moved the adoption of a
representation to the Throne, which was tantamount

30 JAPAN

to a vote of want of confidence in the Ministry. But
no sooner had he opened his speech than the Presi-
dent had placed in his hands an Imperial Eescript,
ordering (under the terms of an article in the Con-
stitution) a special adjournment of the Diet for
fifteen days. An attempt at compromise in the
interval resulted in failure ; and when the House
met again, the same resolution was moved, and in
spite of a temperate and conciliatory speech from
the Prime Minister was carried by a majority of 181
to 103. Three days later an Imperial message was
read out in both Chambers, in which the Emperor
pointed out, in language of reproachful solen^nity,
that the spectacle of discord presented by the Par-
liamentary conflict was one by which the spirits of
his Ancestors were likely to be much disturbed ; ^ and
that to end the crisis and recall the nation to its
duties in the matter of the national defences, where * a
single day's neglect might involve a century's regret,'
he proposed to surrender, during the space of six.
years, one-tenth of his Civil List, or the sum of

' The belief in an immemorial antiquity of the Imperial Throne,
and an immense and ceremonious respect for the Imperial Ancestors,
supply an archaic framework in which the brand-new Japanese Consti-
tution sometimes looks strangely out of place. The Preamble of the latter
begins with the words : * Having, by virtue of the glories of Our An-
cestors, ascended the throne of a lineal succession unbroken for ages
eternal.' Article I. repeats the same consolatory fiction, while pro-
jecting it into an endless future : * The Empire of Japan shall be
reigned over and governed by a line of Emperors imbroken for ages
eternal.* In the Imperial oath, taken at the promulgation of the
new Constitution, the Emperor said : * That we have been so fortunate
in our reign, in keeping with the tendency of the times, as to accom-
pUsh this work, we owe to the glorious spirits of the Imperial Founder
of our House, and of our other Imperial Ancestors.'

THE EVOLUTION OF MODERN JAPAN 31

5300,000 annually ; at the same time directing all
military and civil officials to contribute a similar
proportion for the same period.^ To this Rescript a
loyal reply was voted; and a Committee of the Lower
House was appointed to confer with the Government.
The latter practically gave way on the main points,
pledging themselves to sweeping administrative re-
forms, and to a large reduction both of officials and
of official salaries, as well as to special reforms in the
Naval Department. The Budget was then passed,
and the crisis was temporarily at an end. From the
conflict the Government had only emerged by the
personal intervention of the Emperor, and by a
capitulation on many important points to their ad-
versaries. In the compromise the latter were the
real victors.

In the ensuing Session, which opened in Novem-
ber 1893, the crisis arrived with even greater
g^^gionof rapidity, and demanded a more drastic
^**^ solution. No sooner had the Diet assem-

bled than the Lower House proceeded to pass, by
a large majority, a vote of want of confidence in its
Speaker or President, on the scarcely concealed
ground that, though originally appointed by the
Radicals as a Radical partisan, he had falsified expecta-
tions by showing an unbecoming inclination to favour
the Government. The President, who had been elected
for four years, declined to resign; and the House

' According to Article X. of the Constitution, ' The Emperor de-
termines the organisation of the different branches of the Administra-
tion, and the salaries of all civil and military officials, and appoints
and dismisses the same.*

32 JAPAN

accordingly voted an address to the Throne on the
subject and adjourned. In the end this particular
quarrel, the importation of the Emperor into which
was a symptom of the advanced state of Parlia-
mentary disorganisation, terminated in the expulsion
of the recalcitrant official by the appointment of a
successor in his place. Meanwhile the House of
Eepresentatives, having, so to speak, tasted blood,
proceeded to gratify an even more dangerous appe-
tite. Unable to wreak that personal vengeance upon
the Government which a majority of its members
desired, they addressed the Throne on two subjects
— (1) on Official Discipline and the Status of Minis-
ters, practically demanding the dismissal of the
Cabinet ; and (2) on the strict enforcement of the
Foreign Treaties — a part of the petty and vexatious
policy recently instituted by the Opposition in order
to embarrass the Government and to force Treaty
Eevision upon their own terms. After this step the
sittings of the House were again suspended ; and
Count Ito, in presenting the address to the Throne,
requested, as a matter of form, to be relieved of the
discharge of duties which a majority of the Chamber
were bent upon rendering impossible.

A few days later the Emperor replied, in a states-
manlike Eescript, declining to dismiss his Ministers,
a prerogative which, he remarked, apper-

'rhg crisis

tained, not to the Diet, but to the Crown ;
and refusing to depart from the policy hitherto
pursued towards foreigners, which had been liberal
and progressive. Anything tending to interrupt the

THE EVOLUTION OF MODERN JAPAN 33

consummation of that policy would be contrary to
the Imperial wishes. Eetrograde and vexatious pro-
posals such as those suggested would aUenate Foreign
Powers, and were incompatible with the spirit of
civilisation. Upon the reassembling of the House,
these views were enforced in a singularly temperate
and dignified speech by the Foreign Minister, Mr.
Mutsu ; which however did not prevent the occur-
rence of violent scenes, and the use of opprobrious
and disgraceful language. The Diet was forthwith
prorogued for a fortnight ; but it was obvious that a
repetition of adjournments was a palliative that had
already lost its efficacy ; and, on the last day but one
of the year appeared an Imperial Decree dissolving
the Diet. Like many European forerunners, the
Japanese Government had realised that the only pur-
gative for a factious and discredited Parhament is an
appeal to the people. Simultaneously they asserted
and strengthened the authority of the Executive by
dissolving the Great Japan Society — an anti-foreign
Association that had been formed for the purpose of
agitating against the Ee vision of the Treaties except
upon terms inequitable to the foreigner — and pro-
liibited poUtical societies.

Tlie progress of the General Election, which
kisted for two months, was attended with scenes of
l^enerai violeucc aud cvcu bloodshcd, in which
of 1894 the soshi or professional rowdies, who are
ready, for a consideration, to let out their services
to either party in Japan, played a prominent part.
On March 1 the elections took place, the result being

D

34 JAFAN

that the Government failed to better their condition,
the aggregate of the various Opposition parties being
sufficient to render them impotent in the Diet, and to
secure for Japan a continuance of those constitutional
struggles which, at a moment when all parties should
combine to lay firm the bases of the new polity,
threaten to jeopardise its very existence, and to con-
vince the world that the Japanese are at present in
too feather-headed and wayward a mood to be able
to work out even their own salvation. When the
new session opened in May the Ministry was vehe-
mently assailed, its bills were rejected, and a vote
of want of confidence in the Government was within
five votes of being carried. Eealising that with such
a Chamber legislation, or even government, was im-
possible. Count Ito again advised the Emperor to
dissolve the Diet. And thus, for the second time
within the present year, Japan is plunged in the
throes of a General Election.

These events are interesting, and I have narrated
them, less as incidents in a Parliamentary drama than
Real points bccausc of tlic cxplauatiou that Jies behind,
at issue rpj^^y ^^^ symptoms of the threefold problem

by which Japanese statesmen and the Japanese nation
are now confronted, and which will not, in all like-
lihood, be solved without a great strain, if not actual
jeopardy to the Constitution itself. The principles
involved, or the questions at issue, are these : the an-
cestral conflict between democratic and oligarchical
ideas in government ; the part to be played in a so-
called Constitutional regime by the Sovereign ; and

THE EVOLUTION OF MODERN JAPAN 35

the relation of ministerial responsibility to a Parlia-
mentary system. They are problems about which
European States have been fighting (and in some
cases are still fighting) for hundreds of years ; and
now that our own analogous conflicts are for the
most part over, we may contemplate, with the sen-
tentious satisfaction of maturity, the almost iden-
tical struggles of impetuous youth.

In refusing the appropriations a^iked for the
ship-building programme in 1893, the Opposition
L Clan speakers were careful to explain that it was
ment from uo stiut of patriotism or disbelief in
the need of a powerful navy that they took that step.
The administration of the Naval Department they
held to be corrupt and bad, but, as one speaker said,
* the head and front of all the reforms needed was to
free the navy from the dominant influence of the
Satsuma clan.' On another occasion another speaker
remarked: 'A man could not become head of the
Home Office, or of the Railway Bureau, unless he
were of Choshiu origin, or head of the War Depart-
ment, or the Navy, unless he were of the Satsuma
clan.' These observations introduce us to a curious'
feature in the Japanese system, rarely noticed by
European writers, but nevertheless exercising a pre-
dominant and conservative force in the midst of a
welter of change, viz. the continued dominion of the
old Clan system, which has prevailed in Japan ever
since, just as it had done for centuries before, the
Revolution. leyasu, the founder of the last or
Tokugawa family of Shoguns in 1603, was practically

D 2

36 JAPAN

the head of a northern confederacy, which defeated
and held in subordination the clans of the south and
south-west. Two and a half centuries later the
decline of the Tokugawa Shogunate gave to these
the chance of a long-postponed revenge. Raising
the cry of the restoration of the legitimate Sovereign
and the expulsion of foreigners, they rallied around
themselves all the disaffected and patriotic elements
in the country, and carried their purpose. Satsuma,
Choshiu, Tosa, and Hizen were the four principal
clans concerned in this successful revolution, which
re-established the ascendency of the South over the
North. In their hands the new government, though
outwardly based on European ideas, was in reality
administered on the old Japanese system, namely,
by a territorial clique. The Satsuma rebellion
showed that one great section of the victorious clan
cared only for the old system, and not at all for the
new principles. It was defeated, and the Progressive
policy prevailed. Nevertheless, under a Western
exterior the victors have always clung tightly to the
traditional methods, and have retained an almost
unchallenged supremacy, alike in the formation of
Cabinets and the distribution of patronage. In the
old days, no doubt, this was due to the importance
of powerful princes or nobles backed by formidable
aggregations of armed men. It is now the triumph,
not of territorial influence, but of a civil and military
hierarchy, largely organised upon the privilege of
birth. The army, and still more the navy, which in
the background play a very important part in the

THE EVOLUTION OF MODERN JAPAN 37

politics of modern Japan, and which are the real
mainstay of the Government against the subversive
tendencies of Parliamentary majorities or demagogic
Radicalism, are principally officered by i^ien belong-
ing to the chief clans ; the present Cabinet is mainly
recruited from the same sources ; and the cry of the
Opposition is to a large extent well-founded, that to
be a clansman is to possess the key to the doors of
official promotion.

In reaUty the conflict is only a Japanese version
of the famiUar duel between a powerful and dis-
^efiigarchy cipUucd oligarchy and an ambitious but as
cracy yet impcrfcctly organised democracy. It is
essentially the same historical phenomenon that was
presented by the contest of the Gracchi with the
Senate in the expiring century of the Eoman Ee-
public ; and that was reproduced in our own country
in the popular struggle against what is commonly
called Whig ascendency in the first quarter of the pre-
sent century. The Cabinet of Count Ito is in EngUsh
political terminology a Whig Cabinet, composed of
members of the great Whig families, the Cavendishes
and EusseUs of modern Japan (though without their
pedigrees), and sustained by the patronage which
the Japanese equivalents to rotten boroughs ajflford.
The system possesses that desperate tenacity which
is the result of inherited ability and conscious worth.
It has. the authority which prescription and posses-
sion unite to confer, and it is undoubtedly in con-
formity with the history and the most cherished
traditions of the people. A long time may yet elapse

38 JAPAN

before it disappears ; but ultimately, in face of an
opposition which complains with some truth that it
is being deluded by the mere semblance of liberty
and outward form of change, it seems destined to
perish, as did the influence of the Whig oligarchy in
England.

It will have been noticed that in each of the
three Parliamentary Sessions of which I have spoken,
2. PoBi- the majority of the Lower House, profitiniy

tionofthe . » r t5

Sovereign by tlic liberty conceded by an article in the
Constitution,^ addressed frequent representations to
the Throne, in a sense hostile to the Government of
the day ; and further, that in the Session of 1892-3
a settlement of the political deadlock was only
obtained by the direct intervention of the Emperor.
This habit of erecting the Sovereign into an outside
court of appeal against the Executive is both in open
divergence from the spirit, even though permitted
by the letter, of the Constitution, and, if persisted in,
cannot fail to cause trouble in the future. Count
Ito, in his Commentary on the Constitution, evidently
never contemplated such an abuse of the prerogative
of jnemorial when he thus explained its applica-
tion : —

' The meaning of the word '' addresses " includes the
reply to an Imperial speech in the Diet, addresses of con-
gratulation or of condolence, representations of opinion, peti-
tions, and the like. In transmitting the writing, proper
forms of respect must be observed. The dignity of the

' Article XLIX. * Both Houses of the Imperial Diet may respec-
tively present addresses to the Emperor.'

THE EVOLUTION OF MODERN JAPAN 39

Emperor must not be infringed by any proceeding implying
coercion.'

Still more serious however in its consequences,
if too frequently repeated, must be the persoral
descent of the Sovereign, as a sort of Attic deus ex
machina^ on to the Parliamentary stage. The Emperor
cannot perpetually be extricating his Ministers from
difficulty, and the Diet from a deadlock, by a surrender
of part of his Civil List ; nor should his interposition
in the disputes of the Chambers come to be regarded
as the sole possible exit from a cul de sac^ carefully
prepared in advance by an Opposition ostentatiously
devoid of any sense of responsibility. The Throne
occupies a very singular and unique position in the
polity of modern Japan. Still enveloped in the dig-
nity' of a limitless past, and not yet wholly stripped
of the halo of a once divine sanction, it stands out
in the breathless turmoil of Japanese evolution as
the single element of unshaken stability, the rally ing-
point of all parties, the common oracle of warring
social and political creeds. To the Japanese the
Emperor is the personification of that intense and
perfervid spirit of patriotism which, alone of Eastern
peoples, they appear to feel. He is identified with
their beautiful islands, with their immemorial lan-
guage, with their ancestral religion. lie represents
the triumph of no conquering race, of no alien caste,
and of no compulsor}' creed. His forefathers created
Japan for the Japanese to inhabit, and for their
descendants to rule. So little in Japan are men
predisposed to question the Imperial sanctity, that

40 JAFAK

it may be said to be almost independent of the
personality of the Sovereign. Just, however, as the
gods of Olympus, when they descended from their
misty heights, were found to be men of like passions
with men, and ended by becoming the personifications
merely of exaggerated human attributes or lusts, so
will the prestige that still clings to the Mikado'a
authority and name be rapidly dissipated by their
employment on the battle-ground of parties or in the
strife of factions. The strength and safeguard of the
Throne lie in its entire severance from the political
arena. For centuries, while his practical authority
was a figment, the Emperor never lost his hold upon
the public imagination, because of the mysterious
and awe-inspiring background in which he lived.
Eival combatants used his name while they fought,
and hi§ prerogatives after they had conquered. The
clans rose and fell, but the Imperial power, though
held in suspense, remained. Whilst this is no longer
either possible or wise, yet the attitude of reserve
and withdrawal is still, under a Parliamentary regime^
the true secret of Imperial strength. The Emperor's
function is to support his Cabinet, who, under the
Japanese Constitution, are his own servants and
nominees, and to entertain no address that brings
him down, so to speak, from the throne, or that
touches his prerogatives as fixed by law. Any
modification or alteration of them should proceed
from his own initiative, and not at the dictation of
the Diet. Nor should such a course be attended by
any insuperable diflSculty, seeing that this is the

THE EVOLUTION OF MODERN JAPAN 41

theory of the Imperial prerogative plainly contem-
plated by the framers of the new Constitution, and
that the latter is guarded with the peculiar jealousy
attaching to a written instrument by a people who
claim to see in it the embodiment of all constitutional
wisdom, and who are sensible enough to recognise
the danger of beginning to tamper with so delicate a
fabric.

A more imminent and less easily soluble problem
is that presented by the open combat between the
8. Mini*. Executive and the Parliamentary majority,
•pcmsibuity It is obvious from recent experience that
the Government, however powerful its composition,
has little hold over the Diet, and but slight control
over public opinion. Weekly it has seen itself flouted,
insulted, and crippled by a combination of parties
powerless to eject it, and incapable of replacing it if
ejected. The Address to the Throne presented by
the majority of the House of Eepresentatives in
February 1893, contained the following definition
of the situation and account of its origin : —

* Humble reflection leads your Majesty's servants to con-
clude that the chief object of representative government is to
promote concord between high and low, and to secure their
co-operation in aid of the State. Hence there can be no
profounder or greater desideratum than that the Legislature
and the Administration should occupy towards each other an
attitude of thorough sincerity, and should achieve the reality
of harmonious co-operation. But ever since the opening of
the Diet, the Legislature and the Administration have been
wanting in concord, all their projects have been impeded, all
their capabilities marred, so that in the sequel they have
fiiiled to secure for the country the benefits of progressive

42 JAPAN

development in concert with the advance of the age. Your
Majesty's servants acknowledge that the insufficiency of their
own zeal is in part responsible for these things, but they
believe that the chief cause is to be sought in the Cabinet's
failure to discharge its functions. . . . The origin of the
friction between the Government and the Diet, and of the
discord between officials and people, extends to a remote
time. Unless accumulated abuses be removed, and the
reality of representative government achieved, the nation
will lapse into a state of decline. . . . Your Majesty's
servants gave expression to the desire of the people, but the
Cabinet utterly declined to listen, and thus prevented us
from discharging our legislative function of consent. Such
is not the proper course to adopt in adjusting the finances of
the Empire and carrying out the administration of the State.
Your Majesty's servants apprehend that, so long as they are
associated with such a Cabinet, it will be impossible for them
to discharge the trust reposed in them by your Majesty
above, and to give expression to the desires of the people
below.'

Here is a sufficiently plain statement, though couched
in somewhat circumlocutory language, of the demand
by the popular Chamber for Party Government upon
the accepted European lines. Such a demand is
wholly inconsistent with both the spirit and the
letter of the new Constitution. Ministerial respon-
sibility is there defined as existing towards the
Emperor alone, and is thus explained by Count Ito
in his Commentary : —

* Who is it, except the Sovereign, that can appoint,
dismiss, and punish a Minister of State ? The appointment
and dismissal of them having been included by the Constitu-
tion in the sovereign power of the Emperor, it is only a
legitimate consequence, that the power of deciding as to the
responsibility of Ministers is withheld from the Diet. But

THE EVOLUTIOX OF MODERN JAPAN 43

the Diet may put qaestions to the Ministers and demand
open answers from them before the public, and it may also
present addresses to the Sovereign setting forth its opinions.
Moreover, although the Emperor reserves to himself in the
Constitution the right of appointing his Ministers at his
pleasure, in making an appointment the susceptibilities of
the public mind must also be taken into consideration. This
may be regarded as an indirect method of controlling the
responsibility of Ministers.'

What the * susceptibilities of the pubhc mind ' de-
mand in Japan is not however a remote and indirect
voice in the appointmeut of Ministers, but a direct
voice in their dismissal : and the chasm that sepa-
rates the two parties is one that no concessions on
either side appear likely to fill. Prior to the open-
ing of the second Session of 1893 the Government
testified their recognition of this fact by publishing
an announcement that until a party (not an acci-
dental or momentary combination of parties) ap-
peared in the House with an absolute majority on its
side, they would neither surrender their power nor
share it with any section however influential ; and
that they would regard no vote of censure or rejec-
tion of their proposals, but would remain in office
until men appeared with authority to take it from
them.

This bold acceptance of the challenge to war a

outrance might seem to some an impolitic defiance of

the enemy ; and in any country where the

The issue

Parliamentary S3'stem was more developed,
or political training more widely difiused, it might
be the premonitory system of ultimate defeat. In

44 JAPAN

Japan itself there exists a strong party who see in
the so-called popular demand a movement which
will not lose, but will, on the contrary, gain force
until it has secured its object and revolutionised the
Constitution. But there are opposing considerations
that may justify a more sanguine forecast. First of
these is the respect, before spoken of, for the written
Constitution. Further, the prominent men in Japan
are almost unanimously in favour of the existing law,
and the cohesion of the Clan and Court party will
not easily be broken down. Thirdly, the Japanese
are as yet too ignorant of Party Government to be
able to work any such system as is demanded without
risk of total collapse ; the Opposition is so split up
by personal animosities as to render the creation of a
working majority out of its ranks highly improbable ;
whilst the Eadical party in particular is so far much
too wanting in dignity or prestige to justify the
granting of concessions that might transform the in-
temperate filibusters of the ballot-box and the tribune
into portfolio politicians. Finally, the analogy of
foreign States suggests that 2^ modus vivendi will ulti-
mately be established in the Chamber itself, by an or-
ganised Government party less amenable than now
to the shifting currents of popular caprice. In the
meanwhile, however, we may expect a period of
political fermentation, and even of chaos, by which
such an issue may be for some time retarded, and
from which the Constitution itself may not escape
unscathed.

Among the respects in which the advance of

THE EVOLUTION OF MODERN JAPAN 45

modem Japan has been most rapid, though as yet
scarcely appreciated by foreigners, is the develop-
j&paneae Hient of the military and naval forces of the
^^^ Empire. Aspiring to play a predominant part
in the politics of Eastern Asia, she has spared no
effort and shrunk from no sacrifice to place herself in
the matter of armed equipment upon a level with
her possible competitors. The Japanese are born
sailors ; and a country with so extensive and vulne-
rable a seaboard could in no case afford to neglect its
maritime defences. About their navy the patriotism
of the Japanese is as easily aroused as is our own in
Great Britain ; and although the administration of
the Naval Department is the subject of acrimonious
party conflict, there is no disagreement upon the
broad Imperial policy of a largely increased naval
outlay. When in 1893 the strength of the Japanese
navy amounted to 40 vessels and 50,000 tons, and
the Government laid down the standard of national
requirement as 120,000 tons, there were some among
the extreme Eadical party who would have preferred
to see this figure raised to 150,000. The sums con-
tributed by the Emperor in the crisis of 181)3, and
ordered to be deducted from the salaries of all mili-
tary and civil officials, were specially ear-marked
from the start for the construction of new battle-ships
of the first rank. An order amounting to 2,000,000/.
is now in course of execution in Europe ; and Count
Ito's boast to me that the Japanese fleet is the next
strongest to that of China in the Northern Pacific, and
is far more serviceable for action, is amply justified

46 JAPAN

by the facts. It is largely by the offer of the
alliance of her navy that Japan hopes in the future
to control the balance of power in the Far East.
Simultaneously the maritime defences of the country,
which have been executed under the superintendence
of a distinguished Italian engineer, have reached a
formidable state of proficiency; and we are not
likely to have any 'Shimonoseki bombardment' in
the future.

Not less satisfactory or admirable is the spectacle
presented by the reorganised Army of modern Japan.
With a mobilised peace-footing of between
50,000 and 60,000 men, with a reserve of
113,000, and a landwehr of 80,000, armed, equipped,
and drilled according to the highest standard of
nineteenth-century requirement, and moreover eco-
nomically and honestly administered, the Japanese
Army need not shrink from the test of comparison,
in point of efficiency, with the forces of European
States. Lest, however, my appreciation should be
attributed to the uninstructed partiality of the
civilian eye, let me quote an English military
authority. Colonel E. G. Barrow, who has himself
recently visited Japan. Confessing that he was
' fairly astonished by the marvellous picture which
military Japan presents,' he amplifies this statement
as follows : — ^

* The officers of the Japanese Army have mostly passed
through the Imperial Military School, and may therefore be
held to be of much the same stamp professionally as the
generality of officers of European armies. The barracks are

* United Service Magazine, September 1893.

THE EVOLUTION OF MODERN JAPAN 47

two-storeyed wooden buildings, with airy, well-vcLtilated
rooms, and scrupulously clean. The store-rooms are, how-
ever, the really striking feature of the Japanese military
system. In completeness and in arrangement there is
nothing better to be found in Europe. ... As regards the
troops, the infantry are very good — better even than some
European infantry I could name ; the artillery good, or at
least fair ; and the cavalry indifferent. This is scarcely to
be wondered at. The Japanese are not an equestrian race ;
their horse possesses neither of the charging qualities of speed
or weight ; and, finally, the physical aspect of the country is
not one that could ever hope for the development of good
cavalry. . . . The army is not a paper sham, but a complete
living organisation, framed on the best models, and as a rule
thoroughly adapted to the requirements of the country. . . .
Here we have an army of 75,000 men, capable of being
trebled in war, which costs only about #17,000,000, or, ap-
proximately, 2,500,0007. . . . The Japanese soldier has disci-
{dine, perseverance, and great endurance. Has he valour also ? '

To the latter question no one who is acquainted
with the many striking pages in Japanese history
can hesitate to return an aflBrmative answer. Tliere
is no nation in the world, of anything like compa-
rable antiquity, whose annals exhibit a more brilliant
record of personal valour and patriotic devotion.
For over a thousand years there have been sung in
Japan some verses that fitly express the high ideal of
feudal and national loyalty that has always been en-
tertained by the Japanese soldier : —

* Is my path upon the ocean yonder ?

Let the waves my shipwrecked body hide I
Most I over plain and mountain wander?
Let my slain corpse *neath the ^ass abide !
Wherever I cease,
For me no peace
Of last release,
I shall perish by my hege-lord*s side 1 *

48 JAPAN

Nor could any people have enacted the tragedy of
the Forty Eonins, or maintained for centuries the
strange but heroic code of honour involved in hara
kiri^ without possessing a superlative though mis-
directed form of human courage/

A still more recent work by an English military
critic contains an equally discriminating but not
corrobo- Icss laudatory verdict upon the Japanese
opinion Army.^ The author describes the cavalry
as poor, for the reasons before mentioned, but the
infantry as quite excellent, the drill as smart and
efficient, the armament as good, and the barrack
accommodation as admirable. He supplies figures,
derived from official sources, of the numerical
strength of the various battalions, regiments, bri-
gades, and divisions ; and he gives the total strength
of the Territorial Armv and Eeserves combined as
228,850 men. If his views of what the Japanese
Army may be expected to do in the field of inter-
national action are in excess of all probability, his
testimony to its practical efficiency as a fighting
machine is sufficiently authoritative to merit quota-
tion.

* For many instances of such courage, vide A. B. Mitford's Tales
of Old Japan, With them may be compared the comparatively recent
incident that conchided the sanguinary Satsuma Bebellion in' 1877.
Old Saigo, with a band of devoted adherents, made his way from the
East, where his army had been cut off, to his native place, Kagoshima.
There, entrenched on a hill above the town, he and his men fought
till they perished. When he fell, wounded, he prayed his devoted
friends to cut ofif his head. They complied, and then committed
suicide. The dead bodies were found together.

2 On Short Leave to Japan, By Captain G. J, Younghusband.
London : 1804. Cap. xviL

THE EVOLUTION OF MODERN JAPAN 49

To a sjnnpatliiser with Japan not the least
gratifjnng among the evidences of her progress are
the signs of a quite uncommon financial
prosperity. Money is plentiful in the coun-
trj\ There is a great circulation in notes, and a
large reserve in specie in the banks. The Govern-
ment has a handsome surplus at its command ; and,
inasmuch as the bulk of the taxes are levied bv
fixed laws, the economies resulting from the recent
administrative reforms, which have already produced
an annual reduction of iS^8,000,000, will considerably
swell this total. In consequence of the profitable
year's trade in 1892, all good stocks rose in value
from 20 to 30 per cent. There has further been a
very rapid development of Government credit, as
illustrated bv the conditions of the National Debt.
Bonds paying a high rate of interest have either
been converted into 5 per cent, bonds or have been
paid ofi* without option of conversion. The only
portion of the Debt which is still located outside of
Japan is a sum of 750,000/., which was raised in
1873 and will mature in 1897. Upon this 7 per
cent, interest is paid in gold, equivalent to Japan to
13 per cent, on the original capital. The interest on
the remainder of the Debt is paid in silver. The total
internal debt amounts to ^^252,000,000, to the pay-
ment of principal and interest upon which <^22,000,000
are appUed annually. Japanese statesmen have fortu-
nately formed a very high conception of the value
both of national credit and of financial retrenchment ;
and the suspicion of extravagance or corruption is

E

50 JAPAN

one that arouses an immediate furore in the Chamber.
It is to be regretted that in their dealinsfs with
foreigners the standard of commercial morality that is
commonly observed by Japanese merchants is neither
so blameless in theory nor so inflexible in practice.

As regards the Trade of Japan, I will not here

reproduce statistics that may be found in Consular

publications, but will merely notice certain

Trade . . . " .

salient characteristics. Her foreign trade has
increased so rapidly that its total sterling value,
which in 1892 stood at 23,800,000/., is nearly double
that of 1884, and five and a half times as mucli as
that of 1867. The share in this total that is claimed
by the British Empire {i,e. Great Britain, India, and
the Colonies) is by far the largest, amounting to over
8,250,000/. ; although these figures represent a steady
recent decline, the .proportion, which in 1890 was
41 per cent, of the whole, having, mainly owing to
the greatly increased export of silk and tea to the
United States, fallen to 35 per cent, in 1892.* In
shipping, however. Great Britain easily retains her
predominance ; the total tonnage of British vessels
trading with Japan exceeding that of all other
countries, including Japan itself, put together. Of
the total merchandise imported into and exported
from Japan in 1892, 58 per cent, was carried in

* On the other hand, in the Trade Report for 1893, which came to
hand only after these pages were in print, out of a total increase of
Japanese trade of ^15,550,000 in the year (the increase being
entirely in imports, chiefly raw cotton and machinery). Great Britain
improved her position by #8,000,000, of which ij?7,000,000 were
imports.

THE EVOLUTION OF MODERN JAPAN 51

British bottoms. The German proportion in the
same year was 10 per cent. ; while the figure that is
held to justify the lofty commercial aspirations of
France in the Far East was only 13 per cent.

A more remarkable development of Japanese
commerce is the advance of her own manufacturing
Mwmfac- industrics. Japan is rapidly becoming her

taring ,

industries owu purvcyor, particularly of cotton cloth-
ing. The simultaneous process is observed in her
Custom Eeturns of a great increase in the import of
raw material, and a corresponding decrease in that
of manufactured goods. In 1892 she imported
eleven times the quantity of raw cotton imported in
1887 ; while since 1888 her import of manufactured
cottons has decreased 44 per cent. In the last five
years her export of goods manufactured in her own
looms has been quadrupled. That this process has
been very much accelerated by the recent changes in
Indian currency there can be no doubt. Just as
India has hitherto profited in her competition with
Lancashire, so will Japan now profit in her com-
petition with Bombay. She is rapidly extending her
plant, and before the year is out, will have doubled
her number of spindles. Especially will she profit
in her export of manufactured cottons to China.
Both are silver-standard countries, and in both wages
are paid in silver ; and when her superior proximity,
her low rate of wages, and the cheapness of coal, are
taken into account,^ Manchester and Bombay alike

' The wages of a cotton operative in Japan are from 10 to 20 cents
{i.e. S(L to 6d,) a day. Japanese coal is delivered at the mills for
#2} (Le. 6$. Sd,) a ton.

B 2

52 JAPAN

should find in her a most formidable competitor.
There is even a talk in Japan of still further stimu-
lating this natural movement by abolishing both the
import duty on raw cotton, and the export duty on
the manufactured article. European merchants are
for the moment somewhat nonplussed by this
Japanese development. But it may be pointed out
to them that any falling off in foreign imports which
may result from native competition should be
more than compensated by the increased purchasing
power of Japan in respect of foreign articles, such
as machinery, which she cannot provide herself.
Among the other resources which Japan is turning
to good account in her industrial expansion is her
coal. Japanese coal is now exported everywhere
throughout the Far East ; it is burned on the majority
of steamers between Yokohama and Singapore, and
it may be said to have driven the Australian product
from the Eastern market.

Among the questions which are much discussed,
alike by foreigners and residents, and about which
Attitude of ^^^ contrary opinions are expressed, not
to^ir merely at different times, but by different
foreigners ^j.][|.gj.g ^x the samc time, is the general

attitude of the Japanese people, and particularly of
the rising generation, towards foreigners. It should
not be inferred, because Japan has recognised that
Europe is ahead of herself in many branches of
knowledge and resources of civilisation, and that she
must go to Germany for her guns, to France for her
law, to England for her railways — that she is, there-

THE EVOLUTION OF MODERN JAPAN 53

fore, an indiscriminate admirer of that which she
imitates, or that the Western man is an idol in her
social pantheon. On the contrary, the more she has
assimilated European excellences the more critical
she has become of European defects ; whilst the at
times precipitate rapidity of her own advance has
produced a reactionary wave, which occasionally
assumes serious proportions. The existence of such
a feeling is by no means surprising when we remem-
ber the forces by which it is recruited. Among these
may be counted the latent Conservatism in the
national character, which, though but little expressed,
still smoulders with an internal combustion that,
hke those sudden shocks of nature that wreck the
Japanese landscape, now and then breaks forth in a
passionate vendetta of outrage or assassination ; the
inordinate vanity of the people, fostered at once by
their illustrious antiquity and by the ease with which
they seem to have planted themselves in the forefront
of the files of time ; the indiscreet rapidity with
which they have been asked to swallow, almost in
the same gulp, a foreign dress, a foreign language,
and a foreign religion ; and a consciousness of na-
tional strength that resents the suspicion of having
bartered its birthright to aliens. Political incidents
— ^a proposal of Treaty Revision on terms at all
derogatory to the national dignity, the not too sensi-
tive and sometimes brutal candour of the European
Press, the resolutions passed at a meeting of foreign
merchants — ^may excite this feeling to a white heat
of fury. At other times it slumbers.

54 JAPAN

In 1891 it seemed for a time to have exp^ienced
a sharp inflammation, but afterwards to have sub-
sided. Towards the close of 1893 it underwent a brisk
revival, in consequence of the judgment of the British
Supreme Court at Shanghai, reversing the decision
of the inferior Court at Yokohama in the case of the
collision of the P. and 0. steamsliip 'Eavenna' with the
Japanese cruiser *Chishima' in Japanese waters. This
judgment, which was adverse to the Japanese claims,
was criticised as though it were a deliberate exhi-
bition of foreign malevolence, directed against the
expanding ambitions of Young Japan. Foreigners,
including some old and well-known residents, were
openly insulted in the streets of the capital, while the
native police made not the slightest eflbrt to interfere ;
and a sharp reminder required to be addressed to the
latter of their elementary duties. Another manifes-
tation is the boycotting of foreign manufactures, even
when the corresponding native articles are of greatly
inferior quality. In 1892 an attempt was actually
made upon the life of a well-known native merchant,
because he had advocated the use of foreign pipes
for the Tokio water-works. These emotions find their
chief exponents among the student class, many of
whom, under the tuition of American missionaries,
have imbibed American notions of democracy, and
whose smattering of universal knowledge seems likely
to create a considerable element of danger. Perhaps
the most innocent form is the continuous dismissal
of foreigners from posts in the public service, or in
the employ of business firms, their places being filled

THE EVOLUTION Ot MODERN JAPAN 55

by Japanese specially educated, though not uniformly
fitted, for the purpose.^ Serious though these in-
dividual ebullitions undoubtedly are, the best autho-
rities do not seem to anticipate any very perilous
developments of this phase of national resuscitation ;
and it may probably be regarded as the best safety-
valve for humours that might otherwise require a
more tempestuous outlet.

A collateral illustration of the same thoughtless
and sometimes foolish patriotism is the passionate
^.ittotAhoj excitement displayed by the Japanese at any
^*'^***™ assertion, however extravagant or ridiculous,
of the national spirit. In this respect they may be
termed the Frenchmen of the Far East. In the
course of 1893 there occurred three illustrations
of this unseasonable ardour. A young lieutenant or-
ganised a project for forming a fishing and maraud-
ing colony on one of the Kurile Islands ; and when he
started from Tokio with thirty volunteer companions
in a number of open row-boats upon this scatter-
brained quest, the populace crowded the wharves of
the Sumida, and gave an ovation to the departing
hero as though he were Nelson embarking at Ports-
mouth to take command of the Mediterranean Fleet.
Presently came the retributory sequel. The lieutenant
encountered a storm. Two of his boats were swamped,
and seventeen of the would-be colonists were drowned.
The second instance was that of a Japanese military

* In July, 1893, the total number of foreigners in the employ of the
Japanese Government, which a few years ago stood at several hundreds,
was only 72, of whom 88 were British, 14 Germans, 10 Americans, and
5 Freneh.

56 JAPAN

attache at St. Petersburg, who rode overland from that
place to Vladivostok. When he landed in Japan he
was received with as much honour as though he were
Moltke returning from the Franco-German campaign.
One trembles to think what will be the fate reserved
for a genuine Japanese hero, should such a one ever
appear. The third example was even more puerile.
In pursuit of a forward policy as regards Korea, the
Government was persuaded in 1892 to send a new
Minister to that Court. This individual, having
insulted the King of Korea, and quarrelled with his
Ministers, was very shortly recalled ; but, owing to
his name being popularly associated with a policy of
so-called courage and energy, in other words with
the daring diplomacy of gunboats and bounce, he
was entertained and toasted at a great banquet at
Tokio upon his return. The military parade which
Japan, taking advantage of the recent disorder in
Korea, is making in that country as these pages go
to press, and which threatens to involve her in serious
dispute, if not in actual conflict, with China, is a
later outcome of the same impetuous Chauvinism.

It is probable that these pyrotechjiics of a some-
what schoolboy patriotism, which are not unnatural
in the case, either of a country like Japan that is only
tentatively winning its way to greatness, or of one
like France that is smarting under the memory of a
great national humiliation, will diminish in proportion
as Japan secures the recognition at which she is
aiming, and acquires the self-control that is born of
conscious strength. At present they bring a smile

THE EVOLUTION OF MODERN JAPAN 57

to the lip even of the most impassioned apologist for
national delirium.

A further question, much agitated by foreigners,
and especially by English and Americans, is the
ch»xioii>Aoi likelihood of Christianity being adopted as
^^ in the national religion of Japan. A combina-
*^**^ tion of circumstances — the disestablishment
of Buddhism in the present reign, the reasonable
character and general freedom from superstition of
the people, the admitted indifference to older creeds
of the upper classes, and the unhampered field opened
to the labours of the foreign missionary socie-
ties— has led many to suppose that here, at least,
the Church of Christ is sure of a magnificent spoil,
and that Japan is trembling on the brink of a
mighty regeneration.^ K I do not share these anti-
cipations it is not from any denial either of the
strenuous exertions of the reapers, or of tlie intrinsic
richness of the harvest. But, though the State in
Japan has withdrawn its sanction from Buddhism, the
stream of the common people does not appear to
have been one whit diverted from its crumbling, but
still hallowed, shrines ; and in the clapping of hands
and short prayer before the gilded altar, and the
practical sermons of the bonzes, the lower classes
still find what is to them an adequate salvation.
At the old capital, Kioto, there has been building for
many years, out of private subscriptions only, what
will, when completed, be by far the largest Buddhist

* Such appears to be the view of the Church Missionary Society,
which has recently created two additional bishoprics in Japan.

b8 JAPAJf

temple in all Japan. Nor can a people be described
as without faith, who yearly send forth tens of
thousands of pilgrims to climb the sacred summits
of Fuji, 12,300 feet high, and of Nantaisan.

On the other hand, with the upper and lettered
classes, the advance of knowledge has brought a
widespread scepticism, and a reluctance to accept a
dogma that eludes the test of material analysis.
Neither can I think that the missionary army, though
it enters the field with banners waving and soldiers
chanting, utilises its strength to the beet advantage
by dividing its host into so many conflicting and
sometimes hostile brigades. I find in the directory
that at Tokio alone there are represented thirty-one
different missionary churches, societies, sects, or
denominations, with an aggregate of 300 male and
female missionaries. When Episcopalians, Presby-
terians, Baptists, Evangelicals, Lutherans, Church of
England, Methodists, Eeformed, Eussian Orthodox,
Quakers, Unitarians, and Universalists appear simul-
taneously upon the scene, each claiming to hold the
keys of Heaven in their hand, it cannot be thought
surprising if the Japanese, who have hardly made up
their minds that they want a Heaven at all, are
somewhat bewildered by the multiplicity of volun-
teer door-keepers. "Were the ethical teachings of the
Bible to be offered to them in a systematised body of
precept and of prayer they might turn a willing ear.
Nay, I doubt not that a committee of Japanese
experts would undertake to-morrow the codification
of the moral, just as they have already done that of

THE EVOLUTION OF MODERN JAPAN 59

the civil and criminal law ; and that they would turn
out for the edification of their fellow- countrvmen an
admirable synthesis of the ethics of all time. "Who
shall say whether the new Japan may not yet under-
take this momentous task? In the meantime the
omens appear to be against the official or popular
selection of any professed branch of Cliristian theo-
logy.

60 JAPAN

CHAPTER III

JAPAN AND THE POWERS

And statesmen at her council met
Who knew the seasons when to take
Occasion by the hand and make

The bomids of freedom wider yet.

Tennyson.

Ever since the E^storation, and with a progress
that has advanced by leaps and bounds during re-
Treaty cent years, as the nation has increased in
xtevision g^ature and acquired no modest or shrinking
estimate of its own importance, the biggest political
question in Japan has been Treaty Eevision. For
a long while dwarfed by the more serious imminence
of domestic problems, and retarded by the imma-
turity and inexperience of the new regime^ sinking
at times into a complete background, but at others
sweeping all before it on a tide of popular emotion,
it has exercised much the same disturbing and
seismic influence upon Japanese politics as has the
Home Eule question in Great Britain. It has made
and it has upset Ministries, and may very likely do
so again. At this moment it confronts the strongest
Government that Japan can produce with a problem
which even its strength, it may be feared, will prove
unequal to solve.

JAPAN AND THE POWERS 61

The Treaties which regulate the commercial rela-
tions of Japan with foreign countries, and which
History provide for the residence in the Treaty
Treatiea Ports, aud for the separate jurisdiction there
of foreign subjects, have been concluded at va-
rious periods with no fewer than eighteen signatory-
Powers,^ since the first American Treaty was
signed by Commodore Perry in 1854. Roughly
speaking, the contract between the two parties was
in each case as follows. Japan consented to open
a limited number of ports to foreign trade and resi-
dence.^ There only were the subjects of the con-
tracting Powers permitted to live, to trade, to buy or
sell property, or to engage in industrial enterprise.
Outside the narrow limits of the settlements all these
privileges were forbidden ; nor was travel or move-
ment permitted without a passport. On the other
hand, inside the pale the subjects of foreign Powers
were exempted from Japanese jurisdiction, except,
of course, when sueing Japanese subjects, and were
amenable only to their own Consular Courts — a
prerogative conmionly described as the Extra-terri-
torial system ; while the Customs tariff on foreign
trade was fixed at a nominal 5 per cent, ad valorem

' These are Great Britain, France, Germany, Anstria, Russia,
Italy, Belgium, Holland, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Sweden, Den-
mark, America, Peru, Mexico, Hawaii, and China.

• The Open Ports are Yedo (Tokio), Kanagawa (Yokohama), Hiogo
(Kobe), Osaka, Hakodate, Nagasaki, and Niigata. The following ports
were sabsequenUy opened in 1890 to Japanese exporters of grain, rice,
eoal, Ac. : — Shimonoseki, Moji, Hakata, Karatsu, Kuchinotsu, Misumi,
Idzngahara, Shishimi, Sasuna, and Otaru. The numbers of resident
foreigners in the Treaty Ports, on January 1, 1894, were as follows : —
Britiflh 1,458, Americans 700, Germans 416, French 849.

62 JAPAN

on the majority of foreign imports, together with
a duty of 5 per cent, on exports. Such is the
system under which Japanese association with the
outer world has been conducted, at least upon
Japanese soil, for nearly forty years; from which
she has made many abortive efforts to escape ; and
under which she proclaims, with yearly increasing
insistence, that it is incompatible with her national
dignity to continue.

Conscious that the terras of original agreement
could not be permanently stereotyped, a clause in
Postpone- the English Treaty, concluded by Lord Elgin
Revision in 1858, provided for future revision, upon
the notice of either of the high contracting Powers,
in 1872.^ But when 1872 arrived neither party was
in a position to move ; and on the various occasions
since, when revision has been seriously attempted,
the endeavour has resulted in failure owing to the
difficulty of reconciling the conflicting claims of the
foreign Powers, who have been averse to stepping
down from their pinnacle of vantage without either
a definite quid pro quo, or at least a guarantee that
they will not suffer by the surrender ; and of Japan,
who, with a natural consciousness of her steadily
improving position and of the obligations of what
she terms her * sovereign rights,* whittles away one
by one the counter-concessions which she was at
first prepared to make, and now even talks about

* Art. XXII. — * It is agreed that either of the high contracting
parties, on giving one year's notice to the other, may demand a re-
vision on or after July 1, 1872, with a view to the insertion of such
amendments as expenenoe shall prove to be desirable.'

JAPAN AND THE POWERS 63

exacting conditions herself. Hence the deadlock in
wKich, sooner or later, negotiations have always
become involved. For my own part I do not share
the feelings of either of those schools between whom
public opinion, as o^epresented in books and news-
papers about Japan, seems to be divided — namely,
those, on the one hand, the sentimental side of whose
nature, inflamed, if they are Japanese, by patriotism,
if they are foreigners, by contact with an engaging
people and a pretty country, revolts against what
they describe as a great national wrong, whereby
Japan has been cheated out of her birthright, and is
being kept in perpetual exile in the tents of Edom ;
or, on the other hand, those who argue for the
strict letter of the treaties ad ceternum, and decline
to make the smallest concession tq the vast change
that forty years have effected in the status of modern
Japan. The former attitude is adopted — naturally
enough — ^by Japanese writers ; foolishly, as it seems
to me, by the majority of English and American
tourists in Japan, who, without an inkling of what is
going on behind the scenes, or of the labours of those
whom they condemn, pronounce ex cathedra upon
a situation of which they really know as little as,
for example, they may do of the difference between
old and modem lacquer. The second or ultra-Con-
servative attitude is taken up by many of the mer-
chant class in the Treaty Ports, who, for perfectly
honourable but selfish reasons, would like to main-
tain the status quo as long as they can. As a matter
of fact, there is quite sufficient justice on both sides

64 JAPAN

of the controversy to admit of temperate discussion
and of amicable agreement ; and the energies of the
true friends of Japan should be directed to mini-
mising the points of friction and broadening the
basis of possible compromise, instead of sharpening
their blades for a further barren encounter.

With approximate fairness the two cases may be
thus stated. Japan demands Judicial autonomy and
The case ^^ dcmauds Tariff autonomy, from both of
of Japan ^j^ich, as already explained, she is excluded
by the Treaties. She demands the former, because it
is derogatory to the dignity of a civilised Power to
have alien courts of justice sitting within her terri-
tories, and because she claims to have acquired a
jurisprudence based upon the best European models.
She demands the latter, because she is precluded at
present from utilising her imports and exports, except
upon certain narrowly prescribed lines, as an expand-
ing source of Imperial revenue. Upon her imports
she only makes an average of about 4|^ per cent, in
customs, and is compelled in consequence to fix her
export duties at a higher figure than she would wish.
She desires to raise the former with a view to reducing
the latter, and the Land-tax in addition. Extra-terri-
toriality being abolished, the foreign settlements and
municipalities would lose their present character and
would, so to speak, * fall in ' to the Japanese Govern-
ment, which would probably issue new leases for the
land held by foreigners therein, similar to the leases
held by Japanese. If she can get these main conces-
sions (she would, of course, like a few more thrown

JAPAN AND TUE POWERS 65

in), Japan has hitherto been prepared to open the
entire country to foreigners to-morrow. She takes
her stand, therefore, ignoring the present Treaties,
upon the solid facts of her attained position and pres-
tige, and upon an appeal to the enhghtened syiA-
pathies of foreign nations.

The merchants, on the other hand, for whom the
Powers, through their ministers, are the official
The case spokcsmeu, are not particularly keen about
Powew the opening up of the country, in which they
do not see the prospect of great mercantile advan-
tage to themselves ; they are averse to the conditions
under which they hold land in the settlements (as the
result of a covenant with the Japanese Government)
being altered or assimilated to native custom without
their consent ; and they are genuinely alarmed at the
proposed aboUtion of Consular jurisdiction and the
settlement of all cases, in which they may be concerned
as litigants, in Japanese courts and before Japanese
judges. They point to the admitted facts that the
reorganised courts have not been long established,
and that the Bench, though occupied by Japanese
who have been partially educated in Western Univer-
sities, lacks alike the tradition and the distinction of
European judiciaries. They contend that miscarriage
of justice would result, in the main from the igno-
rance, sometimes, perhaps, from the prejudice, of
native judges. They fear the risk and complexity of
processes before a strange court in a strange language ;
and they resent the possible subjection of their lives
and homes to the domiciliary visits of native police-

F

66 JAPAN

men. Moreover, they have a very well-founded dis-
trust, not merely of the administration of Japanese
law, but of the law itself, particularly in such points
as the law of evidence and the law of contract, which
are interpreted in Japan in a manner little in har-
mony with European ideas. Finally they can point in
support of their alarms to the constant diplomatic
troubles arising out of * miscarriage of justice ' in the
small independent States of the New World. Some of
their papers publish very wild and silly articles about
the inherent incapacity of the Japanese for the exer-
cise of judicial authority of any kind ; although I
suspect that many of the British merchants who may
be involved as litigants in the courts of the petty
South American Eepublics would not so very greatly
object to a change of venue to the courts of modern
Japan. But though these more extravagant diatribes
may be disregarded, there is undoubtedly a solid
substratum of truth in the apprehensions of the
foreign trading community, and any attempt to pre-
cipitate too hasty a solution might involve tlie
Japanese Government itself in difficulties which it
had not contemplated.

In what quarter, then, does the solution lie ?
The answer will be found in a brief examination of
Previous ^^ vaHous proposals for Treaty Eevision that
atRe"v^-* have so far been made by Japanese states-
inouye^**" ^^icu to the forcigu representatives, or vice
^^^ "^ versd. Their history has been one of un-
broken disappointment and failure ; but it has also
been marked by certain signs of progressive develop-

JAPAN AND THE POWERS 67

ment which may lend guidance to statesmen at the
present stage. Three times in the last twelve years
have Japanese Foreign Ministers made overtures to
the Treaty Powers. The first of these was Count
Inouye, the present Minister for Home Affairs, who,
in 1882, originally suggested the ultimate abolition of
Cionsular j urisdiction and the ad irvterim discussion of
terms. A preliminary conference was summoned in
1882, and memoranda, prepared by the British and the
Japanese Governments, were successively submitted.
The negotiations continued till, in 1886, the actual
conference of all the Treaty Powers met in Tokio,
when a definite scheme, initiated by the British and
German. Governments was propounded, and passed
through many of the preliminary stages both of
examination and acceptance. There were to be a
large number of foreign judges on the Japanese
bench, the conditions of whose appointment and re-
moval evoked much hostile criticism in the native
Press. The promised codes and future amendments
therein were to be submitted to the Foreign Powers —
an additional source of national irritation. It was not
surprising that upon these points the negotiations at
length broke down in 1887, although it is to be
regretted that the opportunity was lost of effecting
a settlement on conditions even a contracted edition
of which would have been far more favourable to
the scruples of foreigners than any future treaty is
now likely to be.

Undeterred by the failure of his predecessor.
Count Okuma resumed negotiations in 1888 ; but,

F 2

68 JAFAN

having learned by experience the mistake of dealing
with a Eound Table at which the representatives
Count of eighteen nations, with conflicting interests,
1888-89 were seated in conclave, he approached
the Powers individually, offering, in place of an
elaborate scheme of courts with foreign judges, the
presence of a majority of foreign assessors in the
Supreme Court in cases where foreigners were con-
cerned. A space of three years was to elapse be-
tween the promulgation of the promised codes and
the final abolition of Consular jurisdiction. Upon
these lines the United States, Germany, and Eussia
had already signed treaties ; and Great Britain, the
vast preponderance of whose commercial interests
in Japan renders her in every case the arbiter of the
situation, was within measurable distance of the
8ame end, the nature and extent of the securities to
be given for the administration of justice to foreigners
being one of the few points still undetermined, when,
public opinion having been already gravely excited
in Japan at the proposed appointment of alien judges,
and being further inflamed by the promulgation of
the new Parliamentary Constitution and the impend-
ing elections for the first Diet, an attempt was made
with a dynamite bomb upon the life of Count Okuma
in October 1889. The statesman escaped, though
seriously mutilated. The would-be assassin kiUed
himself. But his ulterior object had already been
gained, for, at the very Cabinet Council in leaving
which the bomb was thrown at Count Okuma, a
decision had been arrived at, on the advice of Count

JAPAN AND THE POWERS 69

Yamagata, who had just returned from a special
mission to Europe, to suspend negotiations. Once
more, accordingly, was Treaty Eevision dropped
like a hot coal from the baflBed fingers of the pleni*
potentiaries at Tokio. Nor could this renewed failure
be fairly set down to cowardice, seeing that public
sentiment, though not behind the assassin, was in
open sympathy with the motives that had actuated
him to a deed which was the more significant that
it by no means stands alone in the annals of modern
Japan.

Since that date the opening of the Japanese Diet,
and the rapid growth both of national self-respect and
vacount ^^ iU-marshalled but powerful public opinion
Aoki,i89o ^jjj^i^ jIj jjg^ produced, have not combined

to render a settlement more easy, while they have
provided Japanese statesmen with an armoury of
defensive pleas which a purely irresponsible Govern-
ment could not previously employ. Nevertheless,
Viscount Aoki, Foreign Minister in the succeeding
Government, gallantly re-entered the lists in 1890 ;
and it is understood that his overtures, which were
naturally directed in the first place to the removal of
the lingering vestiges of British opposition, were met
in the most favourable spirit by the administration
of Lord Salisbury ; and that it has since only rested
with the Japanese Government itself, by the fulfil-
ment of conditions which it has more than once
admitted to be reasonable, to enter upon the fruition
of the long struggle for complete national autonomy
whose successive stages I have described.

70 JAPAN

What must be the leading features of any such
solution will be manifest from what has already been
Bases of ^aid. lu the first place, the full text of the
setuement ^^^j.^ CW\\ aud CommcFcial Codes under

which it is proposed that foreigners shall in future
reside and conduct their business, must be promul-
gated, translated, and put into satisfactory opera-
tion. No nation can with justice call upon the
subjects of another, even within it. own territories,
to exchange a position of judicial security, esta-
blished by treaty and ratified by long and successful
experience, for the dubious protection of an inchoate,
an imperfect, or an ill-comprehended body of law.
Secondly, a period must elapse in which the new
codes thus promulgated shall be tested by practical
* operation, the judges becoming accustomed to the
exposition of rules which involve in many cases a
complete revolution in Japanese customary law, and
the new law itself acquiring public respect by pure
and consistent interpretation. Not until after such
a probationary period can foreigners reasonably be
expected to yield to the Japanese demand for com-
plete judicial autonomy.^ Thirdly, these conditions

^ The problem that has already arisen in Japan was anticipated
by Sir Harry Parkes in his Treaty with Korea, where it is hardly
likely ever to arise ; for a protocol to the Treaty (which was signed
November 26, 1883) contains these words : — * It is hereby declared
that the right of extra-territorial jurisdiction over British subjects in
Korea, granted by this treaty, shall be relinquished when, in the
judgment of the British Government, the laws and legal procedure of
Korea shall have been so far modified and reformed as to remove
the objections which now exist to British subjects being placed under
Korean jurisdiction, and Korean judges shall have attained similar
legal qualifications and a similar independent position to those of
British judges.*

JAPAN AND THE POWERS 71

having been realised, the final abandonment of extra-
territorial jurisdiction may fitly be made to syn-
chronise with the entire opening up of the country.
Other points may well become the subject of diplo-
matic pourparlers and of intermediate agreement.
Such, for instance, are an ad interim extension of the
present passport system in return for a revision of
the tariff; and the novel but intelhgible Japanese
demand, of which I shall presently speak, that
foreigners shall not be allowed to own real property
or to buy shares in Japanese banks, railways, or
shipping companies.

There are a multitude of obstacles, however, that
require to be overcome before any such settlement
Pomtion can be arrived at. The first of these is the
Codes Parliamentary position of the Codes them-
selves. Though the process of Japanese judicial
reform has been conducted with commendable rapid-
ity, the goal of even approximate finality is yet far
distant. It was in 1872 that the modern judicial
system was first organised and courts and judges
established ; both being subjected to a thorough re-
organisation in 1890. In the interval the Codes
have one by one been evolved. The Criminal Code
was promulgated in 1880, and has now for some time
been in operation. The Codes of Criminal and Civi
Procedure were promulgated at the same time, and
came into operation in 1890. As regards the Civil
and Commercial Codes, however, the situation is less
advanced. When I was in Japan in 1892 the Com-
mercial Code had already been promulgated, but

72 JAPAN

not yet translated; and the date of its operation,
originally fixed for January 1, 1890, stood postponed
till January 1, 1893. Those portions of the incom-
plete Civil Code that had been published stood simi-
larly postponed. In the Session of the Diet of 1892,
however, the drift of popular opinion was clearly
indicated by the passing with much enthusiasm by
both Houses of a bill, introduced by a private mem-
ber, for further postponing the operation of both
(!odes till December 1896, in order to submit them
in Japanese interests to a thorough overhauling. It
was with little effect that Viscount Enomoto, then
Minister for Foreign AflTairs, pointed out the intimate
connection between the Codes and the subject of
Treaty Eevision, and urged the Chamber not once
more to slam the door in the face of those who had
at length shown such a temperate willingness to
open it. Conservative alarm at the innovations in-
troduced by the new Codes, particularly in the law
of inheritance and in other matters affecting family
life, and at the subversion of the immemorial religious
traditions of the country, joined hands with the
Eadical aspirations of Young Japan to settle the
question of Treaties, not as the Powers like, but upon
her own terms and on a footing of absolute equality ;
and the bill w^as carried by majorities of more than
two to one in both Chambers.

This bill had not received either the assent or
veto of the Emperor when Count Ito's Cabinet was
formed, and much speculation was indulged in as to
the advice which he would give to the Sovereign.

JAPAN AND THE POWERS 73

As it turned out, the postponement was accepted by
the Government on the ground that the Codes stood
Further greatly in need of amendment, but with a

postpone-
ment proviso that such parts of them as were

amended to the satisfaction of a Special Commission
appointed for the purpose and of the Diet, might
come into operation at any time. Subsequently,
early in 1893, a large portion of the Commercial
Code, dealing with the law of partnership and com-
panies, of bills of exchange, promissory notes, and
cheques, and with the law of banking, was passed,
and came into force in July 1893. It will be seen,
therefore, that the Codes are only slowly, and by
piecemeal, coming into operation, and that the test of
the practical working of the entire revised law is one
whose possible application still lies in the future.

In the same Session (February 1893) the attitude
of the Lower House on the whole question of Treaty
Address Revisiou was shown by an address to the
5Si^e in Throne, which, after being debated in secret
session, was voted by 135 to 121. It con-
tained these words, which are significant as showing
not the wisdom, but the temper, of the Assembly : —

* The unfair Treaties remain unrevised. The conseqaenee
is that oar jurisdiction does not extend to foreigners living
within our borders, nor do we possess tariff autonomy. No
trespasses on our national rights can be greater than these ;
and whenever our thoughts dwell upon the subject we are
constrained to bitter regrets. The exercise of the extra-
territorial system enables foreigners to obey only their own
laws and to be subjected to their own judiciary within the
territories of this Empire. Yet we, in their countries, are

74 JAPAN

compelled to obey their laws and submit to their jurisdiction.
Further, the restrictions imposed in respect of customs tariff
disable us from exercising our natural right to tax imported
goods, whereas foreign countries impose heavy duties on
goods expoi-ted by us. Thus our judicial and fiscal rights
being alike impaired, foreigners are enabled to behave in an
arbitrary manner. The result must be that our commerce
and industries will daily deteriorate, that the national wealth
will decrease, and that in the end there will be no means of
recuperating our resources.' The fault of concluding such
treaties must be attributed to the fact that the people of
your Majesty's realm, both high and low, were basking in
tranquillity and peace,* and, as the country had been isolated
for a long time, the Ministers of State were entirely ignorant
of foreign conditions. . . . The right of concluding treaties
belongs to the prerogatives of your Majesty ; and we, your
Majesty's servants, are not permitted to interfere with it.
But since your Majesty has made oath to the gods in heaven
above and in the eai'th beneath, to manage all the affairs of
the nation and to administer the Empire in accordance with
popular opinion, we, your Majesty's servants, representing
the Lower House of the Diet and the opinion of the people
of the realm, may be permitted humbly to express our
opinions. They are: — Firstly, that the extra-territorial
system be abolished ; secondly, that the Empire's tariff
autonomy be recovered ; thirdly, that the privilege of taking
part in the coasting trade be reserved ; and, fourthly, that
all foreign interference in our domestic administration be
removed.'

Such then is the attitude of the Popular Chamber.
But a far more serious obstacle to successful negotia-
tion consists in the ill-digested but formidable body of
public opinion that has since then been called into

^ Of course this Ib quite fantastic, the Treaties having so far had
a precisely opposite effect, in building up the commercial prosperity
and wealth of modem Japan.

* Equally absurd and untrue.

JAPAN AND THE POWERS 75

existence and organised throughout the country by
the reactionary party, and which threatens by the
j^^j. irrational extravagance of its demands to
E^denoe Tuin the prospccts of Treaty Eevision alto-
agitation gg^^jj^j.. Although it must be obvious that
Eevision can only result from mutual concessions,
Japan recovering her judicial and tariff autonomy at
the price of freely opening the country to foreigners,
an association named the Great Japan Union was
started in 1892, and, until its suppression at the end
of 1893, conducted a furious agitation against what
is called Mixed Residence in any form in the inte-
rior. In other words, foreigners are to surrender every-
thing now guaranteed to them by the Treaties, but to
get nothing whatever in return. In the settlements
they are to be subject to Japanese laws and jurisdic-
tion, while outside their borders they are not to be
permitted to live or move or have their being. A
milder party exists which proposes to sanction mixed
residence in all other parts of the country except
Tezo (the Northern Island) and certain other specified
islands ; but this compromise, which is quite illogical
and indefensible in itself, does not satisfy the patriots
of the Great Japan Union, who are bent upon
making their country and cause ridiculous in the
face of mankind. For, on the one hand, their agita-
tion, which is based upon an unreasoning dread of
foreign competition, involves a confession of weak-
ness in ludicrous contrast to the vanity by which its
authors are inspired. Secondly, it shows a com-
plete ignorance of and indifference towards all

76 JAPAN

that foreigners have done for Japan under the
Treaties, in creating its trade, in teaching it the
secrets of manufacture and industry, in converting
swampy hamlets or fishing villages into magnificent
and flourishing towns, in pouring daily wages into
Japanese pockets, and in leaving the lion's share of
the profits of commerce in Japanese hands. Thirdly,
it proposes to deprive foreigners of the very privileges
which in the dominions of their respective govern-
ments the Japanese already enjoy. Fourthly, it is
inconsistent with the example set by Japan herself,
when, in order to acquire a convenient precedent for
Treaty relationship with a foreign State without
extra-territorial jurisdiction, she concluded, in 1888-
9, a treaty with Mexico (although there are no
Mexican subjects in Japan), conceding the privilege
of Mixed Kesidence without any restrictions,^ and
containing also a most favoured nation clause, ex-
tending the same privileges to any nation willing to
accept the same conditions. Finally, this pohcy is
one of midsummer madness, since its only effect can
be to stiffen the backs of the Treaty Powers (whose
subjects it is proposed to subject to this puerile in-
equality), and so to postpone Eevision to the Greek
Kalends. A certain section of the extreme party is,
however, so well aware of this that they would pro-

* Article IV. of the Treaty granted to the Mexicans * the privilege
of coming, remaining, and residing in all parts of Japanese territories
and possessions, of there hiring and occupying houses and ware-
houses, of there trading by wholesale and retail in all kinds of products,
manufactures, and merchandise of lawful commerce, and, finally, of
there engaging and pursuing all other lawful occupations.'

JAFAN AND TUH POWERS 77

pose to seize the opportunity thus deliberately manu-
factured, in order to repudiate the Treaties altogether,
ignoring the ignominy that would attach to their
country if she started upon her independent career
with the brand of repudiation upon her brow, as
well as the humiliating results of a probable naval
demonstration of the Foreign Powers who had been
so rashly insulted.

It should be added that the Mixed Eesidence
question is somewhat complicated by the inclusion
The among the Treaty Powers of Japan's most

Chinese ,

Qwwtion formidable industrial rival, China. Were
the privileges of free residence and trade in the
interior extended without reserve to the frugal and
laborious subjects of the Celestial Empire, there
might be some ground for alarm on the part of
Japan at the competition of so powerful an an-
tagonist.^ Such considerations, however, apply to
the subjects of no other Power ; and can probably
be met by the policy of approaching the different
Powers separately, and negotiating with them upon
independent though parallel bases.

A further agitation has sprung up against the
ownership by foreigners, as a condition or conse-
Agitation quence of Treaty Eevision, of real or personal

foreign property outside the pale of the settlements.
ofproperty The fonus of invcstmeut commonly specified
under this would-be prohibition are lands, mines,

' There are at present in the Treaty Ports of Japan, where alone
they are permitted to reside, 4,500 male and 1,050 female Chinese, or
three-fifths of the entire foreign population.

78 JAPAN

railways, canals, waterworks, docks, and shares.
This particular outcome of native susceptibilities is
due to a not unfounded alarm that the superior
wealth of foreigners might enable them, unless care-
fully guarded by law, to acquire a commanding hold
upon the national resources, and that Japan might
some day find herself in the disastrous position of an
Asiatic Peru, It is also possible that in the first
instance there might be some danger in the specu-
lative rush of foreign capital for a new form of
investment ; although, in the long run, natives would
enjoy an advantage with which no foreigner could
compete. Means ought to be found, however,
without great diflSculty of reconciling these appre-
hensions with the reasonable demands of foreign
residents possessing a large stake in the fortunes of
the country, and capable of rendering it increased
service in the future.

The prohibition of the coasting trade to foreigners
is another of the conditions that have been suggested
other ^y ^^ alarms of the new school that com-
demands ^^i^gg^ j^ such cqual proportious, timidity
with bravado. In the event of their extreme
demands not being conceded, and of the Govern-
ment continuing to shrink, as it must do, from a
policy of repudiation, they further propose a warfare
of petty revenge upon the subjects of the recalcitrant
Powers, which is to take the form of a refusal of
passports, minute restrictions upon the issue of game-
licenses, limitations upon the facilities of railroad and
steamboat traffic, upon the postal and telegraphic

JAPAN AND THE POWERS 79

services, and upon the foreign Press, and a strict
enforcement of the existing laws as regards tenure of
property and industrial investment in the interior,
which have occasionally been eluded by foreigners
sheltering themselves under Japanese names.

These are the main difficulties with which the
path of Treaty Eevision is beset. Arranging them
Prospecta sidc by sidc and observing, on the one hand,
laent thc iguoraucc and vanity of the extreme
Eeactionaries in Japan, the pretensions of the Diet,
the openly avowed desire of the Opposition to
embarrass the Government, and the difficulty ex-
perienced by the latter in placing any curb upon
pubhc opinion ; on the other hand, the genuine
alarm of the foreign merchants, the mutual jealousies
of the various Treatv Powers, and the unfortunate
enmity which the postponement of revision is likely
to create between natives and foreigners ; we must
admit that here is a problem requiring on both sides
the exercise of great tact and statesmanship. On
some points, such as the ownership of property and,
perhaps, the coasting trade, concessions to Japanese
sentiment are clearly possible. But on the broad
questions of the Codes and of Mixed Eesidence, no
settlement that attempts an unnatural or patchwork
compromise is feasible, or, even if feasible, is likely to
be permanent ; while to expect foreigners, with the
best will in the world towards Japan, voluntarily to
strip themselves of all the safeguards which Treaty
enactments have given them, and to hand themselves
over as a corpus vile for the experiments of Japanese

80 JAPAN

Jacobins or neophytes in political economy, is to
presuppose an innocence on their part to which
previous history would afford no parallel. Fortu-
nately neither the leading statesmen of Japan, nor
the most responsible organs of the native Press, have
hitherto shown any real sympathy with the Extremists.
The matter now lies in the hands of the Government,
since the friendly attitude of the Powers is well
known, and since it can no longer be pretended that
unreasonable scruples or prejudices on their part
block the way. Already Count Ito is reported to
have approached the several Governments with
separate and confidential communications, hoping,
no doubt, to extract from the complacency or the
needs of one a concession which shall act as a prece-
dent for similar terms with the others. Nevertheless
Great Britain remains, as she has all along been, the
pivot of the situation — no slight proof of her com-
manding influence on the destinies of distant Asia. If
the negotiations be conducted between the two Govern-
ments on the basis of a fair and proportionate ex-
change, there should be no insurmountable barrier to
an amicable solution. By no Power certainly would
Japan be welcomed more cordially into the comity
of nations, with whom already she shares so many
common relationships, than by ourselves, who fill in
the West the role which she aspires to play in the
Far East, and whose commerce and energy have
contributed so largely to her own expansion.^

' On the very night (July 80, 1894) that these pages leave my
hands, the British Government has announced the conclusion of a
Treaty, dealing with Kevision, with Japan.

KOEEA

* L'Orient ! L'Orient ! qu'y voyez-vous, pontes ?
Toumez vers TOrient vos esprits et vos yeux !
H^las ! ont r^pondu leurs voix longtemps muettes,
Nous voyons bien l&-bas un jour myst^rieux*

Victor Hugo, Chants de Cripuscule

CJ

CHAPTER IV

LIFE AND TRAVEL IN KOREA

Where upon Apennine slopes with the chestnut the oak-trees immingle,
Where amid odorous copse bridle-paths wander and wind,

Wher6 under mulberry-branches the diHgent rivulet sparkles,
Or amid cotton and maize peasants their water- works ply.

A. H. Clough, Amours de Voyage,

From the best known and most visited I pass to the
least known and least visited of the countries of the
The fasci- Far East. The name of Korea ^ is one that

BAtion of . ,

Korea is Still Wrapped in so much mystery to the
bulk of Englishmen at home, and the phenomena
that it presents are at once so interesting, and, for
so weak and iU-developed a country, so relatively
important, that I can imagine few places appealing
more strongly to the traveller's thirst for the novel.
The spectacle of a country possessing an historical
antiquity, contemporaneous, as alleged, with that of
Thebes and Babylon,^ but owning no^ruins ; boasting

* The name Korea, the veritable form of which is Kori or Koryo
(Chinese Kaoli, Japanese Korai), was originally the name of one of the
three sovereignties into which, before its union, the peninsula was
divided. The Portuguese transferred this name to the whole country,
and called it Coria. Later, the French Jesuits called it, in French,
La Cor^e ; whence has arisen the ignorant and detestable habit of
speaking of ' The Korea.* The native and official name of the country
since 1892 a.d. is Chosen (lit. Tsio-sien, Chinese Chao-sien), i.e. * Fresh-
ness, or serenity, of the morning.'

* The Koreans claim as their first king Ki Tsze, who emigrated
from China, and founded a dynasty at Pyong-yang in 1122 B.C.

G 2

84 KOREA

a separate, if not an independent, national existence
for centuries, and yet devoid of all external symptoms
of strength ; retaining latest of all the kingdoms of
the East the title to successful exclusion of the
foreigner, and yet animated by no real hostility to
aliens; containing beautiful natural scenery still
virgin to the traveller's foot ; claiming to have given
to Japan her letters, her science, her religion, and
her art, and yet bereft of almost all vestiges of these
herself; inhabited by a people of physical vigour
but moral inertness; well endowed with resources,
yet crippled for want of funds — such a spectacle is
one to which I know no counterpart even in Asia,
the continent of contrasts, and which from a distance
had long and powerfully affected my imagination.
A bridge between Japan and China, Korea is never-
theless profoundly unlike either. It has lacked the
virile training of the Feudal System in Japan, and
the incentives to industry supplied by the crowded
existence of China. Its indifference to religion has
left it without the splendid temples that adorn the
former country, without the stubborn self-sufficiency
of character developed by Confucianism in the latter.
Japan swept it clear of all that was beautiful or
ancient in the famous invasion of Hideyoshi (or
Fidejosi, commonly called Taikosama) three centuries
ago — an affliction from which it has never recovered.
China's policy has been to keep it in a state of
tutelage ever since. Placed in an unfortunate geo-
graphical position midway between the two nations,
Korea has been, like Issachar, the strong ass couching

LIFE AND TRAVEL IN KOREA 85

between two burdens. Suddenly, at the end of the
nineteenth century, it wakes up from its long sleep
to find the alarum of the nations sounding at its
gates ; the plenipotentiaries of great Powers appear
in its ports to solicit or to demand reciprocal treaties ;
it enters the comity of civilised peoples ; and, still
half stupefied by its long repose, relaxes but slowly
beneath the doubtful rays of Western civilisation.

In the examination of this country and its people,
the traveller or student has not the advantage, open
literatnre to him iu most Other parts of the world, of
•abject an adequate literature composed by compe-
tent writers. Owing to the long and absolute seclu-
sion of Korea, no foreigners beyond a few heroic
Boman Catholic missionaries, who, in the latter part
at any rate of their sojourn, carried their lives in
their hands, had penetrated into the interior of the
peninsula or become domiciled there, anterior to the
first opening of the country twenty years ago.^ A

1 The single notable exception was Hendrik Hamel, a Dutchman,
and supercargo of the ship * Sperber,* or ' Sparrow-hawk,* who was
wrecked, with thirty-five of the crew (including a Scotchman, John
Bosket), upon the island of Quelpart, while making for the Dutch
finctory at Nagasaki, in 1658. They were conveyed to Soul in 1654,
and were imprisoned in different parts of the country till 1666, when
a few of the survivors succeeded in making their escape by sea to the
island of Goto, and thence to Japan. Hamel wrote an account of
tiieir experiences, which was first published in 1668, at Rotterdam,
and was then translated into French and EngHsh, and included in
Astley's, Pinkerton*s, and Churchill*s Collections of Voyages. For a
long time doubt was cast upon its authenticity; but, though the
author was a man of no great education, and might have told us
much more, his narrative, such as it is, has been amply confirmed by
later knowledge, and is highly interesting. It is curious that, when
HameVs party were wrecked, there was already in Soul another
Dutchman, Jan Jansson Weltervree, who, with two of his fellow-

86 KOREA

French compilation by Pere Dallet, in whose hands
were placed the materials thus acquired, appeared in
1874, and has almost ever since provided the sub-
stance of European knowledge about Korea, of whose
people, and institutions, and life, it presents a minute
and absorbing picture ; ^ although, being based upon
documents extending over the previous half-century,
it relates to a time and describes customs which have
now passed out of recollection or have ceased to
prevail; whilst, being compiled by a writer who
had not himself set foot in Korea, it lacks the advan-
tage of first-hand editorial revision. Since 1876,
the date of the first Treaty, the two most useful works
on the country have also been the productions of
authors who had never set foot within its borders.
' The Hermit Nation,' by Mr. W. E. Griffis, an Ame-
rican, is a scholarly compilation of its past history,
mainly from Japanese sources, and a careful, though
frequently obsolete description of its habits and cus-
toms. The other work, by a Scotch Presbyterian
missionary, Eev. J. Eoss, who lived long at New-
chwang, is also in the main historical. The narratives
of the few foreign travellers who have explored the

countrymen, had been kept prisoners by the Koreans since 1627,
when they had been sent ashore from the * Jacht Oudekerke,* to get
water and provisions. Not even these, however, were the first
Europeans to set foot in Korea. This distinction belongs to a Portu-
guese Jesuit, Gregorio de Cespedes, who was sent over by Hideyoshi,
in 1594, as chaplain to his second expedition against Korea, which
was connnanded by a Japanese Christian, Dom Augustin Konishi
Yuldnaga, and contained many Christians in its ranks. The only
relics of the Dutch captives that have, so far, been discovered were
two Dutch vessels, unearthed at Soul in 1886.

* Histoire de VEglUe de Corie, 2 vols. Paris: 1874.

LIFE AND TRAVEL IN KOREA 87

country since its opening are as a rule scattered in
the journals of Geographical Societies, in Govern-
ment reports, or in pubhcations neither easily
accessible nor generally known. By far the most
meritorious of these, and, within a narrow space, the
most vivid and accurate account of Korean life and
character that I have seen, is a report written by Mr.
C. W. Campbell, of the British Consular Service, and
printed as a Parhamentary paper in 1891.^ The
earlier work by one of his predecessors, Mr. W. E.
Carles, contains much interesting information, but is
on the whole disappointing.^ Much more so is the
rhapsodical production of an American writer, Mr.
P. LoweU.^

The foreign visitor to Korea will naturally first
land upon its shores at one of the three Treaty Ports
The Treaty ^^ Fusau, Gcusau, and Chemulpo. As I
^^'^ visited and stayed at each of these, I may ap-
pend a paragraph upon their characteristics. Fusan
is upon the south-east coast, opposite to and within
sight of the Japanese islands of Tsushima (The Twins),
Gensan is upon the east coast, about half-way between
Fusan and Vladivostok. Chemulpo is upon the
west coast, and is the port of the capital. Soul. A
greater variation can hardly be imagined than
between the eastern and western shores of the
peninsula. The former are mountainous, the spurs
of the Korean Apennines reaching down in many
places to the water's edge, and are pierced by a few

' China. No. 2. (1891.)

^ Life in Korea* London : 1888.

' Cho9on, The Land of the Morning Calm, London : 1886.

fine harbours, in which there is but a weak tide, and
which are open all the year round. On the west
coast which is laved by the Yellow Sea of China,
there are, on the contrary, only shallow and tortuous
inlets, shielded by an archipelago of islands, and
either filled or bared by a tide that rises from 25 to
40 fe3t, anl U fraq^UBntly fcozati iu winter.

FOBT AKD JAPANEaX BBTTLEHBNT OP FCSAH

The harbours of Fusan and Gensan are alike in
being situated at the bottom of deep and sheltered
bays, which could provide anchorage for
immense armadas, and which are visited by a
yearly increasing mercantile marine, flying the Japan-
ese, the Chinese, and the Russian flags. Pusan,' as

' Fnaan is the Japanese, Pusan the Eoreaa name, signifying pot
or kettle monntaio, presumably from the outline, of the knoll apoa
the shore.

LIFE AND TRAVEL IN KOREA 81>

the port nearest to Japan, has retained for centuries
a more than nominal connection with the neighbour-
ing Power, having been from early times a fief of
the daimio or lord of Tsushima,^ until, in 1876, it
became a trading port constituted by treaty between
the two Powers. A flourishing Japanese community
containing over 5,000 Japanese subjects (exclusive
of a floating population of 6,000 Japanese fishermen)
is the modem heir of the former military and trading
colony, and is settled round the base of a knoll,
crowned with a clump of cryptomerias — an obvious
importation from over the sea — and with two dilapi-
dated Japanese temples, just opposite to the large
hilly island called by the Europeans Deer Island,
which shelters the southern side of the bay.^ A
little to the north of this town is a new Chinese
settlement, the latter people having recently broken
ground in Fusan, though handicapped as yet by the

' It was IB the year 1448 that, by an agreement between the
Prince of Tsushima and the Prefect of Tongnai (near Fusan), the first
Japanese settlement was made at the latter port. The tribute-
embassies from Korea to Japan always sailed from Fusan when
starting for the Shogun's coiurt at Eamakura, and there also landed
the two snccessive invading armies of Hideyoshi, in 1592 and 1598.
Even after the evacuation of the coimtry by the Japanese, it remained
in their hands, a garrison of 800 men being permanently quartered
there behind a stockade, the only Japanese colony in the world ; until,
after the Bevolution in 1868, it passed, with the other feudal proper-
ties of Japan, into the hands of the Mikado. Its formal opening as
a Treaty Port in 1876 was a recognition of the resumption of Korean
ownership, although the Japanese settlement, for which a nominal
head-rent of /50i8 supposed to be paid, remains practically a Japanese
poflsession, being administered by the Japanese Consul, and a muni-
cipal connciL

' The Koreans call this island Tetsuye, the Isle of Enchanting
View, or Maki, the Isle of Green Pastures (because it was 2n^o/3aror, or
a horse-rearing place).

90 J^OSEA

superior start and numbers of their rivals. North-
ward again is the original Japanese settlement,
known as Kuk-wan ; while a little beyond lies the
Korean town surrounded by a stone wall and possess-
ing the ruins of a castle, outside whose gates are a
squalid native hamlet and bazaar. The background
is formed by wild and desolate hiUs, with a thin fringe

of firs bristling on the skyline, and bright red terraces
of cultivated soil below.

Gensan ' is situated in the southern hollow of the
remarkable inlet in the eastern coast, called, from
the British navigator who first surveyed it in 1797,

' GenRftn is tfae Japejieae, Yuensan the ChineBe, and AVonsan the
Korean version of the uame ; the difference arising from the different
pronunciation by the three peoples of the Bnme Chinese ideographs.

LIFE AND TRAVEL IN KOREA 91

Broughton Bay/ A deeper, and even finer indentation
of the same bay, sheltered by the Nakimoff penin-
sula, is the well-known Port Lazareff, first
surveyed and named by the Eussians in 1854,
and ever since regarded by that people, from their
ice-bound quarters at Vladivostok,^ with a more than
envious eye. The entire bay is fourteen miles in
length, from two to six in width, and has a depth of
from six to twelve fathoms. Seawards its entrance
is masked by an archipelago of islets. As we steam
up the bay, the Japanese settlement founded in
1879, and now containing over 700 colonists, may
be seen clustered at the base of a hill upon the
right. Some mile and a half to the south, and a little
way inland, a cloud of smoke indicates the situation
of the native town, which contains 13,000 inha-
bitants. Wooded hills frame a picturesque back-
ground, and vapour-caps hide the mountains inland.
A less vigorous trade is here conducted by both
Japanese and Chinese (the latter having only recently
entered the field) with the northern provinces, the
populous towns in which are more easily reached
from the western coast, and will ultimately be more
naturally served from the river-port of Pyong-yang
(or Ping-yeng), as soon as the latter is opened to
foreign commerce, or as the Korean coasting marine
becomes equal to its supply.

* Vide Captain W. R. Broughton*s Voyage of Discovery to the
North Pacific Ocean, London : 1804.

> During the last year, 1898, an attempt was made with a steam
ice -crusher to keep the harbour of Vladivostok open the whole year
rorind ; but is said to have resulted in failure.

Chemulpo^ has few natural aptitudes as a port
beyond its situation on the estuary of the southern
branch of the river Han, or Han-kiang, upon
which stands the Korean capital, and its
consequent proximity to the main centre of popu-
lation. The river journey is fifty-four miles in length
to Mapu, the landing-place for SiJuI, which lies three

POST OF CHEMULPO

miles farther on. The land-march to Soul is an un-
inviting stretch of twenty-six miles. In 1883, when
Chemulpo was first opened to foreign trade, there
was only a fishing hamlet with fifteen Korean huts

' Chemulpo (signi^Dg ' Various-articleB- river-bank ') is the name
of the aetUement formerly known and spoken of in the Treaties, from
the name of the nearest magistracy, five miles away, as Japaneae
Jinaen or Ninsen, Chinese Jenchuan, Korean Inchiun or Inchon,
signifying ' Benevolent si

LIFE AND TRAVEL IN KOREA 93

on the site, where now may be seen a prosperous
town containing over 3,000 foreigners, of whom
2,500 are Japanese, 600 Chinamen, and over twenty
Europeans, as well as a native population of about
equal numbers. There are a European club, several
biUiard saloons and restaurants, and some excellent
Chinese stores. The outer anchorage is some two
miles from the shore, for the tide runs out here for
miles (with a rise and fall of 25 to 30 feet), leaving
an exposed waste of mud-flats and a narrow channel,
in which steamers of light draught rest upon the
ooze. The busv streets and harbour are indications
of a rapidly advancing trade, which promises further
expansion in the near future.

'' The first glimpse of the Korean coast, at or near
any of these ports, which is mountainous, but little
The wooded, and relatively bare, gives no idea

people of the timbered heights and smiling valleys
which may be encountered in the interior ; but the
first sight of its white-robed people, whose figures,
if stationary, might be mistaken at a dist^ance for
white mileposts or tombstones, if moving, for a
colony of swans, acquaints us with a national type
and dress that are quite unique. A dirty people
who insist upon dressing in white is a first pecu-
liarity ; a people inhabiting a northern, and in winter
a very rigorous latitude who yet insist upon wearing
cotton (even though it be wadded in winter) all the
year round, is a second ; a people who always wear
hats, and have a headpiece accommodated to every
situation and almost every incident in life, is a third.

But all these combine to make the wearers pictu-
resque ; while as to Korean standards of comfort we
have nothing to do but to wonder. As to their
physique, the men are stalwart, well-built, and bear
themselves with a manly air, though of docile and
sometimes timid expression. The hair is worn long,

but is twisted into a topknot, protected by the crown
of the aforemantioned hat.' The women, of whom
those belonjfing to the upper classes are not visible,

' This is tii3 oil Chineas fas'jio.T nader the Minffs, vhich waa
copied, witli other Chinese habit?, in Korea, but which was aboliBhed
by the Slatichiis in China.

LIFE AND TRAVEL IK KOREA 95

but the poorer among whom may be seen by
hundreds engaged in manual labour in the houses,
streets, and fields, cannot be described as beautiful.
They have a peculiar arrangement of dress by which
a short white bodice covers the shoulders, but leaves
the breasts entirely exposed ; while voluminous petti-
coats, very full at the hips, depend from a waist just

below the armpits, and all but conceal coarse white
or brown pantaloons below. Their hair is black, and
is wound in a big coil round the temples, supplying
a welcome contrast to the greasy though fascinating
coiffure of the females of Japan. Indeed, if the
men of the two nations are unlike — the tall, robust,
good-looking, idle Korean, and the diminutive, ugly,
nimble, indomitable Japanese — still more so are the

^6 KOREA

women — the hard-visaged, strong-limbed, master-
ful housewife of Korea, and the shuffling, knock-
kneed, laughing, bewitching Japanese damsel. The
Korean boy, indeed, might more easily be taken to
represent the gentler sex, since, until he is engaged
to be married, he wears his hair parted in the middle
and hanging in a long plait down his back.

Of this people, the males among whom exceed
the females, there are beUeved to be about 11,000,000
rp^^^i in Korea, an area very similar in extent to
population Q.j>^^^ Britain.^ y I give this total as a mean,

possessing a probable approximation to truth, be-
tween the two extremes of 7,000,000 and 28,000,000,
both of which have figured in recent publications,^
and which illustrate the prevailing ignorance about
a country and a population that have not as yet
passed through the mill of the statistician./^ Marry-
ing at an early age, prone to large families, and un-
diminished for many years by war or famine, the
Korean population ought to be on the increase were
it not that the infant mortality is enormous, and that
the death-rate from epidemics, against which no pre-

^ The best estimate appears to be 80,000-90,000 square miles.
But some place it as high as 100,000-120,000.

^ Ev^que Davehiy, in 1847, gave 3,598,880 males, 8,745,481
females, total 7,344,861. Oppert, in 18G7, gave 15,000,000-16,000,000.
P^re Dallet, in 1874, gave 10,000,000. Japanese statistics, in 1881,
gave 16,227,885. Griffis, in 1882, gave 12,000,000. Sir H. Parkes, in
1883, gave 8,000,000-10,000,000. An obviously supposititious census,
in 1884, is quoted as having given 28,007,401. The latest Government
census, cited in the Statesman's Year Dooky is 10,528,987. Varat,
the most recent foreign writer, names 16,000,000-18,000,000. On the
other hand, the Chinese figiu*es, in a work entitled Important Facts
relating to the Eastern Stockade^ are 3,310,704 males, 8,259,401
females, total 6,570,105.

LIFE AND TRAVEL IN KOREA 97

cautions are taken, and which sweep over the country
every third or fourth year, is certainly high. On the
other hand, the large tracts of uncultivated and al-
most uninhabited country that still await the plough-
share and the peasant will accommodate an expan-
sion that cannot fail to disappoint the Malthusian
enthusiast for many years to come.

The Koreans belong unmistakably to the Mongo-
Uan stock, occupying a sort of intermediate stage
Ethnology betwecu the MongoUan Tartar and tlie
language Japancsc. It is impossible to confound

them either with the latter or with the Chinese ; and

*

a Korean would, to anyone who has travelled in the
country, be a known man in any city in the world.
It has been supposed by some writers, wlio have
observed a difierent variety with blue eyes and fair
hair in Korea itself, that there is also a Caucasian
element in the stock ; but I am not aware that this
hypothesis has found any scientific confirmation.^
Their language is of the Turanian family, with the
addition of many Chinese words ; and they may be
said to possess two syllabaries or alphabets — the
Nido or Korean syllabar)% which gives a phonetic
value to some 250 Chinese ideographs in common
use, and which was invented by Syel Chong, a
famous scholar and priest, 1,100 years ago ; and the
popular Korean alphabet, or script, which was first
promulgated by royal decree in 1447 a.d., and is

' May it not, perhaps, be attributable to the twelve years* residence
in Korea of the Dutchman Hamel and his companions, two cen-
turies ago?

H

98 KOREA

Still used by the lower orders.* If one does not
either speak or understand Korean oneself, it is
always possible to communicate with a Korean by
using the Chinese symbols, which he equally employs.
On the other hand, among the upper and lettered
classes, Chinese itself is the invariable vehicle both
of speech and correspondence, just as it is also the
official language employed in Government publica-
tions, proclamations, examinations, and decrees.

Of the people so constituted there appears to be
but one opinion as to the national character and
National physiquc. While an invigorating clhnate
character j^^^ madc tlicm uaturally long-lived and

strong, their habits of life and morals ^ have rendered
them subject to many forms of ailment and disease ;
while their want of contact with the world and their
servitude to a form of government which has never
either encouraged or admitted of individual enter-
prise, but which has reduced all except the privileged
class to a dead level of uncomplaining poverty, have
left them inert, listless, and apathetic. As individuals
they possess many attractive characteristics — the
upper classes being polite, cultivated, friendly to
foreigners, and priding themselves on correct de-
portment ; while the lower orders are good-tempered,

' The most interesting evidence of the early development of Korea
is Mr. Satow's demonstration that the Koreans printed from movable
metallic types two centuries before they were known in Europe. He
possesses a Korean reprint of the Chinese Confucian Tabh-Talk,
which was printed in 1317 a.d. in this fashion.

^ Polygamy may be said to prevail ; for whilst most Koreans only
have one wife, they keep as many concubines as their circumstances
permit. Among the lower orders there is neither cleanliness nor
decency, and many vices prevail.

LIFE AND TRAVEL IN KOREA 99

though very excitable, cheerful, and talkative. Beyond
a certain point, however, both classes relapse into
a similar indifference, \ihich takes the form of an
indolent protest against action of any kind. The
politician in Soul remains civil, but is wholly deaf to
persuasion. The coohe works one day and dawdles
away his wages upon the two next. The mapu^ or
ostler, takes his own time about his own and his
pack-pony's meals, and no reasoning or compulsion
in the world would disturb him from his complacent
languor. These idiosyncrasies may only be interest-
ing to the unconcerned student of national character,
but they are of capital importance in their bearing
upon national life^ When, further, they are crystal-
lised into hardness and are inflamed by the habits of
an upper and official class — ^which subsists by extor-
tion and prohibits, outside its own limits, either the
exercise of surplus activity or the accumulation of
wealth — they explain how it is that the Korean
people remain poor amid stores of unprobed wealth,
lethargic where there should otherwise be a hundred
incentives to diligence, nerveless in the face either of
competition or of peril. / I have seen a Korean coolie
carrying a weight that would make the stoutest ox
stagger, and yet I have seen three Koreans lazily
employed in turning up the soil with a single shovel,
by an arrangement of ropes that wasted the labour of
three men without augmenting the strength of one.

So it is in every department of the national
existence. An immense reserve of masculine force
is diverted from the field of labour and is lost to the

H 2

100 KOREA

nation by being absorbed into the yamens, or offices
of the local magistrates and prefects, where tlieir
The function, instead of invifroratinii; the blood

ofuociaiy of the couHtry, is to suck that of their
fellow-countrymen.' The population of Korea may,
indeed, be roughly divided into two classes — the
upper or official, entitled yanghan^ whoae position

A KOKKAN HAOISTRACY

or gentility is a bar to work, and who, therefore,
must subsist upon otliers; and the great residuum,

' Mr. Carles, in one of his Reports (Cores, No. 2, 1B85), mentioned
the province of Pynng-an-do as having 44 magistracies, with axt
nvera|(e of 400 oHicUl hangers-on in each, having nothing to do but to
police the district and to collect taxes— it) all, a total of 1T,G00 men.

' Literally Nyang-jiaii, or Two Orders (civil and military), who
constitute the aristocracy of birth, descending from ui aristocracy ol
oltice. Mr. Campbell, in his Report, gives the best account of them :
—' The nyang-pan enjoys many of the usual privileges of nobility.

LIFE AND TRA VEL IN KOREA 101

whose business it is to be subsisted upon, and to filch
from the produce of their labour the slender necessi-
ties of existence for themselves. Poverty in the
sense of destitution there is not ; but poverty in the
sense of having no surplus beyond the bare means of
livebhood and of tlie paralysis of all enterprise is
almost universal. Any less indolent people might
o rebel ; and occasional magisterial
beyond the limits of practice or
It in short-lived spasms of mutiny, in
which an ofiending olhclal is seized
l8 happened once in 1S91), is burned
rdinarily this implies too great an
)eople are unarmed and very helpless,
is mutely acquiesced in, unless pushed
xtremes.

ng in the interior of Korea it is advis-
Borae sort of official assistance. Other-
ty of the country renders it difficult

arreBt, except by command of the Kin;; or tlie
ovince in which he resides, and then he is not
nnJBhmpnt, ei<?ept for the (traveat crimeB, such as
tresaon or extortion. He wields bd autocratic sway over the inmates
nf his bonae, and has full licence to resent any real or iancied insult
leTelled at him by the ka-in, i.e. ' low men.' the proletariat, just as.
he pl«aBea. At the same time, the nyang-pan Hex under one great
nbligatioD, nobleaie oblige ; he cannot perform an v menial work, or
enf^age id any trade or industrial occupation. Oiiteide the public
■ervice, teacbinK is the only form of employment open to him. If he
■eeke any other, he Binka irrevocably to the level of his occupation.
There is no law laid down on the puint. The penalty is enforced
socially, and is part of the unwritten code of nijang-pan etiquette.
TheM privileges and obligation? have naturally influenced the cha-
racter of the class, so that the officelees nijang-pan, no matter how
poor, is prond and punctilious as a Spanish hidalgo, not above
n^otiating a loan with the most shameless effrontery, yet keen to
resent the slightest shade of disrespect from an inferior.'

102 KOREA

in parts for the stranger to procure either beasts of
"burden, lodging, or food. The Foreign Office at Soul
Necesaities issucs a documcut kuowu as a kuan-chow,
of travel ^j^^h authoriscs the bearer to employ
Government couriers and ponies, and to put up at
Government inns and yamens^ and which calls for
fodder, chickens, and torches at night, to be forth-
coming. The natives frequently endeavour to circum-
vent this order by hiding away everything in their
possession, and protesting the entire nakedness of
the land. Its production at a magistracy is con-
sequently very often necessary, since it is an impera-
tive mandate to the local official to bestir himself in
the interests of the bearer, who may otherwise report
his indifference at Soul. Without a kuan-chow I
might never have started from Gensan, where there
was a conspiracy among the owners of ponies to%
refuse all their animals, except at preposterous rates,
that was only overcome after a two days' delay and
a somewhat stormy interview, kium-chow in hand,
with the hcnm tenens at the local yamen, .

Travel in the heart of a country brings the
stranger into contact with a type of humanity more
Visit to the primitive, but also more representative of

Diamond i • t i

Mountains thc iiatioual charactcr, than that encountered
in the capital or in large cities, whilst it also discloses
features of natural seenerv of which the residents in
towns or the frequenters of high routes alone may
remain permanently ignorant. Both these advan-
tages were derivable from the circuitous journey
which I took from Gensan to the capital. The

LIFE AA'D TRAVEL IX KOREA 103

familiar route between these places is 550 li, or 170
miles, in length, ami, with, the exception of one
splendid mountain-crossing, traverses a landscape
never without interest, though lacking in the higher
elements of grandeur or romance. A divergence,
however, of a few days from the track brought me
into a region which less than half-a-dozen Europeans

MOUNTAINS

have 3'et visited, and which contains some of tlie most
renowned scenery in Korea, as well as the picturesque
and venerable relics of the disestablished Buddhist
religion, which for 1,000 years before the foundation
of the present dynasty, in about 1400 a.d., was the
official and popular cult of the country. This region
is known as the Keum Kang San, or Diamond Moun-

104 KOREA

tains ; and there — amid mountain valleys and recesses,
whose superb forest mantle rivals in amplitude, while
it excels in autumnal tints of maple and chestnut
the garniture of Californian canons, where rushing^
crystal-clear torrents dance through every glen, and
far skywards bare splintered crags lift their horn&
above the foUage — are scattered a number of monas-
teries, whose buildings are in some cases many
centuries old, and whose dwindling congregation of
inmates perform in these secluded * retreats, secure
from any intrusion save that of the itinerant pilgrim,
the stereotyped devotions before gilded images of
Buddha and his disciples, in which they themselves,
in common with the mass of their countrymen, have
long ceased to believe. By lovers of the picturesque
nothing more enchanting than these monastic retreats-
can anywhere be found; nor will the discovery
that, while every prospect pleases, man alone is vile
— even though his depravity assume, as is credibly
alleged of the Korean bonzes, the most profligate
expression, or, as it did in my own experience, the
more modest form of larceny of one's personal effects
— deter the traveller from keen appreciation of sur-
roundings so romantic.

Surprise may be felt that in a country where the
cloister is so generally and not unjustly despised, it
Korean sliould yct succccd, iu spitc of popular scep-
monk« ticism and official neglect, in attracting to
itself a sufficient number of recruits. The answer
lies in the incurable laziness of the people. The
monks, who do but little in the way of manual

' I

t I '

i . <

I .

r T *

r *
1 1 '

!.':*'i'.

LIFE AND TRAVEL IX KOREA 105-

labour, beyond occasionally tilling the plots of ground
attached to the monasteries, or making sandals,,
subsist in the main upon the charity of others — an
occupation in which the Korean finds an enchantment
that personal exertion can never supply. Hither
therefore retire those who have nothhig to do, or still
more, who want to do nothing ; bachelors who cannot
marry or widowers who do not want to marry again ;.
children of whom their famiUes want to get quit, or
who want to get quit of their families; sometimes
fugitives from justice to whom the Buddhist monas-
tery is like the Jewish City of Eefuge ; perhaps, here
and there, though not once in a hundred times, an
individual who desires to forsake the world, and to
surrender himself wholly to study and devotion.
Hither also comes the Korean sight-seer, the local
equivalent to the English Bank HoUday young man
on a bicycle — a character very common among the
Koreans, who cultivate a keen eye for scenery, and
who love nothing better than a kuh/em/j or pleasure-
trip in the country, where they can shirk all business
and dawdle along as the humour seizes them ; living
upon and, where possible, abusing the hospitality of
others, and halting as they mount each successive
crest, and a new outlook opens before them, to ex-
patiate upon its beauty, to deposit a stone or hang
up a rag in the little wayside shrine erected to the
local genius or deity, and, if they be sufficiently
educated, either to quote the rhapsodies of some
previous poet or to compose a stanza themselves.
How deeply ingrained in the people is this semi-

106 KOREA

aesthetic, semi-superstitious nature-worsliip may be
illustrated by the case of Paik-tu-San (White Peak
Mountain), the celebrated mountain on the northern
frontier, with its gleaming white crown, and with the
unfathomed lake in the hollow of its crater. Every
year an official deputation starts forth from Ham-
heung, the nearest seat of provincial government,
and when it arrives at a point beyond Unchong, near
the Yalu Eiver, from whence the first view of the
sacred crest is obtained, makes genuflexions, lays out
its offerings, and retires. That the monasteries have
for long been visited far more for pleasure's sake than
for duty, is also evident from the remark of Hamel,
240 years ago : —

* The Nobles frequent the Monasteries very much to
■divert themselves there with common Women or others they
carry with them, because they are generally deliciously
seated, and very pleasant for Prospect and fine Gardens.
So that they might better be called Pleasure-houses than
Temples, which is to be understood of the common Monas-
teries, where the religious men love to drink hard.'

A full night's sleep is not easy of attainment in a
Korean monastery, even though one's bed be spread
MonaHtic ou the floor of ouc of the sacred halls, and

life and /» i

habits at the foot, as often happens, of the high
altar. Before the first glimmer of dawn, some pious
monk, anxious to anticipate his fellows, begins to
walk round the courts, tapping a drum, and singing
the most lugubrious and discordant of chants. Then
somebody else begins to clap, clap, upon a brass
j[^ong. Xext the big drum on the platform over

LIFE AND TRAVEL IN KOREA 107

the entrance is beaten to a frantic tune ; and finally
^very bell, gong, and drum in the establishment are
set going at once. This is the common experience
of all who sojourn in Buddhist monasteries, where a
scrupulous adherence to ritual prevails, and where
the outside of the cup and platter is much more
thought of than the character of the inward parts.

The internal arrangements of these monasteries,

of which there are said to be nearly forty, along

with a few nunneries, in the Diamond Moun-

Baildings

tains,* and of which I also visited the chief or
metropolitan monastery of Sak Wang Sa, about twenty
miles from Gensan, are commonly the same. Adjoin-
ing, sometimes over, the entrance, is a roofed platform
or terrace, the pillars and sides of which are thickly
hung with the votive or subscription tablets of former
pilgrims. Here is usually placed a gigantic drum,
reposing upon the back of a painted wooden monster.
Hard by a big bronze bell hangs behind a grill.
The central court, into which one first enters, contains
the principal shrine or temple, usually at the upper
•end, and subsidiary slirines or guest-chambers on
either side. All are of the same pattern — low de-
tached buildings, with heavy tiled roofs and over-
hanging eaves, closed by screens, or shutters, or
doors along the front. Inside is a single gloomy
<:hamber or hall, the richly carved and painted
ceiling of which is sustained by large red pillars.
Opposite the entrance is the main altar, a green or

' The accompanying photographs of scenery in the Keum Kang
San were taken by Mr. C. W. Canapbell.

108 KOREA

pink gauze veil hanging in front of which but half
conceals the gilded figures of seated or standing
Buddhas behind, while all round the sides are ranged
grotesque and grinning images, usually in painted
clay, of other demigods, saints, or heroes. A low
stool stands in front of the main altar, and supports^
a copy of the liturgy and a small brass bell. Thereat,,
when the hour strikes for morning or evening^
prayer, a monk, hastily pulling a grey robe and red
hood over his white dress, kneels down on a mat,
intones a prayer in a language which he does not
understand, touches the ground with his forehead^
and strikes the brass bell with a small deer's horn.
Smaller replicas of the same sanctuary, dedicated to-
different deities, stand in the neighbouring courts.

The Korean form of Buddhism is, it will thus be
seen, closely akin to the Chinese, and is widely
Korean divorccd from that which found favour in
religion ^j^^ morc artistic atmosphere of Japan. Its.
hideously bedaubed temples, which only become
tolerable with age, and its multiform, grotesque,
and barbarous images have little in common with the
beauty of Ikegami or the glories of Nikko, or even
with the less aesthetic attractions of Asakusa. Essen-
tially Chinese, too, is the manner in which the ori-
ginal faith has been overlaid with anthropomorphic
or demonolatrous superstitions, and has had grafted
on to it an entire pantheon of semi-deified heroes.
Nevertheless, it is a welcome relief to alight upon
the shrines even of a dishonoured and moribund
faith in a country where no popular cult appears to

LIFE AND TRAVEL IX KOBE A 10^

«xist save that of spirits, dictated in most cases by
nervous apprehension of the forces of nature, and
where, as the old Dutch navigator put it, 'as for
Religion, the Coresians have scarcely any.'

To these superstitions is the Korean peasant pecu-
liarly prone. Outside his villages are seen wooden
Spirit- distance-posts carved into the hideous and
r^lTcOT- grinning likeness of a human head, in order to
fucianiam pj.Qpj|^i3^j^^ ^j^g gyj] spirits.^ Of similar applica-
tion are the bronze figures of monsters that appear
upon the roofs of palaces and city gates, the rags and
ropes that are tied to the boughs of trees (sup-
posed, in Korean demonology, to be the particular
abode of spirits), and the stones that are heaped
together on the summits of hill-roads, in passing
which our native camp-followers would invariably

* These images are commonly from 4 to 8 feet in height. Their
lower part consists of a roughly hewn log or post, on the front of
mrhich is an inscription in Chinese characters, while the upper part is
carved into the likeness of a grotesque head, with features besmeared
livith red paint, white eye-balls, and huge grinning mouth. Their
original purpose appears to have been that of mile- stones to record
distances, in which case they are called Chang or Jang-sung ; but
w^hen planted in rows at the entrance and exit of villages they aro
jftlso called Syong-scU-malCt and are regarded as tutelary guardians
against evil spirits. Chang-sung is said to have been the name of a
notorious Korean criminal in bygone days. This individual was a
general or official of high rank, who, according to diflferent versions
of the same legend, murdered his wite and daughter, or married his
own daughter, who, for her part, committed suicide. Detected and
seized, he was put to death by the King, and the likeness of his head
was carved as a warning upon the distance -posts throughout the
conntry. A somewhat analogous idea is represented in the Korean
practice, at certain seasons of the year, of making little straw effigies,
^bout 1^ foot in height, in the likeness of some disliked individual,
inserting a few loose cash inside, along with a short prayer, and then
burning the whole thing as a scape-goat, or presenting it to a beggar,
'^iv'bo will gladly appropriate the gift for the sake of the coins.

110 KOBE A

bow and expectorate. Female sorceresses and sooth-
sayers, to cast horoscopes, and to determine the pro-
pitious moment for any important action, are also in
great request.^ Tn Soul I heard a story of a sick
man who was supposed to be possessed by a devil,,
but was successfully cured by an English mission
doctor, who affected to drive out the evil spirit,
which was forthwith pursued down the street by a
large crowd and 'run to ground' in the mission
compound. Among the upper classes the only vital
form of religion is ancestor worship, developed by
familiarity with Confucianism and by long connection
with the Chinese. A man has no higher ambition
than to leave male descendants who may worship
his manes and offer sacrifice at his grave. An outcome
of the same ethical system is the sense of filial piety ,^
which would have rendered jEneas a typical China-
man, of unquestioning obedience to the sovereign,,
and of duty to the aged and to friends. No Buddhist
monks are allowed inside the cities — a prohibition
which is said to have orighiated in the Japanese
invasion 300 years ago, when the invaders crept
into some of the towns in monastic disguise —
although the King, in the neighbourhood of the
capital, has one or more secure mountain retreats,.

* Outside the walls of Soiil I visited the house of a sorceress— a
big black woman with a forbidding countenance and an enormous
black hair wig, which she put on and off, at the same time that she
donned different coloured robes, waltzing slowly round the while to
the sound of drums and gongs, and droning a horrible chant, much
to the consternation of the large crowd who had come to consult her,
bringing big tables piled with sweetmeats, but who were evidently
very much frightened by her incantations, and plied her with anxious^
and tearful entreaties.

LIFE AND TRAVEL IN KOREA 111

whither, in time of danger, he flees to the protection .
of a monkish garrison.

Travelling in Korea is best undertaken in the
autumn months of the year. The climate is then
Conditions P^^fect — a Warm sun by day and refreshing
of travel cooluess at night. In the winter deep snow
falls and the cold is excessive. The summer heats
are equally unpleasant. There are no made roads
m the country, and the tracks are mere bridle-paths,
of greater or less width, according to the extent to-
which they are trodden. In a country that is as plen-
tifully sprinkled with mountains as a ploughed field
is with ridges, these are frequently steep and stony
in the extreme, and in the out-of-the-way parta
which I visited the track was not unfrequently the
precipitous and boulder-strewn bed of a mountain
torrent, amid and over the jagged rocks of which
none but a Korean pony could pick his way. A
wonderful little animal indeed is the latter. With
the exception of the ox, which is the beast of heavy
burden, and the donkey, which is much affected by
the impecunious gentry, no other pack or riding
animal is known. Earely more than eleven hands
high, combative and vicious, always kicking or
fighting when he can, he will yet, with a burden of
150 lbs. or 200 lbs. upon his back, cover a distance
of some thirty miles per diem ; and provided he has
his slush of beans and chopped straw, boiled in
water, three times a day, before starting, at noon,
and in the evening, he emerges very little the worse
at the end of a lengthy journey. Each pony i&

112 KOREA

attended by its own mapu^ or driver, and the
humours of these individuals, who sing and smoke
and crack jokes and quarrel all the day long, are
among the alleviations of travel. If the destination
be not reached before nightfall the bearers of official
passports have the right to torch-bearers from each
village. Long before reaching the latter, tremendous
shouts of ' Usa, usa! ' (torch), are raised by the mapiis
or yam^n-runners ; and if upon arrival the Govern-
ment linkmen are not forthcoming with their torches —
made of a lopped pine-log or a truss of straw — they
^re roused from their slumbers or hiding with cuffs
and violent imprecations. In a few moments half-a-
dozen torches are ignited, and, amid waving banners
of flame, the cavalcade disappears into the night.

Sport is a further and agreeable concomitant of
iourneying, although, as in every country in the
world, not much game can be seen except
by divergence from the hurried track of
travel. Pheasants abound in the undergrowth on
the mountains. In the winter months every va-
riety of wild-fowl, from wild geese and swans to
wild duck, teal, water hen, plover, and snipe, swarm
along the coast and rivers or in the soaking rice- plots.
The natives either snare them or shoot them sitting ;
and the spectacle of a rocketing mallard broujj^ht
•down from a great height in the air is greeted by
them with frantic shouts of admiration and delight.
"Turkey bustards, cranes, herons, pink and white ibis
are also encountered, and there is a large eagle,
whose tail-feathers are much prized by the Chinese

LIFE AND TRAVEL IN KOREA 113

for fans. But the richness of the Korean covert lies
rather in .fur and skin than in feather. Hares,
foxes, badgers, wild cat, wild boar, sables, ermin,
and otter in the far north, and different kinds of
deer (which are hunted for the medicinal properties
supposed in China to belong to the horns of the
young buck) are to be found in the scrub on the
mountains. Leopards are quite common, and in
the winter months sometimes venture even inside
the walls of Soul. But the tiger is the king of
Korean quarries. He is of great size; and I saw,
while in Korea, some splendid skins. His haunt is
the wooded mountain-slopes near the east coast,
and the entire belt of country northwards as far as
the forests on the Yalu, where man-eaters are not
uncommon. In winter-time tigers have more than
once come down into the settlement at Gensan and
carried off a victim ; I even heard there of a Euro-
pean who, going out to dine, met a tiger walking
down the middle of the road ; and when I was at
Chang An Sa (the Hall of Eternal Peace), the
principal of the Keum Kang San monasteries, one
was said to patrol the quadrangle every night, and
we came across their spoor and droppings. The
King maintains a body of royal tiger-hunters, who
capture them by means of pits and traps, the
commonest of these being a sort of big wooden
cage constructed of timbers and stones, rather like
a gigantic mouse-trap. A pig is tied up inside,
and the entrance of the tiger releases the door and
confines the beast, who is then despatched with

I

114 KOREA

Spears. Tlie natives, however, regard the animal
■with an overpowering apprehension, and there is an
old Cliinese saying that ' The Koreans hunt the tiger
during one-half of the year, while the tiger hunts the
Koreans during the other half.' They will not travel
singly at night, but go abroad in company, brandish-
ing torches and striking gongs. They are also most

STREET IN A KOBEAK VILLAGE

reluctant to act as beaters ; whence, perhaps, it arises
that, common as the tiger is in Korea, I have rarely
heard of a European who has bagged one to his own
rifle. I am sometimes asked by sportsmen as to
the charms or chances of a Korean expedition. As
regards wild-fowl shooting, the great nuisance is that
tliere is no means of disposing of the slain, and after
a time mere slaughter palls ; while, as regards big

LIFE AND TRAVEL IN KOREA 115

game, the difficulties and hardships of travel, accom-
modation, food, and following, will probably send
back the sportsman with a much worse appetite than
when he started.

^Xrhus wayfaring through the country one sees

much- of peasant life and agriculture. The vil-

Peaaant l^gcs arc collcctions of mud-huts, thatched

with straw (over which, as a rule, runs a

climbing gourd), warmed by flues running beneath

the floors, and surrounded for protection or seclusion

by a wattled fence of branches or reeds. On the clay

floor outside are usually seen drying a matful of red

chillies, or of millet and rice grains fresh threshed by

the flail ; long strings of tobacco leaves, suspended in

festoons, have been picked from the garden plot hard

by, from which also a few castor-oil plants are

rarely absent. A small sty of black and abominable

little pigs usually fronts the road, on which the

children are disporting themselves in a state of

comparative nudity. Inside, the dour-visaged females

are performing the work of the household, or are

grinding, threshing, or winnowing the grain on the

open threshold. The men are away in the rice-fields

or among the crops of millet, beans, and buckwheat,

which are the staple cereal produce of the country.

Cultivation is assiduous, but not close. Hundreds of

acres of cultivable, but uncleared soil, alternate with

the tilled patches ; and coarse grasses wave where

the yellow grain should be ripening for the garner.

I saw no carts or wagons on my journeys, although
they are used in the north, near Ham-heung, and in

I 2

116 KOREA

a few other places. The ox, which is the familiar
beast of burden, sometimes drags after him a rude
B„nj wooden sled. More commonly a sort of
'"'"'■ rack is fitted on to his back, and is packed
with firewood for fuel. Men do not, as in Japan
and China, carry burdens on bamboo poles, but in

A K0SB4N FEASANT FAMILI

wooden racks, called chi-kai, upon their backs. They
rest themselves by sitting down, in which position
the rack, having a wooden peg or leg, stands upright
upon the ground. The long, thin pipe of the country,
between two and three feet in length, when not be-
tween the hps of its owner, is stuck in his collar at
the back of his neck, Mid protrudes sideways into

LIFE AND TRAVEL IN KOREA 117

the air. When a pony is shod it is thrown down
upon its back, and its legs tied together at the fetlock
by a rope.

Outside towns of any size may commonly be seen
a number of stones, or tablets (sometimes of iron
Memorial ^^ coppcr), bearing inscriptions in Chinese
tablets characters. These are erected either in con-
nection with some historical event, or more frequently
in honour of a local governor, who has earned the
gratitude of the people, not for justice or clemency,
which are not expected, but for wielding with no
more than ordinary severity his prerogative of
squeeze ; or of a successful local candidate at the
Uterary examinations, or of some public benefactor,
or of a virtuous wife who has found in suicide the
sole consolation for the loss of her spouse.

Chinese influence is visible everywhere, notably

in the disposition of the dead. The Eoyal Tombs

are at a distance of ten miles from the east

TombB

gate of Soul ; but they are on a modest scale
compared with the mausoleums of Peking and Hue.
Mandarins' graves are frequently marked by a stone
table or altar for offerings, and a ntele or pillar,
bearing the epitaph of the deceased. Sometimes,
after the Chinese fashion, stone eflSgies of warriors
or animals are added, or a saddled stone horse, in
case the spirit of the defunct should care to take a
ride, or a small column in case it should have been
metamorphosed into a bird and should require a
perch. The conmionest form of grave, however, is a
large, circular, grassy mound, usually placed upon

118 KOREA

the side of a hill or summit of a little knoU, and sur-
rounded with Scotch firs. The site is selected after
consultation with a soothsayer, is visited every year
on fixed days, and is ever afterwards kept inviolate
from the spade or plough. The environs of Soul are
sprinkled with thousands of such graves.

Officialism, which is the curse of the country, is

not without its effect even upon the fortunes of travel.

Such an incubus is the travelling manda-

Wayfarers

rin, who quarters himself where he pleases
and exacts rations for which he never pays, that the
villagers flee from an official passport as from the
pest. Though I paid for everything, chickens and
eggs were constantly refused me, on the plea that
none were forthcoming, but really, I suppose, from
fear that, on the strength of the kuan-chow, I should
appropriate without payment whatever was produced.
Under these circumstances, it is necessary to carry
almost everything with one, in the form of tinned pro-
visions. In the out-of-the-way parts few wayfarers are
encountered ; but near the capital the road will be
crowded with officials, tucked up in small and com-
fortless sedans, with candidates going up to or
returning from the examinations, with pilgrims,
traders, professional players or mountebanks, beg-
gars, picnicers, and impecunious vagabonds of every
quality and style.

These are the picturesque sides and spectacles of
Korean travel. There are some who would find in
the Korean inn, which is the unavoidable resting-
place at night, a more than compensating pain.

LIFE AND TRAVEL IN KOREA tl^

There are no good inns in the country, because there
is no class to patronise them. The oflScials and
The ' yangbans, as I have shown, quarter themselves
inn on the magistracies. The peasant accepts the

rude hospitality of his kind, and the village inn is
only the compulsory resort of the residuum. Sur-
rounding a small and filthy courtyard, to which
access is gained by a gateway from the street, is on
one side a long shed with a wooden trough, from
which the ponies suck their sodden food ; on another
side is the earthenware vat, and the furnace by which
it is cooked ; opening off in a single, small, low-roofed
room, usually 8 feet square, unadorned by any furni-
ture save one or two dilapidated straw mats and
some wooden blocks to serve as pillows. There the
traveller must eat, undress, dress, wash, and sleep as
well as he can. He is fortunate if the surrounding
filth is not the parent of even more vexatious enemies
to slumber. Nevertheless, I have wooed and won a
royal sleep in the Korean inn ; wherefore let me not
unduly abuse it.

120 KOREA

CHAPTER V

THE CAPITAL AND COURT OP KOREA

Beautiful for situation is Mount Zion. On the side of the north i»
the city of the Great King. Walk about Zion, and go round about
her: tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider
her palaces ; that ye may tell it to the generations following,

Paalm xlviii. 2, 12, 18

Among the unexpected features of Korea is the posses-
sion of a capital that, as regards size and population^

Name of ^^7 ^^irly bc counted one of the great cities
the capital ^f ^^^ j.^^ j ^^^^ gpeUcd the name Soul ;^

but I should say in advance that I have never met
two persons, even scholars, who pronounced the name
in exactly the same way. Seoul, Syool, Sawull, Sowul
are among the more popular phonetic transliterations.
That the word is a dissyllable seems to be certain ;
but not even on the Ups of Koreans does the precise
equivalent to the vowel-sounds employed make itself
apparent. Perhaps to an English ear the true pro-
nunciation is best conveyed by saying that the way
in which an Irishman pronounces the immortal part
of him fairly represents the sound.

^ The name signifies * capital city.* Compare the Chinese Pe-king
and Nan-king, i.e, northern and southern capitals, and the Japanese
Tokio and Saikio (Kioto), ix, eastern and western capitals. Soul is.
the Sior of Hondrik Hamel.

THE CAPITAL AKD COURT OF KOREA 121

To those who bear m mind the Chinese connec-
don of Korea, upon which I shall so frequently have
w>iu ud to insist, it will be no surprise to learn that
8Sbi Soul is in most exterior respects a Chinese

city. Indeed, it was first made the capital of the
Korean kingdom exactly five centuries ago by Ni
Taijo, the founder of the reigning house,' a monarch
who in everything aped the Chinese model, at that

time, and, we may almost say now, the sole standard
of majesty or fashion to the petty surrounding States.
He bnilt the stone wall, over twenty feet high, with
battlements and loopholes for archers, by which the

' The regalia and robes of state of Ki Taijo are ntill preserved in
U)e metropolitan monastery of Sak Wong Sa, which he fonnded in
memoTy of his ' call ' to mle from this spot. The monastery is
•aperbly ntnated in a romantic wooded gorge, about twenty miles
from Oetuan.

123 KOREA

city is surrounded ; and he * made the eight great
gates, consisting of a tunnelled passage in the wall,
surmounted by a single or a double-storey ed project-
ing tiled pavilion, by which access is still gained to
the interior.^ Like the gates of Peking, these l^ave
names of swelling import — the Gate of Elevated
Humanity, the Gate of High Ceremony, and the Gate
of Bright Amiability. As at Peking, also, the heavy
wooden doors, sheathed and clamped with iron, are
shut soon after sunset, the keys being taken to the
King's Palace, and deposited with His Majesty, or,
when the Chinese Commissioners are in Soul, with
the latter.^ No bribe can then open them, and the
only method of ingress is by climbing, with the aid
of a friendly hand with a rope, a dilapidated portion
of the wall. Just before my visit a British admiral,
being a few minutes too late, had been compelled to
enter in this not unnautical fashion ; whereat the
Korean dignitaries could not make up their minds
whether to be more shocked or amused.

The entire space circumscribed by the wall is not
built over, for the latter climbs with antelope-like
facihty the scarp of the various rocky hills and
Its situa- mountains by which the city proper is sur-
^^^^ rounded, and includes much ground which

could by no possibility admit of human dwelling. In
fact, the wall may be said merely to embrace a de-
fensible area, in the midst and low-lying portions of

^ Tbey are situated two on the north, one on the north-east, one
on the east, one on the south-east, two on the south-west, and one on
the west. The main gates are the east and west.

' An interesting collateral admission of Chinese suzerainty.

THE CAPITAL AND COURT OF KOREA 123

■which has beefi placed a great human hive. The
situation of the city, thus nestling in a trough between
high hills, is therefore picturesque in the extreme,
and would appear to have been specially designed
for the purpose, were it not that the confined atmo-
sphere in summer, operating upon a densely crowded
mass of dwellings where the most contemptuous dis-

regard of sanitary laws prevails, renders it at that
time a nursery of pestilence and sickness. Unhke
the scenery which I have described in the last chapter
as prevaihng in the more northerly and eastern parts
of Korea, the hills surrounding SiJul are bare, arid,
and iminviting. The disintegrated granite of which
they are composed does not admit of much vegetation,
while such verdure as once adorned their slopes has

124 KOREA

in large measure been swept away. A scanty growth
of timber clothes the north hill, called Pouk San,
which, very much like Lycabettus at Athens, rises to
a sharp elevation behind the Eoyal Palace. But the
other hills are almost treeless, with the exception of
Nam San, which is splendidly timbered up to its sum-
mit, 800 feet above the city on the south. Further
away on the northern side the nearer elevations are
dominated by the imposing mass of the mountain of
Pouk Han, whose gleaming grey pinnacles protrude
themselves from sterile lower slopes.

It is worth while to cUmb Nam San ; for from
there is a wild and gloomy outlook over mountains
ggj^^. rolling like grey billows on every side ; while
^^^ along the widening valley between them the

river Han pushes its broad and shining coils to the
sea. On the top of Nam San, too, are four beacon-
towers — circular structures built of big stones, in
whose interior tall piles of leaves and brushwood are
nightly set ablaze, to signal to the capital the message
of peace and security or the reverse, which, like the
bale-fires of Troy, is supposed to have been passed
from peak to peak from the southern confines of the
kingdom. On the north-west side another tall and
three-pointed hill — known as Sam Kok San, or Three-
peaked Hill, which the French in their expedition of
1 866 called the Cock's Comb, because of the fiery red
which it blushed at the early dawn — ^flashes an an-
swering gleam from the opposite quarter ; nor has this
primitive form of telegraphy been nominally aban-
doned (though it is believed to have fallen into

THE CAPITAL AlfD COURT OF KOREA 126

practical disuse), except on the lines where it has been
replaced by the electric wire. A special code of
signals, depending on the number, position, and se-
quence of the beacon-fires, is employed in times of
danger to announce to the capital the scene or moment
of invasion and the fortunes ot combat in the pro-
vinces. Towards nightfall the eye of the visitor,

unacciistomed to the novelty, insists on turning sty-
wards, and is not satisfied till the reassuring spark
glimmers brightly from each sentinel peak.

Within the space thus enclosed and built over is
Population containcd a population, the various esti-
u>a Btraeu jjjj^gg Qf whose numerical total range from
3 50,000 to 300,000. An oflScial calculation has placed
the number of houses at 30,000, and we may accept

126 KOREA

200,000 as a probable total for their inmates.^ The
bulk of these are crowded in thatched hovels, lininjr
narrow and fetid lanes; but in singular and truly
Oriental contrast are the main streets, three in
number, one of which runs from the Palace to meet
the second, which intersects the city from east to
west, while the third strikes off from the latter to the
south gate» Each of these is of a breadth and ampli-
tude that would dignify a European capital, being at
least fifty yards wide and smoothly gravelled; but
even here the native love of crowding and squalor is
allowed to assert itself, for the roadway is encroached
upon by rows of rude straw-thatched shanties that
have been erected by poverty-stricken squatters on
either hand, encumbering the passage, and reducing
the space available for locomotion to a narrow strip
. in the middle. When the King goes out, or when
any state function of great solemnity takes place, all
these improvised tenements are pulled down before-
hand (but re-erected directly afterwards) ; and I own
that I was far from sorry to see a large block of them
blazing merrily one night, both because the street for
a brief space resumed its proper dimensions, and from
the insight which the spectacle afforded into the
manners of the natives. Some of them sat on the
neighbouring housetops, praying to the spirits to
arrest the conflagration, which they made no effort
to retard ; others adopted a remedy by one stage

^ On the other hand the Chinese publication/ Important Facts
relating to the Eastern Stockade^ gives the number of houses as
46,565, and of inhabitants as 202,639.

THE CAPITAL AND COURT OF KOREA 127

more practical, seeing that they ran about with small
pots, bowls, and even teacups, filled with water,
which they dashed with sanguine futility upon the
flames. But had it not been for the privately organ-
ised fire brigade maintained by the Chinese Resident
for the protection of the Chinese quarter, in or near

aBOUND PLAN OF SOUL

1. Palace

3. Old Palace (residenoe of King)
a. Big Bell

4. House of Tai Wen Knn

5. Kew Palace
e. Palaee

7. Boadan Legation

8. American Legation

9. Customs

10. British Legation

11. Chinese Residency

12. French R,C. Mission and Church

13. Japanese Legation

14. Nam San

to which the burning houses lay, there seemed no
plausible reason why the conflagration should ever
have stopped until it had reduced the entire city to
ashes.

In the maps Soul is made to stand upon the river
Han ; and when I had read in history-books of the
French and American frigates steaming up the river

128 KOREA

to threaten or attack it, I had pictured to myself
a scene and a site not unlike the Nile at Khartum.
Dirt and ^^^^ ^s a matter of fact, the river is between
ditches three and four miles away ; and the only
local substitute for it is a narrow canal, which may
be an Abana or a Pharpar in the rainy season, but
which, when I saw it, was merely a filthy and shallow
sewer, in which the Korean urchins appeared to find
pleasure in paddling. Each street or alley, moreover,
has an open gutter running upon either side, and
containing all the refuse of human and animal life.
Soul is consequently a noisome and malodorous
place ; and exploration among its labyrinthine alleys
is as disagreeable to the nostril as it is bewildering
to the eye. A few elevations spring up from the
general level of the city basin ; and these have been
opportunely occupied by foreigners with a superior
appreciation of site, the British, Eussian, and Japanese
Legations and the French Catholic Establishment
being from any altitude the most conspicuous objects
in the town. A settlement of 1,000 Japanese is in
acute competition with an even larger and increasing
colony of Chinamen. Nearly 100 Europeans and
Americans represent the remainder of the foreign
community ; but this admixture makes little superficial
impression upon the white-coated, white-trousered,
white-socked mass of humanity that swarms to and
fro in the thronged thoroughfares of the city.

The public buildings of Soul are remarkable for
their paucity and insignificance. With the exception
of the great hooded roofs of the Audience Halls in the

THE CAPITAL AND COURT OF KOREA 129

Palaces, the whole city, when seen from above, pre-
sents an almost even level of tiled roof-tops, packed so
closely together that it looks as though a man
might step from one to the other. The narrow
alleys between them cannot be diacerned, and only
the white riband of the three principal streets,
rendered whiter still by the white dresses of the

THE CITY AND OLD PALACE, 80UL

Koreans, strutting up and down by the hundred,
breaks the brown monotony. Even when we descend
into the town, we find no beauty in the exterior of
the houses ; for they are, as a rule, constructed of a
mixture of mud, paper, and wood ; although those
which are more strongly built have walls made of
round stones, which are tied round and held together
by plaited straw in lieu of the too expensive luxury

130 KOREA

of mortar. There are no windows in the house-
fronts — only Ufting or sliding screens ; and whatever
of neatness or elegance exists in the abode is con-
cealed in the interior, where the private dwellings,
unseen from the street, are ranged round small courts.
The houses of all classes are uniformly built either
on platforms or on raised floors, for the purpose of
warming by means of flues running underneath from
a single furnace that serves the entire building. At
the other end the smoke escapes by a blackened hole
in the wall, usually into the street, where it adds to
the aesthetic pains of perambulation. There is no-
where in the city anything in the least resembling
the elaborate carved and gilded woodwork that
adorns the shop-fronts in Peking, or even the monu-
mental painted sign-boards of Canton. Another ob-
stacle to street embellishment has been the existence
of crude and foolish sumptuary laws, prohibiting the
erection of houses of more than a certain size, or
beyond a fixed outlay.

For these drawbacks, however. Soul does its best
to atone by two properties of unquestioned and more
street- Creditable individuality — viz. a singular and
oostume picturcsque street-life, and a Court which is
alternately dignified and comic, and sometimes both
at the same time! Why the Koreans should all
dress in white cotton no one seems able to say. It
is not a fashion imposed by conquest, like the pigtail
in China ; nor by smartness, like the Albanian petti-
coat ; nor by dignity, like the Eoman toga ; nor by
serviceableness, Uke the Highland kilt ; not even by

THE CAPITAL AJ!fD COURT OF KOREA 131

the vulgar criterion of comfort, like the European
trouser. The colour cannot have been designed to
resist the sun, because in winter there is not too
much sun to resist ; nor can the material have been
selected for its lightness, since in the cold weather it
is only rendered wearable by being thickly wadded
with cotton-wool. I can only attribute the pheno-
menon, therefore, to one of those inexplicable freaks
of fortune which have endowed the world, for in-
stance, with the crinoline and the top-hat ; although,
whatever the cause of its original introduction,
1 harbour a secret suspicion that the white cotton
garments of the men are now maintained by them
for the excellent purpose they serve in keeping the
women busy. All day long, as you are walking in
the streets of Soul, you will hear a mysterious tap,
tap, tap, emerging from the closed shutters of the
houses. This is the housewife who is at work in-
doors with a wooden cylinder with which she beats,
beats, beats, her husband's white cotton clothes, in
order to give them the peculiar gloss which masculine
fashion affects in Korea. Over their white cotton
drawers, which terminate in a kind of padded stock-
ing, the men of the middle classes wear an outer
tunic or skirt of similar material, which is split up
at the sides, and looks very much like a nightshirt.
Secretaries and persons in civil employ wear over
this a similar semi-transparent garment in black. The
women of the lower orders are also as entirely clad
in white as a class of English girls going to a Con-
firmation Service ; but in the upper classes a gown of

K 2

132 KOREA

green, or crimson, or purple, instead of hanging from
the shoulders, is drawn up over the head, with the
sleeves hanging down in two long lappets behind,
and is held closely together in front, admitting only
a furtive glimpse of black eyes behind. The most
astonishing Korean coiffure is that of the Abigail or
waiting-maid, who wears a colossal erection upon her

i SBCBETABIRS

head made of greasy black hair twisted in plaits,
bigger by far than the artificial head-dress of an old
Egj'ptian Pharaoh, or the wig of an English Lord
Chancellor. Upon the summit of this an enor-
mous tray reposes as safely as upon a four-legged
table.

Another peculiar coiffure is that of the King's
dancing-girls, or ' corps de ballet,' who are a regular

THE CAPITAL AND COURT OF KOREA 133

feature at every Korean entertainment.' These girls,
who are called ' Ki-saing,' correspond to the Geisha
DMcing. of Japan. Companies of them exist in every
^" town of any size, combining prostitution

with the pursuit of their profession. Many of them
are far from bad-looking, the type of feature being

A KOaiiAN WAniAO->UlD

much more regular, even if wanting in the feminine
attractiveness of the Japanese girl. The national
dance, which is performed to the strains of a slow
plaintive music evoked by a seated band, is mono-
tonous in character and interminable in length.

' The accompanying photopraph and that of the Kin^'e band
were taken by Captain Castle, of E.M.S. ' Leandet,' in 1898.

134 KOREA

Like all the dances of the Far East, it consists of
a series of postures free from iddelicacy, and some of
them not without grace, and has been described as
' a not unpleasing mizture of minuet and quadrille,
with a dash of the reel towards the finish.' The
Koreans will sit and gaze at it in rapt ecstasy for
hours at a stretch.

It is as a country of hats that Korea has attained

the widest external fame, and in the course of a single

stroll the streets of Soul will afford material

Hats

for an extensive classification. The ordinary-
headpiece is a twofold structure ; for the outer hat,
broad-brimmed and with slightly conical crown, not
unlike the old market-hat of the Welshwoman —

THE CAPITAL AXD COURT OF KOREA 135

though made of a material more delicate than Wales
€ver saw — namely, among the upper classes split
bamboo fibres, woven together and lacquered black,
and among the lower orders a cheaper variety of the
same, or horsehair — is only the exterior covering or
superstructure of a skull-cap or headband of the
same material, which is pressed around the temples,
in order to hold in place the uncut hair of the men,
drawn upwards and tied in a knot upon the crown.
The exterior hat is kept on by a riband or string
of amber and cornelian beads beneath the chin.
Then there are hats for every rank, occupation, and
even phase of life. The youth, when he is be-
trothed, wears, till his marriage, a smart fabrication
of straw. \

The successful candidate at one of the literary
examinations is distinguished by two wires adorned
with coloured rosettes, which project like hoops or
antennce over the summit of his hat. Peasants and
bull-drivers are remarkable for colossal penthouses of
plaited straw, which almost conceal the features, and
whose circumference embraces the full width of the
shoulders.

Perhaps the mourner has the worst time ; for,
not onlv must he wear a somewhat similar extin-
guisher, hexagonal at the brim, but for a period of
one, two, or three years, according to his relationship
with the deceased, he is compelled to don a hempen
robe, tied by a cord round the waist, and to carry in
front of his mouth a small hempen screen between
two sticks, in order, I believe, to keep at a proper

distance the spirit of the departed.^ During the
period of mourning, prescribed by an inflexible regu-
lation, he 13 further forbidden to marry, or indulge
in any of the lighter occupations of life; and
instances have occurred of ill-starred bridegrooms,
a continuous mortality among whose relations has

left them stranded high and dr}' for years on the sad
sands of celibacy, their fiancees meanwhile growing
grey and ill-favoured before their eyes. Monks have
a hat peculiar to their order, made of rush-matting
with a hexagonal brim, and terminating in a conical

< Thia dress was worn for disguise by the Bonjan Catholic mis-
during the ChriEtiau persecution.

THE CAPITAL AND COURT OF KOREA 137

apex ; while there is a separate long narrow straw
fabric for nuns. The Korean soldiers also have a
distinguishing hat, made of black horsehair felt, tied
on with coloured tape ribands ; a superior variety of
the same article, adorned with plumes, makes of
their officers a wondrous sight. It is only, however,
when we reach the grades of court and official so-
ciety that the Korean hatmaker achieves his greatest
masterpieces. Thus, for the governor of a province
he supplies a sort of mitre of gilt pasteboard ; while
for ministers and officials generally are prescribed
various degrees of headpiece, constructed with re-
ceding stages, like a Doge's cap of state, and fitted
with wings or paddles projecting from the back.
Even the royal lackeys have a headpiece, consisting
of a small bamboo structure, stuck on sideways, with
a huge bunch of artificial flowers at the back, which
is only less fantastic than the harlequin's cap of the
Shah's runners at Teheran.

With nine out of every ten persons clad in white,
and with the entire ten adorned with these astonisli-
Amoue- ^o Varieties of headgear, it may readily be
""^^ imagined that street-life in Soul is not
exactly the same, for instance, as in London or New
York. Nor are there any carriages, or wheeled
vehicles of whatsoever description, to suggest a
Western parallel. Locomotion is entirely pedestrian,
save for such persons, usually of high estate, as are
perched upon the backs of the diminutive Korean
ponies, clinging with difficulty to the pommel of
a saddle, which lifts them almost as high above the

138 KOREA

back of the animal as the latter is above the ground ;
or as are borne along by shouting attendants in open
chairs, or sedans. Next to ponies the most familiar
animals encountered in the streets of Soul are mag-
nificent bulls, marching along under vast stacks of
brushwood, and behaving themselves with a docility
that is quite extraordinary. They are the only other
beast of burden known to the country, are highly
prized, and fetch comparatively heavy prices. Chil-
dren abound everywhere, and derive a peculiar grati-
fication from sporting in the gutters. They are
frequently clad in pink or some other bright colour,
and are usually engaged in flying small rectangular
painted kites, made of the wonderful oiled paper of
the country.^ Kite-fighting consists in drawing one
kite sharply across another when at a great height
in the air, so as to sever the rival string. Another

* The Korean paper is the most remarkable native manufacture.
It is made from more than one material, though usually from the
inner bark of a mulberj^-tree ; but there is hardly anything in Korea
that cannot be made of it. Afler it has been soaked in oil of sesame
it becomes both exceedingly durable and waterproof. As such it is
used instead of carpets on the floors, instead of paper on the walls,
instead of glass in the windows, and instead of white-wash on the
ceilings. Clothes, hats, shoes, tobacco-pouciies, and fans are made of it ;
so are umbrellas, lanterns, and kites. Booms are divided by paper
screens; clothes are kept in paper chests; men travel with paper
trunks ; children play with paper toys. Then there are the ordinary
purposes of writing and printing ; and so frugal are the Koreans, that
even the examination-papers of the candidates in the literary examina-
tions, instead of being thrown away, are disposed of for a few coppers,
and subsequently do duty as improvised macintosh capes on the
shoulders of the coolies, who go marching along in the rain, innocently
parading the maxims of Confucius on their backs. The principal
manufactory is in a valley watered by a stream outside the north gate of
Soul ; and a steam paper-mill, with foreign machinery, has just been
erected at Yang-hwa-chin on the Han, four miles below the capital.

THE CAPITAL AND COURT OF KOREA 139

popular urban amusement is stone-throwing. Diffe-
rent parts of tlie capital, which is divided into five
quarters or wards, or different villages, wage fierce
warfare on an open space of ground, driving each
other backwards and forwards with showers of
missiles- These contests are conducted with great
ferocity, and frequently result in loss of life. Even
with the advance of civilisation their savagery has
scarcely abated ; though the sport, which has nothing
to recommend it, is said to be less popular than of
yore. It is not unUke the custom, still prevailing in
one or two Enghsh places, of an annual football
match in the main street between two parts of a
town, in which every one who likes may take part.

A history of sack and siege has left very few relics
of antiquity either in the capital or in its neighbour-
The Big hood ; but, such as they are, I will describe
^^ them. At the junction of the two main

streets, under a roofed pavilion, known as the Cliong
Kak, or Bell Kiosque, and behind wooden bars, hangs
a famous old bronze bell, which is reported, with a
modesty that I cannot think remarkable, since I have
found it shared by at least half a dozen rival com-
petitors in the course of my travels, to be the third
largest in the world. It is in no respect an astonish-
ing bell, being without ornament, save for an inscrip-
tion, which relates that it was erected in a.d. 1468,
by Taijo Tai Woang. But the Americans are said to
have tried to get hold of it for Chicago ; and it never
allows its own presence to be forgotten by strangers,
for it is banged with a swinging wooden beam every

140 KOREA

evening for some minutes between 7 and 9 p.m.
before the gates are shut, and also before sunrise,
between 3 and 5 a.m., as well as on other occasions,
when there is a fire. The roads diverging from the
Chong Kak are known as Chong Eo, or Bell Roads.

It was close to the Bell Kiosque that the stone

was placed in 1866 by the old Eegent, the Tai Wen

Kun, who reigned before the present King

Shops

had attained his majority, with an inscription
calling upon the Koreans to kill all Christians ; nor
was it till 1883 that it was finally removed. Adjoin-
ing the same site are the only two-storeyed shops, or
warehouses, in Soul. They belong to the King, and
are leased to the merchants of the six great trading
guilds of Korea, who pay him a substantial price for
the privilege of controlling the sale of Chinese and
native silk, of cotton goods, of hemp and grass cloth,
and of Korean paper. The shops open on to a narrow
central court, but the goods there displayed, consisting
of silk and cotton and figured gauze fabrics, Chinese
shoes, native paper, and brass utensils,^ do not greatly
attract the foreigner. He is more likely to pick up
something amid the old rubbish lying upon the open
stalls in the main street outside.

In the back court of a mean hovel, at no great
distance, stands a small and exquisite, though much
defaced, white granite pagoda, whose ascending tiers

^ Among these it is unfair to pass without notice the national
implement of Korea, a circular brass pot, with a lid, but no handle,
which is carried about by the attendant of every respectable citizen,
and serves alternately as pillow, candlestick, ash-plate, spittoon, and
pot de chamhre.

THE CAPITAL AND COURT OF KOBE A 141

are richly carved with images of the seated Buddha.
The topmost tier has been broken off — it is said by
stone the Japanese during their invasion 300 years
pillar ago— and is lying upon the ground hard
by. This monument was variously reported to me
as having been brought over from China by the
Chinese wife of a Korean monarch some seven
centuries ago, and as marking the site of what was
once an important Buddhist monastery in the heart of
the city. Not far away stands a Chinese stele or tall
granite pillar, with wreathed dragons at the top, and
an undecipherable inscription on the face, reposing
upon an immense granite tortoise.^ There are a similar
pillar and tortoise outside Sciul, about 1\ miles from
the east gate, with an inscription in Chinese and
Manchu upon the opposite faces, commemorating the
institution of the Korean king, who kowtowed at
this spot to the Manchu conqueror, upon his second
invasion of Korea in 1637, and renounced allet^iance
to the Mings in his favour. Between this pillar and
the city is passed the Sen Kuang Kio, an old bridge
of white stone slabs, resting upon twenty-one stone
piers.

Eeligion at present has but few altars in or near

to the capital. There is an altar to the Spirits of the

Land (sometimes miscalled the Temple of

Temples . ,

Heaven), consisting of a bare open platform,
upon which annual sacrifices are offered by the King,
as on the She Chi Tan in China and in Annam.

* The tortoise in Chinese mythology is one of the nine ofifspring
of the dragon, and is placed below memorial pillars and gravestones as
an emblem of strength.

142 KOREA

Inside the walls on the north-east is the Temple of
Confucius, where there is the customary sanctuary-
containing the tablet of that philosopher, and a large
building for students and literati. I also visited the
Temple of the God of War, outside the southern gate,
one of those semi-heroic additions to the Chinese
pantheon (the god being reported to have been a
real historical personage or distinguished general who
was canonised by Imperial edict) which are famiUar
to the traveller in the Celestial Empire. The images
in the temple are hideous beyond words, but in one
of the courts is an interesting sun-dial in a basin ;
and two side galleries contain a curious collection of
genuine old helmets and armour, exactly like those
which I shall shortly describe in the Eoyal Procession,
and a number of wall-paintings, representing battle
scenes by land and sea from the famous Chinese
historical novel San Kuo Chih, or Eecord of the
Three Kingdoms.

One of the most conspicuous objects in Soul is
the Hong Sal Mun, or Eed Arrow Gate, erected at
Red Arrow somc distaucc from the Palace. This is a
^^^ lofty wooden arch, some 30 feet high, painted
red — the royal colour — and consisting of two per-
pendicular posts, united at the top by two horizontal
traverses, through which a number of red arrows
are fixed with their points upwards. This archway,
which is of Tartar origin, and somewhat resembles
the torii (or so-called bird-rests) which precede
both Shinto and Buddhist temples in Japan, as well
as the commemorative arch or pailow in China, is a

THE CAPITAL AND COURT OF KOREA 143

symbol of majesty and government in Korea, and is
accordingly erected in front of royal palaces, Govern-
ment buildings, and temples or monasteries (as at
Sak Wang Sa) under royal patronage. In Soul it
marks the approach to the Nam Piel Kung, or Palace
of the Chinese Imperial Commissioners. A not dis-
similar but far more elegant and purely Chinese stone

ABCBWAT OF TBE CHINESE COHUISSIONEBS

archway, called the Geo Mun, stands about a mile
outside the western gate on the road to Peking, and
marks the point to which the King goes forth to meet
the Imperial Envoys. Near to it is the Bokakan, or
mansion in which he awaits their arrival.

Continuing past this gate to a point about three
miles front the city on the north-west, one arrives at a
gigantic image of Buddha, 15 feet high, which has

144 KOREA

been painted upon the upright surface of a huge
fallen granite boulder. The figure is all white, but
The the eyes, mouth, ears, and head-dress have

Buddha been coloured ; and a gaudily painted temple-
roof has been erected as a shelter over the whole.
One hand of the image is uplifted, the other reposes
at his side.

The place of execution used to be near the
southern gate, where, after decapitation, the head-
Execution- l^ss trunk and trunkless head of the criminal
^^*^ lay exposed for three days. The introduc-
tion of the foreign element, with its scruples, has
removed the scene of operations to a site some miles
from the city, where a friend of mine witnessed an
execution of several culprits — the head never falling
till after several slashes from a big sword — and even
painted a picture of the gruesome scene.

Among the other environs of Soul, the only ones
worthy of mention are the two royal retreats or
j^ ^ fortresses in the mountains of Pouk San and
fortresses g^jj^ }s.6k Sau, which are surrounded by
walls and fortified, and are held by monkish gar-
risons.^ To one or other of these, in times of
invasion, revolution, or danger, the King escapes,
provisions being stored there in anticipation of a
long siege. The nearest of them is eleven miles

' This clerical militia is a legacy from the days when the Buddhist
hierarchy was a great power in the land, and produced statesmen and
warriors as well as devotees and students. The monasteries were then
fortified buildings^ and were garrisoned by their inmates. It was from
one of these fortified monasteries that the French met with their disas-
trous repulse on Kanghwa Island in 1866.

THE CAPITAL AND COURT OF KOREA 145

•distant, and is called Hokanzan. the walled enclosure
being five miles in circuit. The larger is sixteen
miles distant, and its wall is seven miles round. It
is called Nankanzan.^

I next turn to the EoyaJ. Palaces. Just as the
capital is the centre of the kingdom, to which
soverei evcrvbody and everything — society, officials,
ty in Korea candidates, merchants, business, employment,
relaxation — ^gravitate, so does the entire life of the
<iapital revolve round the centre of the Palace and
the King. The latter may be a small personage to
the outer world — perhaps a large majority of man-
kind may be unaware even of his existence — ^but to
his subjects he is something overwhelmingly great,
while to these attributes is added, in the case of
China and of its once dependent States, the prestige
of a rank that is held divine, and entitles its wearer
to be called the Son of Heaven. No celestial scion
in the world in all probability exercises less influence
upon its destinies than His Majesty the King of
Korea ; but that does not in the least detract from
his titular eminence in the eyes of Koreans, which an
ancient and inflexible etiquette maintains in a be-
"Coming atmosphere of mystery and isolation. For-
tunately in the case of Korea, the hedge of royal
■dignity, still unimpaired in the case of the suzerain
Power and of the Court at Peking, has been suffi-
-ciently broken through by the force of circumstan(;es

' This mnst be the * Fort of Nuinma Sansiang ' of Hendrik Haniel,
where the Einff retired in war, which was six to seven leases, or three
honrSf from Sior, was stored with three years' provisions, and was
garrisoned by * religious.*

L

146 KOREA

during the past twenty years, to admit of audience*
being readily conceded by a monarch, whom close
contact reveals as an amiable personage, not less
human — ^perhaps in certain respects rather more so
— than the bulk of his fellow-creatures.

There is quite a number of palaces in Soul. One
of these, the Nam Kung, near the south gate, is^
j^ I employed for marriage ceremonies, and has
Pafacea sometimcs been the residence of the Com-
mander-in-Chief. Another, the Nam Piel Kung, near
the west gate, is reserved for the accommodation of
the Imperial Envoys from Peking. A third, the Un
Pyon Kung, in the northern quarter, was formerly
occupied by the Tai Wen Kun, or Eegent, the father
of the reigning King, who practically usurped the
throne during his son's minority, persecuted the
Christians, tortured and killed the missionaries, and
by his savage and reactionary policy forced upon
foreign Powers the first opening of the country.

The •principal residence of royalty has usually
been in one of two palaces of much greater size than
East, or thosc hithcrto mentioned. Accounts vary

Now

Palace as to thc rcspectivc antiquity of the pair, the
one that is temporarily occupied by the Sovereign
being commonly denominated the New Palace, pre-
sumably because repairs have recently been required
in order to render it habitable. The two together
occupy an enormous space, surrounded by walls,
and entered by great gates, in the northern part of
the city ; and in their precincts are included several
hundreds of acres of enclosed but uncultivated ground.

TUB CAPITAL AND COURT OF KOREA 147

extending to the summit of the north hill, a conical
elevation covered with low scrub, that rises to a
sharp and lofty point just behind. As a matter of
fact, the more easterly of the two palaces is the
newer, having been erected for the Heir Apparent
about 400 years ago. It has thirteen gates and
covers an enormous space of ground, much of which

is laid out in gardens and walks, and is adorned
with lotus-ponds, bridges, and summer-houses. It
waa occupied by the King in the early years after
his accession, was partly burned down in 1882, was
rebuilt and re-occupied, but again deserted after the
Kebellion of 1884, and, when I was in Sijul in 1892,
was without a tenant ? though it was reported that
the King was going back there, because a snake had

148 KOREA

fallen from the ceiling of the Crown Prince's room in
the other palace. Shortness of supplies, however,
interfered with the execution of tliis design ; but the
King had already connected the grounds of this palace
by an enclosed passage-way at the back with the
other palace in which he was then residing.

The latter, which is the more westerly and now
the principal, is also the older building, having been
weBt, erected 500 years ago. It stands at the
Palace head of the broad thoroughfare known as
Palace- street, the end of which is entirely filled by
its massive stone gateway, surmounted by a heavy,
double-roofed pavilion. Outside the gate are two
grotesque stone lions upon pedestals, and a ramp
with eighteen low stone pillars on either side. In
the base of the gate- tower are three arched doorways,
closed with wooden doors, adorned with painted
figures. Of these the middle door, or Thoi Hwa
Mun, is only opened for the ingress or egress of the
King, or of a Minister Plenipotentiary going to present
his credentials from his Sovereign ; but the others are
the regular passage-way to the multitude of interior
€Ourts, which are crowded with officials, retainers,
soldiers, ministers, secretaries, lackeys, runners, and
hangers-on of every description. Five hundred
guards protect the royal person, the remainder of
the garrison of 4,000 (which represents, under nonnal
circumstances, the entire standing army of Korea)
being stationed in barracks outside. There are
further reported to be about 2,000 retainers in the
Palace enclosure.

THE CAPITAL AXD COVRT OF KOREA 14»

First come two immense paved courts, surrounded
by low buildings, and terminating in great gateways.
ore»t The second of these conducts to a further
Aodienoa quadrauglc, also of great size, at the upper
end of which, on a twofold terrace or platform, sur-
rounded bj' white granite balustrades, and ascended
by triple flights of steps, the middlemost of which are

THE OREAT HALL OF AUDIEXCK

reserved for the palanquin in which is borne the
royal person — stands th« Great Hall of Audience,
wherein is held the imposing pageantry of the annual
levees on the King's birthday, on Xew Year's Day,
aud on other festive anniversaries. The building
consists of a great twin-roofed hall, constructed
entirely of wood, the richly carved and reticulated
ceiling of which, painted red, blue, and green, is

150 KOREA

supported by immense circular pillars, coloured red
above and white at the base. It is empty except for
a lofty scarlet dais facing the entrance, and ascended
by six steps, upon which, in front of a beautifully
carved scarlet and black screen of pierced woodwork,
is placed the chair of state of the King. From this
position he looks down upon the matted floor of the
hall, through the open doors on to the double terrace
outside, and thence to the paved quadrangle, where
twelve inscribed pillars on either hand indicate the
various positions taken up by the different ranks of
nobles and officials at the royal lei^^es. The furthest
of these is so distant as barely to render visible the
august form of the Sovereign. The idea of this
splendid Audience Hall, grandiose in its massive
simplicity, is curiously analogous to the talars^ or
throne-rooms, of the Persian kings from the days of
Darius to those of Nasr-ed-din Shah ; and the spectacle
which it presents on the great days of audience, like
that which I shall describe in my succeeding work at
Hu^, is one of the few surviving and intact pageants
of the Far East.

In an adjoining court is the Summer Palace, a
large hall or pavilion raised upon forty-eight pillars
Summer ^^ stouc, twclvc fcct high, in the middle ot
Palace ^ lotus-poud. Hard by may also be seen
the Chin Chang Hall, or Hall of Diligence, the Yun
Hall, or Hall of Departed Spirits, which is used in
the funeral celebrations of royalty, and the Chai Hall,
or Hall of Fasting. The rear part of the building,
where the King and his seraglio reside, consists of a

TBE CAPITAL AND COURT OF KOREA 151

"number of smaller courts, kiosques, and pavilions,
horned with a good deal of bright painting, and
possessing a certain fantastic elegance. The electric
light was installed in this part of the Palace by order
of the King, who has the Oriental's fondness for any
new and expensive invention ; but it very soon came

to_ grief. It was in one of the smaller edifices that I
was admitted to an audience with His Majesty,

Li Hsi, King of Korea (whose original Korean name
was Mong Pok-i), is the twenty-eighth sovereign of the
The King reigning dynasty. He was the nephew of
o( Ko«« Lj H^au, the last king but one, who having
no children had been succeeded by his uncle Li Ping,
who also died childless in 18G4. Thereupon the young
boy, at that time twelve years of age, was selected

152 KOREA

as heir by the Eoyal Council, and was adopted by his
great-grandmother, the Queen Dowager Chao, the
widow of the Crown Prince Li Ying, who had never
succeeded to the throne. This old lady died in 1890.
The young Sovereign being a minor, the royal
authority was vested in a Council of Eegency, one of
The Tai whom, Li Hsia Ying, the father of the boy and
Wen Kun ^ ^^^^ ^£ great strength of character, took

advantage of his position to usurp the chief power.
Nominally as Eegent, with the title of Tai Wen Kun,
Lord of the Great Court, he ruled the kingdom with
great severity from 1864 to 1873. He it was who
was responsible for the furious persecution of the
Christian missionaries that brought the unsuccessful
French expedition of 1866 into Korea, and for the
frantic anti-foreign crusade which eventually broke
down under the combined pressure of the foreign
Powers. He was once aptly described by a native
writer as having ' bowels of iron and a heart of stone.'
Upon the assumption by the King of full sovereignty
in 187o, and the subsequent opening of the country,
the Tai Wen Kun headed the Conservative or Reac-
tionary party, against all treaties and all foreigners,
and is believed to have instigated the first outbreak
against the Japanese Legation in 1882, when an
attempt was made to kidnap the King and to kill the
Queen,^ and when the Japanese Minister, Hanabusa,

* So universally were both the Queen and the Crown Prince believed
to have been killed, that their death was printed as a fact in Mr. W. E.
Griffis' Hennit Nation^ which was published shortly afterwards. It
being undesirable for a while to reveal the truth, national moumin
for a year was even ordered, and was observed for the full period. It

THE CAPITAL AND COURT OF KOREA 15»

and his following had to retreat fighting to Chemulpo,
where they were picked up by a British man-of-
war. Very shortly the Japanese Minister reappeared
with demands for immediate and ample reparation ;
but, while the negotiations still lingered, the sky was
suddenly cleared by a thunderbolt launched by Li

Hung Chang, the great Chinese Viceroy, who had
seized the opportunity to reassert the compromised
suzerainty of his Imperial master. The Tai Wen
Kuu was himself kidnapped and deported to China,
where he was kept a prisoner at Paoting Fu.

«nbsequently transpired tbat the Queen hntl been smuir^led out in
disRuise fts the wife of & soldier, and that one of the Court ladies had
been killed Tb her place.

154 KOREA

m

During his absence in 1884, a second revolution, of
-somewhat similar character, broke out in the capital,^
from which the King only escaped by jumping on to
the back of a eunuch, in which not too dignified posi-
tion he was carried into the Chinese camp outside Soul.
After matters had been somewhat composed, the King
began to think that the abilities of the old Eegent
might perhaps after all be more usefully employed
-at home; and accordingly he himself applied to
China for his restoration. It cannot be said that the
•experiment was a success, so far as the relations of
the pair were concerned, for in the summer of 1892
^ determined attempt was made by the political
opponents of the Tai Wen Kun to blow him up with
gunpowder, though the misdirection of the explosive,
which blew out the side of the room which he
occupied, instead of the floor, saved the old gentle-
man's life. It could not fail to be remarked that the
King evinced no soUcitude at the miraculous escape
of his parent — a callousness which was the more
•extraordinary in a country where Confucianism has
inculcated filial respect as the highest duty. The
Tai Wen Kun, now seventy-two years of age, is still
living, and is probably expecting to be blown up again.

' The leader of this revolution, Kim Ok Kiun, who escaped at the
•time and lived for some years as a refugee under Japanese protection
at Kioto, having incautiously proceeded to Shanghai, was murdered
there in the spring of 1894 by a fellow-countryman, it is said at the
direct instigation of the King. Anyhow, his remains, upon being taken
back to Korea by order of the Government, were there subjected to
mutilation and public exposure ; the remaining members of his family
were put to death, and the murderer was loaded with honours. Korea
never so successfully vindicated her claim to exclusion from the pale
of civilisation.

THE CAPITAL AND COURT OF KOREA 155

To the remarkable experiences which I have related
he also adds the accomplishments of an artist ; and
I am the possessor of an excellent signed pen-and-ink
^drawmg by his hand.

With the exception of the two above-mentioned
revolts in 1882 and 1884, which were in both cases
The King's ^^^ Tcsult of poUtical and Court intrigue,
^^^ rather than of any popular movement, the
King has until the present year occupied the throne
for twenty years without menace or peril. Upon
both those occasions, though the external symptom of
the outbreak was an attack upon the Japanese Le-
gation, who invariably represent the least popular
-element of society in Soul, the real object of the con-
spirators was to capture, without injuring, the person
•of the King, whose seal and signature lend a much
coveted sanction to the successful faction.^ It was
not the life of the Sovereign that was aimed at in
'either case ; but the influence of those under whose
<3ontrol he was, and is supposed to be. In February
of the present year (1894) a plot was discovered for
blowing up with gunpowder the King, Crown Prince,
and chief Ministers of State while on a visit to the
Koyal Ancestral Temple ; but what the exact object
•of this Korean Guy Pawkes may have been, or who

' The person of the Sovereif?n is held sacred and inviolable — his
real safegoard against assassination ; but it is the royal seal that is the
•coveted object. Till recent years a change of party in Korean govern-
ment (which there is no machinery for effecting by a general election)
was invariably carried out as follows : — The conspirators gathered in
^sufficient numbers in the Palace, seized and assassinated the leaders of
the Government, laid hold of the King and of the seal of State, and com-
pelled him to sign the warrants for the execution of the murdered
officials, as well as their own commissions.

156 KOREA

were the real instigators of the design, has not yet
transpired. It is generally supposed to have been
the old Eegent's reply to the attempt upon himself
two years earlier. Whether the father, or the son,,
will first succeed in this campaign of competitive
explosion it will be interesting to observe.

His Majesty is a man of much amiabihty of cha-
racter ; and many instances are related of his personal
His cha- charm of disposition and bearing. If he does.
^^^^^ not share the bigotry, neicher does he inherit
the determination of his father ; and placed as he has
been in difficult circumstances, for which, by training
and tradition, he was equally unprepared, there are
many excuses to be made alike for volatility of pur-
pose and irresolution of action. He takes a keen
zest in any new discovery or invention, but is not
free from the superstitions of his race and countr}\
It will be accounted a remarkable fact in history that
both Japan and Korea should have undergone in the
second half of the present century the greatest revo-
lution in their annals, under the sceptre of sove-
reigns whose personality struck in neither case a very
definite or individual note.

The most powerful influence in the Palace, and

indeed in the country, is reported to be that of the

Queen, the members of whose family, known

The QueeD , ,

as Min, have been introduced mto nearly
every position of importance or emolument about the
Court and in the Government, and have thereby
acquired an ascendency which is the cause of great
political jealousy and intrigue. The Queen's infor-

THE CAPITAL ASD COURT OF KOREA 157

inants and spies are said to be everywhere, and
nothing is done without her knowledge. It was
against this omnipotent influence that ihe Tai Wen
Kun directed all the forces at his disposal; and it
lias long been felt in Korea that tlie emotions of the
iiostile and discomfited party may at any time culmi-

THB CHOWH PBINCB

nate in an outbreak in which heads may fall. The
■Queen is believed not to enjoy very robust health ;
and in the event of any accident to her, the powerful
clan of the Mins would probably experience lively
vicissitudes.

The King's eldest son by the Quepii, Li Hsia by
name, is the Heir Apparent, or Crown Prince, and was

158 KOREA

born in 1873. His abilities, however, are so much
below the average, and there is so little chance of
The Crown ^^^ founding a family, that his position in the
Pnnca gtatc is Icss important than it might otherwise
be ; and attention has lately been directed to another
and elder son of the King by a concubine, of whom
more may be heard in the future.

The Korean monarchy is absolute, hereditary, and
divine. The King is master of the lives and property
Theory of ^^ '^^^ subjccts and of the entire resources of
monarchy ^^^ kingdom. AU officcs are held at his
pleasure. His word is law. In his person is concen-
trated every attribute of Government. If in relation
to China he is a humble vassal, in his own dominions
he is supreme. The opening of Korea to the world
has, however, not been accomplished without dealing
many and inevitable blows at the peculiarly sacro-
sanct character of the royal authority, upon which
stress has been laid by so many writers.^ This has

* Dallett and Griffis, in the main copying from him, describe
several features of Court ceremonial, and of the Korean theory of
kingship, which were probably derived from the ancient statutes of the
kingdom, but which have long been, or are now, obsolete. These
fictions have attained a wide popularity, mainly owing to their repeti-
tion in works of comparative sociology such as * The Golden Bough,'
by J. G. Frazer (2 vols., 1890). The latter, in vol. i. pp. 164, 172, says
that the Kings of Korea are shut up in their palaces from the age of
twelve or fifteen ; that if a suitor wishes to obtain justice of the King he
sometimes lights a great bonfire on a mountain facing the Palace ; that
when the King goes out of the Palace, all doors must be shut, and each
householder must kneel before his threshold with a broom and a dust-
pan in his hand, whilst all windows, especially the upper ones, must be
sealed with strips of paper, lest someone should look down upon the
King ; that no one may touch the King ; and that, if he deigns to touch
a subject, the spot touched becomes sacred, and the person thus
honoured must wear a visible mark (generally a cord of red silk) for

THE CAPITAL AND COURT OF KOREA 159*

been affected beyond repair, and will gradually con-
tract into the more modest conception of kingship-
that has been evolved by Western experience.

Before proceeding to the royal audience, I enjoyed
an interview with the President of the Korean Foreign
Audience ^^^^'^ ^^ ^^^ gcutlemau with a faultless-
Forei***^* black hat, a benign and sleepy expression^
Minister plump cliccks, and a long thin grey moustache
and beard. I remember some of his questions and

the rest of his life. Not one of these observances is now maintained..
Suitors wishing to obtain a hearing from the King do not light a bon-
fire, but sit outside the Falace-gate with their petition placed on a
table in front of them, until the fact is reported to the King, and the
petition is taken in and considered. When the King goes out of the
Palace in procession, the shops along the route are closed, but no re-
striction is placed upon the spectators, who crowd the streets, and even
the rooftops, coming in from the country in thousands to see the^
pageant; nor is any obeisance required from them. Bed girdles, which
are quite common, have also ceased to bear the alleged significance.
Other statements popularly repeated (e,g, in the * Encyclopsedia Bri-
tannica*)* that it is sacrilege to utter the King's name, and high treason
to touch him with iron, and that every horseman must dismount when
passing the Palace, are equally erroneous. Only those officials dis-
mount who propose to enter the Palace. Similarly the oft-quoted rule
forbidding any Korean subject to go out at night in Soul, except women,
officials, and blind persons, has fallen into desuetude since the number
of Chinese and Japanese in the city, and of servants in the employ
of foreigners, has rendered its enforcement impossible.

* There are three principal Ministers of State in Korea, denomi-
nated Coimcillors of the Middle, Left, and Bight. There are also six
Government Departments, namely, the Officers of (i.) Civil Affairs or
Public Employ ; (ii.) Finance, i.e. the Treasury ; (iii.) Bites or Cere-
monies and Public Instruction ; (iv.) War ; (v.) Justice ; (vi.) Public
Works. To these, since the opening of the country, have been added
two new departments — the Nai-mu-pu, or Home Office, which has
a President, two native Vice-Presidents, two foreign Vice-Presidents
(namely, the Foreign Advisers), one Councillor, and a staff of twenty-
five clerks, and which has virtually superseded the old six boards ;
and the Ot-a-muw, or Foreign Office, with a similar organisation,
which was formerly under the Minister of Ceremonies, there having:
been in those days practically no Foreign Affairs.

160 KOREA

answers. Having been particularly warned not to
admit to him that I was only thirty-three years old, an
age to which no respect attaches in Korea, when he put
to me the straight question (invariably the first in an
Oriental dialogue), * How old are you ? ' I unhesita-
tingly responded, ' Forty.' ' Dear me,' he said, * you
look very young for that. How do you account for it ? '
* By the fact,' I replied, ' that I have been travelling
for a month in the superb climate of His Majesty's
dominions.' Hearing that I had been a Minister of
the Crown in England, he inquired what had been
my salary, and added, * I suppose you found that by
far the most agreeable feature of office. But no
doubt the perquisites were very much larger still.'
Finally, conscious that in his own country it is not
easy for anyone to become a member of the Govern-
ment, unless lie is related to the family of the King
or Queen, he said to me, * I presume you are a near
relative of Her Majesty the Queen of England.'
' Xo,' I replied, ' I am not.' But, observing the
look of disgust that passed over his countenance, I
was fain to add, * I am, however, as yet an unmarried
man,' with which unscrupulous suggestion I com-
pletely regained the old gentleman's favour.

In the Palace everything — dress, deportment,
movement, gait — is regulated by a minute and un-
conrtdreBs compromisiug etiquette. Upon one occa-
etiquette slou a BHtisli Consul was not admitted to
audience with the King, because, having packed up
his uniform, he came only in evening dress. The
middle and lower officials wear brightly-coloured

THE CAPITAL AND COURT OF KOREA 161

robes of scarlet, blue, and yellow ; but the ministers
and chief notables affect a richer and more sober
hue, usually dark blue or puce, the material being
of figured silk. On the bosom is fixed a plastron or
panel of coarse embroidery, representing a tiger, or
stalk, or some other symbolical creature ; while

round the waist is worn a broad belt, various!)'
adorned with gold, silver, jade, ivory, or horn, which
projects several inches from the person, like
the hoop of a beer-barrel that has started from its
place. On the head reposes one of the winged tiaras
which I have before described. Tliere is also a
pecuUar strut, which is known as the ^yanghan walk,'

162 KOREA

and which all ministers or nobles affect when they
appear in public. It is a slow and measured move-
ment, with the feet planted rather wide apart, and
an indescribable but unmistakable swing of the body
that is most comic. The main attribute or manifes-
tation of dignity in Korea seems, however, to be that
its possessor is incapable of moving without support.
Unsustained he would, I suppose, fall to the ground
from the sheer weight of his own importance. Ac-
cordingty, a minister, if seen walking in the streets,
is invariably supported by one, sometimes by two
attendants, who deferentially prop him up under the
arm or arms, as he slowly and consequentially struts
along. If he be mounted, the same theory prescribes
that he shall be held on to his saddle by retainers
running on either side. Thus upheld, the Minister
for Home Affairs and the President of the Foreign
Office were solemnly escorting me to the presence of
royalty, when I suddenly seemed to observe a vacuum.
The supporters had disappeared, and the ministers
had hurled themselves, forehead forward, on to the
ground. My old friend, who was fg^r advanced in
years, must have found it extremely trying.

The King was standing in a small, brightly-
painted pavilion, which opened on to one of the
Audience miuor courts of the Palace. His hands
King rested upon a table, on which a hideous
Brussels table-cloth half concealed a gorgeous piece
of Chinese embroidery. Behind and around him
were clustered the Palace eunuchs in Court dresses.
At the side stood the interpreter, with his shoulders

THE CAPITAL AND COURT OF KOREA 163

and head bowed in attitude of the lowest reverence,
repeating the words which the King whispered in his
ear. On either side stood the two sword-bearers of
State, and at a little distance the two Ministers, who
had resumed an erect position. Upon the royal
brow was a double-tiered violet headpiece. His
robe was of scarlet figured silk — the royal colour —
with panels of gold embroidery upon the shoulders
and breast, and a gold-studded projecting belt. Li
Hsi is a man of small stature and sallow complexion,
with hair drawn tightly up from the forehead be-
neath the Korean skull-cap, very slight eyebrows,
small, vivacious black eyes, teeth discoloured from
chewing the betel, a piece of which he continued to
masticate throughout the interview, and a sparse
black moustache and tuft below the chin. The
King's countenance wears a singularly gentle and
pleasing expression ; and in the course of the
audience, which lasted about twenty minutes, and
was entirely conducted by His Majesty in person, he
evinced the most lively interest in the friendship and
consideration of Great Britain, and a personal regard
for the services of Mr. W. C. Hillier, the capable
officer by whom the Queen was at that time repre-
sented in Soul. After the audience with the King I
was conducted to another pavilion, where I was
similarly received by the Crown Prince. But his
questions or remarks, which were dictated to him
by his chief eunuch, were of no interest, and the
interview was one of mere ceremony.

The true comicality, however, of the Korean

M 2

Court can only be properly estimated upon one of
the occasions, somewhat rare in occurrence, when
J, ^, the Kinj,' goes in state tlirough the city to
pmcenaion ^jgj(. gome temple or tomb. Of one such
function I was the interested witness. From an
early hour in the morning the streets were guarded

by mihtary, of a species unique in the world. The
infantry lined the roadway, and were for the
most part lying asleep upon the ground. They had
almost as many flags as men ; and their muskets,
which I examined as they stood piled together, were
commonly destitute either of hammer, trigger, or
plate, sometinus of all three, and were frequently

THE CAPITAL AND COURT OF KOREA 165

only held together by string; while the bayonets
were bent and rusty. Infinitely more remarkable,
however, were the cavalry. These were clad in
uniforms probably some 300 years old, consisting
of a battered helmet with a ^pike, and of a cuirass of
black leather studded with brass bosses, and worn
over a heavy jerkin of moth-eaten brocade.^ Enor-
mous jack-boots completed the costume, and rendered
it diflScult for the men to mount their steeds, even
although these were rarely more than eleven hands
high. Banners of yellow, red, and green, with a tuft
of pheasant-feathers at the top, and stacks of arrows,
were carried in front of the officers, who were with
difficulty supported by squires upon their pyramidal
saddles. The middle of the roadway was supposed
to be kept clear, and was strewn with a riband of
sand, about a foot and a half in breadth ; but this
was trampled upon and scattered almost as soon as
sprinkled.

Throughout the morning processions of ministers,
courtiers, and officials passed along on their way to or
from the Palace. The majority of these were borne
by shouting retainers in open chairs, on the back
of which rested a leopard-skin. In some cases the
sedan was also supported by a single leg underneath,
terminating in a wheel, which ran along the middle
of the roadway, easing the burden and increasing

' Compare the account of Hamel, 240 years ago : — * Their Horse
wear Cuirasses, Headpieces, and Swords, as also Bows and Arrows,
and Whips like ours, only that theirs have small iron Points. Their
Foot as well as they wear a Corselet, a Headpiece, a Sword, and Musket
or Half-pike. The Ofl&cers carry nothing but Bows and Arrows.'

166 KOREA

the pace of the bearers in front and behind. Some
of the officials wore gilt helmets of pasteboard, with
Chinese characters upon the back. The Chinese
Resident, the principal personage in the city, as
representing the suzerain power, dashed past in
a black velvet sedan, swiftly borne by stalwart
Celestials with red tassels. Upon either side of
the street the white-robed crowd were pressed
back against the house-fronts, and were prodded
by the soldiers with their muskets, or spanked by
active runners, who laid about them liberally with
long wooden paddles. On the occasion of the
previous procession the mob had been suffered
to approach too nearly to the person of royalty ;
and a notification had in consequence appeared
in the ' Official Gazette,' docking the Minister of
War of three months' salary for his faulty arrange-
ments.

At length, after hours of waiting, the Palace doors
were thrown open, and there issued forth the most
motley procession ever seen outside of London on
Lord Mayor's Day, or in the Christmas pantomime at
Drury Lane. The soldiers snatched up their vene-
rable muskets, or climbed on to their microscopic
steeds. The banners were plucked up, and danced
in lines of colour along the streets. First from the
Palace gates emerged a company of men in red
mitres, carrying scarlet lacquered chairs ; then a
similar band in blue. Presently appeared the Eoyal
Standard, on which was emblazoned a mighty dragon
upon a ground of yellow silk. The sound of drums

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THE CAPITAL AND COURT OF KOREA 167

succeeded ; and there was a shout to keep silence.
In the centre of a running crowd there followed
upborne a single empty sedan, coloured the royal
red. I heard two explanations given of this episode.
One was that in former days, when etiquette had not
been sufficiently relaxed to admit of any portion of
the royal person being seen, two identical chairs were
used in the processions, no one knowing which of
the pair contained the King, much in the same way
as an empty train frequently precedes or follows that
containing the Eussian Czar, with a view to frustrate
the possible designs of conspirators. The other
theory was that the first chair is kept intentionally
empty, in order to hoodwink the evil spirits who
would be likely to assault it in the idea that they had
got hold of the royal person. I have also heard it
suggested that the empty litter may contain the
ancestral tablets of the royal family. Next came a
long procession of the King's valets, in yellow robes
and tiny straw hats, with worsted rosettes, perched
sideways on their heads ; the corps of royal drum-
mers, beating with frantic flourish the royal drums ;
a medley of cavalry, shambling along without the
least attempt at order; a small detachment of
artillery, dragging after them two small GatUng
guns ; files of runners, in alternate blue and green
gauze, stretching across the street ; a company of
flute-players, blowing a lusty monotone on a shrill
note ; then a rush of feet and shouting of voices to
make way, and a phalanx of sturdy bearers, clad in
red, with double mitres on their heads, running

168 KOREA

swiftly, and supporting in a canopied chair of state,
with red silk screens and tassels, the uplifted person
of the King. As he passed along he looked to right
and left, and the movement of the bearers made him
bob up and down. At a little distance behind fol-
lowed the Crown Prince, in spectacles, in a similar
scarlet palanquin, carried by men in green mitres ;
and then came a heterogeneous jumble of courtiers, !

generals, colonels, matchlock-men, and tottering i

cavaliers ; the procession being closed by the Euro-
pean-drilled troops, who made some attempt to march
in step, and whose commander, heralded by stento-
rian cries, carried an immense banner on his own
shoulder. Later on, towards dusk, I met the same
procession returning. Everything and everybody
had got thoroughly mixed up in the narrower streets :
soldiers and citizens, colonels and chamberlains, were
all wedged together in inextricable confusion ; but,
above the heads of the crowed, ever oscillated the
scarlet palanquin of the King, lit up by lanterns of
blue and crimson silk, tossing at the pikeheads of the
infantry soldiers.

It will have been gathered from the above
description that the Korean Army is not the least
Korean rottcu adjuuct of the Korean monarchy.
^"^^ Those infantry regiments that have been
taught by foreigners and that constitute the garrison
of the capital, 4,000 strong, are said to show a
capacity for drill and discipline. Up till the Eebellion
of 1884 they were officered by Japanese ; but since

THE CAPITAL AND COURT OF KOREA 169

that date they have been in the hands of two
American drill-instructors, who possess the high-
flown titles of Vice-President and Councillor of the
Board of War, but who exercise no command, and
do not accompany their men on to the field. This
force is divided into three battalions, and is armed
with rifles of a great variety of pattern. Its native
oflScers are beneath contempt. There is an arsenal
(Ki-ke-kuk) in Soul with foreign machinery ; but it
is only used for the repair of arms. As for the
purely native regiments, they are not a standing
army but a standing joke; while in Europe the
cavalry would with difficulty secure an engagement as
supers in the pantomime of a second-rate provincial
stage.

Once every twenty or thirty years a review is
held of the entire force on a parade-ground outside
gi^tg the city, the experiment being so costly that
renew ^^ caunot bc morc frequently repeated. As
a spectacle it is more unique even than the royal
procession. One such review was held during the
past summer. It was announced to begin at 9 a.m.,
but from that hour till 6 p.m. were the 30,000
spectators on the ground compelled to wait, before
the vanguard of the royal cortege appeared. This
consisted of no fewer than 10,000 persons, in the midst
of whom the King and Crown Prince rode on horse-
back. The troops, 7,000 to 8,000 in number, then
marched past the saluting-point, saluting by bowing
their bodies to the ground. So unsatisfactory, how-

170 KOREA

ever, was the display held to have been that there
was great fluttering in the military dove-cots, and
the Commander-in-Chief was forthwith degraded
from his post. It is now contemplated to hold
a review of the troops drilled upon the modern
system.

171

CHAPTER VI

POLITICAL AND COMMERCIAL SYMPTOMS IX KOREA

Diogenes Alexandro roganti ut diceret si quid opus esset, * Nunc
quidem paullulum,' inquit, * a sole.' Cicero, Ttisc, Diaput.

If the people, the scenery, the capital, and the Court
of Korea have each an individuality that distin-
An Aautic guishcs them from similar phenomena in

micro-

coam Other countries, there are yet in the

Korean polity, viewed as a form of government,
features inseparably associated with the Asiatic sys-
tem and recognisable in every unreformed Oriental
State from Teheran to Soul. A royal figurehead,
enveloped in the mystery of the palace and the harem,
surrounded by concentric rings of eunuchs, Ministers
of State, officials, and retainers, and rendered almost
intangible by the predominant atmosphere of in-
trigue ; a hierarchy of office-holders and office-seekers,
who are leeches in the thinnest disguise ; a feeble
and insignificant army, an impecunious exchequer, a
debased currency, and an impoverished people —
these are the invariable symptoms of the fast vanish-
ing riyime of the older and unredeemed Oriental type.
Add to these the first swarming of the flock of
foreign practitioners, who scent the enfeebled consti-

172 ' KOREA

tution from afar, and from the four winds of heaven
come pressing their pharmacopoeia of loans, con-
cessions, banks, ntiints, factories, and all the recog-
nised machinery for filling Western purses at the
expense of Eastern pockets, and you have a fair
picture of Korea as she stands after ten years of
emergence from her long seclusion and enjoyment of
the intercourse of the nations. She is going to pur-
chase her own experience, and to learn that, while
civilisation is a mistress of rare and irresistible
attractions, she requires to be paid for in coin of no
small denomination.

Nominally, every Government post in Korea is
given by competitive examination. In reality, the
Korean examinations — which are conducted in the
tration opcu air iu the Palace-grounds m the pre-
sence of the King, and consist of little more than the
composition of an essay (probably prepared in ad-
vance) upon some well-known sentence from the
Chinese classics — are a farce ; and the posts are
given to those who pay for them, the successful can-
didate and the price paid by him being, as a general
rule, matters of common knowledge beforehand.
This being so, it may be thought surprising that so
many candidates should enter. The examination,
however, is always an excuse for a visit to the capi-
tal and a pleasant holiday ; and, a few posts being
occasionally assigned, for form's sake, to merit, each
competitor is firmly convinced that he will be the
lucky man. The successful candidate has to undergo
a sort of schoolboy ' bullyragging ' at the hands of

POLITICAL AND COMMERCIAL SYMPTOMS 173

liis comrades, which reminds one of the peculiar
ceremonies formerly enacted on British ships when
' crossing the Line.' His face and clothes are
smeared all over with ink, and are then bespattered
by one of the examiners with white soap. Fre-
quently, too, his hat is smashed in, and his clothes
are torn off his back. Finally, after this ordeal is
over, he is washed and dressed up and is taken round
in state to receive the congratulations of his friends.
All the higher posts are filled by the yangbanSy or
gentry, and the highest of all by the relatives of
those in great positions at Court. The eight pro-
vinces and 332 prefectures of the kingdom absorb
an immense army of office-holders, only the superior
ranks among whom receive any salary, and this
usually in arrears, while the rest must butter their
own bread as best they can. All office is held for
a period of three years, during which time the
incumbent extracts from it whatever he can, the
normal level of extortion being so mathematically
ascertained by long practice, that while any excess is
voted tyrannical, adherence to the average standard is
regarded as a proof both of integrity and moderation.
Under a form of governiyient so organised it becomes
easy enough to understand why the country lan-
guishes and stagnation reigns supreme.

The Government itself — or, in other words, the
King, who is the Government — is always in debt ;
Revenue ^^^ ^^^ financial assistance which in mo-
and debt jj^gnts of embarrassment he is never loth to
accept from interested parties, whilst it does not

174 KOREA

enable his exchequer to recover financial equilibrium,
still further mortgages the fast dwindling resources
of national wealth and independence. The amount
of the royal revenue cannot be ascertained ; but it
is derived from the following sources : — (1) a Land-
tax, which is principally paid ingrain, and fluctuates
according to the nature of the harvest ; (2) a House-
tax, very capriciously assessed and levied ; (3) the
Customs Eevenue, which is levied upon imports and
exports at the three Treaty Ports, and which in 1891,
the high-water mark yet reached, amounted to over
90,000/., but which, with a new tariff classification,
the opening of another Treaty Port,^ and a preventive
service to stop the enormous amount of smuggling
that prevails, might be very greatly increased ; (4)
the proceeds of the ginseng monopoly ; ^ (5) the pro-

' The British and subsequent Foreign Treaties with Korea stipulated
for the opening of a farther Treaty Port, Yang-hwa-chin on the river
Han, as a river-port for the capital. If the steam -traffic on the Han is
developed, Yong-san or Ryong-san, which is only three miles from Soul,
might be selected. The greatest advantage would result to the country
from the opening of Pyong-yang on the Taidong river, which is only
served by small native steamers and junks.

* Ginseng {Panax quinquefolium) is the plant, of the Araliacea
or Ivywort tribe, whose root is so immensely valued for medicinal
and recuperative purposes in China. One of its principal areas of
production is Korea, where it both grows wild in the forests of the
north (fabulous sums being sometimes paid for a single root), and is
artificially cultivated under screens. A less valuable variety of the
same plant is also produced in America, principally in Virginia. Red
or clarified giTiseng, which is prepared by steaming the root over boiling
water, is a monopoly of the King in Korea. Its export, except by
a single guild, is prohibited by treaty, and is pimishable by death
For years it has been farmed out to the Chung In, a body who used
to accompany the Tribute Mission to Peking as interpreters, in which
capacity they did a little trade on their own account. They are now
a close corporation, and are said to pay the King from 80,000/. to
100,000/. a year. A tax is also levied upon the growth and export of

POLITICAL AND COMMERCIAL SYMPTOMS 175

ceeds of other monopolies or Government-licences,
such as gold-mining, and the various Trade guilds ;
(6) irregular taxation.

It is eighteen years since the first Foreign Treaty
was signed with Japan in 1876. Later conventions
Foreign opcncd Gcusau in 1879, and Chemulpo in
Treaties jggQ . ^nd further Trade and Fishery Eegu-
lations werfe concluded between the two Governments
in 1883 and 1889. The Chmese Trade Eegulations
and the American Treaty were signed in 1882.
Grreat Britain and Germany followed in 1883, Eussia
and Italy in 1884, France in 1886. An Overland
Trade Convention was also concluded with Eussia in
1888 ; and finally Austria entered the list of Treaty
Powers in 1893. For a full decade, therefore, exclu-
ding the special priority of Japan, Korea has had
the experience of commerce and contact with the
outer world. How has she benefited by it ?

The sudden leavening of so archaic and stubborn
a lump by the strenuous agency of civihsation has not
Porei been pursued without the familiar sjonptoms.
Advisers ]Jach forcigu country has thought itself or its
citizens the best qualified to act as guides to the

ordinary ginseng^ which is prepared by drying the root over a charcoal
fire. As much again, however, is said to be smuggled out of the
country as passes through the hands of the gmld. Ginseng is con-
sumed in China by cutting up the root into minute fragments and
steeping them in wine. But it is usually mixed with other drugs. As
long ago as 1617, Bichard Cocks, Factor of the East India Company
at Firando in Japan, sent home a piece of the root, of which he said
that it was ' worth its weight in silver ; all that can be got is taken
by the Empero^ ; it is held in Japan the most precious thing in physic
in the world, and suflBcient to put life into any man if he can but draw
breath.* State Papers, East Indies Series^ 1017-1621.

*

.* •.

* - *'* ' * *

*

*

176 KOREA

trembling footsteps of the bewildered ingenii. Of these
external aids to local embarrassment perhaps the
most remarkable has been the continuous maintenance
of one or more so-called Foreign Advisers by the King.
There have been successively four of these gentle-
men. The first was a German, who was appointed to
the double post of Director of Korean Customs and
. Foreign Adviser by the Viceroy Li Hung Chang.
He disappeared abruptly in consequence, it is said,
\J^ I j|/of having drawn up a secret treaty with Eussia.
j\rr^^ "^^^ second was an American, who created quite a

stir by issuing a pamphlet in defence of Korean
independence, and in repudiation of the Chinese
claims of suzerainty, and who spent his whole time
in combating the Chinese Eesident. There are two
present occupants of the post, both of whom are
Americans. The function of these individuals is
apparently to advise the Korean Government on any
negotiation or complication that may arise with
foreign Powers, and to assist them in the making of
purchases from, or sale of concessions to, outside
parties. With the policy of the Government they
have nothing to do ; and the greater part of its ad-
ministrative and executive action is performed behind
their backs and without their cognizance. It is not
surprising that a position so ambiguous should ope-
rate against any very lengthy tenure of the office in
question. The historical sequence is, as a rule, the
same in each case ; great ambitions on the part of
the newly appointed official ; gradual disenchant-
ment; salary in arrears ; final /raca^ and departure.

POLITICAL AND COMMERCIAL SYMPTOMS 177

leaving behind unsatisfied claims, with futile threats
of legal enforcement.

In other departments less official but equally
ofiicious auxiliaries have proffered a not more dis-
Projecte interested assistance. A few years ago a
lationa German undertook to regenerate the country
by introducing the silk industry; and the grounds
of a deserted palace were handed over to the spade
and the mulberry-tree. There are the trees ; but
the German and the silk-worms have disappeared.
Somebody else was desirous of making matches
and glass ; others were unselfishly interested in the
creation of an arsenal and the manufacture of gun-
powder. A Post-office was started and stamps were
printed, but the Postmaster-General lost his life in a
political revolution, and the stamps are now only a
joy to the philatelist. The Germans were willing to
sell some steamers to the Korean Government in
order to encourage the coasting trade. The Ameri-
cans, as already observed, have taken in hand the
Army. Nor was agriculture left out in the cold,
for the King was persuaded to start a Model Farm
for the growth of foreign cereals and the breeding
of foreign stock. Almost all these ventures have
failed ; though a Foreign School, which was started in
Soul to impart the elements of a modern education
to young Koreans of good position, and in which
the King takes or took such an interest that on one
occasion he personally examined the pupils, and
awarded rank or office to such as distinguished
themselves, still continues, in spite of inadequate

178 KOREA

support, to exist. The average attendance of stu-
dents is stated to be twenty- five.

The most interesting illustrations, however, of the
capacities of native ignorance in alliance with foreign
The cur- spcculation is supplied by the history of the
rency Korcan currcucy, to which the Japanese
have turned an unremitting attention. Among the
devices for replenishing its exchequer that was sug-
gested to the Korean Government by one of its Fo-
reign Advisers a few years ago was the issue of a new
cash piece (the pierced coin of brass or copper and
lead which is the popular medium of exchange here
as in China) that should be declared equal to five
of the old cash then in circulation. The new cash
being of very inferior quality (it was composed of
copper and lead in the proportions of three to two,
and its intrinsic value was less than two of the old
cash), the Government looked to gain a tidy sum
upon the transaction — a profit which they subse-
quently endeavoured to enhance by farming out the
right to coin, or rather to cast (for tliei coins are
moulded, not struck), this debased amalgam to native
speculators. The results were threefold. The quality
of the coin became steadily worse, brass being sub-
stituted for copper, and sand for lead ; outside the
capital and neighbourhood, where it was forced
upon the people, traders absolutely declined to take
it; and the depreciation advanced so rapidly that
prices rose, trade was seriously afiected, and the
money market was paralysed. In 1892 the Japanese
yen^ or silver dollar (then equal to about 2^9. lOflf.),

*• » • •

;. .; •' • .•• • .

'•" »•. *• •

, -^ ! • * , - •

POLITICAL AND COMMERCIAL SYMPTOMS 179

which, at the first institution of the tangos^ or 5 cash
pieces, represented 70 of the latter, or 350 old cash,
was equivalent to as many as 650 new cash, or
3,250 of the cash in common circulation. The draw-
backs as well as the cumbersomeness of a currency so
prostituted might easily be conceived.

In this emergency the Japanese saw their oppor-
nity. In 1888 a Government Mint had been erected
New Mint at Soul for the issue of a new silver currency

ftnd silver

coinage ou tlic Europcau modcl, and a few specimen
dollars had been coined but never circulated. An
expensive annexe was now, in 1891, added to the dis-
used mint, and heavy machinery was imported by a
Japanese syndicate, who, in return for a loan to the
King, obtained the concession to manufacture and
issue a new silver and nickel currency of kindred
denomination to the Japanese. No sooner, however,
had the machinery arrived than it was found that the
cost of putting it up* in Soul and of importing the
metal would render the speculation an unprofitable
one. Accordingly it had to be carted back to
Chemulpo, on the coast, where another mint, costing
1^20,000, was erected for its reception. Here a
number of new coins were at last struck off, con-
sisting of a silver 5 ryo piece or yew, equivalent to
500 cash, a silver ryo or 100 cash piece, a nickel
25 cash piece, a copper 5 cash piece, and a brass
1 cash piece, which, however, were found to be so
unsatisfactory that it was rumoured they were all
going to be melted down and minted again. Simul-
taneously it had been arranged to start a system of

w 2

180 KOREA

bank-notes, a few of which were printed in Tokio
but never issued. At this stage it seems to have
struck all parties that the experiment of keeping
open a State Mint in Korea, to which all the metal
required must be imported at ruinous cost, and where
the machinery was not of first-rate quality, was
absurd ; having indeed nothing but the gratification
of national vanity to recommend it. Accordingly the
only possible refuge was at last adopted ; and nego-
tiations were entered into and a contract signed with
the Japanese Government in 1893 to undertake the
entire Korean currency in the excellent Imperial
Mint at Osaka. Even so the experiment is really
superfluous ; for since the Japanese yen and the
Mexican dollar are made by treaty legal tender for
customs dues, and are everywhere freely accepted
(except perhaps in the remote interior) in Korea, all
that is really wanted is the issue of a stable cash
coinage, the old debased currency being called in
and melted down or destroyed. This tale of cur-
rency woe fills, however, a most characteristic page
of Korean history.

Among other commercial ventures in Korea, the
Japanese have also started branches of Japanese
banks at Chemulpo and Soul, into one of
which inter alia the Customs revenue is paid,
and whereat the Government account is permanently
overdrawn ; and are said also to have contemplated,
in connection with their new currency, the institution
of exchange offices, or banks in disguise, where the
new coinage should be procurable in exchange for

POLITICAL AND COMMERCIAL SYMPTOMS 181

the old copper cash, which it was fondly but foolishly-
expected would thereby disappear from popular use.
It will be interesting to watch the fate of this experi-
ment. In the meantime, with the view of placing
Korean finance in more experienced hands, it has
been suggested that a branch of the Hongkong and
Shanghai Banking Corporation should be opened
in Korea — a venture by which, if carried out,
no one would profit more than the Korean Govern-
ment.

By an administration so sorely embarrassed and in
such habitual financial straits as the Korean, one
Obstacles flight cxpcct that, instead of embarking
iooonwner- yp^j^ risky if uot uusouud financial trans-

MeaS^o"** actions with adventurous outsiders, a reso-
^S^"^ lute attempt would be made to develop the
internal resources of the country, which a
consensus of opinion admits to be considerable. My
journeys in the interior, restricted as they were, con-
vinced me that there is a great future for Korean
agriculture ; and this view is borne out by those who
have travelled over a wider range. Indeed, in the
possession of an excellent climate, a soil of more than
ordinary fertility, vast tracts of still virgin country,
and a robust rural population, Korea possesses the
four conditions of agricultural prosperity. Already as
a rice and bean producing country she is rising into
commercial importance, and provides a valuable
feeder for the neighbouring islands of Japan.
Among the self-created obstacles that stand between
her and a full enjoyment of these advantages one

182 KOREA

stands out in discreditable prominence — viz. the
scandalous poverty of means of communication be-
tween the producing and the consuming areas and
between the interior and the coast. There are no
roads in the country in any sense in which the word
would be understood in Europe. The pack-roads are
mere bridle-tracks, which frequently degenerate into
rocky torrent-beds, or precarious footpaths across in-
undated swamps. No one looks after them ; they
are never repaired. Transport upon them is very
costly, and on some occasions absolutely prohibitive.
No means for conveying the surplus produce of any
area to an available market in time of dearth are
forthcoming ; and one district may be smitten with
sore famine, while its neighbour, at no great distance,
cannot get rid of its superfluous grain. Better roads
would be followed at once by a better organised
system of transport and by a rapid increase in the
volume of exports.

The same remarks apply to river and coast com-
munications. On two only of the five great navigable
River navi- ^ivcrs of Korea ^ do steamboats attempt to
gation ply Small native steamers run between
Fusan and the mouth of the Naktong Eiver, seven
miles distant, and even ascend the stream for fifty
miles as far as Miriang. On the Han Eiver, which, if
properly navigated, would almost convert the capital
into a seaport, two small steamers started running
from Chemulpo in 1880 ; one was wrecked, the

' The Yalu in the north, the Taidong or Pyong-yang River, the Han,
and its tributary the Im-jin-gang, and the I*^aktong.

POLITICAL AXD COMMERCIAL SYMPTOMS 183

Other was usually aground. Vessels of lighter
draught and special build were required for the
shifting and shallow channel. By the energy of
the Chinese Eesident a Chinese company was at
length organised in 1892 to undertake this venture.
Two new steamers were placed upon the river, run-
ning the fifty-four miles from Chemulpo to Eyong-san,
three miles from Soul (which it is proposed to connect
by tramway with the landing-place) ; and by one of
these Mr. O'Conor, the British Minister to Korea,
ascended to the capital, to present his letters of
credence in 1893.

Similarly upon the coasts the supersession of the
Korean junk, which is one of the least seaworthy
c^gt of crafts, by a hne of small schooners run-
navigfttion ^j^^^ irovd port to port, would develop the

provincial trade to an enormous extent, and would
cheapen the cost of the necessaries of life. A Korean
steamship company which charters foreign vessels
has for some little time been in existence, and has
lately extended its voyages to Chefoo on the one side
and Vladivostok on the other. Enjoying the mono-
poly of the transport of tribute rice from the non-
treaty ports to Chemulpo, it might easily become a
most lucrative concern ; though in competition with
the two keenest mercantile nationalities of the East,
it can hardly be expected that either monopolies or
bounties will ever galvanise an undertaking owned
and worked by such a people as the Koreans, into
permanent vitality.

A concession was at one time applied for hj some

184 KOREA

American financiers for a short railway between

Chemulpo and Soul ; and it is said that the contract

was about to be signed when it was vetoed

ai ways ^^ ^^^ Chiucse Eesidcut. In the present state

of trade and traffic it is doubtful whether such a line
— the physical obstacles to the construction of w^hicli
are not great — would pay ; the more so, if the river
navigation is successfully and cheaply conducted.
Wild schemes for a network of railways throughout
Korea are said to have been formulated in the brains
of those who anticipate an early Eussian seizure of
the entire peninsula ; but it will be worth while to
wait till the Eussians are there before discussing
what they will do.

The drawbacks which I have enumerated — ^viz. a
debased currency; dearth of communications by
Growth of 1^^^ ^^^ water; the consequent cost of
*''*^® transport ; the incubus of native monopolists

who control the prices and evade the Treaties by
fresh local likin or octroi-diVies in the interior; the
apathy of the Korean producer, the poverty of the
Korean consumer, and the lack of enterprise of the
Korean merchant ; above all the inexperience and
misjudgment of the Korean Government — are obsta-
cles to any such heroic expansion of trade as was
once predicted by the optimists. Nevertheless, both
in volume and value, Korean trade pursues, with
occasional relapses, an upward career. In 1891,
which was the best year yet realised, the net value
of the foreign trade was nearly 1,440,000/., and the
total trade during the ten years since the opening of

POLITICAL AND COMMERCIAL SYMPTOMS 185

the Treaty Ports is stated to have been i?50,000,000,
a figure which, if the enormous amount of smuggling
that goes on be taken into account, does not pro-
bably represent more than two-thirds of the real value.
The trade is practically shared by the Chinese and
Japanese, between whom the most acute competition
prevails. The former have almost entirely monopo-
lised the retail business, both in native produce
and foreign imports. They penetrate everywhere,
and everywhere their stores and shops are to be
found. The Japanese, on the other hand, have
acquired the virtual command of the export trade,
over ninety per cent, of which is to Japan. The two
great staples of Korean produce are rice and beans,
which are increasingly demanded by her southern
neighbour, as the population of Japan increases and
more soil is surrendered to the cultivation of silk.
Hence the intense Japanese irritation when, for
reasons of internal policy, the Korean Government
sees fit to place even a temporary embargo upon the
export of native grain. As regards imports, though
there are no British merchants in the country — the
system of Chinese or Japanese brokers operating
with sufficient success — over sixty per cent, of the
sum total, and practically the whole of her trade in
piece goods, hail from Great Britain, who may claim,
even in remote Korea, to have discovered one more
market for Manchester.^

^ It is nearly 800 years since, in 1604, the first Boyal Licence * to
discover the countries of Cathaia, China, Japan, Corea, and Cambaia,
and to trade with the people there,* was issued by James I. to Sir
Edward Michelbome, for the East India Company. In 1614 E. Sayer

186 KOREA

Evidence of commercial expansion is also pro-
vided by the increasing number of steamships that
steamship ^^^ ^^ profitable to include the Korean ports
service -^^ their published sailing lists. The well-
known Japanese steamship company known as the
Nippon Yusen Kaisha keeps up a service of three
mail steamers fortnightly between Kobe and the
Korean ports, besides sending outside steamers for
the carrying trade direct from Osaka. Another
Japanese company, the Osaka Shosen Kaisha, has
lately appeared upon the scene, and runs boats at
unstated intervals from the former port.^ The year
1891 also witnessed the introduction of a liberally-
subsidised fortnightly Eussian packet service be-
tween Shanghai and Vladivostok, touching at the
harbours of Fusan and Gensan on the way. Though
this venture cannot as yet conceivably be attended
with profit, it is characteristic of the energy with
which the Eussians advance their flag in Eastern

was sent to Tushma {i,e, Tsushima), but reported that * there was no
hope of any good to be done there or in Corea.' In 1618 Richard
Cocks, the head of the Ffiu;tory at Firando in Japan, on the occasion
of one of the Tribute Missions from Korea, ^ endeavoured to gain
speech with the Ambassador, but was unsuccessful, the Kmg of
Tushma being the cause, he fearing that the EngUsh might procure
trade if Cocks got acquainted with the ambassadors. The Japan
Lords asked why he sought acquaintance with such barbarous people.*
State Papers, East Indies Series, vol. i. (1518-1616), Nos. 336, 699 ;
vol. ii. (1617-1621), No. 273. From that day till the British Treaty in
1883 there was no direct Anglo-Korean trade, although in 1702 the
idea of a Korean Factory was reconsidered by the Directors of the
East India Company (Bruce*8 Annals, vol. iii. p. 483).

^ The Japanese have acquired such a command of the shipping,
that out of a total tonnage of 891,000 in the Treaty Ports in 1892,
828,000 were Japanese, as against 25,000 Bussian, 15,000 Chinese,
and 8,000 Korean.

POLITICAL AND COMMERCIAL SYMPTOMS 187

waters, and make an experimental and even expen-
sive commerce subserve larger political ends. It is
not for mercantile gain that the Eussian subsidies
are given, but for the avowed object of providing a
useful auxiliary marine, with well-organised comple-
ment, in time of war.

In the nurture of Korean commerce too much
credit cannot be given to the members of the Chinese
castoma Imperial Customs Service, into whose hands
^^^^ the predominant influence of the suzerain
power insured that the collection of Korean Customs
should be committed when the Treaty Ports were
first opened in 1883. A number of European officials
have since been lent for the purpose from the admi-
rably organised Chinese service under Sir Eobert
Hart. Their salaries in Korea are only in part paid
by the Korean Government, for they continue to
remain on the Chinese list and to receive Chinese
pay. It is rumoured that the Viceroy Li Hung
Chang would lite to supersede Sir Eobert Hart's
service, which he is said to regard with a jealous eye,
by a privately organised Chinese service of his own.
In the interests of Korea this would be a most
unfortunate step, since it would mean the substitu-
tion of universal jobbery and smuggling for a pure
and eflScient administration.

Were steps taken by the Korean Government to
check the systematic smuggling that even now pre-
vails all along the coast between the Treaty

Smnfffflixur

Ports (to which the jurisdiction of the
European Customs officers is confined), much more

188 KOREA

business would pass through their hands. Opium,
which is prohibited in the Foreign Treaties, is
smuggled into the country, and ginseng out of it in
great quantities. Of the enormous surreptitious
traffic in gold-dust I shall speak presently. Under
the terms of the Fishery Convention between Japan
and Korea, the fishermen of the former country have
hitherto been permitted to land and sell their fish
wherever they please on the southern Korean coast.
Each man does a little contraband business as well.
It is the same with the Chinese junkmen on the
west coast. Quite recently the King has been per-
suaded to organise a small cruiser service, which
may deal with this abuse, and may further in time
develop into the nucleus of a small but efiective
Korean navy. For this purpose he has applied for
the loan of two English officers, to give the requisite
start to the undertaking.

Though the symptoms of commercial develop-
ment in Korea are thus encouraging, it is not believed
Native that the trade has hitherto been very profit-

stand-

point able to those engaged in it, mainly owing to
the difficulties arising from a debased and fluctuating
medium of exchange; whilst the natural apathy of
the Koreans, which renders them irresponsive to any
appeal that places an unaccustomed strain upon their
energies or prepossessions, has so far found an un-
deniable stimulus in the fact that the advent of the
foreigner cannot be said as yet to have brought
much profit to them. The prices of everything in
Korea have, since the opening of the country, shown

POLITICAL AXD COMMERCIAL SYMPTOMS 189

a tendency to assimilate themselves to those of
surrounding markets, with the result that the
necessaries of life have become dearer, and the cost
of food stuffs in particular has been greatly aug-
mented. None of the Customs revenue derived from
increased trade goes into the pocket of the Korean
peasant, and he probably has moments of acute
though stolid disgust at the boasted regeneration of
his country.

Among the resources to which the attention of
foreigners has long been drawn, either as unrealised
assets of national wealth or as a source of possible
lucre to themselves, are the minerals of Korea. It is
known that gold, lead, and silver (galena), copper.

Mines and ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ fouud iu somc abuud-
minerais ^^q^^^ although hithcrto worked in the most

spasmodic and clumsy of fashions. Some years ago
the most roseate anticipations were indulged in of
impending mineral production ; and a financial
authority was even found to assert that the currency
problem of the world would be solved by the
phenomenal output of the precious metals from
Korea. Latterly there has been a corresponding
recoil of opinion, which has led people to declare
that the Korean mines are a fraud, and that the
wealth-producing capacity of the peninsula will
never be demonstrated in this direction. Those,
however, who have the most intimate knowledge of
the interior agree in thinking that the minerals are
there and are capable of being worked by European
hands ac an assured profit. Should the Government

190 KOREA

consent to a concession on at all a liberal scale, and
personally assist instead of obstructing its operations,
the money would be forthcoming to-morrow from
more than one quarter, and it is inconceivable, vain
though the Koreans are about treasures of which
they know nothing, but which, because a few
foreigners are running after them, they conceive
must be unique in the world, that many more years
can elapse before a serious attempt is made to open
them up. Excellent coal, a soft anthracite, burning
brightly and leaving little ash, is already procured
by the most primitive methods from a mine near
Pyong-yang, which is said to contain unlimited
quantities. Nearly all tlie iron that is used in the
country for agricultural and domestic purposes is
also of native production, the ore being scratched
out of shallow holes in the ground and smelted in
charcoal furnaces. The Koreans have no conception
either of ventilation, drainage, blasting, or lighting.
There is now a Mining Board among the Govern-
ment Departments at Soul; but of its activity no
evidence is as yet forthcoming.

The mineral, however, that has excited most
interest abroad is gold, which, in the form of dust
from river washings, has formed a notable
item in the exports of Korea for many years.
During the last decade 1^8,000,000 of gold and gold-
dust have passed through the hands of the Customs
in export. But this does not in all probabiUty repre-
sent more than twenty per cent, of the real export,
few Japanese or Chinese leaving the country without

POLITICAL AND COMMERCIAL SYMPTOMS 191

smuggling out a little of the precious dust upon their
persons ; while the fluctuations in the annual returns
may be explained by the higher rate of wages
procurable from agriculture during years of good
harvests, whereby labour is diverted from the more
precarious essay of the goldfields. Placer mining is
probably best suited to Korean conditions ; but the
introduction of quartz crushing and of scientific
appliances might be expected to add largely to the
annual production. Five years ago the Government
did purchase foreign machinery, and engaged foreign
miners to work the gold-mines in the Pyong-yang
district, but the enterprise was abandoned before it
had had a fair trial.

Anyhow, with mineral resources of undoubted
value, even if of uncertain quantity, with grain-
Future producing capacities that are susceptible of
prospects in(Jefi|^te multiplication, with ready markets
and willing customers close at hand, Korea will only
have to thank herself if she prefers to remain plunged
in poverty and squalor. The initiative must, of
course, come from the Government. At present in
Korea, unhappily, as in Persia, quicquid delirant reges
plectuntitr Achivi. But it is not too late to hope for
change. The first thing that the Government has to
do is to abandon the idea that Korea is an Amalthea's
horn, into which foreigners will pay enormous prices
(in the shape of royalties or commission) for the
privilege of dipping their fingers. The next step is
to realise that without foreign capital little can be
done, and under native management nothing. At the

192 KOREA

same time a wary eye must be directed upon the not
too dispassionate offers of financial assistance which
are pressed upon the interesting debutante with such
suspicious emulation by her astute neighbours.
A Owing to the so recent opening of the country
and to the savage persecution by which Christianity
Migsionary had bccu practically exterminated a short
Korea. time bcfore, the missionary question in Korea
cution is in a far less advanced state of development
than it is in either of the neighbouring countries of
Japan and China. Not that the record of Christian
missionary effort in the peninsula has been either
slender or abortive. It is now a little more than
100 years since the intercourse with Peking (where
there was a flourishing Eoman Catholic Church),
originating from the journeys to and fro of the annual
Tribute Missions, was responsible for the first Korean
convert to the faith of Christ. Since that date the
infant Korean Church has shown a heroism, has
endured sufferings, and has produced a martyr-roll,
that will compare favourably with the missionary
annals of less obscure countries and more forward
peoples. From the start it was proscribed, hunted
down, and delivered over to occasional spasms of
fierce persecution. It was not till after half a century
of disturbed and precarious existence, in which the
flame was only kept alive by the devotion of native
or of Chinese converts, that in 1836 M. Maubant,
the second Papal nominee to the post of Vicar
Apostolic of Korea, succeeded in getting across the
frontier, the first European priest who had set foot in

POLITICAL AND COMMERCIAL SYMPTOMS 193

Korea since 1594. In 1837 the first Catholic bishop
of Korea, Msgr. Lnbert, followed, only to lose his life
in a violent persecution that immediately ensued. In
spite of continued and relentless hostility on the part
of the Government, the native Christians are said in
1859 to have numbered 17,000. After the usurpa-
tion, however, of the Tai Wen Kun in 1864, the man
with ' the bowels of iron and the heart of stone ' was
content with no half-measures. A merciless war of
extirpation was waged against the heretical sect ; the
French expedition of 1866 that was sent to avenge
these murders beat an inglorious retreat; and by
1870, 8,000 native Christians were said to have paid
the penalty with their lives.

The end, however, was near at hand. The reign
of the bloodthirsty Eegent was now over ; more
2. Toiera- liberal ideas animated the young Sovereign ;
****" and the warning clamour of the nations was

heard sounding at the gates. The earlier Treaties, it
is true, demanded nothing more than the free exercise
of their religion in the Treaty Ports for the subjects
of the signatory Powers; nor to this day does any
article, expressly sanctioning missionary enterprise,
appear in any of the Treaties. The French are said
to have held out long for such a concession; but
the only substitute for it which their Treaty, con-
cluded in 1886, contains, is a clause permitting of
the employment of natives as literati^ interpreters, or
servants, or in any other lawful capacity, by the
French, and promising the latter every assistance in
their study of the native language and institutions.^

o

19^ KOREA

Whatever may have been the ulterior meaning of
these words, the Korean Government, with repre-
sentatives of all the great Powers of Europe stationed
in its capital, and with the gunboats of their squadrons
floating upon the neighbouring seas, is no longer in
a position, even if it had the desire, to assume a
hostile attitude; and missionaries are at liberty to
come and go as they please, and to make converts
where they can. There are said to be many thousand
native Christians, Eoman Catholics, in the country.
Their priests, many of whom are Koreans, live in
their midst ; and every member of the flock, however
remote his residence, is visited once in each year by
his spiritual father. The French Catholic Church and
Establishment, occupying a natural elevation, are
one of the most prominent objects in Soul ; and their
earlier start has given them an advantage which the
Protestants will not easily retrieve.

In 1890 an English Protestant Bishop (whose
diocese is Korea and Shing-king, i.e, Manchuria) first
English appeared upon the scene, and when I was

Protestant

Mission in Soul, the Mission establishment consisted,
in addition, of several clergy, some lay-helpers, a
doctor, and some sisters of St. Paul's, Kilburn.
Churches had been built in Soul and Cliemulpo,

" Article IX. runs as follows : — * Les autorit^s Fran^aises et les
Franvais en Cor^e pourront engager des sujets Cor^ens k titre de lettr^,
d'interpr^te, de serviteur, ou k tout autre titre licite, sans que les
autorit^s Cor^ennes puissent y mettre obstacle. . . . Les Fran9ais qui
se rendraient en Cor^e pour y t'tudier ou y professer la langue ^crite
ou parl^e, les sciences, les lois et les arts, devront, en t^moignage de
sentiments de bonne amiti^ dont sont anim^es les Hautes Parties
Contractantes, recevoir toujours aide et assistance.*

POLITICAL AND COMMERCIAL SYMPTOMS 195

hospitals had been opened in both places, a printing-
press had been established at Soul, and the mission-
aries were still engaged in acquiring the language
before turning their energies either to evangelisa-
tion or to the translation of the Prayer-book into
Korean.^ There was as yet neither Korean congre
gation nor Korean convert. Simultaneously, and
even earlier, American, Canadian, and Austrahan
Societies or Churches had deputed bands of ardent
workers to enter the field ; and, all told, there were
between thirty and forty Protestant ministers at work
in Korea.

What may be the future that lies before them it
would be hazardous at this stage to predict. The
Native Korean wolf has not been converted straight
sentiment ^way, by the exigencies of national weakness
or outside pressure, into a lamb ; and a people at once
so incurious, and so firmly wedded to Chinese ethics
and ancestor-worship, may be expected in some
places to oppose a stubborn front of resistance, in
others to indulge in occasional outbursts of frantic
antagonism. A few such cases have occurred even
since the Treaties. In 1888 an outbreak took place
in the streets of Soul, the ridiculous rumour (not
unUke that which preceded the famous Tientsin
massacres in 1870, as well as later outrages in China)
having been spread that the American missionaries
had been stealing and boiling Korean babies in order

.-V The New Testament was translated into Korean over twelve years
^^^ by Rev. J. Boss of Newchwang ; and in 1882 the Religious Tract
Society published an introduction to it, and a catechism of the chief
Biblical doctrines, in Korean.

o 2

196 KOREA

to manufacture chemicals for use in photography.
Nine native officials who were alleged to have been
concerned in the transaction were seized and decapi-
tated by the mob ; and the crews of the foreign gun-
boats at Chemulpo were marched up to the capital
to protect the subjects of their several nationali-
ties. More recently there has been a recrudescence
of the same feeling. In 1892 a Catholic missionary
was attacked and beaten at a town in the interior,
and a threatening proclamation was posted on the
missionary doors in Soul. Early in 1893 a politico-
religious party, calling itself the Tokaguto, or Party
of Oriental Learning, and appealing to the Conserva-
tive instincts of the people, started into being and
attained menacing proportions both in the capital and
in the provinces. Its leaders presented a petition to
the Throne demanding the prohibition of all foreign
religions and , the expulsion of the merchants, in
other words the abrogation of the Treaties. Nor was
it till after the ringleaders had been arrested, and
foreign men-of-war had hurried from all quarters of
the China Seas to Chemulpo — while the Japanese
community in Soul, who are always the first victims
of attack, had organised a militia in their own
defence — that the peril subsided. Because the
Korean is ordinarily friendly to foreigners, it does
not follow that he has any genuine fondness for us,
still less for our creed. Instinctive in him is the
Conservatism of a hide-bound stolidity; and to
suppose that the walls of the Korean Jericho are
going to fall down flat at the first blast of the

POLITICAL AND COMMERCIAL SYMPTOMS 197

missionary trumpet, is to cherish a belief from which
the future will in all likelihood provide some sharp
awakenings. On the other hand, since in the
dramatic history of Korean Christianity there is
much cause for admiration, there is consequently
good ground for hope.

y

198 KOREA

CHAPTEE Vn

THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF KOREA

Behold, a people shall come from the north, and a great nation,
and many kings shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. They
shall hold the bow and the lance : they are crael, and will not shew
mercy : their voice shall roar like the sea, and they shall ride upon
horses, every one put in array, like a man to the battle, against thee.

Jeremiah 1 41-2.

Before leaving Korea I must devote a final chapter
to a discussion of the subject to which all other
Anomalous Koreau qucstious are subsidiary, and to find
^atus^f 2. clue to which I was attracted thither from
afar — viz. the political future that awaits
this shuttlecock among the nations. I use the phrase
as accurately descriptive of the relation in which
Korea stands to the various Powers who are repre-
sented at her capital, who treat her from entirely
different and wholly irreconcilable standpoints, ac-
cording to their own interests or prejudices, and at
whose hands she is alternately — nay, even simul-
taneously— patronised, cajoled, bullied, and caressed.
A more anomalous political condition certainly does
not exist in the world than that of a country which
itself claims to be both independent and dependent,
and can produce powerful evidence in support of
either hypothesis ; and as to which outside Powers

THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF KOREA 199

advance pretensions of suzerainty, control, protec-
torate, alliance, most-favoured nation treatment, or
technical equality, for all of which there is consider-
able show of j ustification. This curious state of affairs
has arisen, in the first place, out of the peculiar
geographical situation of Korea on a sort of political
Tom Tiddler's ground between China, Eussia, and
Japan ; and, secondly, out of the contradictory policy
pursued by the first-named of these Powers in moments
of calculation or of alarm at the attitude or encroach-
ments of the others. By a survey of the respective
positions occupied or claimed by this trio, who are
the protagonists in the international drama for which
Korea provides an involuntary stage, while the
remaining nations are either cast for minor parts in
the same piece, or sit as interested spectators in the
auditorium, it may be possible to unravel the tangled
skein which has here been woven by the wits or the
wiles of the stronger at the expense of the weak.

Though Korea has been ruled by successive
dynasties of monarchs for centuries, ti^ere has scarcely
Connection bccu a time since the commencement of the
with Japan (^istj^j^ gj.3^ wheu it has not acknowledged

a greater or less dependence upon either China or
Japan. The claims of the latter Power, which in the
declining years of the Shogunate were allowed to
shrink into the background — to the great regret of
Japanese patriots — were both the earlier in origin
and have been exercised over the longer space of
time. It was as early as the third century, a.d., that
a mascuhne Empress-Eegent of Japan, bearing the

200 KOREA

appropriate name of Jingo or Zingu, herself led an
expedition against Korea and received the submission
of that State. From that time down to the end of the
fourteenth century, the relations between the two
countries, though frequently disturbed, were, as a
rule, those of Japanese ascendency and Korean
allegiance. Tribute Missions constantly sailed from
Fusan to the Court of Mikado or Shogun ; and there
grew up in Japanese minds the conviction, which has
not yet been extirpated, that to surrender Korea
would be as indelible a strain upon the national
honour as Mary of England felt it to lose Calais.
After 1392, however, when the Mings assisted the
Ki dynasty to establish itself on the Korean throne,
the influence of China became paramount, and the
marks of deference to Japan dwindled, until in 1460
the last Korean Embassy started for the Shogun's
Court at Kamakura. It was accordingly as much to
punish a refractory vassal as it was to prosecute
loftier schemes of conquest against China herself,
that Hideyoshi designed his famous Korean expedi-
tions. This invasion, by which the peninsula was
desolated from end to end for six years (1592-8),
has permanently affected the relations between the
two countries. It has left a heritage of wounded
pride and national antipathy in the breast of the
Koreans, which three centuries have not availed to
erase ; while it has heightened the exasperation felt
by Japan that the vassal whom she crushed so utterly
should yet in the long run have managed to elude
her clutch.

THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF KOREA 201

The retreat of the Japanese for a time suspended
communications between the two States ; but in
16] 8 occurred the Korean Mission, to which I have
already alluded in a foot-note ; and in 1623 lyemitsu
Tribute demanded the revival of the tribute; and
issionR fj-Qjjrj i^i^at date, in spite of the absolute
submission of the Korean Throne to the Manchus
from 1637 onwards. Missions continued to make their
annual excursion to Tokio, entirely at the expense of
the Japanese, and with no advantage to the latter
beyond the barren compliment to their pride. Owing
to the exorbitant cost of entertainment a change
was effected in 1790, when the envoys, instead of
crossing to the Japanese mainland, were invited to
proceed as far as Tsushima only ; with which change
the so-called tribute shrank still more into an annual
exchange of presents with little or no admission of
political subordination. This incongruous condition
of affairs lasted till 1832, when the last comphmentary
mission upon a Shogun's accession was despatched
from Korea to the Japanese Court.

A new era now opened, in which Japan, by dint
of her own political resuscitation, was to re-establish
Friction a powerful influence in Korea, although at

and rup- , , ' ,

ture the cost of tlic fcudatory relationship which

for so many centuries it had been her boastful pre-
tension to maintain. Wlien the Korean Government
was threatened by the French invasion in 1866, it is
said to have remembered its old connection, and to
have solicited the advice and aid of Japan. No reply
being returned to this request, it was not surprising

202 KOREA

that when in 1868 a Japanese embassy arrived in
Soul to convey the formal announcement of the
political revolution in Japan, and the resumption by
the Mikado of full sovereignty, and to invite from
the Koreans a renewal of ancient friendship and
vassalage, an insolent refusal was returned by the Tai
Wen Kun. In Japan the Samurai party were furious ;
but the country was too poor and too much hampered
by other complications to go to war ; although the
Chauvinist spirit found angry vent in rebellion in
Saga, and in an attempt upon the life of the Japanese
statesman Iwakura, who, on his return from Europe
with Okubo in 1873, stoutly resisted a policy of
stronger measures. To satisfy these ardent spirits,
two successive but bootless Japanese missions, con-
ducted by Hanabusa and Moriyama, were sent to
Korea in 1873 and 1874, to re-establish Japanese
authority by peaceful means, while the filibustering
Formosan expedition was undertaken to keep the
war-party employed in 1874. Nevertheless, when in
1875 a Japanese man-of-war, the Unyokan, had been
fired upon by the Koreans from the island of Kang-
hwa on the Han, and after an appeal to Peking and
the receipt of an assurance from the Chinese Govern-
ment that all responsibility was disowned by them,
the first Japanese Treaty of 1876 was presented as
an ultimatum and signed, the military party again
broke forth into stormy discontent, and the great
Saigo of Satsuma, splitting irrevocably with the
Government, retired to his patrimony to plot the ter-
rible civil war that commenced in the following year.

THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF KOREA 203

The self-restraint and caution of the then race
of Japanese statesmen were, however, amply re-
Recovery warded. They wisely recognised that the

of infla- , , , '

«Qce. tmie for an aggressive policy was not then,
1^76 and that Japanese influence in Korea could
only be recovered, not by sustained invasion or con-
quest, but by the subtler movements of diplomatic
finesse and commercial control. In this sagacious
policy they were assisted by the weakness and indeci-
sion of China. Wlien the above-mentioned Treaty was
concluded, in 1876, with Korea, the opening words
in Article 1 contained the remarkable statement
that ' Chosen, being an independent State, enjoys the
same sovereign rights as does Japan ' — an admission
which was foolishly winked at by China from the mis-
taken notion that, by disavowing her connection with
Korea, she could escape the unpleasantness of being
called to account for the delinquencies of her vassal.
This preUminary advantage was more than doubled
in value to Japan when, after the revolution in Soul
conven- ^^ 1884, by which her diplomatic represen-
TiLntsin in ^ativc was Compelled to flee for the second
^^^ time from the Korean capital, she sent troops

to avenge the insult and declined to remove them
until China had made a similar concession with
regard to the Chinese garrison, which had been
maintained since the previous outbreak in 1882 in
that city. By the Convention of Tientsin, which was
negotiated in 1885 by Count Ito with the Viceroy
Li Hung Chang, both parties agreed to withdraw
their troops and not to send an armed force to Korea

204 KOREA

at any future date to suppress rebellion or disturb-
ance without giving previous intimation to the other.
This document was a second diplomatic triumph for
Japan ; for, whilst it was safe to aver that neither
Power would ever be seriously deterred thereby
from hostile action, it yet involved the very admission
of substantial equality of rights as regards Korea
which Japan had all along been labouring to reassert,
and which China, except in the moments when she
had been caught napping, had as consistently repu-
diated. Japan, therefore, if she had not recovered her
former position, had at least re-established her cre-
dit. It is, in my judgment, greatly to be regretted
that in the present summer her Government, anxious
to escape from domestic tangles by a spirited
foreign policy, has abandoned this statesmanlike
attitude, and has embarked upon a headlong course
of aggression in Korea, for which there appears
to have been no sufficient provocation, and the
ulterior consequences of which it is impossible to
forecast.

So much for the political revindication of Japan.
Simultaneously she has pursued with unflagging
commer- cucrgy the policy of commercial and fiscal
dency asccudency in Korea. Active* and business-
like as compared with the indolent Koreans, possessed
of capital, and understanding how to make others
pay through the nose for the loan of it, her colonists
and merchants have gradually fastened a grip on to
the weaker country which it will be exceedingly
difficult to shake ofl*. The Japanese have got the

THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF KOREA 20&

mint and banks already. The Government is largely
in their debt. They are daily pressing for conces-
sions of every description. Their eye has long been
fixed upon the Customs, at present in the hands of
their rivals the Chinese, and in a few years' time
they hope to have obtained so commanding a hold
upon the national resources of Korea as to render
her political dependence upon China a constitutional
fiction which the wisdom born of accomplished facts
may ultimately aUow to expire. This policy is, of
course, one of selfishness. ' But its success will not
thereby be so much imperilled as it may be by the
national race-hatred between Koreans and Japanese,
that is one of the most striking phenomena in con-
temporary Chosen. Civil and obliging in their own
country, the Japanese develop in Korea a faculty for
bullying and bluster that is the result partly of
national vanity, partly of the memories of the past.
The lower orders illtreat the Koreans on every pos-
sible opportunity, and are cordially detested by them
in return. Indeed it is very amusing to contrast the
extreme sensitiveness of Japan towards the Treaty
Powers in her own territories and her indignant
protest against the severity of the Treaties, with the
domineering callousness with which she, the first of
the Treaty Powers in Korea, treat;s the latter unfor-
tunate country because of its weakness, and exacts
every ounce of flesh permitted by the Treaties between
them.^ Such a relationship, which is in marked

^ When Japan dictated the first Korean Treaty in 1876, she copied
the extra-territorial clauses almost verbatim from Articles IV. and V.

206 KOREA

9

contrast with the amicable terms on which the
Koreans and Chinese appear to subsist side by side,
will not facilitate the issue which Japanese ambition
has in view.

A striking instance of this attitude was afforded
during the past year. In the course of 1889 the
Recent Korcau Government, finding that the native-
^^"^^^ grown beans were being bought up in great
quantity by Japanese merchants for exportation to
Japan, issued a temporary prohibition of export in
two provinces. By this decree the purchasers, who
had already made advances to the cultivators, alleged
that they were the losers by nearly ^220,000, owing
to their inability to recover their loans and to the
non-deUvery of the grain. Now by the Trade Regu-
lations agreed upon between Korea and Japan in
1883, the former country has the right to prohibit
the export of cereals in time of scarcity or emer-
gency.^ The Japanese, however, alleged that the
emergency had not arisen in this case, and also that
the stipulated month's notice had not been given in
advance. The claim was pressed with greater or less
insistence for four years, the Korean Government
admitting a certain liability, but expressing its
incapacity, owing to continued impoverishment, to
pay more than 1^60,000 in compensation. At length
the Radical and Jingo party in Japan became very
much excited at this insulting procrastination. As a

of the Anglo- Japanese Treaty of 1858 ; and has never shown any re-
luctance to set in operation against Korea the provisions of which she
complains so bitterly when applied to herself.
' Eegulation xxxvii.

THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF KOREA 207

sop to them the Japanese Minister to Soul was
recalled, and a young Eadical firebrand, who had
recently published a book on Korea on the strength
of a short visit there, was sent out to pursue a policy
of brag. This individual, by presenting an ultimatum
at the throat of the Korean Court, eventually com-
pounded the dispute for S'110,000 ; but, being totally
destitute either of manners or of official training, he
affronted the King and his Ministers to such an
extent by his unseemly violation of all diplomatic
etiquette in his interviews with them, that he was
summarily recalled by the Japanese Government,
returning to Tokio to be made the recipient of a
popular ovation.

At that time and till quite recently Count Ito
and his colleagues were not believed to have any
True policy Sympathy with this intemperate and swag-
of Japan geriug attitude towards the weaker State.
They appeared to recognise that Japanese policy in
Korea could onh^ attain its ends by a friendly un-
derstanding with China; that the effort to recover
purely political ascendency in Soul was incompatible
with such an understanding ; and that every attempt
to humiliate or terrorise over Korea was to play
China's game, and to tighten the bonds that united
the vassal with the suzerain. At the same time no
Japanese minister could afford altogether to abandon
the immemorial claims of his country over the petty
adjacent kingdom ; while every Japanese minister has
now to deal with a people — namely, his own country-
men— who, when their so-called patriotic instincts

208 KOREA

0

are appealed to, are apt to respond by going stark
mad.

It is the latter phenomenon, and the skilful
but not too scrupulous use that has been made
Recent of it, that are responsible for the events
cations occurriug in Korea as these pages go to
press. Taking advantage of recent disturbances in
the peninsula, which demonstrated with renewed
clearness the impotence of the native Government to
provide either a decent administration for its own
subjects, or adequate protection to the interests of
foreigners, and ingeniously profiting by the loophole
left for future interference in the Tientsin Agreement
of 1885, Japan has (in July 1894) landed a large
military force, estimated at 10,000 men, in Korea, and
is in armed occupation of the capital. Li Hung Chang
has responded by the despatch of the Chinese fleet
and of an expeditionary force, marching overland
into the northern provinces. Both parties decline
so far to retire ; China relying upon her genuine
authority and influence, but feeling that she has been
somewhat outwitted ; Japan being resolved to atone
for previous blunders, and to reap a full advantage
from her crafty but scarcely defensible diplomacy.
War has not actually been declared; but engage-
ments between the rival forces by land and sea
have taken place, and the situation is scarcely dis-
tinguishable therefrom. In the event of open war
Japan cannot, in my judgment, escape the blame of
provocation, and will, in the long run, be the suf-
ferer by the issue.

THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF KOREA 209

I turn next to the position of China. Her
ascendency in Korea, which has far more natural
Connection couditious iu the shapc of common language,
with chinA customs, religion, and philosophy, as* well as
territorial connection, to recommend it than can be
advanced by Japan, practically dates from the
foundation of the present reigning dynasty of Korea
500 years ago. It was under the patronage of the
Ming Emperors that Ni Taijo, a soldier of fortune,
raised himself to the Korean throne, and established
a Court and capital at Soul, which still faithfully
reproduce the Chinese characteristics of that epoch.
When the Japanese invaded the peninsula from 1592
to 1598, the Chinese defended it with as much energy
as though it were part of their own territories, and
ultimately expelled the intruders. Subsequently,
on their way to China, the Manchu conquerors
devastated and exacted an even more humiliating
submission from Korea, which has never since been
surrendered, and is to this day enforced by the
suzerain Power. While Hamel was in Korea, 1653^
1666, he testifies to the constant visits of the re-
presentative of the * Great Cham,' and to the com-
plete humility of the Korean Government. Annually
a Tribute Mission wended its way by land from Soul
to Peking, conveying the specified tribute,^ and
receiving in return the Calendar, which it is the
Imperial prerogative to prepare, and the mark of
vassalage to receive. In the succeeding century the

* Its ingredients are stated by Dallet (vol. i. p. xv.) ; but it is long
since they were scrupulously exacted.

P

210 KOREA

tribute was gradually reduced, and tlie embassy
appeared at times to dwindle into a ceremonial
function, carrying presents in return for the per-
mission to trade at the frontier, rather than tokens of
political submission. Nevertheless, during this epoch
a violent disturbance took place if there was the
slightest omission of prescribed deference ; and one
Korean monarch was smartly fined for his omission
of some punctilio. From the time of the Manchu
invasion to the present day every King and Queen
of Korea have received their patent of royalty from
the Court at Peking ; ^ and the hislorical tutelary
position of China continues to be vindicated in the
following manner.

In addition to the Imperial investiture, and to
the annual despatch of the Tribute Mission from
Existing Soul, wliicli is Still maintained — although a
of Korean Practical and mercantile aspect is now lent
vassalage ^^ ^^^ procccdiug by its being utilised for

the export to China by the Chung In of the King's
red (jinseng — the name of the reigning monarch of
Korea is also given to him by China, and the era
specified in Korean Treaties is that of the accession,
not of the King, but of his Suzerain the Emperor.
The King of Korea is not allowed to wear the
Imperial yellow. When the Imperial Commissioners
arrive from Peking, he is required to proceed outside
of his capital in order to receive them, the chief

' M. Scherzer has translated into French and pubhshed in Becueil
d'ltin^raires^ et de Voyages dans VAsie Cenirale et Vextriine Orient
(1878) the diary of the principal Chinese Envoy who was sent from
Peking to invest the present Queen of Korea in 1866.

TUE POLITICAL FUTURE OF KOREA 211

Commissioner beincr of hif^her rank in the Chinese
official hierarchy than himself ; and I have previously-
spoken of the ornamental archway outside the west
gate of Soul, at which the vassal prince receives the
envoys of his Suzerain. When any notable events
occur in the Court at Peking they are communicated
to the vassal Court, and are the cause of a respectful
message either of condolence or of congratulation
from the latter. Similarly if any death occurs among
the leading members of the Eoyal Family at Soul,
an official intimation of the fact must be sent to
Pekinof.

When the late Queen Dowager of Korea died in
1890, the King deputed a mission at once to report
Death of ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ Emperor ; and, in petitioning
Dow^wrn t^^^ latter to dispense with the ordinary
^^" ceremonial of a return mission to convey

the condolences of the Suzerain, because of the
difficulty that would be experienced by Korea in con-
sequence of her financial embarrassment in carrying
out all the prescribed ceremonies — he made the follow-
ing statement of his position vis-a-vis with China : —

* Our country is a small kingdom and a vassal State of
China, to which the Emperor has shown his graciousness
from time immemorial. Our Government was enabled to
survive the political troubles of 1882 and 1884 through the
assistance received from the Throne, which secured for our
country peace and tranquillity. Since His Majesty has been
good enough to confer these favours upon us, we should make
known to him whatever we desire ; and whatever we wish we
trust that he may allow, as to an infant confiding in the
tender mercies of its parents.'

72

\

212 KOREA

These compliments, however, did not induce the
Suzerain to forego one tittle of his traditional rights ;
although he so far yielded to the Korean plea of
poverty as to permit his Commissioners to travel by
sea to Chemulpo, instead of overland, thereby greatly
reducing the cost of their entertainment. An
account of the minute and elaborate ceremonies
observed on both sides has since been published with
evident design by the Secretary to the Imperial
Commissioners.^ The latter, it appears, among other
marks of condescension, suggested the omission from
the programme of the state banquets, music, and
jugglery, with which it was usual to entertain them.
* Their motive for this suggestion was to show their
consideration for Korean impecuniosity.' They also
declined to receive parting presents from the King,
at which the latter ' felt very grateful, and at the
same time regretted the fact/ When all was over
the King sent a memorial to the Emperor, thanking
him for his graciousness. 'The sentiments of this
memorial — in their sincerity and importance — are
beyond expression in words, demonstrating that
China's manifold graciousness towards her depen-
dencies is increasing with the times. The Emperor's
consideration for his vassal State, as evinced by his
thoughtf ulness in matters pertaining to the Mission, is
fathomless. How admirable and satisfactory ! And
how glorious ! '

Such is the technical and official expression of

' Notes on the Imperial Chinese Mission to Corea in 1890.
Shanghai, 1892.

THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF KOREA 213

the suzerainty of China which is observed to this
day ; and such are the evidences of the indisputable
reality of that relationship. Of even greater impor-
tance is it to trace the extent to which in recent
years it has been accompanied by practical domina-
tion of Korean statecraft — a subject which brings us
into immediate acquaintance with the diplomatic
indecision of China, as well as with her enormous
latent strength.

Up to the time of the massacre of the French
missionaries in Korea in 1866 the claim of Korean in-
Thread of dependence had never seriously been made.

dlU1686

policy. At that date it was advanced, of all people

1. Repn- , ITT 1 /^i •

diation m the world, by the Chmese themselves.
Anxious to escape responsibility for the act as well
as the irksome duty of either paying an indemnity
themselves or extorting it from their vassal, when M.
de Bellonet, the French Charge d Affaires^ inquired
of the Tsungli Yamen what he was to do, the latter
disowned Korea altogether, and left the Frenchman
to publish a ridiculous manifesto to Prince Kung, in
which he took upon himself to announce in advance
the deposition of the Korean Sovereign. Similarly
when, in 1871, the American Expedition, under
Admiral Eodgers, proposed to sail against Korea to
demand reparation for the loss of the ' General
Sherman ' and the murder of its crew on Korean
shores in 1866, and to force a treaty upon the
Korean Court, it was again with the connivance of
the Chinese Government that the project was under-
taken. Finally, when in 1876 the Japanese, before

214 KOREA

sending an expedition to Korea with a similar object,
applied for information to Peking in advance, a third
time came the disclaimer of China, which is said on
this occasion to have even been committed to paper.
This was a policy of Eepudiation, and was China's
first inconsistency.

Discovering her mistake, and realising that the
foreigner, having once been allowed to meddle with
2. Neu- Korea propria motu, could not be perma-
traiisation j^gj^^|y cxcludcd from closcr relations, she

then tried to repair her error by encouraging the
various Powers to enter into Treaty relations with
Korea on an independent basis, hoping, apparently,
that the mutual jealousies of all would preclude the
ascendency of any one. Commodore Shufeldt, an
American naval officer, who in 1867 had been sent
upon a futile mission to Korea after the loss of
the 'General Sherman,' being in Tientsin in 1881,
was utilised by Li Hung Chang as the first instru-
ment of this new policy. The American Treaty, in-
tended to serve as a pattern for its successors, is said
to have been drafted by the Viceroy himself; and it
was with the escort of a Chinese squadron that the
Commodore presented himself at the mouth of the
Han. Simultaneously the Viceroy wrote a letter to
the Tai Wen Kun, strongly urging upon the Korean
Government the signature of treaties with the foreign
Powers as the sole means of continued security and
independence for the threatened kingdom. Under
these conditions the American Treaty was signed in
1882, and the Treaties with Great Britain and Ger-

THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF KOREA 215

many in 1883 ; the first British draft Treaty, which
was framed by Admiral Willes in 1882 on the model
of the American, being superseded by the more
liberal instrument negotiated with great ability and
concluded by Sir Harry Parkes in the following year.
Now the first article of the Japanese Treaty of
1876 had opened with these words : — 'Chosen, being
Terms 2lvl independent State, enjoys the same

of the

Treaties sovercign rights as does Japan/ Conscious
of the serious significance of this admission, China,
in recommending the additional foreign Treaties, now
sought to guard herself by a statement of her own
position. The American Treaty, when first drafted,
contained a clause which ran as follows : — ' Korea has
always been tributary to China, and this is admitted
by the President of the United States ; ' but ' The
Treaty shall be permanently regarded as having no-
thiuQ- to do therewith.* This absurd contradiction
was of course expunged by the Washington Govern-
ment, who being invited to conclude a treaty
with Korea, naturally insisted upon treating Korea as
an independent State. Accordingly in the American,
as in the British and subsequent foreign Treaties, the
King of Korea is throughout regarded (though not
actually described) as an independent Sovereign :
and provisions are made for the customary diplo-
matic representation, familiar in the case of Powers
negotiating upon an equal basis, of each of the High
Contracting Parties at the Court of the other. Xot
to be circumvented, however, China insisted upon the
King of Korea sending the following despatch to the

216 KOREA

President of the United States, prior to the actual
conclusion of the treaty ; and facsimiles of the same
have since been transmitted to the Sovereigns of each
of the remaining Treaty Powers at the corresponding
juncture : —

' The King of Korea acknowledges that Korea is a tri-
butary of China ; but in regard to both internal administra-
tion and foreign intercourse it enjoys complete independence.
Now, being about to establish Treaty relations between
Korea and the United States of America on terms of
equality, the King of Korea, as an independent monarch,
distinctly undertakes to carry out the articles contained in
the Treaty, irrespective of any matters affecting the tributary
relations subsisting between Korea and China, with which the
United States of America have no concern. Having appointed
officials to deliberate upon and settle the Treaty, the King
of Korea considers it his duty to address this despatch to
the President of the United States.*

It will, I think, be conceded that a more strictly
illogical State-paper than the above was never
penned, and that a more incongruous or contradic-
tory position was never taken up. The King of
Korea acknowledges his vassalage to China ; but in the
same breath pronounces his complete independence
both in the administration of his own country and
in foreign relations. In what, then, we may ask, does
his vassalage consist ? Ee describes himself simulta-
neously as a tributary and as an independent monarch.
So double-faced a portent, so complex a phenomenon,
has neither parallel nor precedent in international
law. If he is a vassal, he has no business to be
making treaties, or to be sending and receiving

THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF KOREA 217

envoys on a footing of equality. If he is indepen-
dent, why does he declare himself a feudatory ?

Such was the irrational position in which China,
by her policy of an attempted neutralisation of
Question of KoFca, landed both herself and the vassal
^^""^^ State. The full consequences of her attitude
were clearly manifested when, a few years later,
Korea proposed to carry out her initial prerogative
of sending duly accredited envoys to the foreign
Courts who were already represented at Soul. The
Viceroy Li, who had in the meantime sensibly tight
ened the reins, was consulted ; and once more seeking
to recover the ground which had been technically
abandoned, he attached conditions to the proposed
appointments which, strictly regarded, were, if possi-
ble, even more anomalous than the original paradox.
The Korean Envoy, on arrival at his destination, was
to report himself to the Chinese Eepresentative there,
and to be introduced by him to the Foreign Minister
of the State. On all public occasions he was to yield
precedence to the Cliinese Minister, and he was in-
variably to consult and take the advice of the latter.
Here was the same contradiction in terms in a more
pronounced shape. If the King of Korea was a
vassal, he had no business to be sending representa-
tives at all ; if he was an independent monarch, China
had no business to interfere with him. Either his
envoys were private individuals or they were diplo-
matic representatives. If they were the former, no
question of precedence could arise ; if they were the
latter, they were subject to the normal regulations of

218 KOREA

diplomatic etiquette. For some weeks the President
of the United States, naturally somewhat bewildered,
kept the Korean Envoy at Washington waiting for
his audience ; but when the common sense view of the
question prevailed against the quibbles concocted in
self-defence by the Chinese Government, and the
Envoy was received, without any reference to the
Chinese Minister, as the representative of an inde-
pendent Sovereign, Li Hung Chang was very wroth
with His Majesty of Korea, who for his part returned
the stereotyped reply that the offending envoy had
exceeded his instructions. However this might be,
his brother-minister, who had been accredited to
the Courts of Petersburg, Berlin, Paris, and London,
never got beyond Hongkong ; so that the European
Foreign Offices were saved from a repetition of the
same inconvenient wrangle.

Before the dispute about the envoys arose, China,
not yet alive to the initial error that had led her to
Question of authorisc the Treaties, had been tempted into
siiui a repetition of the same weakness, on an even

larger scale, by the Convention, already referred to
as concluded at Tientsin in 1885 between herself and
Japan. If China is the suzerain Power, she has the
same riglit to march troops into Soul, in the event of
disturbance, as the Indian Government has, for in-
stance, to order British regiments in a similar emer-
genc}^ to Hyderabad — whilst Japan has no corre-
sponding right whatsoever ; and any agreement by
China with a second Power involving a surrender of
that right is to derogate from her own pretensions.

THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF KOREA 219

If China is not the suzerain Power, how can she claim
any right, but that which war confers upon any bel-
ligerent strong enough to exercise it, to send troops
to Korea at all ?

If, however, on the field of diplomacy, where she
is ordinarily supposed to be so clever, but where I
8. Practical tliiuk I havc sliowu that in the case of Korea
sovereignty ^j^^ j^^ always bccu tackiug to and fro

between opposite extremes, China has been more
timid or less far-sighted than Japan, she has to a
great extent atoned for her discordant policy by a
very practical assertion of sovereignty in Soul itself.
When the rebellion broke out there in 1882, and the
King appealed to Li Hung Chang for help, the latter
responded by at once sending a number of ironclads,
and 4,000 troops, the bulk of whom remained in a
permanent camp outside the city for nearly three
years. He compelled the Korean Government to
accept the Japanese demands with a quite unusual
alacrity ; and effectively nipped all antagonism in the
bud by instructing the Chinese commander, Ma Kien
Chung, to invite the Tai Wen Kin to dinner, to pop
him into a sedan-chair, and carry him down to the
coast, whence he was deported straight to China and
interned for three years. Again it was IX Hung
Chang whom the disconsolate King was obliged to
petition for the restoration of his troublesome parent,
and who allowed the old intriguer to go back. When
the Treaty Ports were opened, the same great states-
man took good care to reserve the Customs service for
Chinese hands ; and in the summer of 1892 the Bean

f

I

220 KOBEA

question with Japan was only settled by his interven-
tion and by a Chinese loan to Korea, the security for
which was to be the Customs Eevenue — an ingenious
frustration of one of the pet projects of Japan. When
in 1885 negotiations were opened with Great Britain
about tlie evacuation of Port Hamilton, it was China,
and not Korea, who took up the pen. Until 1893 the
only overland telegraphic connection which the Vice •
roy allowed to Korea outside of her own dominions
was a junction with the Cliinese wire to Peking, and
when the Russian demand for a connection with
Vladivostok could no longer be refused, he wisely
backed it up by offering to construct and to officer
the line with Chinese material and men.

Finally, in Soul itself ever)'' one of the Foreign
Diplomatic Corps, though he gaily proclaims himself
The the representative of his Sovereign at an

Resident allied and equal Court, knows perfectly well
who is the real master. The Chinese Eesident, who
is a man of great energy and ability, named Yuan
Shih Kai, is in the position of a Mayor of the Palace,
without whose knowledge nothing, and without
whose consent little, is done. Alone among the
foreign representatives, he is entitled to sit when
received in audience by the King. His establishment
and guard and display in the streets are among the
sights of Soul. The various champions of the
academic theory of Korean independence have one
by one disappeared from the stage, but the Chinese
Eesident remains. Time after time he has been re-
appointed, as was the Marquis Tseng in Europe ;

TUB POLITICAL FUTURE OF KOREA 221

and even after his promotion to the Taotaiship of
Wen chow in China had been formally gazetted in
1893, it was still felt that he could not be spared
from Soul, and he staved on. He is one of the few
Chinese I have met who impressed me with frankness
as well as with power.

The susceptibilities of the King, who can point, in
defence of his own autonomy, to Treaties which he
Position of ^^s allowed to make by the suzerain Power,
the King ^^^ j^^j. unnaturally sometimes affected by

this situation ; and there is no reason why they
should not be treated with the utmost respect by
foreign Powers. But they do not conceal the reality
of the situation, which is this — that in the event of
real difficulty or danger it would be to China that
he himself would turn, as he always has turned,
and that the two policies of repudiation and of
neutraUsation, enshrined though they be in Treaties,
have until recent events been superseded by a vigo-
rous and undisputed reassertion of Chinese control.

Judged, therefore, by its results it might be said
that the policy of Li Hung Chang, however little
jnstification shapcd by the canons either of logic or
Chang of international custom, was not unsuc-
cessful. Each logical faux pas was in the end
retrieved by some practical advantage. If he de-
clined to punish Korea in the first place for her
attacks upon missionaries and foreigners, he thereby
escaped responsibility for her cruelties. If he allowed
Korea, a vassal State of China, to make Treaties
with foreign Powers, he at the same time vindicated

222 KOREA

liis right to appear as go-between — a capacity in
which Japan was most anxious to figure. By these
means he might claim to have enlisted the interest of
foreign Powers as a set-off to the only two rivals
whom China seriously fears in Korea, viz. Japan and
Eussia. Finally, having surrendered some of the
technical symbols of suzerainty, he offered a ver}^
practical demonstration of the remainder at all
moments of crisis ; and by judicious advances of
money obtained a firm hold upon Korean ad-
ministration. Ilis policy, indeed, towards Korea
might not inaptly be compared with that of Great
Britain during the last decade towards Egypt, where
every species of technical anomaly has yet been the
ultimate precursor of a vigorous and commanding
control. It remains to be seen whether he can cope
with the new situation.

Upon this scene Eussia, having been brought
by the Chinese concessions of 1858-1860 ^ down
Connection to tlic Eivcr Tiumcn, and havin<? therebv
Russia become coterminous with Korean territorv
on the north, appeared for the first time as an actor
about thirty years ago. At her maritime harbour
and base of ^^adivostok she is but little removed from

^ MouravieflF, the Russian Governor-General of Siberia, taking
advantage of the absorption of China in her impending war with Great
Britain, and of the gross ignorance of the Manchu frontier officials,
persuaded the latter to sign the Treaty of Aigun in 1858, ceding to
Eussia the Amur province. In 1860, before the war was concluded
and while the Emperor was still a fugitive, IgnatieflF went to Peking,
and by a farther Treaty from the terrified Government got the Primorsk
province (i.e. all the territory lying to the east of the Ussuri, and COO
miles of sea-coast) as well. Never was a fine dominion so cheaply or
more cleverly won.

THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF KOREA 223

the Korean frontier, across which her officers and
agents have pursued their surveys far and wide (the
only decent map of Korea being one that emanates
from Kussian sources), while the Koreans have been
encouraged to develop a corresponding familiarity
by invitations to come and settle in Kussian villages
across the border. Here they were utilised at first
as squatters and colonists in the practically unin-
habited country, later on as farmers and graziers
and woodcutters. In the towns labour was found for
tiiem and schools were opened for their children, in
which the latter were brought up in the Eussian faith,
supplying, as they grew to manhood, a native pasto-
rate to evangelise their fellow-countrymen. In 1885
there were said to be 20,000 Koreans in Russian terri-
tory, and the figures are probably now much higher.
It was through the agency of these volunteer emi-
grants and naturalised citizens that Eussia first opened
her campaign of political intrigue in the peninsula.

The general territorial acquisitiveness of Eussia
at the expense of weaker neighbours, her admitted
Aggressive ^^sirc for a naval marine in the Pacific, and
designs ^]^g superior advantages possessed by Korean
harbours over the more northerly port of Vladi-
vostok, which is icebound for four months in the
year, as well as the diplomatic tactics adopted by her
representatives, have given universal credence in the
East to the belief that Korea is regarded by Eussia
with a more than covetous eye. There is consider-
able evidence in support of this hypothesis. It was
during the Kulja dispute with China in 1880 that

224 KOREA

lier unconcealed affection for the sheltered recesses
of Port Lazareff (the plans for the seizure and forti-
fication of which are said to have been long prepared)
was first made use of as a diplomatic menace, and is
believed in consequence to have still further inclined
the mind of Li Hung Chang towards the policy of
the Korean Treaties. In 1884, while France was at
war with China and was anxious to enlist tlie sym-
pathy and alliance of Japan, the question of the price
to be paid to the latter soon brought matters to a
deadlock, when it was discovered that Russia would
not let the opportunity slip of also doing a stroke of
business in Korean waters. In 1884 the Russians
were said by many to have been at the bottom of
the conspiracy and outbreak in Soul ; but I am
not aware of the evidence upon which this is based.
About the same time rumours, not without solid
foundation, were circulated of a secret agreement
between Russia and Korea, negotiated by the German
Adviser of the King, by which Russia was to reorga-
nise the Korean army and to support the Korean
claims to Tsushima,^ while Korea in return was to cede

' Others said that Bussia was to occupy Tsushima herself— a course
which the * Novoe Vremya * urged upon the Government in a most
miblushiniparticle, and which possessed the charm of an historical pre-
cedent. For in 18C1 the main island was actually occupied for six
months by the crew of the Russian frigate * Possadnik,* who hoisted the
Kussian flag, formed a small settlement ashore, and cultivated the soil.
Sir R. Alcock, who was British Minister in Japan, sent Mr. Lawrence
Oliphant, then a member of the Legtition, to find out what was going
on. The latter reported to Admiral Sir J. Hope, who was in command
of the neighboiu*ing squadron, and who represented to the Russian
Admiral that he should be compelled to go to Tsushima himself and to
stay there as long as did the Russians. The result was immediate

THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF KOREA 225

Port Hamilton ; and it was something more than
rumour of the latter intention that induced the
British Government to anticipate an impending
Muscovite seizure by hoisting the British flag upon
those islands. In 1886 a further plot for placing
Korea under Kussian protection was detected by the
Chinese Resident. Four leading Korean officials were
arrested and imprisoned, and subsequently admitted
their complicity by flight. In 1886, however, China,
furnished with a goldea opportunity by the will-
ingness of Great Britain to evacuate Port Hamilton,
provided she could obtain guarantees that no other
foreign Power would occupy it, scored her first
genuine diplomatic triumph as regards Korea by
extorting a distinct and official pledge from the
Eussian Government that under no circumstances
would Russia occupy Korean territory. This pledge
was alluded to with some pride in the conversation
which I enjoyed at Tientsin with the Viceroy Li
Hung Chang. But an Englishman who remembers
the official pledges as to Samarkand, and Khiva, and
Merv, may be pardoned if he prefers an attitude of
more sceptical reserve. This, however, is, for the
time being, the cue to Russian official argument
touching Korea, and has been followed quite recently
by the ' Novoe Vremya,' which acts as a sort of
ballon dessai for the schemes of the Russian General
Staff*, and which has gone so far as to reason against
Russian annexation of Korea on the ground that the

evacuation. (Vide an article by L. Oliphant in BlacTcwood'a Magazine^
Dec. 1885, and also Rolling Stone.)

Q

226 KOREA

country is too thickly populated to admit of easy
conquest, too different from Eussia to render assimi-
lation possible, and too poor to make the experiment
remunerative. There is much to be said for this
view ; and undoubtedly it cannot for some time be to
the interest of Russia to involve herself in direct hos-
tility with China, who would be bound to fight against
a step that would give to her most formidable land-
enemy the incalculable additional advantage of being
able to blockade her northern coasts and to strike a
swift blow at Peking. On the other hand Eussia can
hardly desire to have as her immediate neighbour,
within a few hours' sail of Vladivostok, so pugnacious
and aspiring a Power as Young Japan.

The Eussian appetite, if it be inflamed either by
Korean attractions or by Korean weakness, may there-
AdinteHm ^^^^ rcquirc to mortify itself for some years
^^^ to come. In the meantime the traditional
methods of amicable influence can successfully be
pursued. By a Commercial Convention concluded
with Korea in 1888, the Korean land frontier was
opened to Eussian traders ; a Korean market at the
mouth of the Tinmen Eiver was opened to Eussian
trade ; a lower rate of Customs dues was fixed for
Eussian land imports than for other foreign imports
by sea ; and Eussia secured the right to have agents,
whatever that may mean, in the northern parts of
Korea. She also makes her contiguous frontier an
excuse for communicating with her representative at
Soul overland. More recently, with a charming
naivet(5, she invited permission of the Korean Govern-

THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF KOREA 227

ment to found a Eussian agricultural colony, for
seven years only, within the Korean border. Eussian
drill-instructors have more than once been offered
to the Korean army — a step with which the histo-
ries of Bokhara, Khiva, and Persia have rendered
us familiar. An overland telegraphic connection
between Korea and Eussia was secured in 1893. A
steam service between Korean ports and Vladivostok
is being maintained by an ample subsidy from the
Imperial Government. A Eussian Consul has been
appointed at Fusan, where there are no Eussian
subjects, and as yet next to no Eussian trade. These
are the recognised and more or less legitimate
symptoms of Muscovite concern. In Korea itself an
impression prevails that they are only the forerunners
of a movement which will not slacken till a Eussian
fleet is moored in Port Lazareff, and the Eussian i\m
waves over Fusan ; and it must be admitted that the
lessons of history are not unfavourable to such an
hypothesis.

The position of the remaining Powers may be
briefly summarised. The primary interest of Great
Attitude Britain in Korea is as a market for an

of Great -iii t d^c t*

Britain already considerable trade. Of far greater
moment, however, is the secondary and contingent
interest arising out of the political future. A country
so well provided with harbours which could both
supply and shelter great flotillas, and so richly
endowed with many potential sources of wealth,
might involve a serious menace to British commerce
and interests throughout the China seas, and even in

q2

228 KOREA

the Pacific Oceah, if held by a hostile State. A
Russian port and fleet, for instance, in the Gulf of
Pechili would, in time of war, constitute as formidable
a danger to British shipping in the Yellow Sea as
they would to the metropolitan province and the
capital of China. Permanent Eussian squadrons at
Port Lazareff and Fusan would convert her into the
greatest naval Power in the Pacific. The balance of
power in the Far East would be seriously jeopardised,
if not absolutely overturned, by such a development ;
and England is prohibited alike by her Imperial
objects and her commercial needs from lending her
sanction to any such issue.

The temporary occupation of Port Hamilton, an
almost uninhabited group of islets fortj^ miles from
^ ,. the southern coast of Korea, by the British

Occupation ' J

Ha^muton ^^^^ ^^ 1885 was dictated by the political
in 1885 necessities of that time, being undertaken in
order to anticipate a Eussian seizure, and as an
answer to the Eussian aggression at Penjdeh, but was
not subsequently persisted in — a retirement which,
less for its own sake than for the possible use of
continued occupation as a plea by others, was gladly
welcomed both by China and Korea, and cemented
the friendly relations between Great Britain and
those States.^ In the negotiations that passed be-

^ Port Hamilton is formed by two large and one small island, called
respectively Sodo, Sunodo, and Chuwen, or Observatory Island, be-
longing to the Nanhow group, thirty- eight miles from the north-east end
of Quelpart. When occupied by the British they were found to contain
a few villages and Korean officials. Lord Granville, in announcing
the temporary occupation to China, expressed his readiness to come to
an agreement with her on the matter, and to pay yearly to Korea any

THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF KOREA 229

tween the respective Governments it was obvious,
indeed, that what China shrank from, and what Korea
dreaded, was not the establishment of a British naval
or coaling station, or even of a British maritime
fortress in the mouth of the Sea of Japan, but the
chance of a corresponding Eussian movement in some
neighbouring quarter ; and both Powers have every
reason to be grateful for a step which forced the
hand of Eussia, and compelled her to give a guaran-
tee, which, even if it should prove to be waste paper
on the approach or outbreak of war, has at any rate
lent a renewed lease of life to the phantom of Korean
integrity, and has saved the little kingdom from
sudden or surreptitious deglutition in time of peace.
The evacuation of Port Hamilton has also shown that,
while Great Britain is interested in keeping out
others from this Naboth's vineyard of the Far East,
she has no reversionary desire for its possession her-

revenues derived from the islands. The Tsungli Yamen, who in the
meantime had been threatened with corresponding movements both by
Bussia and Japan, declined, and instructed the Korean Government to
protest — an action which Lord Granville endeavoured to meet by
oflfering a yearly rent of 5,000?. la the meantime three British
admirals successively reported that the port could not be safely held
imless great expense were incurred in fortification, and that in war a
protecting squa'lron would be required to prevent its being shelled
from without. After much correspondence Lord Itoeebery, in April
1886, offered to retire upon a guarantee being given by China against
the occupation of Port Hamilton by any other Power, or upon the
conclusion of an international agreement guaranteeing the integrity of
Korea. A combination of these suggestions was ultimately adopted ;
and the Russian representative at Peking having given ' a most explicit
guarantee ' that if the British evacuated Port Hamilton * Hussia would
not occupy Korean territory under any circimistances whatsoever,' the
British flag was hauled down in Feb. 1887. (Vide Chma, No. 1, 1887.)
The Korean Government has lately (1894) reasserted its authority over
the islands by -sending there as Governor an official of some distinction.

230 KOREA

self, and is about as likely to seize or to annex Korea
as she is to invade Belgium — a demonstration which
will not merely have been grateful to China, but will
also have been useful in allaying the phenomenal
sensitiveness of Japan.

The remaining Powers in Korea, according to
their political predilections or objects, are disposed
The other *^ Taugc thcmsclvcs partly on the side of
Powers those who proclaim, partly with those who
discourage, the pretensions of Korean autonomy;
their attitude being generally ascertainable from the
character and title of the diplomatic representation
which they maintain at the Korean Court. France,
of course, adopts the former line and deputes a
Consul and Commissaire, claiming precedence of the
British and German Consuls. Eussia, her ally, is re-
presented by a Charge cC Affaires. America appoints
a Minister and vigorously encourages the dream
of Korean independence, as best qualified to pro-
vide employment for American dollars and brains.
Germany sends a Consul and Commissioner. Great
Britain is technically represented by a Minister Ple-
nipotentiary, the Minister at Peking being simulta-
neously accredited, in virtue of the Treaty of 1883,
to the King of Korea. Till 1893, however, when
Mr. O'Conor went up to Soul and presented his
letters of credence to the King, no visit of a British
Minister had taken place since that date; and the
Queen is ordinarily represented in Soul by a Consul-
General, whose relatively subordinate position is the
source of not unnatural vexation on the part of the

^

THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF COREA 231

Korean Government, as well as of misunderstanding
among the Diplomatic Body. These absurd anomalies
and disputes are a further but inevitable consequence
of the illogical policy of the Treaties.

Such is the position that is occupied by Korea
vis-a-vis with the more powerful nations with whom
ThecarcMe the march of events has brought her into

and the . .

eagle* dircct contact. She is confronted with the
ill-suppressed cupidity of Russia, the prodigious
latent force of China, the jealous and vainglorious
interest of Japan. By herself she is quite incapable
of successful resistance to any one of these three,
though her statesmen are not deficient in the skill
required to play off each against the other. Her
intrinsic weakness is in reality her sole strength;
for were she powerful enough to render her own
alliance an appreciable weight in the scale, she might
be tempted to adopt a course of action that must
infallibly result in final absorption. The foolish per-
sons who, from interested motives, prate to her of
independence are inviting her to sign her own death-
warrant. Alone she has no more strength than a
child in arms ; though, so long as her three great
neighbours continued to regard each other from a
watchful distance, Korea, which lies between, might
escape the armaments of each. Now, however, that
the gage of battle has been thrown down between
two of the three, her territorial integrity, to which
all three are virtually pledged, is vanishing into thin
air, and will be dijQScult to re-establish. An inter-
national guarantee has sometimes been suggested as

232 KOREA

a stop-gap ; but Eussia, we may be sure, would de-
cline to move one step beyond her existing pledge,
which she probably already regrets, while China
could hardly be asked to guarantee her own vassal.
My own conviction is that the only hope of continued
national existence for Korea lies in the maintenance
of her connection with China, which history, policy,
and nature combine to recommend, and which offers,
in addition, the sole guarantee for the recovery and
preservation of peace. China has kept her alive for
500 vears, and the shadow of China in the back-
ground has been the one stable element in the dis-
solving view of her Lilliputian politics.

That this is the opinion, not merely of an outside

English spectator, nor of China herself, but of the

second most interested Asiatic Power, Japan,

Conclusion , •nii i i-i*

there was, till lately, much reason to believe.
Both China and Japan, the one for historical pride
of sovereignty and empire, the other for popular
sentiment and tradition, have been compelled to atti-
tudinise somewhat in the matter of Korea. Both are
in reality looking over their shoulders at the real
antagonist, Eussia. Both are equally concerned in
keeping her out. She would be not more odious to
the one in the Yellow Sea than to the other in the
Sea of Japan. Both are secretly conscious that by a
mutual understanding alone between them can this
object be secured. Such an understanding may be
compromising to the legitimate suzerainty of China,
and may be complicated by the sentimental claims
of Japan ; but each knows that whereas Eussia with

KOREA and PEKING

THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF KOREA 233

the tacit acquiescence or the neutrality of the other
might at any day ' cast out her shoe ' over Korea,
Eussia, threatened with the combined antagonism of
both, must restrict her ambitions to the northern
bank of the Tiumen. Of this common conviction
there may be very little evidence in the external
symptoms of Asiatic policy ; for the Chinese Govern-
ment, with the best cards in its possession, has had
no reason to prematurely show its hand ; while the
Japanese Government, dealing with a newly con-
stituted chamber and a newly enfranchised elec-
torate, both of which are dominated by patriotic and
Chauvinistic emotions, is engaged in playing to the
gallery. That the truth, however, is manifest to
the able statesmen who respectively guide their
countries' destinies, to Count Ito and to the Viceroy
Li Hung Chang, is evident from the co-operation
which at moments of genuine crisis the two Powers
have hitherto always exhibited in Korea, and to the
practical agreement which, at some cost to the pride
of both, they succeeded in concluding in 1885.
Eecent events have complicated the situation, and
may seem to presage the dawn of a new era. Never-
theless, I adhere to the hope that sober sense may,
even at the eleventh hour, prevail with Japan as
well as with China. A continuation of this statesman-
like tradition will be the best means of preserving
the integrity of a country that is so essential to the
safety of both.

CHINA

'And so he passed with his folk, and wan the Lond
of Cathay, that is the Grettest Kyngdom of the World '

Sib John Maundeville, Travels

CHAPTEE Vm

THE COUNTRY AND CAPITAL OF CHINA

minseque
Muromm ingentes, teqnataqne machina ccelo.

ViBGiL, jEneid IV, 88 9.

A MORE singular contrast can scarcely be found than
is presented by the transition from Korea to China.
Transition Ffom romautic mountain scenery the travel-
"^ ler passes, at least on his way up to Peking, to
flat and featureless plains. He exchanges the miniature
Korean stallion, which rarely advances beyond a
walk, for the sturdy China pony, upon which he will
with ease cover seven miles an hour, or a day's march
of forty miles. In place of the confined and filthy
Korean hostelry, he will sleep with comparative
comfort in the ample surroundings of a Chinese inn.
He has left behind the most supine and spiritless of
the peoples of the Far East, and sees about him the
frugal, hard-limbed, indomitable, ungracious race,
who oppose to all overtures from the outside the
sullen resistance of a national character self-confidenl
and stolid, a religious and moral code of incredible
and all-absorbing rigour, And a governing system
that has not varied for ages, and is still wrapped in
the mantle of a superb and paralysing conceit. Most

238 CHINA

travellers deplore the transition from Japan to China
as one from sweetness to squalor, from beauty to
ugliness, from civilisation to barbarism, from warmth
of welcome to cheerless repulsion. And yet I am
not sure that a truer estimate is not formed of the
prodigious strength of Chinese character and custom
by the ability to contrast them with the captivating
external attributes of Japan ; whilst a check is placed
upon the too indiscriminate laudation of the latest
recruit to civilisation by the spectacle of a people who
have lived and would be content, if we permitted them,
to go on living without any contact with the West
at all, and who think what we call truth error, our
progress weakness, and our fondest ideals an abomi-
nation. Perhaps as a stepping-stone between the two,
akin to yet also profoundly dissimilar from either,
Korea supplies a link that may at once break and
lend point to the abruptness of the contrast.

The journey from the coast of the Gulf of Pechili
up to the capital seems to have won an undeserved
reputation for painfulness in travellers'
writings. It is true that the visitor may lie
tossing for one, two, or more days on the mud-bar
outside the Taku forts at the mouth of the Peiho —
in which position he may picture the plight of the
British gunboats, which on that fatal day in 1859
rolled helplessly in precisely the same plight under
the pitiless pounding of the enemy's guns. But,
once landed, he may now avoid the further delays of
the serpentine river-course to Tientsin by taking the
railway train that runs thrice daily to that city ;

THE COUNTRY AND CAPITAL OF CHINA 239

while the sights of Tientsin itself are, to any but
those who have never before seen a great Chinese
centre of population, very rapidly exhausted. To
the ordinary European traveller almost its sole
interest lies in the fact that it was the scene of the
famous massacre of 1870, an eloquent testimony
to which still survives in the ruined towers and facade
of the French Catholic Cathedral on the right bank
of the Peiho.

To all who have followed the course of Chinese
history during the last quarter of a century, Tientsin
The Vice- ^^^ prcscut the additional interest of being
Hung* ^^^ residence of the foremost living Chinese
^^^^ statesman, the Viceroy Li Hung Chang. First
made famous by his conduct and generalship during
the Taiping Rebellion, his connection in which with
the late General Gordon is well known, he succeeded
Tseng Kwo Fan (the elder of the two Tsengs, and
father of the ambassador) as Governor General of
Kiangsu in 1862, and became Viceroy of Kukuang
in 1867. In 1870 he settled at Tientsin, where he
succeeded the same eminent statesman as Viceroy of
the metropolitan province of Chihli, and was entrusted
with the delicate negotiations with England, arising
out of the Margary murder, that resulted in the
Chefoo Convention of 1876. Now for nearly twenty
years the Senior Grand Secretary of State, the first
Chinese subject who has ever been promoted to that
dignity,^ he also combines in his person the viceregal

* The Grand Secretariat, or Nei Ko, which was the Supreme Council,
or Cabinet, of the Chinese Empire under the Ming dynasty, is the

240 CHINA

functions above mentioned, as well as those of Super-
intendent of the Northern Ports and Imperial Com-
missioner for Foreign Trade. As such he not merely
divides with the late Marquis Tseng the distinction of
being the most remarkable figure whom his country
has produced during the last thirty years, but he
remains to this day a sort of unofficial Foreign
Minister and confidential adviser to his Sovereicfn,
without whose knowledge nothing, however unim-
portant, takes place, and without whose advice
nothing important is done. His Chinese extraction
and his commanding position have sometimes sug-
gested to others the hypothesis of a rising against the
Manchu occupants of the throne, and of a new
Chinese dynasty, founded by Li Hung Chang himself ;
and it is even said that he has at different times, in

senior of the two bodies which intervene between the Sovereign and
the Administrative Departments in the Chinese r^gime^ and consists
theoretically of two Manchu and two Chinese Grand Secretaries, with
their assistants and staffs. It now forms the Imperial Chancery, or
Court of Archives, and admission to one of its superior posts confers
the highest distinction attainable by a Chinese official, although en-
tailing little more than nominal duties. For purposes of actual ad-
ministration it has been superseded by the second body, viz. the Chun
Chi Chu, or Grand Council, which is the acting Privy Council of the
Sovereign, in whose presence its members daily transact the business
of State, in a hall of the Imperial Palace at Peking, at the inconceivable
hour of 4 o'clock in the morning. It is a Cabinet composed of Minis-
ters in the capital holding other substantive offices. Their number is
imdetermined, but for many years past has not exceeded five. Its
Presidential chair, which was successively occupied by Prince Kung
and Prince Chun, and is now filled by Prince Li, is practically equivalent
to the post of Prime Minister. Two or three members of the Tsungli
Yamen, or Foreign Board, generally hold seats in this Council, and
all its members enjoy the technical right of audience with the Emperor.
For a more minute account of the theoretical organisation and functions
of the two Councils, vide Prof. R. K. Douglas' excellent recently
published work, Society in China,

THE COUNTRY AND CAPITAL OF CHINA 241

troublesome crises, been sounded upon the matter
both by England and by France. There has never,
however, been any reason to suspect his loyalty,
which, if tempted, has not been seriously impugned ;
and he remains to this day the strongest pillar of the
Imperial throne. Many times has the Viceroy, who
is now seventy-one years of age, petitioned to be
relieved from the responsibilities, official and super-
numerary, of his great position, but on each occasion
has appeared an Imperial Eescript, commanding him
in complimentary terms to continue the discharge of
duties from which he could not be spared. Perhaps
not the least evidence of his abiUty hes in the fact
that whilst he has been justly celebrated for his
liberal sentiments, and is mainly responsible for
whatever of Western experience, invention, or know-
ledge China has seen fit to adopt, he has never
compromised the deeply grounded instincts of the
national character, or forfeited the admiring confi-
dence of his own fellow-countrymen.

At Tientsin I was honoured by the Viceroy with

an interview, to which I look back with the greatest

pleasure. The Viceregal Yamen is a building

Interview

in the official quarters of which, at any rate,
there is neither distinction nor beauty. Carried in
green palanquins to the gate, we there descended
and passed through one or more dingy anterior courts,
small, squaUd, and coarsely painted, to an inner room,
where seats had been placed round a long table. The
Viceroy entered, a tall and commanding figure, con-
siderably over six feet in height, dressed in a long

B

242 CHINA

grey silk robe, with a black silk cape over his
shoulders. Taking his seat at the head of the table,
the Viceroy, with the aid of a competent interpreter,
commenced a discussion, mainly upon contemporary
politics, which lasted for over an hour. He con-
tinually put the most searching and ingenious ques-
tions; being renowned, indeed, for his faculty of
* pumping ' others about what he desires to ascertain,
without emitting the least corresponding drop of
moisture himself. While speaking or listening his
small, black, restless eyes follow keenly every move-
ment of the features. A big moustache overhangs
and partially conceals his mouth, and a sparse Chinese
beard adorns his chin. His hair is quite grey and is
turning white. Speaking of England, he wished par-
ticularly to know whether the recent change of
Government involved a change in foreign policy, or
whether Mr. Gladstone might be expected to pursue
the same line as Lord Salisbury. Upon this point the
nomination of Lord Eosebery as Foreign Secretary ena-
bled me to give the Viceroy consolatory assurances.
Discussing the tortuous policy which had been fol-
lowed in relation to the Chinese vassal State which I
had just left, he admitted that Korea had been ill-
advised, and even allowed that ' there had been ill-
advisers in China also.' The Pamirs and Lhasa were
the remaining subjects of our conversation, and the
Viceroy produced one of the Eoyal Geographical
Society's small maps of the former region.

From Tientsin the traveller has the choice of
covering the distance that separates him from Peking

THE COUNTRY AND CAPITAL OF CHINA 243

-either by an agreeable two days' ride of eighty miles/
•or by a house-boat on the river, which, by alternate
Journey Sailing, poHng, rowing, and tracking, should
to Pekmg QQ^yey i^iuj ^q j^jg destination in something

between two and three days.^

The scenery, consisting as it does of a vast expanse
of alluvial mud, not uncommonly under water, and
Chinese Tclieved only by mud villages of greater or
rural life j^gg gj^g^ j^ay gtrikc the new-comer as repul-
sive. But a Uttle deeper insight will show him in
these selfsame villages, and in the wide tilled plains
about them — countless replicas of which I have seen
during both my visits to China — the evidences of an
agricultural contentment and prosperity that contrast
favourably with the more picturesque surroundings
of village life in neighbouring countries. The main
street of each village is frequently sunk considerably
below the level of the houses, and is apt to be filled
with the ebb of an unexhausted inundation. The
houses are humble, but neither small nor poverty-
stricken. Artificial privies, made of reeds, are fre-
quently erected outside, with a view to economise all
available manure. The village threshing-floor, rolled
to a compact and level hardness, lies near by. The
shops exhibit at least as many commodities as in an

* First day — three hours* ride to Yangtsun (inn), 20 miles ; ditto
to Hoh-Hsi-wu (inn), 20 miles. Second day — three hours' ride to half-
way village, Hsin-ho (inn), 20 miles; ditto to Peking, 20 miles.
Total 80 miles.

^ It is best, of course, to ride up and to sail down ; since the upward
loumey by river sometimes, with an unfavourable wind, occupies from
four to five days. The return journey can be shortened by riding from
Peking as far as Matou, 28 miles, and picking up the house-boat there.

K 2

244 CHINA

English village of corresponding size. Women and
children abound, the former neatly dressed and
coiffured, the latter dirty but cheerful. Upon a wage
of less than hs. a month the men can find adequate
subsistence. A great variety of animals in good
condition — mules, donkeys, ponies, and oxen — are
employed either for tillage or burden. The eating-
houses and tea-shops are filled with noisy crowds,
and the inns are frequent and commodious. The
peoplie inhabiting such a locaUty are Uable to occa-
sional and appalling visitations of flood, pestilence,
or famine. But, thes.e risks excepted, their Uves are
probably as happy, their condition as prosperous,
and their contentment as well assured as those of the
rural population in any European country. The
taxation imposed upon them is only nominal. The
obligations which they stupidly incur to pawnshops
or usurers, in pursuit either of the national vice of
gambling or of other forms of extravagance, are a
greater burden upon them than is the hand of the
State. So little fear is there of disturbance that the
force behind the provincial government is in most
cases ridiculously small. In China there are no
poUce except the unpaid hangers-on of the yamenSy
assisted, in the event of a riot, by any soldiery in the
neighbourhood. Life may be uneventful ; but so it
is to the peasant in every land. He usually demands
httle beyond the means of liveUhood, freedom from
exaction, and the peaceful enjoyment of his modest
wage.

From such surroundings, which, however respect-

THE COUNTRY AND CAPITAL OF CHINA 245

able, are too unlovely to be idyllic, the stranger rides
into the din and dust, the filth and foulness, the vene*
Entrance ^able and measureless bewilderment of Pe-
to Peking ting.^ Unique, and of its kind unequalled,
is the impression produced by this great city of over
three-quarters of a million souls ^ upon even the sea-
soned traveller. He may have seen the drab squalor
of Bokhara and Damascus, have tasted the odours of
Canton and Soul, and heard the babel uproar of
Baghdad and Isfahan ; but he has never seen dirt,
piled in mountains of dust in the summer, spread in
oozing quagmires of mud after the rains, like that of
Peking; his nostrils have never been assailed by
fiuch myriad and assorted effluvia ; and the drums of
his ears have never cracked beneath such a remorse-
less and dissonant concussion of sound. These are
the first impressions of the stranger ; they appear, in
a great many cases, to be the abiding association of
the resident. If, however, a man can succeed in
detaching himself from the sensuous medium upon
which such constant and violent attacks are made from
ivithout, he will find in Peking much both to excite
Ms astonishment and to arrest his concern. In the
mighty walls, in some parts fifty feet high and well-nigh
as broad, covering a rectangular circumference of

^ Peking is written and pronounced by the Chinese Pei-ching,
a.nd signifies Northern Capital, just as Nan-king signifies Southern
Capital

' This seems to be the most reasonable estimate, the population

• Jiaving greatly dwindled in modem times. In the seventeenth century

the Jesuit Grimaldi estimated the total at 16,000,000 ! Du Halde

reckoned 8,000,000, which numbers were also given to Lord Macartney

in 1798. Elaproth named 1,800,000.

246 CHINA

twenty-one miles,^ and rising skywards with colossal
symmetry of outline, save where their vertical profile is^
broken by huge projecting bastions, or their horizontal
edge is interrupted by enormous castellated keepa
or gate-towers, he observes a sight without parallel in
the modern world — one which, more than any relic of
the past that I have ever seen, recalls that Babylon
whose stupendous battlements were the wonder of
antiquity, the mystery of our childhood, and the
battleground of our academic days. Shrouded
behind these monumental defences, the gates of
which are still opened and closed with the sun, just
as they were in the Cambaluc of Marco Polo, of which
this modern Peking is both the lineal heir and the
faithful reproduction,^ the fourfold city — Chinese,.

' The walls of the Manchu or Tartar city (called by the Chmese
Nei-cheng, Le. Inner City) in their present condition date from the
time of the Ming Emperors, i.e. from the beginning of the fifteenth
century onwards. They are from forty to fifty feet in height, and sixty
feet wide at the base, consisting of a stone foundation and two walls of
immense bricks, the space between which is filled in with mud and
paved with bricks at the top. The Tartar city is over fourteen milea
in circumference and is entered by nine gates, six in the outer wall
and three in the inner or south wall, which is also the north wall of the
Chinese city. The latter, or Outer City, Wai-cheng, is nine miles in cir-
cumference, excluding the northern or common wall, and its walls are
from twenty-five to thirty feet high, and twenty-five feet wide at thebase*
They are entered by seven outer and three inner gates (the latter being
identical with those already named). The grand total of gates is there-
fore sixteen, of which thirteen are in the outer wall. In the embrasures-
of the gate-towers are fixed boards upon which are painted the nozzles-
of imaginary cannons — an innocent device which is supposed both ta
terrify the advancing enemy and to deceive the war god Euan-ti, who,
as he looks down from heaven, is overjoyed to see the city in a state of
such splendid defence. In deference to the misogynist prejudices of the
same deity, women are not allowed upon the walls.

^ Yen-king, the capital of the Kin Tartars, which was situated a little
to the south of the present Peking, was captured by Jinghiz Khan in

THE COUNTRY AND CAPITAL OF CHINA 247

Tartar, Imperial, and Forbidden — is at once an histo-
rical monument, carrying us back to the age of Kublai
Khan; a vast stationary camp of nomads, pouring
down from Mongolian deserts and Tartar steppes ;
the capital of an empire that is to Eastern Asia what
Byzantium was to Eastern Europe ; the sanctuary of
a religion that is more manifold than that of Athens
and more obstinate than that of Eome ; and the resi-
dence of a monarch who is still the Son of Heaven to
850,000,000 of human beings, whom a bare score of
living foreigners have ever seen, and who at the end
of the nineteenth century continues to lead an exist-
ence that might better befit either the Veiled Prophet
of Klorasan or the Dalai Lama of Tibet.

The ground-plan of Peking, which dates directly
from the time of the Mongol Kublai Khan, and was
Ground- practically a reproduction in brick and
P^*^ mortar of a military camp, is exceedingly

simple; and its principal landmarks are so promi-
nently placed, that in spite of its vast size and the
sameness of its disgusting streets, a stranger very
soon learns his way about. The walls of the Tartar
city frame an immense quadrangle, almost a square,
facing the points of the compass, and on the southern
side subtended and slightly overlapped by the more
elongated parallelogram of the Chinese city. It

1215. His grandBon Kublai Khan (the patron of Marco Polo) rebuilt
the capital on a rather more northerly site in 1264-7, and called it in
Chinese Tatu or Taidu, i.e. Great Court. It was also called Khan-baligh,
i,e. City of the Khan, the Cambaluc of Marco Polo, and covered ap«
proximately the same site as the modem Tartar city, beyond which, how*
ever, its wall, which stiU exists, extended about two miles on the north.

248 CHINA

should be added that this ethnographical distinction
of inhabitants, which was enforced for expediency's
sake at the time of the Manchu conquest in 1644, has
since been almost entirely effaced, the Tartar element
having been in the main absorbed, and the Chinese
having overflowed into the quarters that were at first
reserved for the conquering race. Within the walls of
the Tartar city is a second walled quadrangle, con-
stituting the Huang-cheng, or Imperial city, about
seven miles in circuit, containing the public offices,
barracks, and many temples and residences of
princes, nobles, and officials; and in the centre of
the Imperial city is the final and innermost walled
enclosure of the Tzu-chin-cheng, or Pink Forbidden
city, a succession of magnificent yellow-tiled halls, of
palaces, kiosques, lakes, and gardens, where, behind
the protection of pale pink rampart and wide moat, the
Lord of this great domain, the master of 350,000,000
human beings, and the Vicegerent of Heaven, himself
all but a god, lives a prisoner's life. On the northern
side of the Palace rises the Ching-shan, or Prospect
Hill, whose wooded sides and five summits, crowned
with kiosques or temples, are the most conspicuous
object in the city as seen from the Tartar wall.
Tradition relates that this elevation is made of coal,
and was artificially raised by the Ming Emperors as a
provision against the hardships of a prolonged siege ;
it is therefore also called Mei-shan, or Coal Hill.
But I am not aware that this hypothesis has ever
been tested by driving a shaft into the interior ; and
the hill, which seems to be absolutely identical with

THE COUNTRY AND CAPITAL OF CHINA 249

the one described by Maxco Polo as having been
thrown up by the Mongols, is more likely to have
been raised as a screen to the Imperial dwelling on
its northern side, in deference to the popular super-
stition of the fengshui. There is something imposing
and hieratic in the mysterious symboUsm of the
ground-plan of Peking, in the conception of the^e
concentric defences successively protecting and
shielding from mundane contact the central sanc-
tuary, the o/i(f>0LKo^ yrj^j where the representative of
Heaven, as it were in a Holy of Holies, resides.

From another point of view there may be said to be
three Pekings, — the exterior Peking as seen from the
The three ^^^Y ^^s, which is a dclicious wilderness of
Pekingg green trees, in the depths of which the dust
and nastiness are submerged, and from whose leafy
surface rise only the curled roofs of yellow-tiled
palaces and temples, an occasional pagoda, a distant
tower; the interior Peking, or the Peking of the
streets, tumultuous, kaleidoscopic, pestilential, shrill ;
and the innermost Peking, or the mysteries hidden
behind the pink and yellow walls that conceal so
hermetically from the alien eye the penetralia both
of secular and spiritual adoration. The first of these
is the only aspect in which the charm is unshattered
by jarring associations ; although, when we descend
into it we wonder where the shade and the verdure
have gone to, so completely do they seem to have
disappeared. To the second, however, a few more
words may be devoted, inasmuch as it is the Peking
of every-day life.

As we go forth into it for every excursion, either
of duty or pleasure, we have to settle our means of
Psnotaro* locomotion. Shall they be ponies, whose
Btreet» leflst movement will envelop us in an acrid
whirlwind of dust, or the Peking cart, that strange
and springless wooden vehicle of which it is doubtful
whether it was first invented to resist the chasms and

crevasses and moraines of the streets of Peking, or
whether they were devised to harmonise with its
primitive and barbaric structure ? Or, rejecting the
two sole means of assisted locomotion — for no other
animal and no other vehicle are available, chairs
being reserved for very high officials in the capital,
and Europeans preferring for etiquette's sake not to

THE COUNTRY AND CAPITAL OF CHINA 251

use them — shall we proceed on foot, and pick our
way cautiously from peak to peak amid the archipel-
ago of universal ordure? Presently we emerge on
to a main street. Its great breadth is successfully
concealed by the two lines of booths that have
sprung up in the kind of ditch that extends on either
side of the elevated central roadway ; but through
the dust we may discern a long vista, the parallel
walls of which present a line of fantastic poles, gilded
signboards, carved woodwork, and waving streamers
and lanterns — the insignia and advertisement of the
shops that open below. Down this avenue streams
and jostles a perpetual crowd of blue-clad, long-
queued, close-shaven, brazen-lunged men ; Chinese
women hobbling feebly on their mutilated stumps ;
thickly-rouged Tartar wives, blushing (artificially)
beneath a head-dress of smooth black hair, parted in
several places on the crown, and plastered tightly
over a projecting comb that stands out like a long
paper-cutter at right angles to the head ; a sparsely
bearded mandarin seen nodding behind his saucer-
like spectacles in a screened sedan ; long strings of
splendid two-humped camels, parading a magnificent
winter coat, and blinking a supercilious eye as they
stalk along to the heavy cadence of the leader's bell,
laden with sacks of lime or coal from the hills;
Mongolians in shaggy caps bestriding shaggier
ponies ; half-naked coolies wheeling casks of oil or
buckets of manure on creaking barrows; boys
perched on the tails of minute donkeys ; ramshackle
wagons drawn by mixed teams of mules, asses,

252 . CHINA

ponies, and oxen yoked together by a complicated
-entanglement of rope traces passing through an iron
ring ; abominable and hairy black pigs running in
and out of the animals' legs ; good-looking but
cowardly dogs that bark and skedaddle ; and above
all the crush and roar of the ubiquitous Peking cart,
thundering with its studded wheels over the stone
bridges and crashing into the deep ruts, drawn by
the most majestic mules in Asia, cruelly bitted with
a wire across the upper gum.

This is the panorama of the central aisle. In the
side aisles or alleys all the more stationary purveyors
Native of the amuscmeuts or necessities of life are

practi-

tioners jammed up together ; barbers shaving with-
out soap the foreheads of stolid customers seated
upon stools, dentists and chiropodists proclaiming
their extraordinary skill, auctioneers screaming the
glories of second-hand blouses and pantaloons, cob-
blers puncturing the thick sole of the native shoe,
gamblers shaking spills or playing dominoes, or back-
ing against all comers a well-nurtured fighting
cricket, pedlars and hucksters with their wares
extended on improvised stalls or outspread upon the
ground, curio-dealers offering carved jade snuff-
^ bottles or porcelain bowls, vendors of the opium-pipe
and the water-pipe, charm-sellers and quacks with
trays of strange powders and nauseating drugs,
acrobats performing feats of agility, sword-players
slashing the air with huge naked blades, story-tellers
enchaining an open-mouthed crowd, itinerant musi-
. cians tweaking a single-stringed guitar, country folk

THE COUNTRY AND CAPITAL OF CHINA 255

vending immense white cabbages or ruddy red
persimmons, soldiers with bows and arrowy behind
their backs going out to practise, coolies drawing
water from the deeply grooved marble coping of
immemorial wells, and men and boys of every age
carrying birds in cages or a singing chaffinch
attached by a string to a stick. A more than
ordinary shouting will herald the approach, though
it will hardly clear a way, for a bridal procession, in
which the bride, tightly locked in an embroidered
red palanquin,^ follows after a train of boys bearing
lanterns and men blowing portentous trumpets or
tapping Gargantuan drums ; or of a funeral cortege j
in which the corpse, preceded by umbrellas and
tablets, rests upon a gigantic red catafalque or bier,
with difficulty borne upon the shoulders of several
score of men.^ In curious contrast with the caco-
phonous roar of this many-tongued crowd a melo-
dious whirring sings in the air, and is produced by
whistles attached to the tails of domestic pigeons.

Such is the street life of Peking, a phantas-
magoria of excruciating incident, too bewildering to
The grasp, too aggressive to acquiesce in, too

Imperial i i . x/» /• •

Palace absorbmg to escape. If we turn from it to

* Bed is the festive colour in China. The bridal chair is first carried
to the bride*s home, accompanied by music, lanterns, and trays of
sweetmeats. There she enters, and, preceded by herlady^s maids and
followed by one of her brothers, is conveyed to the bridegroom's house,
being so hermetically shut up in the sedan that sometimes in the hot
summer weather she is taken out fainting, and occasionally even dead.

' The number of bearers ranges from 16 to 128 according to the
rank of the deceased, 64 being a not uncommon and respectable
number.

254 CHINA

the Peking of sanctuaries, palaces, and shrines, we
are in a very different atmosphere at once. For just
as everything in the other Peking is public and
indecent, so here everything is clandestine, veiled,
and sealed. The keynote to the remainder is struck
by the enclosure within enclosure, the Forbidden
city inside the Imperial city, where the Lord of
countless millions, so well described as the ' solitary
man,' resides. In former days, indeed as late as
1887, parts of the Palace-grounds, the lakes and
gardens and marble bridges, were accessible to
foreigners ; photographs can be purchased that
reveal their features, and the majority of resident
Europeans can speak from recollection of the site.
Now all is closed ; and from the exterior nothing can
be seen but the yellow roofs of the great halls and
the elegant pavilions that crown the higher elevations.
To the innermost eTiceinte or Palace no man is ad-
mitted. There the Imperial person and harem are
surrounded by a vast body of eunuchs, estimated at
from 8,000 to 10,000. When the Emperor goes out
to worship at any of the temples, or to visit his
palaces in the vicinity, no one is allowed in the
streets, which are swept clear of all stalls and booths,
and are very likely paved for the occasion, while the
houses are barricaded or closed with mats. Only in
the country, where such precautions are impossible,
can the Imperial person be seen, borne swiftly by
scores of retainers in a magnificent sedan.

Of the disposition and tastes of a monarch thus
shrouded from human gaze but little can be known.

THE COUNTRY AND CAPITAL OF CHINA 255

His Imperial Majesty, whose ruling title is Kuang
Hsu, is now twenty-three years of age, and succeeded
The his cousin, the Emperor Tung Chih, nineteen

£mperor

Tung Chih years ago, under circumstances that throw
an interesting light upon the inner mysteries of Court
existence in Peking. Tung Chih also was a child
when he succeeded his father, Hsien Feng, the
fugitive of the Anglo-French campaign, in 1861.
During his minority the Government was virtually
in the hands of two ladies, one of whom, the Empress
of the Eastern Palace, had been the principal wife
and Empress of Hsien Feng, while the other, who,
though the mother of Tung Chih, had not been
Empress, was in consideration of the accession of her
son named Empress Mother and Empress of the
Western Palace. Seizing the reins of Government
by a bold coup cTetat, in which they were assisted by
one of Hsien Feng's brothers, well known to Euro-
peans as Prince Kung, these ladies administered the
State as Eegents, with Prince Kung as Chief Minister,
until in 1873 Tung Chih attained his majority and
shortly afterwards married. The young wife then
became Empress, and the two elder ladies retired
nominally into the background.

Tung Chih, however, was addicted to dissipation,
and very soon gave signs of a faiUng constitution.
The two During his illness a decree was issued, no
Regent doubt at their initiative, in which the
Emperor, passing over his own wife, invited them to
resume their former functions until his restoration to
health. By this clever step the two ladies, who fore-

256 CUINA

saw a second and not less agreeable lease of power
during the minority of a second infant, found them-
selves in the highest place, when, in January 1875,
the Emperor Tung Chih died childless, but leaving a
widow who expected before long to become a mo-
ther. They were now in a position to manipulate
the succession according to their own desires. The
natural course, following the ordinary practice of
Imperial succession, would have been to wait for the
birth of the deceased Emperor's posthumous child,
and in the event of its being stillborn, or a girl, to
select from among the members of the Imperial
family a child who should be adopted as his son, and
during whose minority the widowed Empress should
rule as Eegent. This, however, was not at aU to the
taste of the two ex-Empresses Eegent. Of these the
one who was mother to the late Emperor had a
sister married to Prince Chun, the younger brother
of Prince Kung, the child of which union was there-
fore twice over a nephew of the Emperor Hsien Feng
and cousin of Tung Chih. Ignoring the pregnancy
of the Empress Ah-lu-ta, and passing over the sons of
Prince Chung's elder brothers,^ they selected this
infant, whose name was Tsaitien, and who having
only been born in August 1871, would insure them

^ Prince Kung was willing to submit to this, because it assured him
a renewed lease of power as First Minister, which, according to Chinese
views of parental dignity, would not have been possible had his own
son become Emperor. The latter, moreover, had already passed by
adoption into the family of a yoimger brother of the Emperor Hsien
Feng. Prince Chung, however, violated all precedent later on by
serving his own son, the reigning Emperor, in the same capacity until
his death in 1891.

THE COUNTRY AND CAPITAL OF CHINA 257

a second long spell of Eegency. He was adopted as
a son to Hsien Feng, thus ensuring to them a con-
tinuation of their functions as dowagers, and was
elevated with the ruling title of Kuang Hsu (Glorious
Continuity) to the Dragon Throne; the Eegents
further producing what purported to be a nomina-
tion of the child by the late Tung Chih as his heir.
The only step that remained to complete the success
of the arrangement was the disappearance of the
young widowed Empress of Tung Chih before the
birth of her child could upset the plot ; and Chinese
opinion can have been little surprised when the early
announcement of her death was made, the cata-
strophe being generally explained by the popular
Chinese practice of suicide, though whispers were
not lacking of a more sinister doom. It will be seen
from the above account that there was quite a clus-
ter of irregularities, to use no stronger term, in the
nomination of the reigning Sovereign. But, according
to Chinese ideas, the main flaw in his title consists in
his belonging to the same generation as the Emperor
Tung Chih, and in his consequent disqualification
from performing the sacrifices that are due from a
descendant to his Imperial predecessor, whose legal
successor therefore he cannot be. It was this injury
done to the memory of Tung Chih that formed the
protest of the censor Wu-ko-tu, who committed
suicide during one of the Imperial visits to the
ancestral tombs, in order to attract public attention
to the scandal.

The second Eegency lasted for fourteen years, until

s

258 CHINA

in 1889 the young Emperor assumed the reins of
power and married his cousin Yeh-ho-na-la. Provi-
TheEm- deuce has not yet favoured him with an heir,

press Dow-
ager although, according to the Chinese practice,

several appointments have already been made to the
titular office of Guardian to the Heir Apparent.
The senior of the two Eegents, the Empress
Dowager of Hsien Teng, had died in 1881, but the
second, or mother of Tung Chih, the Empress
Tzu Hsi, continued and continues to survive, and, in
spite of her nominal withdrawal from public life, still
wields a predominant influence in the government of
the Empire. In November of the present year (1894)
she attains her sixtieth year, and great are the
celebrations and rejoicings in honour of this auspi-
cious event. The Emperor has paid her the supreme
compliment of adding two more ideographs to her
already elongated title, which now runs as follows :
' Tzu-hsi-tuan-yu-kang-i-chao-yu-chuang-cheng- shou-
kung-chin-hsien-chung-hsi.' A recent issue of the
' Peking Gazette ' also contained the following emi-
nently filial announcement : —

' The superlative goodness of the most August Empress
Dowager is brightly manifest, and Her comprehensive fore-
sight benefits the whole race. By ceaseless diligence within
Her Palace she secures the peace of the entire realm. Since
Our accession to the Throne We have in respectful attend-
ance coastantlv received Her admirable instructions. With
great gladness We perceive Her gracious Majesty in robust
health and cheerful spirits. In the year 189i Her Majesty
will happily attain the illustrious age of sixty years, and it
will be Our duty at the head of the officials and people

THE COUNTRY AND CAPITAL OF CHINA 259

of the whole Empire to testify onr delight and to pray for
blessings.'

It is a curious coincidence — in contradiction of
the popular theories concerning the Eastern subjec-
tion of women — that both in China and Korea I
should have found the de facto sovereign belonging
to the female sex.

Upon no bed of roses, however, can the Em-
peror of China lie. The ceremonial functions of his
The Em- life, whcther as Supreme Euler or as Pon-

peror Ku-

ong Hsu tifex Maximus of his people, are manifold
and engrossing. His education, both in the native
classics and in such departments of foreign learning
as may be thought desirable, is not neglected ; and
the present Emperor, who is known to take a deep
interest in everything English, receives daily English
lessons, at a very early hour in the morning, before
giving audience to his ministers, from two Chinese
students of the Tung Wen Kuan, or Foreign College
at Peking, who, unlike the Ministers, are allowed to
sit in the Imperial presence. As an instance of the
young ruler's keen concern in his English studies, I
may mention that when he received a copy of the
' Life of the Prince Consort ' as a present from Her
Majesty the Queen, he sent it down at once to the
Tung Wen Kuan to be translated, and was impatient
until he had received it back.^ In the still hours

* The following description of his personal appearance was given by
an eye-witness of the Audience of 1891 : — * His air is one of exceeding
intelligence and gentleness, somewhat frightened, and melancholy
looking. His face is pale, and though it is distinguislied by refinement
and quiet dignity, it has none of the force of his martial ancestors.

8 2

260 CHINA

of the night, when no sound but the watchman's
rythmical tap intrudes upon the silence, palanquins
may be seen wending their way to the Palace-gates ;
and there, at 3 and 4 a.m., long before sunrise,
custom prescribes that the young monarch shall give
audience to such of his Ministers as have access to
his person, and shall give or refuse to the documents
which they present the crowning sanction of the ver-
milion seal.

What with the necessary but dolorous routine of
his official existence on the one hand, rigidly pre-
Paiacerou- scribed by an adamantine and punctilious eti-
*^^® quette, and with the temptations of the harem

on the other, it is rarely that an Emperor of China —
usually an infant, and selected because of his infancy
in the first place, and exposed through the tender
years of his youth to these twofold preoccupations —
can develop any force of character, or learn the ru-
dimentary lessons of statecraft. The safety of the
dynasty and the sanctity of the Imperial title are
supposed to be summed up in the unswerving main-
tenance of this colossal Imperial nightmare at Peking.
Were it to be dissipated or shattered by the appear-
ance of a strong Sovereign, who to the ascendency of
personal authority added an emancipation from the

nothing commanding or imperious, but is altogether mild, delicate,
sad, and kind. He is essentially Manchu in features; his skin is
strangely pallid in hue ; his face is oval- shaped with a very long
narrow chin, and a sensitive mouth with thin nervous lips ; his nose
is well-shaped and straight, his eyebrows regular and very arched,
while the eyes are unusually large and sorrowful in expression. The
forehead is well-shaped and broad, and the head is large beyond the
average.'

THE COUNTRY AND CAPITAL OF CHINA 261

petrified traditions of the Palace, the phantom of
Imperial power would, it is commonly said, suffer
irretrievable collapse. But at least the spectacle, or
the experiment, would be one of surpassing interest ;
nor do I see any very clear reason why a present or
a future Emperor should not take that more public
part which was filled only a century ago by the
Emperor Kieng Lung, and a century earlier by the
Emperor Kang Hsi.

Profound, however, as is the obscurity attaching
to the Palace life, a scarcely less, and a far more
The exasperating, mystery has in the last few

Heaven years bceu allowed to gather about the
various sacred enclosures within the city, which are
the goal to which the traveller's gaze has been turned
from afar. Till within the last fourteen years most of
these were easily accessible, and old residents record
how they have played at cricket in the park of the
Temple of Heaven, and explored the Temples of Agri-
culture, the Sun, and Moon. In proportion, however,
as the memory of the war of 1860 has receded, and the
power for menace of the foreigner been diminished,
so has the arrogance of the Chinese grown; and
nothing now gives them greater pleasure than the
sullen and sometimes insolent rejection of the
* foreign devil ' from the doors to which he once
gained undisturbed entry. In the case of the Im-
perial Temples or enclosures there is the further
excuse, that whereas during the long minorities of the
present and the preceding Emperor, they were not
used for worship, and were consequently neglected.

262 CHINA

tlieir sanctity has now been vindicated and revived.
I know of no foreigner, accordingly, who has been
admitted to the Temple of Heaven for nine years ;
although, having climbed, not without judicious
bribery, the southern wall of the Chinese city, which
immediately overlooks the sacred enclosure, I could
with ease observe from thence the vast roofless altar,
three stages high, of glittering white marble, where-
upon, at the summer and winter solstice, at two
hours before sunrise, the Emperor makes burnt-ofler-
ing and sacrifice on behalf of his people to the
Supreme Lord of Heaven ; could recognise the Hall
of Fasting, where he remains in solitary meditation
during the night; the southern circular Temple of
the Tablets ; the three great red poles, from which
are hung lanterns to illumine the ceremony ;
and the scaffolding surrounding the site of the
renowned triple-roofed, blue-tiled temple above the
northern altar, the chief glory of the entire enclosure,
which was burned to the ground a few years ago, and
is now in course of a snail's pace reconstruction.^

It is still quite possible to pass the outer wall ot
the entire enclosure, which is a parallelogram about
Difficulty three miles in circumference, for the dust

of admis- i i i ...

won has blown up agamst it in a manner which

renders it easy to clamber on to the coping and then
to drop down the other side. Here, however, the

^ It was struck by lightning in 1890. The contract for its recon-
struction was 1,000,000 taels (about 210,000Z.), and the new building is
to be complete in 1898. At the time that I was in Peking (Nov. 1892)
the workmen had struck for higher pay, although receiving 2«. a day,
an enonuous wage in China.

THE COUNTRY AND CAPITAL OF CHINA 263

visitor merely finds himself in the wooded park where
the sacrificial animals are kept ; and though he may
succeed in taking the guards by surprise and in
rushing one of the doorways that lead into the inner
enclosures, he is hardly likely to repeat the suc-
cess sufficiently often to conduct him to the inner-
most enceinte where are the altars. In former days
nothing but a httle dash to start with, and a subse-
quent douceur^ were required to overcome the scru-
ples of the custodians ; but such a venture, it is
generally thought, might in the present state of
native feeling be provocative of violence.

Fascinating, indeed, would be the experience of
the man who, by whatever device, succeeded in wit-
The nessing the great annual observance of De-

Annual ,

Sacrifice cembcr 21 ; when, in the glimmer of the
breaking dawn, the Emperor, who has passed the
night in solitary prayer in the Hall of Fasting, comes
forth and dons the sacrificial robe of blue ; when he
leaves on his left hand the northern altar and the
circular temple upon it, with its curving azure roof,
like unto a threefold outspread parasol; when he
moves along the marble causeway between the cypress
groves, and beneath the pailows or arches of sculp-
tured marble; when he passes the single-peaked
Circular Hall of the Tablets, whence the tablets of
Shang-ti, the Supreme Lord, and of the eight deified
Manchu Emperors have already been transferred to
their temporary resting-places on the roofless south-
ern altar ; when to the music of over 200 musi-
cians, and to the mystic movements of a company of

dancers, he approaches the marble mount, and ascends
the triple flight of nine steps each, from the ground
to the lower, and from the lower to the central tier,
whereon are disposed the tablets of the Sun, Moon,
and Stars, and of the Spirits of the Air and Water ;
when, finally, from the central he mounts to the
uppermost terrace, wliere, under the open vault, a

pavilion of yellow silk overshadows the tablets of the
deified Emperors and of Shang-ti, the Supreme Lord.
There arrived, he kneels ; there he burns incense
and offers libations on behalf of his people before the
sacred tablets ; there, nine times, he bows and strikes
the marble platform with his Imperial forehead, in
obeisance to the God of Heaven.

THE COUNTRY AND CAPITAL OF CHINA 265

While in Peking I saw the sights or buildings
wliich are still accessible to the foreigner, though in
The ob- some cases not without difficulty, and in few
servatory -^jthout loug parleying at the wicket, and
the gift of an exorbitant bribe. Of these, perhaps,
the best known is the Kuan-Hsiang-tai,or Observatory,
originally founded in 1279 by Kublai Khan, to con-
tain the instruments of his famous Astronomer Eoyal,
Ko-chow-tsing. Four hundred years later the Mongol
instruments were pronounced out of date by Ferdi-
nando Verbiest, the Jesuit father, who was President
of the Board of Works at the Court of the Manchu
Emperor Kang Hsi, and were superseded by a new
set of instruments, manufactured under Verbiest's
directions at Peking, or (as in the case of the azimuth
dial, presented by Louis XIV. to the Chinese Sove-
reign) imported from Europe. The Ming instruments,
all of bronze, and polished to a glassy smoothness by
long exposure to the dust-charged air of Peking, are
placed under the open sky, on an elevated bastion
rising above the summit of the east Tartar wall,
which, however, is only accessible through a wicket
and courtyard at the base. Of far greater interest, to
my mind, than these objects, which consist of a sex-
tant, a quadrant, an armillary sphere, a great celestial
globe adorned with gilt constellations, and other in-
struments, are the older and discarded fabrications of
the Mongols, which repose under the shadow of trees
in the grassy courtyard below. Here are two armillary
spheres, great intertwined circles or hoops of bronze,
on stands supported by chiselled dragons rampant.

266 CHIXA

Here, also, shut up in two dusty compartments of an
adjoining building, are two objects which no modern
traveller, whose writings I have seen, appears to have
noticed. One is a clepsydra^ or water-clock, probabl)^
dating from the Mongol era, and composed of three
great bronze jars, placed in tiers one above the other,
so that a measured quantity of the water overflowed
within a given space of time. Attached to them in
former times was a figure holding an arrow, on which .
the hours were marked, and which rested on a vessel
floating in one of the cisterns, and changing its ele-
vation as the water rose or fell. This, I think, must
be the disused water-clock, which the early Jesuit
missionaries describe as having formerly been placed
in the Ku-lou, or Drum Tower. The remaining in-
strument is a gnomon, or long table of bronze, alon^
which, down the middle, is marked a meridian of
fifteen feet, divided by transverse lines. Upon this
the sun's rays struck, passing by an aperture in the
wall, the horizon being formed of two pieces of copper
suspended in the air. The instrument has now fallen
to pieces, and no one seems ever to notice it.

Among other places which are usually visited
within the Tartar city is the Kao Chang, or Examina-
Examina- tiou Buildiug, wliich lics bclow and is easily

tion Build-

ing visible from the Observatory Platform. It

consists, like the corresponding structures in the
provincial capitals of China, of long parallel rows of
many thousand cells or pens, in which, once every
three years, the candidates for the second and third
degrees of literary promotion are immured for several

THE COUXTRY AXD CAPITAL OF CHINA 267

days and nights, while they are composing the jejune
though flowery disquisitions that are" to turn the
successful competitors into the higher class of man-
darins. It is the apotheosis— or shall I not rather say
the reduciio ad absurdum ?— of the system, from whose
premonitory symptoms our own country, a tardy
convert to Celestial ideas, is already beginning to
suffer.

In the northern part of the city beyond Prospect
Hill are the Ku-lou, or Drum Tower, containing an
Drum and iuimeuse drum, which is beaten to announce

Bell

Towers the watches of the night, and the Chung-lou,
or Bell Tower, erected by the Emperor Kien Lung in
1740 to shelter one of the five great bells that were
cast by the Emperor Yung Lo at the beginning of the
fifteenth century. Both these towers are immensely
lofty structures, quite 100 feet high, pierced below
by a wide arch.

Everyone also goes to see the Temple of Confucius,
a vast and dusty hall, of the familiar Chinese pattern.
Temple of ^aiscd upou a stone terrace, and containing
Confucius jjQ^hii^g iijgide but the duU red pillars that

support the lofty timbered roof, the tablet of the sage
standing in the centre in a wooden shrine, with the
tablets of the four next most eminent sages, two on
either side, and those of another dozen a little lower
down. The Emperor is supposed to visit and worship
at this temple twice in every year ; but at the time
of my visit the reigning monarch was reported not
yet to have been at all. In an adjoining court are the
so-called stone drums, black cheese-shaped blocks of

268 CHINA

granite inscribed with stanzas in an ancient character,
that are supposed to refer to a hunting expedition of
the Emperor Siuen in the eighth century B.C. On the
opposite side of the same gateway are the replicas
that were made of them by the Emperor Kien Lung.
A neighbouring enclosure contains the commemo-
rative tablets, like the carved letters in the Upper
School at Eton, that display the names of all the
learned doctors who have taken the highest literary
degree, or Chin-shih, since the days of the Mongol.

Adjoining again is the Kuo-tzu-chien, or Imperial
Academy of Learning, an educational establishment
Hall of the which cxists only in respect of habitation
Classics ^^^ ^f name ; and in the centre of this enclo-
sure stands the Pi-yung-kung, or Hall of the Classics,
where, upon a raised throne, the Emperor is supposed
to, but, I believe, does not read an address to the
literati. On the sides of a court in the Kuo-tzu-chien
are also placed under cover the 200 tablets con-
taining the graven text of the Confucian classics.
About all these fabrics, and their silent and deserted
courts, there is an air of academic and immense
repose.

No such impression is derived from a visit to the
Yung-ho-kung, or great Lama temple, which stands
Great closc to the last-mcntioncd enclosure in the

Lama

Temple uorth-cast comcr of the city. Its 1,200
Mongolian inmates, presided over by a Gegen,
or Living Buddha, are celebrated for their vicious
habits and offensive manners. It was considered a
stroke of rare good fortune that, with the aid of an

THE COUNTRY AND CAPITAL OF CHINA 269

experienced Chinese scholar, I obtained en tranche to
the monastery ; although our small party did not
escape from the clutch of its filthy and insolent
inhabitants without being heavily mulcted at the
gate of each court and sanctuary, which were barred
against us one after the other, and being subjected
at intervals to rough usage as well. I retain a vivid
recollection of the main temple, with its three seated
Buddhas and two standing figures, one on either side
of the central image ; with the eighteen Lohans, or
disciples, along the sides ; and with a unique collec-
tion of old cloisonne and gilt bronze vessels, censers,
and utensils, the gifts of emperors, on the various
altars. The furniture of this temple is the finest that
I have seen in China, and reflects a sumptuous anti-
quity befitting a sanctuary of such high repute.
Behind the main temple is the Prayer Hall, filled
with rows of low forms or stools, facing east and
west and divided by mats. As the hour for evensong
was approaching we were unceremoniously hus-
tled out of this building by the assembling monks.
Beyond again is a temple containing a huge gilt
wooden image of Maitreya, the Buddha To Come, not
seated but standing, and with his head touching the
roof seventy feet above. It is possible to cUmb up
to the top by wooden stairs leading to two upper
storeys, where are innumerable small brass Buddhas
disposed in shrines and niches. The Lamas declined
to part with any of these except at an exorbitant
price ; but I have one in my possession which was
subsequently brought to the Embassy by a monk.

270 CHIXA

less pious or more pliable than his fellows. At the
back is another altar with a number of porcelain
Baddhas, resembling Luca della Kobbia ware. We
next saw a dilapidated building containing the ter-
raced structure or throne, on the top of which the
Emperor Kien Lung is said to have fasted for a night
prior to his initiation into the Church. In another part
is the temple of Kuan-ti, the God of War, crowded
with hideous painted and grinning images, and with
figures of warriors in helmets and armour. Here
also are the wooden models of two hippopotami with
their young, which are said to have been killed by
Kien Lung while hunting at Kirin in Manchuria. On
our way out we saw the monks and their pupils,
many hundreds in number, engaged at evensong in
the various chapels. Loud rang the deep, base
monotone of their voices, shouting with irreverent
iteration the responses of the Tibetan liturgy. All
wore yellow mantles, and in front of each upon the
bench was his yellow tufted felt helmet, exactly like
the headpiece of a Hellenic or Roman warrior. The
Lamas of higher grade, in purple and crimson
mantles, wore these upon their heads as they walked
to and fro between the benches, conducting the
service. The appearance of a group of Europeans
excited indignant protests from these individuals;
and we had a long wait, in hope of a crowning bribe,
before we were permitted to leave the final gate and
quit this nest of profligate scoundrels. However, the
experience was well worthy of the time and trial to
temper involved, and is thought by the best resident

THE COUXTRY AXD CAPITAL OF CHINA 271

authorities to be the most singular of the now avail-
able sights of Peking.

Very gratifying is it to turn one's back upon this
city, where all that is worth seeing is so diflScult, and
OntBide where such savage inroads are made upon
the walls equanimity, patience, and every human sense,
and to make a trip to some of the well-known sites
that lie within a range of forty to sixty miles of the
northern gates. Here, outside the Tartar wall, but
within the mud rampart of the Mongolian Kambalu,
is the Huang-ssu, another Lama monastery, commonly
called the Yellow Temple. It consists of a series of
great enclosures wdth tranquil courts, old trees,
shrines covering memorial tablets, and vast temple-
halls. The largest of these possesses one of the most
impressive interiors that I have ever seen. Three
great solemn seated Buddhas are raised aloft, and
peer down with the inscrutable serenity of the fami-
liar features and the ruddy glimmer of burnished
gold. The adjacent figures of Lohans, the coloured
fresco of Buddhistic scenes, the lofty timbered roof,
the splendid altars and censers, are all features seen
elsewhere ; but the majestic stature of the images,
the sumptuous though faded colouring of the pillars
and walls, and the deep gloom in which the hall is
plunged, compel a reverence which is almost without
alloy. In a neighbouring court is the dagoba^ or
white marble tomb, erected by the Emperor Kien
Lung to the Teshu Lama of Tibet,^ who, while on a

* The Teshu Lama, or Banjin Prembutcha, is the second dignitary
in the Buddhist hierarchy of Tibet, and resides at Shigatze.

272 CHIXA

visit to Peking, died there of smallpox in 1780. The
shape of the monument is ugly, but the sculptures
on its eight sides, which represent scenes in the
history of the deceased Lama, are fine and humorous
in their fidelity to life.

At a short distance to the north-west, the largest
of the five bells of Yung-Lo, which was cast about
The Great ^'^ 7^^^ 1406, is suspcudcd in a temple
^®^ that was erected 170 years later. The dimen-

sions ordinarily given are 14 feet in height, 34
feet in circumference at the brim, 9 inches in thick-
ness, 120,000 lbs. in weight. More remarkable is
the fact that the surface of the monster, both inside
and outside, is covered with thousands of Chinese
characters, representing extracts from two of the
Buddhist classics.

One of the bitterest of the many disappointments
of modern Peking is the inability, also of recent
The origin, to see the grounds or ruins of the

Summer

Palace Celebrated Summer Palace that was de-
molished by the Allies in 1860. Of this act I ob-
serve that it has become in recent years the fashion
among travellers, who have probably never read a
line of the history of the war itself, to say that it was
a thoughtless or intemperate act of vandalism appro-
priately committed by the son of that Lord Elgin
who had perpetrated a corresponding deed of violence
by wresting from the rock of the Acropolis the
marble treasures of Athens. Both criticisms are
equally ignorant and empty. For though we may
regret that the modern Acropolis, now for the first

THE COUNTRY AND CAPITAL OF CHINA 273

time tended and cared for, does not contain the
sculptures that once formed its chief glory, and
though we may deplore the loss to the world of
architecture and art of the splendid fabrics and the-
priceless treasures of the Chinese Versailles ; yet in
the one case it must be remembered that but for
the first Lord Elgin's intervention, the marbles whicli
bear his name would probably not now be existing
at all ; and in the other that the second Lord Elgin's
act was a deliberate and righteous measure of retribu-
tion for the barbarous cruelties and torture that had
been practised for days and nights in the courts of
that very Palace upon British prisoners of war ; that
more than any other possible step, short of the sack
of the Lnperial Palace at Peking, it signified the
humiliation and discomfiture of a throne claiming a
prerogative almost divine ; and that the reason for
which the suburban instead of the urban residence
of the Emperor was selected for destruction was the
merciful desire to sate the inhabitants of the capital
from a retribution which was felt to have been
specially, if not solely, provoked by the insolence
and treachery of the Court. Twenty-seven 3'ears
later the Marquis Tseng, writing in the pages of an
English magazine,^ admitted that it was this step, or
* singeing of the eyebrows of China,' as he called it,
that first caused her to awake from her long sleep,
and to realise that she was not invulnerable. So far
from cherishing an undying grudge against the French

' Asiatic Quarterly Beview^ Jan. 1887.

T

274 ♦ CHINA

or English for the act, as is also commonly represented
by travellers, the Chinese themselves, who have a
wonderful faculty for oblivion, have invented the
fiction that the Summer Palace was looted by robbers ;
and this is now the popular belief.

The term Summer Palace is strictly applied to
the Yuan-ming-yuan, %,e. Garden of Perfect Clearness,
Yuan- ^ large enclosure surrounded by a high wall
mmg-yuan ^^^^ ^^^^ ^ j^^£ milcs iu circuit about seven

miles to the north-west of Peking. Here the Emperor
Yung Ching in the first half of the eighteenth century
first built a palace and laid out the grounds — a work of
twenty years ; and here it was that a series of magni-
ficent buildings, designed upon the model of Versailles,
and framed in a landscape gardening that was a
similar reminiscence of France, were raised for the
Emperor Kien Lung by the Jesuit missionaries in
his service. Of these, Pere Benoist undertook the
hydraulics in 1747-50 ; and the descriptions by
Pere Attiret, who was the Emperor s Court Painter,
and by Pere Bourgeois, which are to be found in the
' Lettres fidifiantes,' give a most interesting account
of the manner and success of their undertaking. To
the average European sitting at home it is probably
news to learn that the Summer Palace, of which he
has heard so much, was a series not of fantastic
porcelain pagodas or Chinese pavilions, but of semi-
European halls and palaces adorned with the florid
splendour of the Court of the Grand Monarque. The
greater part of these were wrecked in 1860, but for
the last twenty years the work of restoration has been

THE COUNTRY AND CAPITAL OF CHINA 275

slowly proceeded with, and no foreigner can now
gain access to the interior.

Till lately this prohibition did not apply to the
Wan-shou-shan, i.e. Hill of Ten Thousand Ages,
wan-shou- ^ similar Imperial Pleasaunce about three-
^^^ quarters of a mile to the south-east ; and many
are the Europeans who have visited and described
its beautiful lake and island connected with the shore
by a white marble balustraded bridge with sixty
marble lions on the parapet ; the -marble boat that lies
in the water ; the bronze cow reposing on a stone
pedestal ; and the great hill rising from the lake's
edge, ascended by a lofty staircase upon both sides
of a colossal terrace of stone, and crowned by ele-
gant temples and paviUons. Ihe bulk of these too
succumbed to the bayonet and the torch; but on
attempting to enter the great gates, where are the
bronze lions, I found the whole place alive with
movement. Thousands of masons and coolies were at
work, rebuilding the ruins as a palace for the Empress
Dowager. Entrance was strictly prohibited, and only
from one of the neighbouring mounds was it possible
to obtain a view of the interior.

No visit to Peking is accounted complete with-
out an expedition to the Great Wall and the Tombs
The Great ^^ ^^^ Miug Emperors ; and though I shall
^^ refrain from describing an excursion that
is so well known, I may remark that neither sec-
tion of it should be omitted by the traveller. The
Wall is most easily and commonly visited at one of
two places, either at Pataling, the far exit of the

T 2

276 CHINA

Nankow Pass, forty miles from Peking, or at Ku-pei-
kow, nearly double that distance on the road to the
Emperor's Mongolian hunting-lodge at Jehol. The
first-named point is in the Inner Wall, the second in
the Outer.^ This great monument of human labour,
that still, with some interruptions, pursues its aerial
climb over 2,000 miles of peak and ravine, almost
invariably excites the enlightened abuse of the
foreigner, who can see in it nothing but a blindfold
conception and misdirected human power.^ To me, I
confess, it appears as a work not merely amazing in
plan, but of great practical wisdom (in its day) in
execution. To this date the Mongol tribes regard
the Great Wall as the natural limit of their pa^ures ;

* As most persons know, there are two Great Walls of China, the
main or Outer Wall, called Wan-li-chang-cheng, i.e. the Ten Thousand
Li Wall, which runs from Shan-hai-kuan on the Gulf of Pechili, in a
westerly direction along the northern frontier of China Proper for
1,500 miles ; and the Inner Wall, which branches ofif from the first, to
the west of Ku-pei-kow, and describes the arc of a circle round the
north-west extremity of the province of Chihli, dividing it from Shansi,
for a total distance of 500 miles. The Outer Wall is attributed to
the Emperor Tsin-shi-huang-ti in 214-204 B.C. ; but of the original
structure it is supposed that very little now remains. Near the sea it
is made of unhewn stones ; in the greater part of its course it is faced
with large bricks resting upon a stone foundation, and is from 15 to
80 feet in height and 15 to 25 feet in thickness ; in its western part
it is commonly only a mud or gravel mound, over which horsemen
can ride without dismounting. In parts it has entirely disappeared.
The Inner W^all is attributed to the Wei dynasty in a.d. 542 ; but in
its present state it is almost entirely the work of the Ming Emperors.
Their part of the wall is built of stone, and is from 25 to 50 feet in
height, including the outer parapet, and has a paved walk along the
summit 14 feet in width, passing through frequent and more elevated
towers with embrasured stone walls 9 feet in thickness. At the
Pataling Gate it is a very imposing structure.

* Dr. Williams, for instance, in his Middle Kingdom^ speaks of it as
an * evidence of the energy, industry, and perseverance of its builders,
as well as of their unioisdom and waste,^

THE COUNT BY AND CAPITAL OF CHINA 211

and thougli it could not have been expected at any-
time to render the Empire or the capital absolutely
secure from invasion, yet in days when men fought
only with bows and arrows, and indulged in guerilla
raids of irregular horse, times without number its
sullen barrier arrested the passage of predatory
bands, caused the examination of passports, and pre-
vented the illicit entry of goods. Because we do not
now, in days of artillery, encircle an empire any-
more than a city with a wall, it by no means follows
that such a defence may not once have been as
useful to a kingdom as it was to a town.

Of the Shih-san-ling, or Thirteen Tombs of the
Ming Emperors, which at uneciual distances, each
The Ming ^^ ^^ ^^^ woodcd cuclosurc, surrouud a
TombB ^jj^ ^g^y ^^ amphitheatre in the hills, thirty

miles nearly due north of Peking, I will merely
observe that the famous avenue of stone animals
through which one enters the valley from the south
is to my mind grotesque without being impressive,
the images being low, stunted, and without pedestals ;
that the Great Ilall of Yung Lo, which contains his
tablet, is in design, dimensions, and extreme simpU-
city, one of the most imposing of Chinese sacred
structures ; that, like the Egyptian kings in the
Pyramids of Ghizeh and in the subterranean gal-
leries of Thebes, and the Persian kings in the rock-
sepulchres of Persepolis, the object of the Chinese
Sovereigns appears to have been either to conceal the
exact spot in which the royal corpse was deposited,
or at least to render it impossible of access ; and that

278 CHINA

a visitor should be recommended to compare the
Ming Tombs with the Mausolea of the reigning
dynasty, which are situated in two localities known
as the Tung-ling and Hsi-Ung, to the east and west
of Peking (while the ancestors of the Imperial
family were interred in Southern Manchuria), and
are reported to be of great beauty and splen-
dour ; though no European would stand a chance of
being admitted to their inner temples or halls.

These and similar excursions to the delightful
monastic retreats in the western hills, or rides in the
Briiiflh Nan-hai-tzu, a great^Imperial park three miles
'^'^^^^^ to the south of the Chinese city, surrounded
by a wall and containing some very peculiar deer,^
are an agreeable relief to the visitor, who soon tires
of the dirt and confusion of Peking. Even such
relaxations, however, are found to pall upon the
resident ; and he is apt to turn from the surfeit of
desagriments in the streets to the repose of the walled
compounds within which the various Foreign Lega-
tions reside, and where life, though confined, is at
least cleanly and free. Of these by far the most
imposing is the British Legation, an enclosure of
three acres inside the Tartar city, once the palace of
an Lnperial prince, whose entrance-archways and
halls have been skilfully adapted to the needs of

* This is the Ssu-pu-hsianj? (lit. Four-Parts-Unlike, because the
various parts of the body resemble those of different animals), or Tail-
deer, called after its first discoverer Ccrvus Davidianus, It has an
immense tail, over a foot in length, and fjirrantio antlers, somewhat
resembling those of a reindeer. The species has never been found
wild, and is not known to exist anywhere in the world except in this
park.

THE COUNTRY AND CAPITAL OF CHINA 279

European life, where the members of the staff are
accommodated in separate bungalows, where the
means of study and recreation ahke exist,^ and where
a generous and uniform hospitality prevails.

^ The premises of the British Legation include the Minister's
reception-rooms and residence in the quondam palace, separate houses
for the First and Second Secretaries^ houses of Chinese Secretaries,
Physician, and Accoimtant, the Chancellery, Library, Student Inter-
preters' quarters and mess, Dispensary, Fire Engine, Armoury, Lawn
Tennis and Fives Courts, and Bowling Alley, with a body-guard of two
constables.

280 CHINA

CHAPTER IX

CHINA AND THE POWERS

Lasciate ogni speranza, vol ch* entrate.

Dante, Inferno^ Canto II.

At no capital in the world are relations between the
Government of the country and the representatives
Roiations of Forcign Powers conducted under circura-

botween ,

Chinese stauccs SO profoundlv dissatisfactory as at

and Euro- . . .

peans Peking. There is absolutely no intercourse
between the native officials and foreigners. Few of
the latter have ever been, except for a purely cere-
monious visit, inside a Chinese Minister's house. No
official of any standing would spontaneously associate
with a European. Even the Chinese employes of the
various Legations would lose ' face ' if observed
speaking with their masters in the streets. Superior
force has installed the alien in the Celestial capital ;
but he is made to feel very clearly that he is a
stranger and a sojourner in the land ; that admission
does not signify intercourse ; and that no approaches,
however friendly, will ever be rewarded with intimacy.
This attitude is more particularly reflected in the
official relations that subsist between the Diplomatic
Corps and the Foreign Office at Peking.

CHINA AND THE POWERS 281

That office, if it can be said so much as to exist,
is an office without either recognised chief or depart-
The mental organisation. After the war of 1860,

Yamen a boaxd hamcd the Tsungli Yamen was in-
vented in 1861 by Prince Kung, who became its
first President — a titular post which he held till his
fall in 1884 — in order to take the place of a Foreign
Office, and to conduct dealings with the Ministers of
the Powers who insisted on forcing their unwelcome
presence upon Peking. Up till that time all foreign
affairs had been conducted by the Li Yan Yuen, or
Colonial Office, a department of the Ministry of Eites,
which dealt with the dependent and tributary nations,
and therefore — since, according to the Chinese theory,
the whole exterior universe fell into that category —
with all foreign peoples. The war, however, showed
conclusively that Europe did not appreciate this sort
of logic ; and some deference required to be paid
to scruples that had just been so inconveniently en-
forced. The new Board consisted at the start of three
members only: Prince Kung; Kuei Liang, senior
Grand Secretary; and Wen Hsiang, Vice-President
of the Board of War. In the following year, 18C2,
four additional members were appointed, and by
1869 successive additions had brought the number
up to ten. In recent years the total has ranged
from eight to twelve, with a preponderance, as a rule,
of Chinese. But it possessed, from the start, this
remarkable idiosyncrasy, that its members did not
constitute a separate department in any legitimate
sense of the term, being mainly selected from the

282 CHINA

Other Ministries/ without any special aptitudes for or
knowledge of foreign affairs. For many years past
it has been closely identified with the Grand Council,
a majority of the members of the latter Board being
also members of the Yamen. It is much as though
the Board of Admiralty at Whitehall were composed
of the Home, Indian, and Colonial Secretaries, with
perhaps the President of the Board of Trade and the
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster thrown in.
This is the scratch body that takes the place of a
Foreign Minister, and acts as an intermediary between
the foreign representatives and the Imperial Govern-
ment in Peking. A number of its members, ranging,
maybe, from three to a dozen, sit round a table
covered with sweetmeats to receive the diplomat and
listen to his representations, No privacy is possible,
since the conversation must in any case be conducted
through interpreters, and there are plenty of hangers-
on standing about as well.^ While Prince Kung was
President, all correspondence was carried on in his
own name. But since the appointment of Prince
Ching in 1884, official communications are drawn up

* These are the Ministries of (1) Civil Afifa,ir8 and Appointments, or
Treasury, (2) Revenue and Finance, or Exchequer, (3) Rites and Cere-
monies, (4) War, (5) Public Works, (6) Criminal Jurisdiction or
Punishments. Vide Prof. R. K. Douglas' Society in China, pp. 44-57.

^ In the excellent recently published Life of Sir Harry ParJceSj by
Mr. S. Lane-Poole, there are several extracts from his correspondence,
describing with characteristic candour his impressions of the Tsimgli
Yamen. He speaks of ' going to the Yamen and having a discussion
with eight or ten men, who all like to speak at once, and who, when
refuted, just repeat all they have said before. In some respects it is a
question of physical endurance ; and, if you are not in good condition,
the struggle is trjring.* Vol. ii. p. 889 ; compare pp. 386, 894.

CHINA AND THE POWERS 283

in the names of himself and his colleagues conjointly.
The Prince, though unknown in Europe, is a typical
specimen of the Manchu gentleman, and a states-
man of great ability, with a wide grasp of foreign
questions.

It may be imagined that, whatever the knowledge
or the ability of the President, business can with
A Board diflSculty bc conducted with a body so con-
of Delay gtitutcd. Their lack of individual experience
insures irresolution; their freedom from all responsi-
bility, ineptitude ; and their excessive numbers, para-
lysis. With whom the decision ultimately rests no
one appears to know. The Board is in reality a
Board of Delay. Its object is to palaver, and gloze,
and promise, and do nothing — an attitude which has
been in great favour ever since its notable success after
the Tientsin massacres of 1870, when the Chinese, by
dint of shilly-shallying for several months, till the
French were hard pressed in the Franco-German war,
escaped very much more lightly than they would
otherwise have done. Sir Harry Parkes said that to
get a decision from the Tsungli Yamen was like trying
to draw water from a well with a bottomless bucket.
So long as the result is procrastination, and China is
not compelled to act, except as she herself may desire,
the Tsungli Yamen has served its purpose. As a
matter of fact any important business between the
British Minister and the Chinese Government is far
more likely to be successfully concluded in London,
where, although no Chinese representative, with the
exception of the Marquis Tseng, has so far had any

284 CHINA

knowledge of English, the assistance of Sir Halliday
Macartney, the accomplished Councillor and English
Secretary of the Chinese Legation, gives to his chief
an advantage which is not enjoyed by the official
superiors of the latter in Peking.

This dilatory attitude on the part of the Tsungli
Yamen is encouraged by the discovery, which the
Chinese Chiuesc havc made long since, that the
diplomacy pQ^^j-g^ whose joiut actiou would still be

almost irresistible, are sundered by irremediable
differences, and can be played off one against the
other. They know that an allied French and British
army is in the last degree unlikely ever again to
march up to Peking and sack another Summer Palace.
Other hostile combinations are almost equally im-
probable. Herein lies their opportunity. Past masters
in every trick of diplomacy, they picture it in the
light of a balance-sheet, with credit and debit account,
in which no expenditure must be entered without a
more than compensating receipt. China never volun-
tarily makes a concession without securing a sub-
stantial quid pro quo ; and the tactics that recovered
Kulja would have done credit to Cavour. With
equal ability have they recently pressed upon the
British Government their somewhat shadowy preten-
sions on the confines of Kashmir, Burma, and Siam.
The Tibetan negotiations, that, after going on for
years, have just reached an apparent conclusion, have
been conducted in precisely the same spirit. With
such a people the only system to adopt is to borrow
a leaf from their own book, to act remorselessly upon

CmXA AND THE POWERS 285

the Do ut des principle, to pursue a waiting game,

and to demand a concession, not solely when it is

wanted, but rather when they want something else.

In this way will the transaction present the aspect of

a mercantile bargain so dear to the Oriental mind.

The one question of foreign politics at Peking

which equally affects the representatives of ever}'

The foreicrn Power, is the Eight of Audience ; of

Right of , ° . /»„ . \

Audience which, as it fiUs a most important and a

thoroughly characteristic page of Sino-European
history, I will give some account. The Emperors of
China do not appear at any time to have taken up
the position that their own person was so supremely
sacred as to render audience with a foreigner an in-
dignity. On the contrary, in olden days, when the
Imperial state and prestige were immeasurably greater
than they now are, audience was freely granted, and
the person of the Sovereign was less hermetically
concealed than is now the fashion. Two questions,
however, have successively been made uppermost in
the settlement of the matter, viz. the character of
obeisance made bv the foreigner admitted to the
interview, and the nature and locality of the building
in which it took place. As regards the former the
favoured individual was expected to comply with the
Chinese usage by performing the kowtow^ ix, kneeling
thrice and knocking his forehead nine times upon the
ground. The theory of Chinese sovereignty being that
the Emperor is the dejure monarch of the whole earth,
of which China is the ^ Middle Eangdom,' all other
nations, therefore, must be either his tributaries or

286 CHINA

his subjects ; whence the exaction of this mark of
deference from their envoys. As regards the site of
audience, the practice of emphasising the lowhness of
the stranger in presence of the Son of Heaven by fixing
the audience in a building that carries with it some
implication of inferiority, appears to have been the
growth only of the last fifty years, if not more recently.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries both

the Jesuit Fathers who were in the service of the

Emperor and the envoys of European Courts

^ or Companies, who came to Peking for
complimentary purposes or to secure facilities for
trade, performed' the kowtow without apparent
compunction. One Eussian official, however, who
arrived at Peking in the reign of the first Manchu
Emperor Shun Chih (1644-1661) was refused an
audience because he declined to kowtow. In those
days the audience commonly took place in one or
other of the great Ceremonial Halls of the Imperial
Palace in the heart of the Forbidden City, where no
European is now permitted to enter. Here stands
the Tai Ho Tien, or Hall of Supreme Harmony, a
magnificent structure, 110 feet in height, erected upon
a terrace of marble 20 feet high, with projecting
wings, ascended from the outer court by flights of
steps. The Great Audience Hall on the summit of
the platform is a vast pavilion, in design not unlike
the Memorial Temple of Yung Lo at the Ming Tombs,
200 feet in length by 90 feet in depth, sustained by
72 immense columns of painted teak. In this Hall
the Emperor held and still holds the splendid annual

CHINA AND THE POWERS 287

Levies at the Winter Solstice, at the New Year, and
on his own birthday. As in the Audience Hall which
I have previously described at Soul, and as in that
which I shall afterwards describe at Hue — both of
which, being erected for the Levies of tributary
sovereigns, were exactly modelled upon the Chinese
pattern — so here in the Tai Ho Tien the Emperor
takes his seat upon a raised throne in the centre. A
few Manchus of exalted rank alone are admitted to
the building. Outside and below the marble balus-
trades are ranged the nobility and officials in eighteen
double rows, the civil officers on the east side, and
the military officers on the west, their respective
ranks and positions being marked by low columns.
Here at the given signal they kneel, and nine times
strike their foreheads upon the ground in homage to
the Son of Heaven, dimly seen, if at all, through
clouds of incense, in the solemn gloom of the pil-
lared hall. The earliest picture published in
Europe of an Imperial Audience, which was granted
to a Dutch Embassy in 1656, represents it as having
taken place in the Tai Ho Tien.^ The second Hall
beyond this in the series of successsive pavilions, of
which the ceremonial portion of the Palace consists,
is the Pao Ho Tien, or Hall of Precious Harmony,
also raised upon a marble terrace, wherein the
Emperor confers the highest triennial degrees, and
in former days gave official banquets to foreign
guests (notably to the Mongol princes and to the

* Belation de VAmbasaade de la Compagnie Hollandaise vera
VEmpereur de la Chine, Paris, 1663.

288 CHINA

Korean and Liuchiu envoys if in Peking) on the
day preceding the New Year. Here also we read of
a Dutch ambassador, one Van Braam, as having
been received by the Emperor Kien Lung in 1795.*
Both these ambassadors kowtowed. So also had
done a Eussian envoy in 1719, in whose company
travelled John Bell of Antermony, a Scotch doctor ; *
and a Portuguese Envoy, Metello de Sousa Menezes,
in 1727.

The first English Plenipotentiary admitted to an
audience with a Chinese Emperor was Lord Macart-
Engiish ney in 1793. He was twice received by the
Lord ' aged Kien Lung ; first in a paviUon in the
in 1798 grounds of the Emperor's hunting-retreat at
Jehol, in Mongolia, and afterwards at the great
Birthday Levc^e in Peking. There were long disputes
beforehand as to the exact nature of the obeisance
which the Plenipotentiary should perform ; and in his
desire to be agreeable, the latter carried complacency
so far as to ofier to kowtow on condition that a Chinese
official of corresponding rank did the same before a
picture of George III., which he had brought with
him. This ofier was refused, and Ix)rd Macartney
is said to have only knelt upon one knee on the

^ Voyage de VAmbaasade de la Compagnie des Indea Orientales
Hollandaise vers VEmpereur de la Chine, 2 vols. Philadelphia, 1797.

^ Journey from St. Petersburg to Divers Parts of Asia, with an
Embassy from H.I.M. Peter I., by John Bell. 2 vols. Glasgow, 1768.
The excellent Scotchman did not at all like having to go through this
servile operation. But at the audience he says : * The masters of the
ceremonies then ordered all the company to kneel and make obeisance
nine times to the Emperor. At every third time we stood up arid
kneeled again. Great pains were taken to avoid this piece of homage,
but without success.*

CHINA AND THE POWERS 289

steps of the Imperial throne as he presented his
credentials.^ Whatever he actually did, the Chinese
ever afterwards insisted that he had kowtowed ; and
furthermore took advantage of the British noble-
man's ignorance of the Chinese language to fix
above the boat that brought him up the Peiko Eiver,
and on the vehicle that took him to Jehol, a flag
bearing the inscription, ' Ambassador bearing tribute
from the Country of England ' — an incident which
is in itself a highly condensed epitome of the national
character.

The next British Envoy, Lord Amherst, in 1816
escaped, it is true, the kowtow, but he never saw the
Lord Sovereign at all. While at Tientsin and during
in 1816 his journey up the river, prolonged daily con-
ferences took place between himself and the Chinese
officials, who insisted that Lord Macartney had kow-
towed, and demanded the same deference from him.
Lord Amherst not merely repeated his predecessor's
first ofier, with equal lack of success, but he even
consented to kowtow, if the next Chinese Ambassador
to England w^ould do the same to the Prince Eegent.
This proposal also was scouted ; and Lord Amherst
finally proceeded upon the understanding that instead
of kowtowing, i.e. kneeling on both knees three
times, and knocking the ground nine times, he
should kneel on one knee three times, and make a
low bow nine times. Upon his arrival, however, at
the Summer Palace, where the Emperor Chia Ching

* Authentic Account of the Embassy from the King of Great
Britain to the Emperor of China, Taken from the papers of the
Earl of Macartney by Sir G. Staunton. 2 vols. London, 1798.

U

290 CHINA

was then staying, he was bidden by the latter, who
was either devoured with curiosity or was bent
upon a rupture, to an immediate audience, before
his baggage had arrived, and consequently before
he could either cleanse himself after the journe)% or
don his uniform, or prepare his presents. Lord
Amherst, suspecting in this inordinate haste some
intentional slur upon the Sovereign whom he repre-
sented, begged to be excused the honour of the inter-
view, and was bundled unceremoniously out of the
Palace the same evening. Thus abruptly ended his
mission.^

No other British representative was admitted to
th'C Imperial presence up till the war in 1860 ; and
the right of audience upon the terms that
prevail in every other foreign Court was one
of the first advantages exacted by the conquerors.
Article III. of the English Treaty of 1860, without
actually claiming the right, inferred it by stipulating
that the British representative ' shall not be called
upon to perform any ceremony derogatory to him as
representing the Sovereign of an independent nation
on a footing of equality with that of China.' After
the conclusion of the war no audience was possible
in the reign of Hsien Feng, because he was a fugitive
and an exile from his capital till his death in 1861 ;
nor, during the minority of Tung Chih, in which
interval the Duke of Edinburgh visited Peking in
1869 without the question being raised, could the

* Journal of Proceedings of ilie late Embassy to China, by Henry
EIUb, Third Commissioner. Loudon, 1817.

CHINA AND THE POWERS 291

demand be put forward. As soon, however, as Tung
Chih assumed the reins of government in 1873, the
foreign Ministers in Peking addressed to him a col-
lective note„ in which they asked to be permitted to
present their congratulations in person.

The days had long passed when the Chinese
authorities jcould insist upon the kowtow, June 29,
. ,. 1873, at a very early hour of the morning
ci^T^^ (Lord Macartney had been received at day-
^^* break) was fixed for the collective audience.

Compelled to evacuate their original redoubt, how-
ever, the Chinese, with characteristic strategy, fell
back upon an inner and unsuspected Une of defence,
endeavouring to safeguard the dignity of their own
Sovereign and to humiliate the foreigner by selecting
for the site of audience a building in the outskirts of
the Palace enclosure known as the Tzu Kuang Ko,
which stands on the western shore of the big lake.
In this Hall, which is hung with pictures of combats
and of eminent Chinese generals, many of them
painted by the Jesuits, it is the habit to entertain the
envoys from tributary or dependent States, such as
Mongolia and Korea — and in former days also tlie
Liuchiu Islands, Nepal, and Annam — at the festival
of the New Year ; and the object which was directly
served by the flag upon Lord Macartney's boat in
1793 could, it struck the crafty Chinaman, be now in-
directly secured by admitting the foreigners to au-
dience in a building that possessed to Chinese minds a
tributary significance. The audience, at which Great
Britain was represented by Sir Thomas Wade, took

17 2

292 CHINA

place ; but considerable irritation was caused by tlie
official announcement of the event in the * Peking
Gazette/ which described the foreign Ministers by an
incorrect and inferior title, and represented them as
having * supplicated ' for an interview. The objec-
tions, however, to the building were, it is said, not
shared in their entirety by some eminent authorities,
including Dr. Williams, who was present at the au-
dience, and Sir Thomas Wade himself.

In 1875 the Emperor Tung Chih died, and was
succeeded by a minor. It was not, therefore, till
Audience lifter the assumptiou of government by the
KuangHgti Emperor Kuang Hsu in 1889 that the ques-
"* tion again arose. This time, however, the

Emperor (or rather the Empress Dowager, inspiring
him) himself took the initiative by issuing on De-
cember 12, 1890, the following Proclamation, which
testified to a common sense or a conversion on the
part of the Government, which was in either case
remarkable : —

' I have now been in charge of the Government for two
years. The Ministers of Foreign Powers ought to be received
by me at an audience ; and I hereby decree that the audience
to be held be in accordance with that of the twelfth year of
Tung Chih (1873). It is also hereby decreed that a day be
fixed every year for an audience, in order to show my desire
to treat with honour all the Ministers of the Foreign Powers
resident in Peking.'

These sentiments were eminently laudable, but
by reviving the precedent of Tung Chih, they offered
no solace to the spirits that had been outraged by

CHINA AND THE POWERS 293

the reception in the Tzu Kuang Ko. Here finally, in
spite of a good deal of preliminary grumbling, the
audience again took place on March 5, 1891. Six
Ministers and their staffs were received by the Em-
peror, who sat upon a dais with a table draped in
yellow silk in front of him ; the Ministers being first
received separately, in the order of their length of
residence in Peking ; and the united staffs being
subsequently introduced en masse. Each Minister,
upon entering, marched up the hall, bowing at stated
intervals, and paused at the Dragon Pillar, where
after reading his letter of credence, and hearing it
translated by the interpreter, he handed the docu-
ment to the President of the Tsungli Yamen. The
latter placed it on the yellow table in front of the
Emperor, and subsequently knelt to receive the
Imperial reply, written in Manchu, which, after
descending the dais, he repeated in Chinese to the
Minister through his interpreter. Some of the re-
presentatives are said to have been dissatisfied with
the arrangements, and the foreign press re-echoed and
magnified the cry. It was perhaps not surprising after
this that the Cesarevitch, in his tour round the world
in the same year, should have been successfully kept
away from Peking, both by the Chinese, who dreaded
a compulsory surrender, and by the Tsar, who could
hardly have brooked anything approximating to an
indignity.

After the audience of 1891, the Doyen of the
Diplomatic Corps gave becoming expression to the
dissatisfaction of his colleagues, among whom the

294 CHINA

French and Eussians have always taken the lead, by
applying to the Tsungli Yamen for reception on a
Subsequent futurc occasion, not outside the Palace, and
audiences j^^ ^ tributary building, but, as in old days,

inside the actual precincts of the Imperial residence.
A sort of half compliance with this request was made,
first by the promise to erect a new building for the
ceremony, and afterwards by the offer of another
hall. This is the Chang Kuang Tien, a building
dating from Mongol times, which appears to have no
peculiar significance or application, and stands on the
eastern side of the marble bridge across the orna-
mental lake. It is not one of the ceremonial halls of
the Palace proper, but, on the other hand, its use con-
veys no slur. Acting upon this opinion, the Austro-
Hungarian Minister was the first of the Foreign
Diplomatic Corps to be received here in 1891 ; and
here also Mr. O'Conor, Her Majesty's present repre-
sentative in Peking, was granted an audience upon
his arrival in December 1892, and Herr von Brandt,
the retiring German Minister, upon his departure in
1893 : a more honorific character having in these
latter cases been lent to the reception of the envoy
by his introduction through the main or Porcelain
Gate, instead of a side gate of the Palace. So the
matter now stands ; though France and Eussia, who
have adopted throughout an attitude of a most un-
reasonable non possumus, still hold out.

It will be observed from this historical summary
that since Lord Macartney's audience at Jehol just
100 years ago, the following points have been gained.

CHINA AND THE POWERS 295

Not merely does a Special Plenipotentiary enjoy the
right to an audience with the Sovereign, but to
Summary ^very foreign Minister accredited to the
Lhieve- Chinese Court is this prerogative now con-
™^ ceded, both upon his arrival and departure,

or when presenting any communication from his
Sovereign ; and, if the terms of the Imperial Procla-
mation of 1890 be carried out, once every year in
addition. The kowtow has disappeared, not merely
from foreign practice, but even from discussion. Its
place has been taken by a ceremonial not essentially
different from that with which a new Member of Parlia-
ment is introduced to the British House of Commons.
These are considerable advances. On the other hand
the diplomats have not yet won their way back to
one of the great Audience Halls in the main body of
the Palace, to which it appears to me that precedent
and equity alike entitle them to advance a claim.
Perhaps the recovery of the Tai Ho Tien is one of
the triumphs that is reserved for the diplomacy of the
ensuing century.

Englishmen, living freely in a democratic country,
where the Fountain of Honour is inaccessible to few,
Troesig. ^^^ whcrc humiUty has never been con-
of t^"''^ founded with humiliation, may not be able to
ispute comprehend all this pother about the nature
of a bow, and the significance of a building. To the
Chinese they are all-important ; and j ust as the Greek
Timagoras was condemned to death by the liberty-
loving Athenians 2,260 years ago, because he had
kowtowed at Susa to Artaxerxes Mnemon, the Great

296 CHINA

King, so have British representatives — instructed to
maintain the equal prerogative of their Sovereign,
in face of the inadmissible pretensions of a majesty
that was supremely ignorant of its own limitations —
been justified in fighting strenuously for what to
Europe may seem a shadow, but in Asia is the sub-
stance. When Lord Macartney took out a beautiful
coach with glass panels as a present from George III.
to the Emperor Kien Lung, the Cliinese officials
were horrified at a structure which would place the
coachman on a higher level than the monarch, and
promptly cut away the box-seat.

Such and so imperfect being the status of foreign
diplomats, and the methods of diplomatic intercourse
Foreign at Peking, we may next inquire what are the

policy of,,

China main objects for which their intervention is
required ? In other words, what is the foreign policy
of China, in so far at least as concerns our own
country? We have not here, at any rate for the
present, any demand similar to that which we have
noticed in Japan, for the revision or abrogation of
the Treaties under which Europeans are admitted to
trade or residence in certain ports on the sea-coast,
and in cities in the interior.^ China has not, like her
neighbours, any judicial system, nominally based
upon a European model, to offer in substitution for
the consular courts of the foreigner. She is far more
dependent upon the latter for her wealth, particularly

* A single exception must be noted in the person of the present
Chinese Minister in England, who, when Taotai at Ning-po, some years
ago, wrote a series of essays on this and kindred subjects, which have
appeared in book form.

CHINA AND TEE FOWERS 297

as derived from the Imperial Customs, which, under
the extremely capable management of an Euglishman,
Sir Eobert Hart — ^who enjoys the unique distinction
of having resigned the appointment of British Minister
in order to remain Inspector-General, a post which he
has now held for thirty years — have poured a large
and annually increasing revenue into her exchequer.*
The foreign element itself is both much more
numerous and more powerful than it is in Japan.^
Moreover, the Chinese temperament is naturally
disposed to acquiesce in established facts, and is
wrapped in a complacency too absorbing to feel the
perpetual smart of foreign intrusion. Such a move-
ment may rise into view later on ; but at present it is
below the horizon.

The foreign policy of Chin^ chiefly concerns
Englishmen in its relation to St. Petersburg and to
Attitnde Downing Street. The successive advances

towards

Rnssia made by Russia, largely at China's own
expense, have taught her to regard that Power as her
real enemy, whom, however, she fears far more than
she abhors. It is Russia who threatens her frontiers
in Chinese Turkestan and on the Pamirs ; Russia
who is always nibbling, in scientific disguise, at
Tibet ; Russia who has designs on Manchuria ; Russia
whose shadow overhangs Korea ; Russia who is
building a great Transcontinental railway that will

' The Customs* Kevenue derived from the Foreign Trade of China
in 1892 was 4,500,000;.

' In 1892 the number of foreigners residing in the twenty-four Treaty
Ports, including Japanese, was close upon 10,000. Of these nearly 4,000
were British ; America came next with 1,800 ; then France with less
than 900, and Germany with 750.

298 CHINA

enable her to pour troops into China at any point
along 3,500 miles of contiguous border. All this she
knows well enough, and when the Cesarevitch passed
through Asia he was, as I have pointed out, neither
invited to nor himself proposed to visit Peking ; but
the knowledge, so far from instigating China to any-
definite policy of self-defence, except in the isolated
case of the proposed Manchurian Eailway, fills her
with an alarm that is only equalled by her suspicion
of the counsels of any other Power.

CTiina pretends, for instance, to be interested in the
Pamirs, but she cannot be reckoned upon to move a
China single battalion in their defence, particularly
Pamirs if it IS whispcrcd in her ear that she is thereby
helping to pull somebody else's chestnuts out of the
fire.. We read in the newspapers mysterious para-
graphs about the activity of Chinese diplomats at
St. Petersburg, and of Kussian diplomats at Peking ;
and the world is invited to believe that China is as
solicitous of her Turkestan frontier as Great Britain
is, for instance, about the Hindu Kush. We hear of
garrisons being reinforced in Kashgaria, and of the
telegraph wires being pushed westwards over the
Mongolian desert. All this is intended to give, and
perhaps succeeds in giving, a general impression of
abounding activity ; and so far as mere diplomacy is
concerned, China will no doubt fight as stubbornly to
retain her precarious foothold on the Eoof of the World
as she did to recover Kulja. But no greater mistake,
in my judgment, can be committed than to suppose
that this mixture of diplomatic finesse and bravado

CHINA AND THE POWERS 299

masks either any intention to fight seriously for the
territories in question, or the possession of any
materials to fight with. During the fracas on the
Pamirs in 1892, when small detachments of Russians
marched about filibustering and annexing whatever
they could, the Chinese outposts at Soma Tash and
Ak Tash skedaddled with headlong rapidity at the
first glimpse of a Cossack ; and an English traveller
found the Chinese authority, which claims to be
paramount over the entire eastern half of the Pamirs,
represented by less than a dozen soldiers. And yet
there exists a large corps of writers who never cease
to press upon the public acceptance an implicit
belief in the strength and resolution of China in
Central Asia. I prefer to accept the opinion of
General Prjevalski, Colonel Bell, Captain Young-
husband, Mr. Carey, and every authority (so far as I
know) who has visited the Chinese frontier domi-
nions, that however long Bussia may find it politic
to postpone a forward move, her advance, when
finally made across the outlying western portions of
the Chinese Empire, inhabited as they are by a
Mussulman population who have no loyalty towards
their present masters, will be a military promenade,
attended by little fighting and by no risk. Mean-
while, the golden hour in which China might make
herself strong if she either had the will or could
resolve upon the way, is allowed to slip by ; and a
frontier which might, with certain modifications, be
rendered almost invulnerable, continues by its osten-
tatious helplessness to invite the enemy's assault.

1
1
i

300 CHINA

The very conditions that render Russia the
natural enemy of China would appear to constitute
Attitnde Great Britain her natural friend. China de-*
G^* sires to keep the Eussian army out of Korea
^"^"^ and the Russian nav^ away from the Yellow
Sea. We are similarly interested in both objects. '

China wants to retain Yarkund and Kashgar, and
therefore requires a defensible and defended frQutier
on the Pamirs. We also are anxious to avoid
Russian contiguity with ourselves at the Hindu Kush
or the Karakorara. China attaches a high value to
her suzerainty over Tibet, which Russia notoriously
covets. England does not quarrel with the former,
but could hardly welcome the latter status. If the
Trans-Siberian railway will be a menace to Chinese
territorial integrity, it will also generate a sharp
competition with British Asiatic trade. Farther to
the s6uth the recent apparition of France as an
aggressive factor upon the confines of Siam and
Burma is a source of no slight annoyance to China,
already exasperated by the theft of Tongking. It is
not more acceptable to ourselves, who have no desire
for France as a next-door neighbour on the borders
of our Indian Empire. There are therefore the
strongest a priori reasons in favour of a close and
sympathetic understanding between China and Great
Britain in the Far East. Nor, though Chinese arma-
ments are, in their present state, a delusion and
China's military strength a farce, can anyone deny
that her prodigious numbers, her vast extent, her
obstinate and tenacious character, and her calculating

CHINA AND THE POWERS 301

diplomacy render her an ally in Central and Eastern
Asia of the highest value ; just as it would appear
that the prestige and power of Great Britain in the
same regions might be of corresponding and even
greater service to her. Were it not that China is so
absurdly suspicious of interested counsels, and so
well acquainted with the weak joints of our Parlia-
mentary armour, such an alliance would already
have sprung into definite existence. A greater con-
fidence in the honesty of Great Britain than in that
of her rivals undoubtedly exists in the breast of
Chinese statesmen, and is largely due to the integrity
of our commercial relations, and to belief in the
straightness of British character; whilst no efforts
have been spared by recent British Governments to
conciliate Chinese scruples in every point where the
concession could be made without sacrifice of prin-
ciple. I incline myself to the belief that time, with
its inevitable developments, will add greatly to the
strength of this unwritten concordat, and that when
Chinese suspicions have become less morbidly acute,
whilst Chinese needs have grown more pressing, the
remaining obstacles to a hearty co-operation will dis-
appear.

Unfortunately the relations of the two countries
are liable from time to time to be imperilled by out-
Anjdo- side circumstances, which play a large part
Trade in determining the character of their official
intercourse. I do not allude to the question of Trade,
which is the principal ground of meeting between the
two countries, because a commerce which enriches

302 CHINA

both is unlikely to be seriously risked by either, and
because the wider the sphere of mercantile relations
between them (and it must expand instead of shrink-
ing) the less rather than the greater are the sources
of friction likely to become. Already Anglo-Chinese
Trade has attained dimensions that, at the time of the
first war, fifty years ago, would have been laughed
at as an idle dream. At that time China sent to
England less than half a million sterling of goods in
the year. Now the total foreign trade of the Em-
pire amounts to 47,550,000/., of which 27,050,000/.
are imports and 20,500,000/. are exports; and of
this enormous total Great Britain and her colo-
nies (including Hongkong) claim 60 per cent., or
28,500,000/. ; and Great Britain alone 8,000,000/.,
over three- fourths of which are expended by China
in imports from this country. If we take the returns
of shipping, the British preponderance is even more
clearly marked ; for out of a total of 29,500,000 tons,
that entered and cleared from the Treaty Ports in
1892, 65 per cent., or nearly 19,500,000 tons, were
British vessels; Germany, the next European com-
petitor, having only 1,500,000.^ Taught by us, the
Chinese themselves now absorb no inconsiderable part
of the Treaty Port trade ; but the vessels which
Chinese merchants own and run are commanded by
British officers, and are guided into the rivers and
harbours by British pilots.

1 The Returns for 1898 showed that the total value of Chinese
Foreign Trade had increased by 6,000,000;. The British share of the
total was 50 per cent., and of the shipping 65 per cent.

CHINA AND TUE POWERS 303

Nor is this trade, immense though it seems to be
in relation to the time within which it has been deve-
loped, more than a fraction of what, under more
favourable conditions, may be expected in the future.
When we reflect that to supply the needs of a popu-
lation of 350,000,000 there are only twenty-four ports
at which foreign commerce is allowed in the first place
to enter ; ^ that river navigation by steam, except upon
the Yangtse, can scarcely be said to exist ; that vast
markets are hidden away in the far interior which are
practically under prevailing conditions inaccessible ;
that the paucity and misery of communications are
a by-word ; that every form of native enterprise is
strangled unless powerful oflScials have a personal in-
terest at stake ; that oflScialism operates everywhere
by a mathematical progression of squeezes ; that the
multiplication of inland likin or octroi stations swells
the cost of foreign commodities to famine prices
before they are ofiered for sale in the inland markets ;
that China is deliberately throwing away her staple
source of wealth, the tea-trade, by failure to adapt it
to the altered requirements of consumers ; that in
the same period in which she has doubled her trade
Japan has trebled hers ; and that with 60,000,000

^ The Treaty Ports, opened by various Treaties or Conventions
with Great Britain, France, and Germany, since the Nanking Treaty
in 1842, are as follows : Canton (with Customs stations at Kowloon
and Lappa), Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo, Shanghai, Nanking, Tientsin,
Newchwang, Chefoo, Swatow, Kiimgchow (in Hainan), Tamsui and
Tainan, with their dependencies Kelung, Takow, and Anping in
Formosa, Chinkiang, Kiukiang, Hankow, Ichang, Wuhu, Wenchow,
Pakhoi, Chungking. The French, by a Trade Convention in 1887,
also trade overland with Lungchow, Mengtse, and Manghao.

304 CHINA

more mouths to feed and bodies to clothe, her total
commerce is yet 80,000,000/. less per annum than
that of India : when all these facts are remembered,
it cannot be doubted that compared with what might
be, and some day will be done, we are only standing
on the threshold of Chinese commercial expansion.
Neither, in speaking of the occasional sources of
. friction between China and ourselves, do I allude to
opiam th^ Opium Qucstiou, which in the hands
Question ^£ enthusiastic or prejudiced ignorance in
London has been presented to English audiences in
a guise that excites a smile in every Treaty Port in
China. There, at least, everybody knows that the
helpless Celestial is neither being forced nor befooled
by an insidious and immoral Government at Calcutta ;
that if not an ounce of Indian opium ever again
passed through a Chinese custom-house. Chinamen
would go on smoking their own inferior drug as
keenly as ever ; ^ and that the pretence that China is
hostile to the British people or to Christian missions
because we introduced to her the opium habit (which
she had already practised for centuries), is about as
rational as to say that the national soreness that
sometimes arises between England and France is due
to our resentment at having to cross the Channel for
our best brandy. In any case, long before our
domestic Puritans have purged the national conscience
of what they style this great sin, the Opium Question
will have settled itself by the rapid decline of the

' As it is, Indian opium is only smoked by about 2 in every 1,000
of the population.

CHINA AND THE POWERS 305

Indian import and the acceptance by China herself
of the undivided responsibility for her own moral
welfare.

There remains the Missionary movement in China,
which, next to, perhaps even more than, the mer-
Miaaionary chants, compels the attention of the British
Queauon p^^cign Office, and wiU here be treated only
in so far as it affects the international relations
between the two countries. The missionary himself
resolutely declines to regard it from this standpoint.
He conceives himself to be there in obedience to a
divine summons, and to be pursuing the noblest of
human callings. A friend of my own, an eminent
divine in the English Church, speaking at Exeter
Hall in answer to some observations which I had
made in the columns of the ' Times ' upon Christian
Missions in China, thus stated the case from the
Church's point of view : —

' The gain or loss to civilisation from Christian missions
is not the question for the missionary. He is subject to a
Master higher than any statesman or diplomatist of this
world. It is not the missionary who has to reckon with the
diplomatist, but the diplomatist with the missionary.'

A variation of the same reply is that which I
have in many lands received from the lips of mis-
sionaries, and which in their judgment appears to
cut the ground away from all criticism, and to render
argument superfluous. This is a repetition of the
divine injunction which closes the Gospel of St.
Matthew : * Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, bap-
tising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son,

X

306 CHINA

and of the Holy Ghost.' ^ Obedience to this supreme
command is the sole final test to which the missionary
is willing to submit his action. He is the unworthy
but chosen mstrument of God himself. It is useless,
as I have experienced, to point out to him that the
selection of a single passage from the preaching of
the founder of one faith, as the sanction of a move-
ment against all other faiths, is a dangerous experi-
ment. If, for instance, the disciple of Confucius were
to quote an aphorism of that philosopher that justi-
fied the persecution of Christian missionaries, as the
sponsors of a mischievous innovation, what value
would the Christian missionary attach to such a form
of Chinese exculpation? Equally useless is it to
remind him that Christ himself seem6 to have con-
templated the likelihood of an unsuccessful or inoppor-
tune propaganda when he said : * When they persecute
you in this city, flee ye into another ; ' ^ and again :
* Whosoever shall not receive you nor hear you,
when ye depart thence, shake off the dust under your
feet for a testimony against them.' ^ The authority
which the missionary enthusiast is willing to attach
to the ukase that accredits his enthusiasm, he ignores
or deprecates when it appears to qualify its sanction.
To him the course is clear, and has been mapped out
in advance by a higher hand. That governments
should fight, or that international relations should be
imperilled over his wrecked house or insulted person,
would strike him as but a feather's weight in the
scale compared with the great final issue at stake —

' Matt, xxviii. 19. * Matt. x. 21. » Mark vi. 11.

CHI]!ffA AND THE POWERS 307

viz. the spiritual regeneration of a vast country and
a mighty population plunged in heathenism and sin.
Just, however, as the statesman is frequently called
upon to correct the fighting general's plan of campaign
in the light of diplomatic possibilities, so the im-
partial observer must submit even the impassioned
apologia of the Christian evangelist to the cold test
of political and practical analysis.

In endeavouring to arrive at an opinion upon so
vexed a question, the risks, even after a careful
Protestant study upou two Separate occasions on the
^^^'^^ spot, of involuntary ignorance or unconscious
bias, are so great that it will perhaps be wisest to
state the case pro and con. with as much fulness as
space will permit, leaving the reader to form his own
conclusion. The facts are these. Whilst the Jesuit
missionaries have been in China for centuries, and in
many cases have done splendid work, the Protestant
missions (of whom alone I desire to speak) in the
main date their institution from the Treaties that
closed the first China war fifty years ago,^ and the
second in 1858-60. Whereas in 1844 there were but
thirty Protestant missionaries in China, their nume-
rical strength in 1890 was 1,300, and has consider-
ably increased since. Every year America, Canada,
Australia, Sweden, and in a not inferior degree
England, pour fresh recruits into the field, and the
money that is subscribed for their support and that

' The first Protestant missionary in China was the Rev. R. Morrison,
who came to Canton in 1807, and published his famous dictionary and
translation of the Bible in 1828. But this was all the more remarkable
for being an isolated effort.

X 2

308 CHINA

of their propaganda excels the revenue of many-
States. The question is, How do the soldiers of this
costly crusade acquit themselves ?

The points that will universally be conceded in
their favour are as follows : The devotion and self-
Their good sacrifice of many of their lives (particularly
service ^jp thosc who in uativc dress visit or inhabit
the far interior), and the example of pious fortitude
set to those among whom they labour ; the influence
of the education and culture thus diffused in kindling
the softer virtues and in ameliorating the conditions of
life ; the slow but certain spread of Western know-
ledge ; the visible products of organised philanthropy
in the shape of hospitals, medical dispensaries,
orphanages, relief distribution, and schools; the
occasional winning of genuine and noble-hearted con-
verts from the enemy's fold ; ^ the exalted character
of the spiritual sanction claimed by the missionaries ;
the plausibility of the analogy drawn by them from
the tardy inception of Christian labour in other
countries and earlier times ; the excellent work done
by missionaries in writing learned, though often
unreadable, essays about the country and people.

I should be the last person to claim that even this
tabulated statement contained a complete record of the
Rood work done bv the missionaries. Much of their

* A hostile critic might retort that the leader of the Taiping Re-
bellion, who was a Christian convert, and as such was hailed by many
of the missionaries as the herald of a new dispensation, succeeded in
nothing better than in devastating thirteen out of the eighteen provinces
of China, and in sacrificing the lives (at the lowest computation) of
20,000,000 men.

CHINA AND THE POWERS 309

labour is necessarily devoid of immediate result, and
is incapable of being scientifically registered in a
Sowing the memorandum. They sow the seed; and if
^^^ it does not fructify in their day or before

our eyes, it may well be germinating for a future
eartime. No fair critic would withhold from the
Christian missions in China the credit of any prospec-
tive harvest that may be reaped by their successors
when they have gone.

On the other hand it would be fooUsh to deny
that in China their operations evoke a criticism, even
Objections at the hauds of their own countrymen, of
backs which Exeter Hall very Ukely has no inkling,
but which in China itself, where Exeter Hall has
never been heard of, is not to be despised ; and that
there are features in their conduct of the campaign
which may be said, not altogether unwarrantably, to
furnish the enemy with cause to blaspheme. The
alleged drawbacks to the work, or at least to the
modus operandi of the missionaries, fall under three
heads: (1) religious and doctrinal; (2) political;
and (3) practical ; with each of which I will deal in
turn.

With rare exceptions, more liberal-minded than
their fellows, the missionaries adopt an attitude of
implacable hostihty to all native religions
diStri?!^ and ethics, ignoring alike their virtuous
to^chinese ^spccts and influence, the all-powerful hold
ethics which they have acquired upon Chinese
character, and the sanction lent to them by a vene-
rable antiquity. Particularly is this the case with

310 CHINA

regard to ancestor worship, with which they decline
all parley ; although a rare retort would appear to
be open to a Chinaman in England who accidentally
found his way into Westminster Abbey or St, Paul's.
In 1790 the young Christian Church in Korea, very
much exercised about this question, sent to the
Eoman Catholic bishop at Peking to inquire what its
members ought to do. The response came that
ancestor worship of any kind or in any degree was
incompatible with Christianity, and that no Korean
could be a Christian who worshipped or burned
incense before the family tablets. What the French
bishop then answered, his co-religionists have always
answered ; and the same reply was from the earliest
period returned by the Protestant missions also. I
am not here concerned with the doctrinal justice of
this decision, which is a matter for theologians rather
than for the lay mind. I am interested only in pointing
out the inevitable consequences of such an attitude.
The Chinaman, who is entirely content with his own
religion, and only asks to be left alone, is assailed by
a propaganda that commences with an attack upon
all that he holds most dear. To him the ethics of
Confucius sum up the whole duty of man to the
family and the State ; while the pajrment of homage
to the higher powers is provided for by the poly-
theistic conceptions of the Buddhist cult. He hears
the former disparaged, the latter derided. He is
invited to become a convert at the cost of ceasing
to be a citizen ; to tear up the sheet-anchor of all
morality as the first condition of moral regeneration.

CHINA AND THE POWERS 311

Small wonder that a propaganda, which thus lays
the axe to the very root of the tree, should encounter
the stubborn resistance of all those who have been
accustomed to seek shelter under its branches.^ If
the evangelists of some new faith were to appear in
England, drawn from a race whom we hated and
despised, and were to commence their preaching by
denouncing the Bible, and crying Anathema Mara-
natha upon the Apostles' Creed, what sort of reception
would they meet with? Moreover this attitude on
the part of the missionaries incurs the risk of defeat-
ing its own object ; for such iconoclasm, in the eyes
of many critics, could only, even if successful, lead
to two results, both equally to be deplored — the
complete disintegration of the Chinese social fabric,
and the collapse of Chinese morality.

While thus warring with the most cherished beliefs
of their hoped-for converts, the missionaries have not
Disputes as agreed among themselves as to the Chinese

to name of

the Deity word to cxprcss the single Deity whom they
preach, and for whom the Jesuits, the Americans,
and the English have each coined or employ a
different title, with the result of complete bewilder-
ment to the native understanding, ill able to cope
with the subtleties of theological logomachy. The
first-named adopt the title Tien Chu, i.e. Lord of
Heaven. The Americans prefer the more impalpable

' It is equally beginning at the wrong end to adopt the needless
subservience to native superstitions that is in vogue at some of the
Catholic establishments ; e,g, in the Lazarist Orphanage at Kiukiang,
where the feet of girls are deformed in order to conciliate native
opinion.

312 CHINA

Chen Shen, ix. True Spirit. The English Protestants
adopt the Chinese Shang-ti, or Supreme Lord, the
Deity whose worship (a survival of the primitive
nature worship) I have described upon the Altar of
Heaven at Peking. Indeed, I have heard of an
English missionary who, in the old days when the
latter enclosure was accessible to foreigners, is said
to have conducted a service of the Church of England
on the summit of the marble altar.

Still less do the foreign teachers coincide upon
the form of religion itself, which is promulgated by
Afltothe the divines of a score of different schools,
religion each claiming the sole custody of the oracles
of God. To a Chinaman a separate sect is indis-
tinguishable from a separate creed; and between
Jesuits, Lazarists, Trappists, Eussian Greeks, Pro-
testants, Churches of England, Scotland, Canada,
and America, Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists,
Congregationalists, Episcopalians, Free Christians,
and all the self-accredited polyonymous missionary
societies, he finds it hard to determine who are the
true and who the false prophets, or whether any are
true at all. Again, conceive the parallel case in our
own country. Suppose the apostles of some new
manifestation to reach our shores with a creed in
their pockets that claimed a supernatural origin and
a divine authority ; and suppose these pioneers to be
presently succeeded by others, not in one batch only,
or in half a dozen, or in a dozen, but in a score
of detachments, each proclaiming the fallibility or
spuriousness of the others, and its own superior

CHINA AND THE POWERS 313

authentication — ^what should we say to these bearers
of the heavenly message, who could not even agree
together upon its terms ?

Another cause for stumbling is supplied by the
unedited and ill- revised translations of the Bible, and
Unrevised particularly of the Old Testament, that are
tionsof printed off by the million, and scattered

the Scrip-

tures broadcast through the country. It never
seems to occur to the missionary societies that the
Holy Scriptures, which require in places some ex-
planation, if not some expurgation, for ourselves,
may stand in still greater need of editing for a com-
munity who care nothing about the customs or pre-
possessions of the ancient Jews, but who are invited
to accept the entire volume as a revelation from on
high. I am aware of a so-called English missionary
who rampages about Central Asia with the funds
supplied by societies at home, and who, taking with
him a portmanteau full of Bibles, thinks that by
dropping its contents here and there, he is winning
recruits to the fold of Christ. What is the educated
Chinaman likely to think, for instance, of Samuel
hewing Agag in pieces before the Lord, or of David
setting Uriah in the forefront of the battle, and
commissioning Solomon to slay Shimei, whose life he
had himself sworn to spare, or of Solomon exchanging
love-lyrics with the Shulamite woman ? Even in the
New Testament the bidding to forsake father and
mother for the sake of Christ must to the Chinaman's
eyes be the height of profanity, whilst if he can
follow the logic of St. Paul, he accomplishes that

314 CHINA

which is beyond the power of many educated
Christians. To the Chinese people, who have great
faith but little hope in their own creeds, a simple
statement of the teaching of Christ might be a
glorious and welcome revelation. But the text of
the Scriptures, unsoftened and unexplained, has no
such necessary effect, and is capable, in ingenious
hands (as the Hunan publications sufficiently showed),
of being converted into an argument against that
which it is intended to support.

If the text of the Bible is thus wrested into a
cause of offence, neither is the intrinsic abstruseness
Christian ^^ ^^ dogma which it inculcates easy of
dogma interpretation in a manner that conveys
enlightenment to the Chinese intellect. The mysteries,
for instance, attaching to the Christian theogony, and
to the doctrine of the Trinity, whilst to the beUever
they only supply welcome material for faith, are to
the unbeUever excellent ground for suspicion.

Finally, the religion whose vehicles of diffusion I
have discussed is disseminated in many cases by a
irresponsi- uumbcr of irresponsible itinerants, each of

ble itine-

rancy whom is a law unto himself, many of whom
disown communion with any Church, and whose
single-minded fervour is dearly purchased at the cost
of the doctrinal confusion entailed. Some of my own
schoolfellows had felt the call, and had spontaneously
given to China what was meant for mankind. Upon
inquiry as to their whereabouts and doings, I learned
that more than one had severed his connection with
any denomination, and was proceeding against the

CHINA AND THE POWERS 315

infidel upon his own plan of campaign. This may be
magnificent, but it is not scientific warfare.

The political drawbacks to the missionaries' work

are less exclusively matters of their own creation.

China can never forget that, unlike the

2. PoUtical ... .

Christians in early Eome, in early Gaul, or
in early Britain, they owe their admission here to no
tacit acquiescence on her own part, much less to any
expressed desire ; but solely to the coercion of a
superior and victorious strength. Each station is a
sardonic reminder to them that they have been made
to pass under the Caudine Forks. Nay, it is more ;
for it is a reminder of the duplicity as well as of the
power of the conqueror ; seeing that the right of
residence in the interior of China is only enjoyed by
the British and other missionaries in virtue of the
most favoured nation clause in our own Treaty, taking
advantage of a spurious paragraph introduced by a
French missionary into the Chinese text of the French
Treaty of 1860, and either not discovered by the
Chinese, or not repudiated by them until it was too
late. Let me briefly recapitulate the history of
this curious and not altogether creditable page of
history.

The only passage in Lord Elgin's Treaty of Tien-
tsin in 1858, relating directly to the missionaries, is that
History commoulv known as the Toleration Clause,

of the ...

Treaties which was copicd without substantial altera-
tion from the treaties already concluded by China
with Eussia and the United States. Article Vill. of
the EngUsh Treaty runs as follows : —

316 CHINA

*The Christian religion, as professed by Protestants and
Boman Catholics, inculcates the practice of virtue, and
teaches man to do as he would be done by. Persons teaching
or professing it, therefore, shall alike be entitled to the
protection of the Chinese authorities ; nor shall any such,
peaceably pursuing their calling, and not offending against
the law, be persecuted or interfered with/

A later clause in the same treaty (Article XII.) was
subsequently appealed to as giving English mission-
aries the right to rent or own land and buildings in
the interior : —

* British subjects, whether at the ports or at other places^
desiring to build or open houses, warehouses, churches,
hospitals, or burial-grounds, shall make their agreement for
the land or buildings they require at the rates prevailing
among the people, equitably and without exactions on either
side.'

But it was then explained, and has always been
held by the British Government, that the words, ' at
other places^' upon which alone the pretension rested,
had never been intended to confer, and could not be
construed as conferring such a right. Lord Elgin having
only introduced them in order to cover the case of
places such as Whampoa, Woosung, and Taku, which
are situated respectively at the distance of a few miles
below Canton, Shanghai, and Tientsin, and where it
might be found desirable, instead of or in addition to
the Treaty Ports, to establish foreign settlements.
Indeed, if the words had meant places in the interior
promiscuously, there would obviously have been no
necessity for subsequent treaties opening fresh Treaty
Ports, which concessions have only been procured as

CHINA AND THE POWERS 317

a compensation for outrage, or with immense diffi-
culty.

The British Treaties, accordingly, while they
secure to the missionary full protection everywhere
in the pursuit of his calling, and in the possession of
house and church property in the Treaty Ports, do
not give him the right either of residence or of
ownership in the interior. It was reserved for the
French to supply the deficiency.

Already in the French Treaty of 1858, the
privileges above mentioned had been definitely
guaranteed. Article XIII. says, in terms not unUke
those of the English Treaty : —

' The Christian religion having for its essential object the
leading of men to virtue, the members of all Christian
communities shall enjoy entire security for their persons and
property, and the free exercise of their religion ; and efficient
protection shall be given to missionaries who travel peaceably
in the interior, furnished with passports as provided for in
Article Vlll. No hindrance shall be oflFered by the authorities
of the Chinese Empire to the recognised right of every
individual in China to embrace, if he so please, Christianity,
and to follow its practices without being liable to any punish-
ment therefor.'

Two years later, after the capture of Peking and
the sacking of the Summer Palace by the allied
forces, both England and France exacted supplemen-
tary Conventions which were signed at Peking in
1860. Article VI. of the French Convention sti-
pulated for the restoration to them of the religious
and philanthropic establishments, the cemeteries,
and other dependencies which had been confiscated

318 CHINA

during the persecutions. At this juncture and in this
section of the treaty it was that a French missionary,
acting as interpreter for the French mission, intro-
duced the following clause into the Chinese text,
while the document was being transcribed : —

* It is, in addition, permitted to French missionaries to
rent and purchase land in all the provinces and to erect build-
ings thereon at pleasure.'

Now by Article III. of the previous Treaty of
Tientsin (1858) it had already been agreed that the
French text should be considered the authoritative
version ; and therefore this clause, thus surrepti-
tiously interpolated into the Chinese text only, and
not to be found in the French text, was invalid ah
initio. The Chinese, however, did not at once detect
the fraud ; and when they did, were either too proud
or too fearful of the consequences to contest the
point. The British Government professed its readi-
ness to retire from a position which had no solid or
legitimate foundation. But as the claim was consist-
ently vindicated by the French, without serious pro-
test from the Chinese, so the British tacitly acquired
the right also ; and to it is owing the privileged status
which the missionaries now enjoy, and which is not
shared by a single other class of their countrymen.

Though the Chinese did not repudiate the inter-
polated clause, there was nevertheless some dis-
pute and correspondence thereupon ; which culmi-
nated, about 1865, in an understanding between the
Tsungli Yamen and the then French Minister, as to
the exact interpretation that was to be placed upon

CHINA AND THE POWERS 319

it. Among other things it was agreed that property
acquired by French missionaries in the interior should
subfle- ^^ registered in the name, not of individual
2S^i. missionaries or converts, but of the parent
Stan ing gQ^^jg^y Other stipulations provided for due

notice to the local authorities of the intention to ac-
quire property, &c., in the interior. As a matter of
fact these conditions are not always observed by the
Protestant missionaries, much of the property ac-
quired by them being registered and held in the
name of converts, and made over by private agree-
ment to the foreign missionary.

In the diplomatic complications arising out of the
missionary massacres at Wuhu and Wuhsueh in
Imperial 1891, the combiucd pressure of the foreign
1891 representatives, reinforced by gunboats,
availed to extract from the Chinese Government an
Imperial Edict, which was published in the ' Peking
Gazette ' of June 13, 1891, and was ordered to
be posted in the principal cities of the Empire — an
order which, it is needless to add, the Provincial
Governors, wherever they conveniently could, dis-
obeyed. To this decree the Christian missionaries
are now disposed to look as the charter of their
liberties, confirming and to some extent superseding
the text of the Treaties. After directing the civil
and military authorities in the disturbed provinces to
arrest and try the principal criminals, and to con-
demn the guilty to death, the Emperor proceeded
with this general statement of the missionaries'
rights : —

320 CHINA

*The right of foreign missionaries to promulgate their
religions in China is provided for by Treaty and by Edicts
which were previously issued ; the authorities of all the pro-
vinces were commanded to aflTord them protection as circum-
stances required . . . The religions of the West have for
their object the inculcation of virtue, and though people
become converts they still remain Chinese subjects, and
continue to be amenable to the jurisdiction of the local
authorities. There is no reason why there should not be
harmony between the ordinary people and the adherents of
foreign religions ; and the whole trouble arises from lawless
ruffians fabricating baseless stories and making an oppor-
tunity for creating disturbance. These bad characters exist
everywhere. We command the Manchu Generals-in-Chief,
the Viceroys and Governors in all the provinces, to issue
proclamations clearly explaining to the people that they must
on no account give a ready ear to such idle tales and
wantonly cause trouble. Let all who post anonymous
placards and spread false rumours, inflaming the minds of the
people, be at once arrested and severely punished. The local
authorities are bound to afford due protection at all times to
the persons and property of foreign merchants and foreign
missionaries, and must not allow them to be injured or
molested by evil characters. Should the precautionary
measures be lacking in stringency, and trouble be the
result, w© command that the local authorities be severely
denounced.' *

This decree may perhaps be said to cover and
condone any previously existing flaw in the mission-
aries' position, and to lend a direct Imperial sanction
to their presence and propaganda in the interior.
Extracted as it was, however, by sheer compulsion
from the Chinese Government, and in the main dic-
tated by the foreign Ministers, it represents no

* Parliamentary Blue Boohy China, No. 1. 1892.

CHIXA AXD THE POWERS 321

. •

spontaneous change of attitude on the part of the
former ; whilst it is to be feared that its practical
influence will be very small.

Such is the history of the circumstances under
which the Christian missionaries have gained a foot-

cMnese ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ interior of the Chinese Empire.
Heutiments jf ^^^ Chincsc, with their ingrained disposi-
tion to accept facts, have forgotten alike the dupli-
city of the foreigner and their own humiliation,
nevertheless the presence of the missionaries is a
testim.ony to the continued ascendency of an alien
Power, still maintained, as it was originally intro-
duced, by force. As such the Chinese, who dislike
all foreigners, regard the missionaries in particular
with an intense aversion, considering them the a<?ents
of a policy which has been and is forced upon them
in opposition both to the interests of the Government,
the sentiments of the Hferati, and tlie convictions of
the people. A converse illustration, minus the sti-
mulus of the odium theologicum, is supplied by the
detestation with which the Chinese immigrant is
himself elsewhere regarded by the wliite man, by
the Australian in Sydney, or the American in San
Francisco.

Nor is this impression diminished by the attitude
of the missionaries themselves, many of wliom,
Tiie appeal tliough thcv bucklc ou their armour as the

for gun- . " .

boats soldiers of Christ, remember onlv in times
of peril that they are citizens of this or that empire
or republic, and clamour for a gunboat with which
to insure respect for the Gospel. To this too ready

Y

3Ji> CHINA

appeal to the physical sanction of a national flag
there are many honourable exceptions — ^men who
carry their lives in their hands, and uncomplainingly
submit to indignities which they have undertaken to
endure in a higher cause than that of their nationality.
Xe\'ertheles8 the presence of the missionary bodies as
a whole in the country is a constant anxiety to the
Legations, by whom in the last resort their interests,
nesting as they do upon treaties, must be defended;
and is equally distasteful to the Chinese Government,
which frequently finds itself called upon to reprimand
a native official or to punish a local community at the
cost of great odium to itself. This is the explanation
of the extreme reluctance exhibited, as a rule, by the
(»entral authority in bringing to justice the notorious
authors of calumny or outrage. The secret sym-
l)athies of the people are behind the malefactor ; and
the Government feels that it may be straining a bond
of allegiance, which already, in the case of many of
the outlying provinces, is stretched almost to the
point of rupture.

In some districts the unpopularity of the mis-
sionaries has been increased by the special privileges
Privileges wliicli thcy arc disposed to claim on behalf
converts of uativc couvcrts engaged in litigation or
other disputes ; and by their interference in the civil
affairs of the neighbourhood in which they reside.
Just as in Southern India, many a native becomes a
Christian in order to get a situation as a servant or a
clerk, so in China it not infrequently happens that a
shady character will suddenly find salvation for the

CHINA AND THE POWERS 323

sake of the material advantages or protection which it
may be expected to confer upon him.

But to the thoughtful Chinaman's eye, penetrating
a little below the surface, the real political danger is
An tmpj- more deeply rooted than any such superficial

rium in ,

tmperia svmptoms might appear to suggest. He sees
in missionary enterprise the existence of an insidious
imperium in imperio^ of a secret society hostile to
the commonwealth, of damage and detriment to the
State. He remembers that the most frightful visita-
tion which China has sufiered in modern times, the
Taiping rebellion, by which over 20,000,000 of her
people perished, was in its inception a Christian
movement, led by a Christian convert, and projected
to Christianise his countrymen ; and with these ex-
periences before him he may well feel qualms at
any signs of increasing missionary influence. In the
case of the French missions, with whom as Eoman
Catholics I have not here been dealing, there is an
additional ground for mistrust ; for the Chinese see
that the French Government is here enfja<?ed in
forcing upon them the very men and the selfsame
religion whom it has sought to expel from its own
land — an act of duplicity which in their minds can
only mask some dark political cabal.

It is sometimes said, by missionary champions,
that of the recurring outbreaks against them, the
Plea of missionaries, though the victims, are com-

political .

agiuuon monly not the cause ; the movement bemg
in reality a deep-seated plot concocted by political
malcontents to embroil either the provincial with the

T 2

324 CHINA

Imperial Government, or the latter with foreign
Powers. How far this is the case there exist few
means of accurately determining. But the plea is
believed by those who know best to be destitute of
validity ; though there are obvious reasons for its
encouragement by the Tsungli Yamen, who can
thereby plead internal disorder as an excuse for
their own responsibility.

Finally, there are the practical charges brought
against the work, arising partly from the mission-
aries' own conduct, partly from the gross super-
8. Practical, stitious of the pcoplc. Of the former

Mission

life character are the allegations that are so

frequently made, not without apparent justification,
about the personnel and surroundings of the missions,
particularly in the Treaty Ports ; about the lack of
personal aptitudes, inseparable from a career that
has already in some cases, especially in that of the
American missionaries, come to be regarded as a
profession ; and about the well-appointed houses, the
comfortable manner of living, the summer exodus
to the hills, the domestic engrossments and large
families, which, strange to say, are encouraged by a
liberal subsidy from the parent society for each new
arrival in the missionary nursery.

Another source of misunderstanding is the con-
stantly increasing employment of women, and particu-
Empioy- larly of unmarried women, by the missionary
women bodics. A stcamcr rarely sails from the
American shores for Yokohama without carrying a
bevy of young girls, fresh from the schoolroom or

CHIXA AND THE POWERS 325

the seminary, who, with the impulsive innocence of
youth, are about to devote their young lives and
energies to what they conceive to be the noblest of
purposes in Japan or China. A scarcely inferior
stream of female recruitment flows in from the
United Kingdom and the Colonies.^ Now I do not
say that the work of the female missionary is
thrown away, or that there may not be cases in
which her devotion reaps an ample harvest. Neither
do I presume for one moment to question the honest
self-sacrifice of the act ; but I do say that in a country
like China — where, on the one hand, very difierent
notions of the emancipation of women prevail from
those to which we are accustomed, and on the other
hand an element of almost brutal coarseness enters
largely into the composition of the native character
— the institution of sisterhoods, planted alongside
of male establishments, the spectacle of unmarried
persons of both sexes residing and working together,
both in public and in private, and of girls making
long journeys into the interior without responsible
escort, are sources of a misunderstanding at which
the pure-minded may afford to scoff, but which in
many cases has more to do with anti-missionary
feeling in China than any amount of national hostility
or doctrinal antagonism. Only last year, at the
remote mland town of Kuei -h wa-cheng, a friend of
mine encountered a missionary community consisting

^ Of the 1,800 Protestant miBsionaries in China in 1890, as many
as 700, or more than half, were women ; and of these 816 were un-
married women.

326 CHIXA

of one male and of twenty Swedish girls. The propa-
ganda of the latter consisted in parading the streets
and singing hymns to the strumming of tambourines
and guitars. The society that had committed the
outrage of sending out these innocent girls only
allowed them jS'200, or 27/. IO5. a year apiece, for
board, lodging, and clothing. As a consequence they
were destitute of the smallest comforts of life, and
could not even perform their toilette without the
impertinent eyes of Chinamen being directed upon
them through the paper screens. Can anything more
futile than such an enterprise be conceived, or more
culpable ?

^ To the same class of preventible sources of
mischief belong the charges of arrogance and tact-
situaiion Icssucss that are sometimes levelled aeainst

of build- .... . . .

ingB the missionaries in their selections of sites

for churches or private dwellings. To the European
an elevation or commanding site is always, both for
picturesque and sanitary reasons, preferable to a lower
position ; while for purposes of privacy or protection,
a high enclosure wall is superior to a low one. But
to the Chinaman, with his extraordinary ideas about
the fengshui^ or Spirits of Air and Water, and his
geomantic superstitions, a building in an elevated
situation appears to have an effect like the ' evil eye,'
and is a source of genuine suspicion and alarm ;
while anything appertaining to secrecy suggests to
his depraved imagination the ambiguous character of
Eleusinian mysteries. It is strange that missionaries
of all sects and creeds seem to be quite unable

CHIXA AXD THE POWERS 327

to resist these easily surmounted temptations. At
Tokio, in Japan, the most commanding edifice in the
entire city is the Russian Cathedral that crowns one
of its timbered heights. At Canton the twin towers
of the French Gothic Cathedral, erected under cir-
cumstances that should bring a blush to every
Christian's cheek, may be seen for miles across the
level country. At Peking, one of the French Cathe-
drals, the Peitang, actually overlooked the sacrosanct
enclosure of the Forbidden City; until at length,
after prolonged negotiations, and the gift of a
superior site elsewhere, the French authorities were
persuaded to acquiesce in its removal.

Another source of friction between the mission-
aries and the Chinese is the refusal of the native
Refusal of converts made by the former to contribute

converts to /• i

subscribe to the cxpcuses of the numerous semji-
religious festivals that form such an important factor
in the social life of China. A certain quota is
demanded from every Chinese family towards these
periodical ceremonies ; and the more converts there
are in the town or locality, the more the unconverted
have to pay. The exemption of the Christian pro-
selytes from claims of this kind has been more or
less recognised by the Chinese Government ; but no
official sanction can avert the social ostracism that is
the local penalty of refusal. The name of the
defaulter is removed from the family register, and
he is debarred from participating in all the advan-
tages conferred by the institution of clan life in
China.

328 CHINA

Furthermore the missionaries are universally
credited by the people with a power of witchcraft,
Belief in Bssentially similar in kind to the beliefs that
"" "^^ used to prevail widely in England, and are
still not altogether extirpated, as to the magical
powers of individual persons, commonly old women,
supposed to be in intimate alliance with the devil
himself. If there is a drought, or a flood, or any
sudden visitation in China, it is frequently attributed
to missionary incantations. If sickness or death
assails a house contiguous to the missionary's abode,
it is equally ascribed to the malevolent influence of
the foreigner.

■

More fantastic in appearance, but also more
sinister in operation, are the abominable and dis-
Horribie g^sting charges that are freely brought
charges agaiust the missionaries by the literati —
charges of grosi personal immorality and of kid-
napping and mutilation of children, which, however
monstrous and malevolent, are not the less, but the
more serious, because they are firmly believed by
the ignorant audiences to whom they are addressed.
The mystery of the Feast of the Holy Sacrament, the
privacy of the Confessional, may be to the Christian
among the most idolised and sacred of his religious
associations. The foul-minded Chinese critic sees
in them only a hypocritical mask for indecency and
wrong-doing. The hospitals and orphanages of the
Christian societies have sometimes been recruited for
with a not too judicious avidity by their philanthropic
patrons ; while they receive many miserable inmates

CHINA AND THE POWERS 329

whom an early death overtakes in the natural course
of things. It is firmly believed by the masses in China
that foundlings are taken in, and that sick women
and children are enticed to these institutions to be
murdered by the missionaries for the sake of the
therapeutic or chemical properties attaching to their
viscera, or eyes, or brains.

It must be remembered that in the Chinese
pharmacopoeia anthropophagous remedies are held in
the highest esteem ; and that particular parts of the
human body, administered in powders or decoctions,
are recommended as a sovereign remedy. A son
who thus sacrifices some portion of his flesh for a
sick parent, or a wife for an invalid husband, is
regarded as having performed the most meritorious
of acts, and is sometimes rewarded by the provincial
Government with a pailow^ or commemorative arch.
The medicines distributed in the mission dispensary,
the chemicals employed in the scientific processes,
such as photography, to which the foreign magician
is prone, have undoubtedly, in the eyes of the igno-
rant masses, been obtained by these methods. It was
to such a belief that the famous Tientsin massacres
in 1870, and the Wuhsueh murders in 1891, were
mainly due ; and when these horrible charges are
reinforced by every variety of pamphlet and leaflet
and filthy caricature and obscene lampoon, issued
with the secret connivance of the local authority, as
in the publications of the notorious Chow Han in 1891,
in the province of Hunan, it may readily be con-
ceived what a terrible and almost insurmountable

330 CHINA

weight of prejudice is excited. To intelligent persons
all this may sound senseless and irrational enough ; but
again I am compelled to remind my readers that to
this day there are many parts of Europe where pre-
cisely analogous superstitions prevail among the
ignorant peasantry, against the Jews in particular;
and that the last decade alone has witnessed a longer
list of murders and outrages in Christian Europe,
due to an almost identical cause, than has been con-
tributed in the same period by the whole of pagan
China.

Such, briefly summarised, is a list of the main
drawbacks, or in some cases failings, by which the
Summing P^otcstaut missionary movement in China is
^^ retarded. I refrain from indicating any

personal acceptance of their truth, since it may be
said that my opportunities for forming a trustworthy
judgment have not, in spite of two visits to the
country, been sufficient ; but I state them as I have
derived them orally from numerous resident authori-
ties, as well as from the study of newspapers published
in China, of official reports, and of the writings and
speeches of the missionaries themselves.^ I have no
other desire than to enable my readers, firstly, to see
that there are two sides to the missionary question,
and secondly, before making up their own minds

* For the study of the question may be recommended, The Anti-
Foreign Riots in China in 1891, republished from the North China
Herald&t Shanghai ; The Parliamentary Blue BoolcSj China No. 1, 1891 ;
No. 2, 1892; and above all two excellent brochures entitled Missionarieg
in Chinat and China and Christianity ^ by Mr. A. Michie of Tientsin ;
an authority whose writings on all subjects connected with China are
distinguished both by remarkable insight and great literary abihty.

CHINA AND THE POWERS 331

upon it, to form some idea of what those sides
are.

Whatever the proportion of truth or falsehood in

this presentment of the case, there seems, at least to

my mind, to be small doubt that the cause

Results

of Christianity is not advancing in China
wilh a rapidity in the least commensurate to the
prodigious outlay of money, self-sacrifice, and hu-
man power. To many it appears to be receding.
Such, of course, is not the impression that will be
derived from missionary publications. But, if we
accept their own figures, which in the year 1890
showed a total of 1,300 Protestant missionaries
(women included) and only 37,300 native converts,
or a fold of less than 30 to each shepherd, and a
proportion of only one in every 10,000 of the Chinese
population, it must be admitted that the harvest of
half a century's labour is not large.^ Meanwhile
the temper of the native peoples may be gathered
from the incidents of contemporary history. During
the short time that I was in the China Seas in 1892,
three fresh cases were recorded of aggravated assault
upon missionaries and their wives. Since then two
unofiending Swedish missionaries have been brutally
murdered at Sungpu. This does not look as though
the reign of peace had yet dawned.

^ A few years ago the Roman Catholics published the figures of
their missions in China, which were as follows : Bishops 41, European
priests G64, Native priests 559, Colleges 84, Convents 84, Native con-
verts 1,092,818. Thus for one-half the number of European missionaries
they have thirty times the number of disciples. On the other hand
they have the advantage of a much older establishment.

332 CUIXA

Here, however, I am only concerned with the
danger that a movement exposed, whether justly or
The right unjustly, to these attacks must entail upon
^8^ the general interests of foreign Powers in

for the -^ , ,

Treaties Clima. Thosc luterests are not solely co-
extensive with the work of evangelisation. They
embrace the entire field of international relationship
upon which peoples meet and hold intercourse ; and
it should be the first object of diplomacy to remove
from this arena, or at least to minimise upon its
surface, all possible sources of complication. The
Christian missions are in China; they were intro-
duced there by ourselves; they were accepted or
at least submitted to bv the Chinese Government ;
there we have hitherto maintained them; there
undoubtedly they will remain. However much the
unfriendly critic might welcome their wholesale de-
portation, no such solution is practicable. So long
as the Treaties are not rescinded, their obligation
can neither be evaded by foreign Governments nor
trampled on with impunity by the Chinese. Whether
it was wise or not to introduce missionaries in the
first place, China, having undertaken to protect their
persons and to tolerate their faith, must fulfil her
pledge, and cannot be permitted to combine a mere
lip respect for the engagement with secret connivance
at its violation. Still less must the idea be allowed
to prevail that a mere money compensation will
suffice to expiate any or every outrage. The ex-
action of blood-money is at the best but a poor form
of diplomatic amends ; but blood-money in return

CHINA AND THE POWERS ' 333

for the lives of innocent men, whose protection has
been guaranteed by treaty, and who have been
brutally done to death, is almost an aggravation of
the offence. The Chinese themselves will be the last
to feel surprise at an attitude of resolution on the
part of the foreigner. Firmness is the only policy
for which they entertain any respect. It would of
course be best if in all cases of outrage or crime,
whether happening to an Englishman, a Frenchman,
or an American, joint action were taken by all the
Powers. Such united pressure it would be almost
impossible to resist. Unfortunately international
jealousies or differences render such a co-operation
difficult of attainment ; and the steps in that direction
which were taken, at Lord Salisbury's initiative, after
the murders of 1891, and which assumed the form of
a collective note addressed by the Powers to the
Tsungli Yamen, failed in their object, owing to the
withdrawal of the United States from the concert.

Nevertheless while the primary canon of political

action should be the adequate fulfilment of admitted

obligations, statesmanship has other and

Stricter . t i t t

precau- Supplementary duties to perform. It should
aim at a cautious tightening of the reins,
whereby the causes of offence may be abridged, the
vagaries of indiscreet enthusiasm kept in check,
and the political aspects of missionary enterprise
contracted within the smallest possible dimensions.
There are some who recommend that the missionaries
should dispense with foreign protection altogether,
and, proceeding without passports, should live as

334 CHIXA

Chinese subjects under Chinese laws. Such a solution
is probably more Quixotic than feasible, and might
lead to worse disaster. A very strict revision, how-
ever, of the conditions of travel and residence in the
interior is much to be desired. Some limitation ought
to be placed upon the irresponsible vagrancy of
European subjects over remote and fanatical parts of
the Chinese dominions. Passports should be abso-
lutely refused at the discretion of the Minister,
exercised with regard to the character both of the
locality and the applicant. When granted, they
might specify the name of the province, district, or
town to which, and to which only, the bearer is
accredited. Already they give a general sketch of
the route which he proposes to follow. Upon his
arrival he might be compelled to report himself to
the local magistracy, and to notify his future move-
ments to the latter. Such a demand has, I believe,
more than once been made by the Chinese Govern-
ment, but has been steadily refused. The relations
between the civil authorities and the Christians in
matters pertaining to the acquisition and tenure of
land should be clearly defined and assimilated as far
as possible to native custom. The opening of all
mission establishments to the inspection of Govern-
ment officials is recommended by some as an antidote
to the horrible prevalent superstitions. Of more avail
would it be to curtail within the narrowest limits the
institutions, such as orphanages and sisterhoods, that
give currency to these odious beliefs. The employ-
ment of hundreds of young unmarried foreign girls

CHINA AND THE POWERS 335

in various branches of missionary work, though
the most popular current phase of the movement,
is greatly to be deprecated, as giving rise to the
very pardonable misinterpretations of which I have
spoken ; and ought to be curtailed by educated
opinion at home.

In the last resort more will depend upon the
character and conduct of the missionaries themselves
Choice of ^^^^^ upon the checks devised by even a
material friendly diplomacy. Impulsive virtue and
raw enthusiasm are not necessarily the best credentials
for a missionary career. The sensational appeal from
the platform of Exeter Hall, and the despatch of the
heterogeneous company that respond to the summons,
like a draft of young volunteer recruits to the theatre
of war, are fraught with infinite danger. It behoves
the parent societies, both in Great Britain and America,
by a more careful choice of the men whom they send
forth, and the emissaries themselves, by an anxious
regulation of their own conduct, to anticipate and, if
it may be, to avert the danger which, under existing
conditions, confronts alike the interests of the country
under whose flag they march, and the sublime cause
to which they have devoted their lives.

336 CniXA

CHAPTEE X

THE SO-CALLED AWAKENING OP CHINA

Idem semper erit, quoniam semper fiiit idem.
Non alium videre patres aliumve nepotes
Aspicient. Deus est qui non mutatur in svo.

Manilius, AbItotu I. 528- 80.

Seven years ago the Western, and I dare say the
Eastern world also, in so far as it was made aware of

Ib China ^^^ ^^^^' ^^^ startled by the appearance in
awake? ^^ pages of an English magazine of an article
by the foremost Chinaman then living, a tried states-
man and a successful ambassador, in which, with a
skilfulness that was to be expected of his abilities,
and with an emancipation of sentiment that was sur-
prising in his nationality, he advanced the proposi-
tions that China had at length been aroused from her
age-long sleep, and, with the same energy that she
had for so many centuries pursued and idealised the
immobile, was about to enter into the turbulent
competition of modern progress.^ No doubt the
Marquis Tseng sincerely believed in his own assur-
ances ; unquestionably they proved palatable to the
larg^ class of European readers who cannot conceive

* * China, the Sleep and the Awakening,' by the Marquis Tseng.
Asiatic Quarterly Review^ Jan. 1887.

THE SO-CALLED AWAKE XIXG OF CUIXA 337

of any standard of life, either for an individual or a
nation, except that which prevails in the country of
which they themselves are citizens, who bisect man-
kind into two camps, the civiUsed and the barbarian,
and hold it to be both the destiny and the duty of
the latter to wear the former's pyves. Had China,
at last, the most arrogant of the rebels, the most
formidable of the barbarians, be en driven to capitu-
late? Was the Celestial about to sit a chastened
convert at the feet of Western doctors ? So blessed
a proclamation had not for long been spread abroad
upon the earth ; and loud were the Hosannas that
went up from chapel and conventicle, from platform
and pulpit and press, at these glad tidings of great
joy. Tt may be worth our while, who are neither, like
the Marquis Tseng, diplomats whose interest it is to
conciliate, nor prophets who are ahead of our times,
to examine how far it is true that China has really
awakened from her ancestral sleep, or whether she '
may not merely have risen to stop the rattling of
a window-sash, or the creaking of a shutter, that
interferes with her quietude, with the fixed intention
of settling down once more to the enjoyment of an
unabashed repose.

For now more than fifty years has the combined
force of the Western nations, exercised commonly
A tactical ^J' diplomacy, frequently by threats, and some-
surrender times by opeu war, been directed against tlmt
immense and solid wall of conservative resistance,
like the city walls of their own capital, which the
Chinese oppose to any pressure from the outside.

z

338 CHINA

In parts an opening has been effected by the superior
strength of the foreigner, backed up by gunboats or
cannon. Of sucli a character are the concessions
as regards missionaries and trade, which fall more
properly tinder the heading of China's external than
of her internal relations, and, as such, have been
dealt with in the previous chapter. In what respects^
however, may she be said to have yielded, or to
be even now abating her stubborn opposition, in
deference to no exterior compulsion, but of her own
free will? The answer, whether we look at the
introduction of the electric telegraph and railways,
at the adoption of foreign mechanical appliances in
arsenals, dockyards, and workshops, at the institution
of a native press, at the development of internal
resources, or at the encouragement of domestic
enterprise — the familiar first lessons of the West to
the East — will teach us that it is with no lighthearted
or spontaneous step, but from the keenest instincts of
self-preservation alone, that China has descended
from her pinnacle of supercilious self-sufficiency, and
has consented to graduate in Western academies.
One might think that in the contemplation of the
ma<?nificent wharves and streets and buildin<TS of
Shanghai, which worthily claims to be the Calcutta
of the Far East ; of the spacious and orderly foreign
settlement of Tientsin, contrasted with the filth of
the native city adjoining ; or of the crowded dock-
yards and shipping of Hongkong — the Chinese would
have found at once a reproach to their own back-
wardness and a stimulus to competition. It is

THE SO-CALLED AWAKENING OF CHINA 339

doubtful whether any such impression has ever been
produced upon the Celestial mind. What suits the
foreigner s taste is not necessarily required by his.
If the foreigner prefers to be comfortable, he is
content to be squalid. If space and grandeur are
essential to the one, they have for centuries been
dispensed with, and are, therefore, not necessary to
the other. Were it not that experience has shown
beyond possibility of cavil that, in the struggle with
the foreigner to which the march of events has
committed her, China is herself handicapped by the
absence of those appliances which have rendered
her antagonists so formidable, she would not have
made the smallest concession to a pressure which she
still despises, even while yielding to it. In a word,
her surrender is the offspring, not of admiration,
but of fear. It is based upon expediency, not upon
conviction.

No more striking illustration of this thesis can be
furnished than the enterprise which will seem to the
Raiiwa 8 superficial observer the evidence of its very
in China oppositc, viz. the introduction of railways
into China. When I first visited the Chinese Empire
in 1887, there was not a mile of railroad in the
country. The little abortive railway from Woosung
to Shanghai, which had been constructed in 187G
by English merchants, and had been compulsorily
acquired and torn up by the provincial authorities
in 1877, was only a memory and a warning. Now,
however, the stranger can travel in an English-built
carriage upon English steel rails from the station of

z 2

340 CUIXA

Tongku, near the Taku forts at the mouth of the
Peiho Kiver, over the 27 miles that separate him
from Tientsin ; while from Tongku the main line is
already prolonged for 67 miles to the Tungshan and
Kaiping coalfields, and thence as far as Shan-hai-kuan,
at the seaward terminus of the Great Wall, in the
direction of Manchuria beyond.

The reason of these several extensions has been
as follows : Of the first (which was begun in 1887),
Manchu- the alarm produced by the French war in
Railway 1884 ; of thc sccoud, the necessity, in the
event of a future campaign, of possessing native
coalfields, instead of being dependent upon foreign
supply — as well as the interests of a speculation in
which the Viceroy Li Hung Chang is personally con-
cerned ; of the third, the fear of Eussian aggression on
the north ; — self-interest or apprehension having been,
therefore, in each case the motive power. In other
words, the introduction of these railways has been a
compulsory operation, not undertaken of free will
or inclination, but forced from the outside. At one pe-
riod the works were stopped by the resurgence of old-
fashioned and superstitious ideas,^ and by the weight of
Palace intrigue. But the influence of Li Hung Chang
has triumphed ; and the line, though nominally mer-

* AVhen it was announced that a branch line was to be constmcted
from Moukden to Xewchwang, the Tartar General of the former place,
who did not want it at all. consulted the geomancers, who reported
that the vertebra? of the dragon encircling the holy city of Moukden
would infallibly be simdered by driving the long nails of the railway
sleepers into thein. Accordingly he advocated the removal of the Ime
from Moukden. The spinal cord of the dragon was ultimately secured
by shifting the rails a few hundred yards.

THE SO-CALLED AWAKENING OF CHINA 341

cantile in its inception, has now become in reality a
strategical railway, which is being steadily pushed
forward in the direction of Kirin. Its total length will
then be just short of 650 miles. The first 94 miles
were constructed by a company, the China Railway
Company ; the remainder is a State railway. But
inasmuch as both undertakings are controlled by
the Viceroy, and as the former is in no sense a
commercial speculation, the shareholders being all
officials, and no accounts being published, the entire
project may be considered as one scheme. At the
present rate of advance, 40 to 50 miles are being laid
yearly, a sum of 400,000Z being allocated for the
purpose. This leaves a gap of several years before
Kirin is expected to be reached ; but it is calculated
that, owing to the paucity of physical obstacles, and
tlie ability of the Chinese navvies in throwing up
earthworks, the whole line could, at a pinch, be
completed in two years. Meanwhile in the present
year further progress has been for a while suspended,
in order that the funds so released may be devoted
to the celebrations of the sixtieth bixthday of the
Empress Dowager — a proceeding profoundly Chinese.
Branch lines are also contemplated from Moukden
to the treaty port of Newchwang, a distance of
110 miles ; and from Newchwang to the naval dock-
yard of Port Arthur, both strategical in design. The
entire scheme, in fact, is China's reply to the Trans-
Siberian Railway of Russia to Vladivostok — the pro-
digious effect of which upon the future of Asia, at
present but scantily realised in this country, is clearly

342 CIIIXA

appreciated by a few Chinese statesmen — and is a
warning to the Tsar that China does not mean to
let Manchuria and the Sungari Eiver slip from her
grasp quite as easily as she did the Amur and Ussuri
channels, and the provinces upon their northern and
eastern banks.

It was originally contemplated to run a line
from Tientsin to Tungchow, the river port thirteen
Line to Diiles distaut from Peking — a project which
Peking would have been of great service both to the
Chinese inhabitants of the capital, who find the prices
of the necessaries of life swollen to exorbitant figures
by the difficulty of communications in winter, and to
the Europeans who by the same conditions are cut
ofi* for months every year from the outer world. But
Chinese conservatism could not stomach any such
affront to the footstool of Eoyalty, while the argu-
ment that a railroad to the capital would only avail
to transport an invader all the more quickly, is one
that possessed peculiar fascination for Celestial ears.
Accordingly, the direct connection of Pekmg with the
coast will probably be postponed for some time longer,
although I entertain no doubt that it will ultimately
be accomplished. Many more foreigners will then
visit the Chinese capital, hotels will spring up, and
the curio-dealers will rejoice. In practice the familiar
objection to railways in China that they will offend
the fengshid^ or Spirit Powers, and disturb the re-
pose of the dead, is found to be less serious than
the contention, which there is no school of political
economy in China to controvert, that the displacement

THE SO-CALLED AWAKE XIXG OF CHINA 3i3

of labour caused thereby will throw so many hundreds
or thousands of coolies or junkmen or cartmen out
of emplojonent. This is a line of reasoning that has
already been successfully employed for years to
resist the opening of the Upper Yangtse to steam
navigation, and that will be repeated ad nauseam
against every proposal for railway extension for many
years to come.

There are of course statesmen in China who, like
Li Hung Chang, are superior to the fallacies or the
Great superstitious of their countrymen. It will

Trunk i n i /»

Lin© be remembered that a few years ago the

Emperor, or rather the Empress-Dowager, who was
still Eegent, issued an interrogation to the principal
provincial Governors and Governors-General, inviting
their counsel upon the subject of railway extension
in the Empire. Their repUes, which were published,
contained several expressions of very sensible opinion.
One governor recommended not merely the Manchu-
rian Railway, but a second line in a north-westerly
direction through Shansi and Kansu to lU, and a
third as far as remote Kashgar, assigning these
reasons : —

* We shall thereby be able to send troops, money, &c., any-
where in our Empire within ten days ; and moreover, we shall
be able to found prosperous colonies in those outlying regions
of people who in China proper are only a starving proletariat^
and a source of trouble to the Government, but who, once
transplanted thither, will be able to find a fruitful field for
their now unemployed labour, and will turn the desert into a
garden.'

344 CHIXA

But tlie most stalwart of these advocates was the
celebrated Chan Chih Tung, Viceroy of the Tw^o
Kuangs, who pressed for the construction of a great
Trunk Railway connecting Peking with Hankow, to
be commenced simultaneously at both ends. Not the
most conservative of Chinamen could deny that such
a line at least was sufficiently removed from the coast
to be of little assistance to an invader. In 1889
appeared an Imperial Proclamation authorising the
execution of this only half-considered scheme, and
Chang Chih Tung was sent as Viceroy to Hankow to
carry it out. Subsequent reflection appears to have
convinced him that it must not be undertaken except
with Chinese capital, and with steel rails manufactured
in Chinese furnaces from Chinese metal — a decision
which looks very much Hke a postponement to the
Greek Kalends. Until the Chinese have realised that
they are incapable of constructing a great line except
by foreign assistance, and (unless they are prepared
to pledge the Imperial Exchequer to the undertaking)
to some extent by foreign capital, it is safe to predict
that the great Hankow-Peking e^^ will never be
hatched at all.

In the meantime the Viceroy is energetically
pursuing the first part of his curtailed scheme by
Hankow crcctiug irou and steel works (in addition

Line and . . i . , t . m

factories to already existing cotton, brick, and tile
fiictories in the neighbourhood) at Hanyang, near
Hankow, while he can flatter himself that he has a
railway all his own in the shape of a short line of the
standard gauge, seventeen miles long, wiiich he has

THE SO-CALLED AWAKENING OF CHINA 345

constructed from Shili-hin-yao on the banks of the
Yangtse, seventy miles below Hankow, to the iron
mines of Tien-shan-pu, whence his ore is to be derived.
Branch lines are also contemplated to the neighbour-
in*? collieries of Wanor-san-shih and Ma-an-shan. In
Wuchang a laboratory has been established since
1891 for the analysis of the various local minerals.
Simultaneously, but even more leisurel}^ the second
part of the scheme is being advanced b)' the despatch
of a number of Chinese to Europe, to acquire the
necessary mechanical and engineering experience.
These are the resorts, cumbersome, dilatory, and
infinitely costly, to which China is impelled by an
imperishable confidence in herself and a correspond-
ing dislike of external assistance.

The only other railway in the Chinese dominions
is a line in the north of the island of Formosa,
FormoRA Originally commenced with the torn-up
Railway Woosuug rails, by one of the most enter-
prising of Chinese statesmen, Liu Ming Chuan, who,
having gained great credit for his skilful defence
of Kelung against the French fleet, under Admiral
C^urbet, in 1884, was recently reported, in con-
sequence of scares upon the Pamirs, to be about to
proceed as military commander to Chinese Turkestan.
The idea of the Formosa Eailway was to connect the
port of Kelung, on the north-east coast of the island,
with that of Tainan on the west. About fifty miles
of this railroad have already been laid ; but recent
reports speak of its probable abandonment from
i shortness of funds.

346 CniXA

This short sketch of the inception of raih'oad
enterprise in China will show that whilst the advice
other of a prominent statesman here, or the

cornmuni- ,

cations mfluence of an energetic governor there,
may result in the commencement of isolated under-
takings, which are recommended by particular
exigencies of policy or speculation, the Chinese
Government is far from having realised the over-
whelming importance, not merely to the economic
and industrial development, but to the continued
national existence of the Empire, of a wide-reaching
and promptly executed system of railways. The
prediction may safely be hazarded that without rail-
roads Chinese Turkestan and Western Mongolia, as
well as other outlying parts of the Empire, cannot
be permanently held. There is not the slightest good
in manufacturing Krupp, and Hotchkiss, and Catling,
and Winchester, and Martini-Henry implements of
war by the thousand, if there exist no means of
conveying the troops who are to use them to the
scene of action. In railroads and telegraphs (the
latter were stoutly resisted at the start by the pro-
vincial governors because of the restraints which
would thereby be placed upon their independence)
lies the sole hope that China possesses of retain-
ing her territorial integrity. And yet so perversely
ignorant is the Government of this elementary
axiom, that communications of any kind are treated
by it with undeviating neglect. The military reliefs
are compelled to trudge to their stations over
thousands of miles of execrable track. Even the few

THE SO-CALLED AWAKEXIXG OF CHINA 347

military roads that have been constructed near the
coast are allowed to fall out of repair. Simul-
taneously, with the most magnificent rivers in Asia
running through her territories, and inviting cheap
and rapid communication with the populous cities of
the interior, it is only, so to speak, at the bayonet's
point that assent can be gained to the extension of
river navigation by steam ; and whole populations
must be starved in order that small communities of
boatmen or raftmen may live.

Similar reflections are suggested by an examina-
tion of the military equipment and resources of
Military China, whiclj have formed the subject of
reform much prcmaturc congratulation. It is true
that, particularly suice the French war in 1884-5,
which, in spite of the comparative failure of the
French, and the pretensions to victory that have
since been advanced by the Chinese, yet taught the
latter a great many well-needed lessons, millions have
been spent in providing the Empire with the mecha-
nical appliances that shall enable it successfully to
resist the foreigner. At Kirin, Tientsin, Shanghai,
Xanking, Foochow, and Canton, are factories or
arsenals, capable of turning out gunpowder, car-
tridges, repeating rifles, field and mountain artillery,
projectiles, and machine guns of the most approved
and recent pattern. The majority, if not all of
these, were established in the first place, and for a
long time supervised, by foreigners. It is true also
that a military school for officers has been founded
at Peking, and schools of gunnery, musketry, and

348 CHINA

engineering, under the patronage of Li Hung Chang,
at Tientsin. Simultaneously, a large number of
foreign officers or instructors, principally Germans,
have been engaged to instruct the Chinese in the
manufacture or use of these scientific appliances.
Thus equipped, the Chinese Army is on paper a force
not merely numerically strong, but mechanically
powerful. A more minute and searching scrutiny,
however, is needed before we can accept these
exterior symptoms as irrefutable evidence of a re-
formed military system. Let me briefly examine
both the constitution of the Army as a whole, and
the opinions that are entertained of its efficiency
by competent observers.^

The military organisation of China is little less
antique and no less rigid than its civil counterpart.
The Man- ^^ ^^^s uot Varied since the Manchu invasion
Nation^ ^'50 years ago. The descendants of the
"""'^^ conquerors, with a certain admixture of
Mongolians and Chinese, still form the Army of the
Eight Banners,^ from which the garrisons of Peking
and other great provincial capitals are drawn ;
constituting a sort of hereditary profession or caste
maintained at the expense of the Grown, and, like

^ I am indebted for some portions of the following information to
the courtesy of Baron Speck von Stembm-g, Secretary to the German
Legation at Peking, who has made a close personal study of the military
resources of China.

' Strictly speaking, the Eight Banners are subdivided, ethnologically,
into three groups of eight corps each— Manchus, Mongols, and Chinese,
the two latter being descendants of the troops which took part in or
assisted the Manchu invasion. Intermarriage is compulsory among
the twenty -four Banner Corps.

THE SO-CALLED AWAKEXING OF CHINA 849

the Roman legionaries in the outlying provinces of
the Empire, owning military lands. The nominal
strength of the Eight Banners is variously returned as
from 230,000 to 330,000 men ; but of these con-
siderably less than 100,000, perhaps not 80,000, are
in any sense of the term upon a war footing. The
best of them, amounting to an army corps 37,000
strong, are stationed in Manchuria itself, where, face
to face with the dreaded enemy, Eussia, large garri-
sons are maintained at Moukden, Kirin, and- along the
Ussuri. The Lnperial Guard in Peking, which is drawn
from the Banner Army, consists of eight regiments,
or 4,000 to 6,000 men. Side by side with them is
the Ying Ping, or National Army, called in contradis-
tinction the Green Flags, or Five Camps (five beincr
the unit of subdivision), and constituting a territorial
army, frequently designated as 'Braves/ Of this
army there are eighteen corps, one for each province
of the Empire, under the orders of the local Governor
or Governor General. Their nominal strent^th is
given by different authorities as between 540,000 and
660,000 men,^ of whom from 170,000 to 250,000 are
variously reported to be available for war. The
National Army is in fact better described as a militia,
about one- third of whom are usually called out, and
the whole of whom are never organised, and are
probably incapable of being organised, for war.
To this force must be added the mercenary troops,
raised in emergencies, and dating from the time of
the Taiping Rebellion ; and some irregulars, consist-

' The Chinese Army List gives 651,667 men and 7,157 officers.

350 CHIXA

in^r of Mongolian and other cavalry, nominallv
200,000 in number, in reality less than 20,000, and of
no military value. The only serious or formidable
contingent of the National Army is the Tientsin army
corps, called Lien Chun, or drilled troops, which was
first started with European officers after the war of
1800, and acquired its cohesion in the suppression of
the Taiping Rebellion, since which it has been main-
tained in a state of comparative efBciency by the
Viceroy Li Hung Chang, its organisation and instruc-
tion being based on the Prussian model. Nominally
this division is 100,000 strong, but its mobilised
strength is not more than 35,000, or a full army corps,
which is employed to garrison the Taku and Peitang
Forts, the city of Tientsin, and Port Arthur. It
is sometimes called the Black Flag Army, and
is equipped with modern fire-arms, breech-loading
Krupp guns, and Snider, Hotchkiss, Remington, and
Mauser rifles. The pay is also superior to that of
the Banner Armv ; for whereas in the latter a
cavalry soldier receives only 1 O5. a month and forage
allowance, and the foot soldier 7^. a month and
rations, the Tientsin private receives 15^. a month.
If any real business requires to be done in the metro-
politan province or neighbourhood, it is to the
Tientsin contingent that recourse is made. This is
the total land army of China — on a peace footing
not more than 300,000, on a war footing about
1,000,000 men — that is called upon to garrison and
defend an Empire whose area is one-third of th^
whole of Asia and half as large again as Europe, and

THE SO-CALLED AWAKENING OF CHINA 351

whose population is half of the total of Asia and
equivalent to the whole of Europe.

So much for the men, numerically considered. It
is when we approach the question of their discipline,
training, and personnel^ still more when we
examine their officers and leading, that the
true value of the Chinese army emerges. Tlie China-
man has many excellent qualities as a soldier, viz. a
splendid physique, natural docility and sobriety, con-
siderable intelligence, and great powers of endurance.
The sum total of these acquirements does not, how-
ever, necessarily make a first-rate fighting-machine.
Indifference to death is by no means identical with
real bravery ; animal ferocity is a very different thing
from moral courage. Of discipline in the highest sense
the Chinese have none ; and no arms in the world,
shuffled out from the arsenal upon the declaration of
war, like cards from a pack, and placed in untrained
hands, can make them follow leaders who are nin-
compoops, or resist an enemy whose tactics, except
when it comes to getting behind a. mud rampart
themselves, they do not understand. They have no
idea of marching or skirmishing, or of bayonet or
musketry practice. The only recruiting test is the
lifting to the full stretch of the arms above the
head of an iron bar, from the ends of which are hunff
two stones, weighing 9^ stone the pair. Their drill
is a sort of gymnastic performance, and their ordinary
weapons are tufted lances, spears, battle-axes, tridents,
and bows and arrows, with an ample accompaniment
of banners and gongs. Rifles of obsolete pattern,

352 CHIXA

bought second-hand or third-hand in Europe, are dealt
out to those who are on active service. These and
their ammunition are mostly worthless from age.
The weapon of the majority is, however, an ancient
matchlock, of which the most familiar pattern is the
jingal^ which requires two men to fire it. On almost
any day in Peking the Manchu garrison may be
seen engaged in archery practice under the walls, or
shooting with the same weapon, while at full gallop,
at a straw doll stuck up in a ditch. In war there
is no unity, either of administration or armament.
There is no organised transport service or commis-
sariat column. A medical or ambulance servix^e is
also unknown. In the fighting against the French in
Tongking the men of the same regiments had different
rifles, and an even larger confusion of cartridges.
To a Chinaman all cartridges are alike ; and what
with those that were too large and those that were
too small, and those that jammed and could not be
extracted, it may be judged what amount of success
attended the firing.

All these drawbacks or delinquencies, however,
shrink into nothingness when compared with the
Native crowuiug handicap of the native officer,
officers j^^ many parts of Asia I have had occa-
sion to observe and to comment upon the strange
theory of the science of war (confined appa-
rently to the East), which regards the personnel
of an army as wholly independent of its leading.
In China there is a special reason for this phe-
nomenqn- There, where all distinction is identi-

THE SO-CALLED AWAKENING OF CHINA S53

fied with familiarity with the classics, and depends
upon success in a competitive examination, the
military profession, which requires . no such training,
is looked upon with contempt, and attracts only
inferior men. In the bulk of the army (I except the
Tientsin army corps) an officer still only requires to
qualify by passing a standard in archery, in fencing
with swords, and in certain gjnnnastic exercises. To
the same deeply embedded fallacy must be attributed
the collateral opinion that a civilian must be much
better fitted to command a battalion than a military
man, because he is supposed in the course of his
studies to have read something of the art of war.
And when we examine what this art, in its literary
presentation, is, we find that the standard military
works in China are some 3,000 years old : and that
the authority in highest repute, Sun-tse by name,
solemnly recommends such manoeuvres as these :
' Spread in the camp of the enemy voluptuous
musical airs, so as to soften his heart ' — a dictum
which might have commended itself to Plato, but
would hardly satisfy Von Moltke. The British army
could not be worse, nay, it would be far better led,
were the Commander-in-Chief compelled to be a
Senior Wrangler, and the Generals of division drawn
from Senior Classics. It cannot be considered sur-
prising that the Chinese officers so recruited and
thus taught, destitute of the slenderest elements,
either of military knowledge or scientific training,
should earn the contempt of their followers. Their
posts are usually acquired either by favouritism

A A

854 CHINA

or purchase. When it is added that they are also,
as a rule, both corrupt and cowardly; that they
stint the men's rations and pilfer their pay; and
that when an engagement takes place they commonly
misdirect it from a sedan-chair in the rear, we have
the best of reasons for expecting uniform and syste-
matic disaster. The General officer is seldom (there
have, of course, been remarkable exceptions) any
better than his subordinate ; in warfare there is no
single moving spirit or plan of campaign ; and on
the field of battle each commander acts with irre-
sponsible light-heartedness for himself, and yearns
for the inglorious security of the rear.

It may, however, be thought that in the occa-
sional employment of European officers some sort of
European guarautcc is providcd against the universal
officers prevalence of this huge scandal. It is with
no such intention that China hires the brain or the
experience of the foreigner. She is ready enough to
enlist and to pay for them, perhaps at a high rate, in
the initial stages of a policy of military or naval
reconstruction ; but she is too jealous to give him
the power or the chance to which he is entitled ; and,
like a sucked orange, she throws him away as soon as
she has drained him dry. In such a manner has she
treated both the English officer. Captain Lang, who
provided her with the nucleus of a powerful re-
organised fleet, and the German officer. Captain von
Hanneken, who has for years been engaged in forti-
fying her coasts and reconstituting her arsenals.
She kowtoivs to the foreigner as long as she has

THE SO-CALLED AWAKENING OF CHINA 355

something to gain from him ; but her inordinate
conceit presently reasserts itself, and a Chinaman is
appointed to continue, one might rather say to take
to pieces, the laborious efforts of his predecessor.

To these details must be added the fact that the

annual military expenditure, or perhaps I should

rather say waste, of China, is estimated at

Cost "^

between 15,000,000/. and 20,000,000/.
But it may be said, is it not the case that on
several occasions during the last thirty years, e.g. in
Alleged ^^® supprcssiou of the Mohammedan revolt
Buccesses • ^^ Yunuau, in the recovery of Kashgar, and
in the Franco-Chinese war, China showed a military
capacity which would render her anywhere a formid-
able adversary ? Such, not unnaturally, is her own
conclusion. But there are qualifying considerations
that must be borne in mind. The Mussulman up-
rising, it is true, was quelled, but this was mainly due
to the deplorable tactics of the insurgents. Eastern
Turkestan was won back ; but only because, after
Yakub Beg had been got rid of by treachery and
poison, the 'life and soul of the rebellion were extinct.
In the French war, which is claimed as a victory by
both parties, the Chinese pride themselves greatly on
having successfully resisted the ridiculous French
demands for an indemnity of 10,000,000/., on having
repulsed the attack on Formosa, and on having made
peace after Langson, i.e, in the hour of temporary
triumph. Everyone knows, however, that had Cliina
been able to continue the struggle, she would have
done so ; and that she eagerly seized the opportunity

A A 2

356 CHIXA

for coming to terms. The French committed every
conceivable blunder. Instead of striking at Peking,
which is the only way to bring the Chinese Govern-
ment quickly to its knees, they conducted a foolish
campaign in Tongking, under a deadly climate, with
a vastly inferior force, and in a country utterly
unsuited to European warfare, namely, rice-fields
intersected with canals, or hills covered with dense
covert. The campaign aflforded little or no criterion
of the newly equipped and foreign-drilled armaments
of China ; for these can hardly be said to have been
engaged. Had the Chinese Army really been worth
Avhat is claimed for it, the French would scarcely
now be comfortably installed in the Eed River
delta.

Let me fortify my opinion, however — which must
in itself be valueless — of the Chinese army, by citing
General the vcrdict of three European officers, pro-
opinion bably better qualified from their peculiar
experience to judge than any three other men during
the last quarter of a century. When war was on
the eve of breaking out between Eussia and China
in 1880, over the affair of Kulja, the late General
Gordon was invited to Peking to give his advice to
the Imperial Government. In a characteristic and
outspoken memorandum to his old fellow-officer, the
Viceroy Li, he exposed the utter rottenness of the
Chinese military organisation, and strongly advised
them to give up playing the game of scientific
warfare with foreigners, in which thej" were sure to be
beaten, and to adhere to the traditional irregular war-

THE SO-CALLED AWAKENING 01 CHINA 357

fare for which their aptitudes especially fitted them.
Skirmishes as against battles, breech-loading rifles as
against big guns, this was his motto of advice.^

The late General Prjevalski, the famous Eussian
explorer, who spent many years of his life on the
General coufiues of the Chiucse Empire, and made a
Prjevalski profound study of its military resources, thus
summed up, only six years ago, a long and interesting
essay upon the Celestial Army : —

* China, under its present conditions, and for many a long
day, cannot possibly hope to create an army at all sipiilar to
those of European States. She lacks Ipth the material and
the spirit. Let Europeans supply the Chinese with as many
arms as they please, let them strive to train the Chinese sol-
diers, let them even supply leaders — and the Chinese army
will nevertheless never be more than an artificially created,
mechanically united, unstable organism. Subjecf it but once
to the serious trial of war, and speedy dissolution will over-
take it.'

Thirdly, I quote the opinion of Colonel Mark Bell,
V.C, one of the greatest, though the most modest, of
Colonel living English travellers ; who, after covering
^^^^ the prodigious journey, 3,500 miles in length,

from Peking to Kashgar, thus summed up his impres-
sions of the Chinese army : —

* A study of China's interests, position, and material
strength, all along her Russian border, whether in Kashgaria,
or Mongolia, or Manchuria, has led me to conclude that she
has no military strength, and must be valueless to us as a
military ally during the next several decades.'

* This memorandum is reproduced in* A. G. Hake^s Story of
Chinese Gordon, p. 879. London, 18844

^58 CHINA

Statistics differ as to the exact strength of the
Chinese Navy ; but its history and equipment afford
The an almost precise parallel to those of the

Chinese

Navy Army. Just as the disasters of the war of
1860 heralded the summons of European officers
to Peking, and a complete scheme of military re-
organisation, so does the modem Chinese Navy date
from the same epoch and events. In 1862, Mr. H.
N. Lay, who had been appointed Inspector of the
Imperial Customs at Shanghai before the war, was
entrusted with the commission to purchase a fleet
of small gunboats in England. Nominally these
vessels were to be employed for the protection of
the Treaty Ports and the suppression of piracy.
They were really intended for use against the rebels
who had not yet been subdued. Seven gunboats
and one store-ship were bought in England and
taken out. But upon their arrival a dispute arose
between Mr. Lay and Captain Sherard Osborn (who
had been offered the command) on the one hand, and
the Chinese authorities on the other, as to the
appointment of a Chinese colleague, and as to the
source, whether provincial or Imperial, from which
orders were to be received. So long was the squabble
protracted that the ships were never used at all, and
were finally sent back to Bombay, where they were
sold at a loss of half a million sterling, Mr. Lay
having in the meantime left the Chinese service.
This unfortunate misunderstanding greatly retarded
the naval advance of China, and was thus alluded to,
twenty-five years later, by the Marquis Tseng : —

THE SO-CALLED AWAKENING OF CHINA 359

^ Twice since 1860 China has had to lament this as a
national misfortune, for tw^ice since then she has had to sub-
mit to occupations of her territory, which the development of
that fleet would have rendered diflBcult, if not impossible.'

Since those days, however, and more particularly
since the war with France, China has bestirred her-
self in the matter of naval equipment. The first
result of the French war was the addition, in 1885,
of a Ministry for the Navj', or Board ofAdmiralty, to
the seven existing administrative departments. At
Foochow, Port Li, Tientsin, Wei Hai Wei, Canton,
Shanghai, and Port Arthur (Lu Shun Kou),^ have been
established powerful arsenals or dockyards, the last-
named place being the naval base of defence for
Peking. Four naval colleges for the education of
cadets have been started at Wei Hai Wei, Tientsin,
Whampoa, and Nanking. There is a torpedo-school
under a German at Canton. Sir W. Armstrong at
Elswick has built for them fast cruisers ; Herr Krupp
at Essen has turned out the best ironclads. The
total Chinese fleet, divided into four squadrons, the
Pei-yang, or north coast squadron, and the fleets of
Foochow, Shanghai (called the Nanyang squadron),
and Canton, comprises about 65 vessels of war,
mostly built abroad, and including 4 ironclads,
16 cruisers, and 17 gunboats, as well as over 30
torpedo-boats, and 6 floating batteries. The tonnage

' The dockyard at Port Arthur, now the principal naval station of
the Empire, was only commenced in 1887, the French, in virtue of a
clause in their Treaty of 1885, having secured the contract. It was
completed in 1890, and is defended by heavily armed forts, with a
garrison of 7,000 men and 18 torpedo boats.

360 CHINA

of the combined fleets is about 65,000 tons, the
armament 490 guns, and the complement of men
7,000. The usual experiment of a European com-
mander was tried, with the usual result, expulsion.
The fleet is now officered and manned by Chinese,
foreigners being retained only for instruction in
gunnery, electricity, torpedo-practice, &c. No doubt
the fleet, like the army, is, on paper, a fighting force
of no mean capacity. The question is, whether
under native commanders it is not likely to prove a
greater source of weakness than of strength, and by
falling a prey to the first European force that seriously
engages it, to lend no inconsiderable increment of
strength to the latter. A further element of present
weakness is the total lack of administrative centrali-
sation. The Navy is not properly an Imperial or even
a National force. The four fleets are Provincial
squadrons, raised, equipped, and maintained by the
viceroys or governors of the maritime provinces to
which they are attached. Each acts independently
in its own area, though they are mobilised for com-
mon evolutions every autumn. For instance, when
in 1885 the French blockaded Formosa, they were
not opposed by the combined Chinese fleet, but only
by the Foochow squadron ; and when this had been
annihilated, by the Nanyang squadron, which took its
place, no idea of concerted action being entertained.
There is, finally, in the Navy, as in the Army, a total
want of a competent staff*.

Two reflections are suggested by this review of
the military and naval reforms of modern China. The

THE SO-CALLED AWAKENING OF CHINA 361

first is this. Unaware that her sole genuine danger
lies upon her land frontiers, she thinks only of
The faiM guuboats and maritime defences, and spends

and the real , ,

dangers miUious iu fortifying her coasts. Because
England and France once landed their troops at
Canton and Tientsin, she appears to think that no
European enemy can ever attack her except in ships.
Because the great Powers of Europe are represented
in the Far East by naval flotillas, she must have an
equivalent or superior flotilla, in order to simulate
the idea of being a great maritime Power also.
Meanwhile, on the one hand no steps are taken to
combat or excise the canker of official corruption
that preys upon the vitals of both services. On the
other hand, in full view of the bewitched prey, the
toils are being spread, and from the Pamirs and
Turkestan and the Trans- Amur ^ wiU flow into Kash-
garia, Mongolia, Sungaria, and Manchuria the tide
that will overwhelm her outlying provinces, and may
possibly not be arrested till it has attained the capital
itself. Truly Quern Deus vult perdere^ priits dementat.
Nevertheless, disrespectful to purely Chinese sus-
ceptibilities as these remarks may appear to have been,
Themer- it must uot bc forgottcu that in her vast

cenaries of •n • -i 'n i ••!• •

Europe empire Chma, however ill she may utihse it,
possesses an inexhaustible supply of the very finest
raw material, so far as mere manhood is concerned,
in the East ; and that what she is too blind or too

^ Cbina has by Treaty an eqnal right to navigate the Amnr with
the Bussians. But she has not placed a single gunboat on the river,
though its right bank is still mainly Chinese.

362 CHINA

obstinate to do for herself, others, with a superior fore-
sight and strength, may insist upon doing for them-
selves. In other words, the Chinaman, who now fights
for the Tartar just as he once fought for the Mongol,
may one day be persuaded to fight for the Eussian
also. If the mandarin with spectacles on his nose and
a cane in his hand cannot make a soldier of him, per-
haps the European drill-sergeant will. Under good
leadership he can fight sufficiently well, as was shown
by Gordon's men. Valueless, therefore, as under
existing conditions and management we may believe
Chinese armaments to be, their potential value in the
hands of another Power must not be lost sight of. It
is conceivable that, so organised and directed, the
Chinese Army and Navy may yet have a good deal to
say in determining the destinies of the Far East.

Some writers have pointed to the tentative in-
stitution of a native Press in China as evidence of
The Press ^^ internal fermentation synonymous with
(n China pcform. No such inference can with justice
be drawn. Outside of Peking, where the ' Peking
Gazette ' is a strictly edited Court journal and Govern-
ment record and nothing more,* the native journals are

' The PeTiing Gazette^ which is the oldest newspaper in the world,
its origin being attributed to the Sung dynasty, which ended in 1866 a.d.,
is not actually an official publication, like the London Gazette^ but is
a sort of ministerial or Government organ, the issue of which is
authorised by the Government, who also supply tlie greater part of
the material. As such it is indirectly official and is absolutely
authentic. Therein are contained all the Imperial acts, promotions,
decrees and sentences, petitions from provincial governors, proclama-
tions of the censors, &c., without any editorial oonmients or leading
article. It is pubUshed daily, and is read and discussed with avidity
by educated Chinese in every part of the Empire. In the provinces

THE SO-CALLED AWAKENING OF CHINA 363

only or mostly to be found in the Treaty Ports. They
are utterly unlike the native Press as it is rapidly
becoming developed in Japan, as it has already been
developed in India. Free criticism, the formation or
reflection of public opinion, an independent attitude
— for these it is vain to search them, and hazardous
in China would be the experiment. Politically their
editors are sufficiently wise to tender a general sup-
port to the Government, while the advantages of
public encomium are sufficiently recognised by the
local officials to induce in some cases a liberal pay-
ment for complimentary mention. Outside of this
harmless diversion, they serve a useful purpose in
acquiring telegraphic information, in circulating
general news, and in calling attention to visitations
such as floods, &c., which might otherwise be ignored
by the official eye.^ The total absence of party politics

thousands of persons are employed in copying and abridging its contents
for those who cannot afford to purchase the complete edition. It is
printed by means of wooden movable types of willow or poplar wood.
An average Oazette consists of ten to twelve leaves of thin brownish
paper, measuring 7^ by SJ inches, and enclosed between leaves, front
and back, of bright yellow paper, to form a species of binding. The
whole is roughly attached or stitched together. The inside leaves,
being folded double in the usual Chinese fashion, give some twenty
or more small pages of matter, each page being divided by red lines
into seven colmnns. Each column contains fourteen characters from
top to bottom, with a blank space at the top.

' The first native newspaper appeared at Shanghai a little over
thirty years ago, and was followed by two others at Tientsin and Canton,
which were nominally started by Europeans, in order to escape Govern-
ment inquisition, but were really owned and conducted by Chinese
mandarins. There are now several Chinese newspapers at Hongkong ;
three at Canton, with a daily circulation of 5,000 each ; and one has
recently been started at Hankow. The best native organ is the
Sharighai News, a daily paper (with a weekly illustrated supplement),
claiming a circulation of over 12,000. It usually contains a leading

364 CHINA

in China is itself a discouragement to the existence
of an organised Press. On the other hand, the
absence of such a Press is a welcome preventive to
the dissemination of novel or revolutionary ideas, or
to the spread of any propaganda at which the
Government would look askance.

China is a countrj^ of immense, probably of un-
equalled, natural resources. Her mineral wealth is
Native believed to be greater than that of any other
enterprise (>Qmj|^j.y \^ Asia. Her ports receive or

diffuse a trade that employs thousands of keels, and
pours wealth into the pockets of half the nations of
Europe. Her people are gifted with infinite per-
severance, industry, and sobriety. Under these
circumstances, one might expect to find native enter-
prise everywhere active and triumphant, and to see
the resources of the country profitably exploited by
her own citizens. The very reverse is the spectacle
before us. Of the many well-stocked mines, only
the coal-mines near Tientsin are successfully worked
by a native company (under foreign management).
Among the hundreds of merchant steamers carrying
loaded bottoms from port to port, only thirty (and
those officered and engineered by foreigners) fly the
flag of a native company worth mentioning, that of
the China Merchants. And in both these cases the

article, one or two political and social reviews, copies of official decrees
and reports, police news, the telegrams of European agencies, local
intelligence, and advertisements. On the other hand the Tientsin paper
has proved a failure. The people like gossip and scandal, which are
unsafe, and their own classics, which are unsuited for publication ; but
in general news they take little interest.

THE SO-CALLED A WAKENING OF CHINA 365

exception is merely due to the fact that official
pattronage is concerned in promoting the venture, and
that the money of eminent mandarins is at stake.
The Viceroy Li Hung Chang is reported to be behind
the Kaiping Coal Mining Company. He it was who
secured for the China merchants an Imperial subsidy
and an assured revenue in the freight of the tribute
rice. Quite lately a fresh bounty was given to them
in the shape of a remission of import duties to native
merchants shipping by their vessels, and of customs
examination to native officials travelling in them ;
but the discovery being made that these exemptions
constituted a breach of Article III. of the Commer-
cial Treaty concluded between China and the United
States in 1880, they were rescinded as the result of a
protest from the British Minister. Yet in the cases of
both these companies I have heard that the profits
are not what they might be, and that shareholders
complain of scant accounts and of infrequent and
arbitrary dividends. In fact, as a commercial specu-
lation, the China Merchants' Company is said to be a
failure.^ What, then, is the secret of this paralysis
that would seem to have overcome the energies of
China just at the very moment and in the very direc-
tion where they might be employed to such obvious
advantage ?

The answer lies in the immemorial curse of
Oriental countries, the trail of the serpent that is

' It is very different with the China merchants of Hongkong, who,
free to invest and develop their capital without the peril of Government
interference or squeeze, run large ships to Manila and Batavia, to
Saigon, Singapore, and Bangkok.

366 CHINA

found everywhere from Stamboul to Peking — the
vicious incubus of officialism, paramount, selfish,
The cn«e domineering, and corrupt. Distrust of private

of official-

iBm enterprise is rooted in the mind trained up

to believe that the Government is everything and
the individual nothing. The bough may rot and its
fruit may never be garnered sooner than that the
spoil should fall into any but official hands. So it
has alwavs been, and so it must continue to be.
Were all Viceroys far-sighted and all mandarins
liberal-minded, there would be less cause for reproach.
But a system that has prevailed for twenty centuries
does not easily relax the rigour of its bonds or admit
of converts from its own ranks ; and those who have
been bred and nurtured in a satisfied twilight do not
relish the sensation of a sudden introduction to the
noontide blaze. Let me give an illustration of the
manner in which this system affects the development
of the national resources. Near to Kelung in Formosa
are some coal-mines. They were opened in the first
place and worked by private individuals. Then the
Provincial Government marched in, shut up all the
private mines, and thus procured for itself a monopoly,
which it proceeded to develop by sending for Euro-
pean plant and European engineers. The next step
was to appoint a Chinese superintendent as colleague
to the foreign engineer ; with the normal result of (1)
friction, (2) dismissal of the foreigner, (3) resumption
of the mine by the natives, (4) complete collapse and
closure of the pits. Later on a foreign financial
syndicate offered to take over the mines on favourable

THE SO-CALLED AWAKENING OF CHINA 367

terms. Taught by adversity, the Provincial Govern-
ment gladly accepted; but this time the Central
Government refused. So the mines lie idle ; and
this is the way in which things are done in China.

In reality, therefore, the institution of which China
is most proud, viz. a lettered bureaucracy, is the
The Man. sourcc of her greatest weakness. Edu-
^^'^^^^ cated upon a system which has not varied
for ages, stuffed with senseless and impracticable
precepts, discharging the ceremonial duties of his
office with a mechanical and servile accuracy, the
victim of incredible superstitions and sorceries, but
arrogant with a pride beyond human conception,
furnished with an insufficient salary, and therefore
compelled to peculate and plunder, the Chinese
mandarin is China's worst enemy. All private enter-
prise is killed by official strangulation ; all public
spirit is extinguished by official greed. Nor, as it is
the ambition and is within the scope of everybody,
whatever his class, to become an official himself, is
there any order to which we can look for success-
ful protest. The entire governing class, itself re-
cruited from the mass of the people, is interested in
the preservation of the status quo. The forces ordi-.
narily enlisted on the side of change, those of the
literati or student class, are more reactionary in
China than any other, seeing that, unlike Eussia —
where they are trampled upon and ignored — and
unlike India — ^where they complain of inadequate
range for their ambition —they already, by virtue of
their degrees, hold the keys of power. Neither can

368 CHINA

it be supposed that, with a people so obstinate and
so vain, there is the smallest inclination among the
lower strata of society to move where their leaders
decline to advance. Both find an equal charm in
stagnation.

What the foreigner realises only dimly and by
slow degrees is that the Chinaman has not the
The slightest desire to be reformed by him ; that

Chinese it . t c* • o

standpomt hc disputcs 171 toto that rcform is reform ; and
that no demonstration in the world will convince
him of the existence of a flaw in his own theory of
national perfection. He points to a Government
infinitely more stable than that of any European State,
to order observed, and to justice efiectively, if roughly,
administered (the fact that rebellion simmers in some
provinces, where official embezzlement in times of hard-
ship reduces the people to semi-starvation, not being
of sufficiently wide application to disturb the general
proposition) ; he claims a .civilisation that was al-
ready at a high pitch when Britons were wandering
painted in the woods ; he boasts of a code of ethics
equal in wisdom and amplitude to our own; he
observes a religion which, while it touches the ex-
tremes of purity in doctrine and of degradation in
practice, is yet accommodated to every situation in
life, and enables him, subject only to the test of duti-
ful observance, to pass with confidence into a future
world. And he turns round to us, and, with a
p/irdonable self-confidence, asks what we have to give
him compared with these.

This is one aspect of the question — namely, the

THE SO-CALLED AWAKENING OF CHINA 369

convinced and embittered resistance of all classes to
reform, and the fear that reform, if forced upon
The them, may dislodge some of the foundation-

picture of /•i» i»T»ii

progress stoucs of that fabric of which they are so
exorbitantly proud. On the other hand, must not
some weight be attached to the consideration — ^which
to the European mind appears so irresistible — that the
first tentative steps have been taken in a forward
direction, that the awakening trumpet has sounded
in China's ears, and that once embarked on the path
of progress, she is already launched upon an in-
clined plane where it will be impossible for her to
stop ? This is a plausible and a pretty picture, and
even its approximate realisation might enable the
Chinese — a nation superbly gifted and possessing
unique advantages of character, country, and clime —
once again to repeat the history of the ages and to
overrun the world. Is this the future that awaits
them ? Is this the fate that threatens us ?

I must have argued feebly if I have not already
shown that in my judgment this consummation is
The reauty uot either to be expected or to be feared.

of stand- -r-k /» • • 1 T 1

8tm Keform, it is true, cannot altogether be

hustled out of the door. Its force is like the wind
that bloweth where it listeth, and can penetrate even
throuofh the chinks and crannies. Doubtless in time,
as from different quarters foreign railways touch the
confines of China, native railways will be made to
meet them. A day will come when mines will be ex-
ploited, a decent currency adopted, and rivers will
be navigated by steam. Neither, though China may

B B

370 CHINA

be overrun, and may even, as she has often done
before, accept a change of masters, is she likely to
be submerged. She is for ever proof against such a
fate by reason of her moral character, her swarming
millions, and her territorial extent. The continued na-
tional existence of the Yellow Race may be regarded
as assured. But that the Empire which in the last fifty
years has lost Siam, Burma, Annam, Tongking, and
part of Manchuria, and has already seen a foreign
army in Peking ; whose standard of civil and political
perfection is summed up in the stationary idea;
which after half a century of intercourse with minis-
ters, missionaries, and merchants, regards all these
as intolerable nuisances, and one of the number with
peculiar aversion ; which only adopts the lessons that
they have taught her when the surrender is dictated by
her necessities or her fears ; and which after a twenty
years' observation of the neighbouring example of
Japan, looks with increasing contempt upon a frailty so
feeble and impetuous — that this Empire is likely to
falsify the whole course of its history and to wrench
round the bent of its own deep-seated inclinations,
simply because the shriek of the steam-whistle or the
roar of cannon is heard at its gates^s a hypothesis
that ignores the accumulated lessons of political
science and postulates a revival of the age of miracles.
I have narrated the stages of China's tardy advance,
and I have shown how far she has condescended to
reform. But it remains a mechanical and not a
moral advance, it is an artificial and not an organic
reform. She may still continue to play an important

THE SO-CALLED AWAKENING OF CUINA 371

part in the development of the Asiatic world. Her
hardy colonists may sail to every quarter of the
Eastern hemisphere, and by their frugal toil may
enrich themselves, while they fail to aggrandise her.
But, poUtically speaking, her star is a waning and
not a rising orb. Sedet cetemunique sedehit is the
limit of China's own aspirations. It may even turn
out to be beyond the limit of her powers.^

^ This problem is further discussed in chapter xii.

B B 2

372 CHINA

CHAPTER XI

MOXASTICISM IN CHINA

Tantum relligio potuit suadere malorum.

Lucretius, De Berum Natura, Lib. I. 101,

In a previous chapter I have said something about
Buddhism in Korea, where it is the discredited but
Chinese ^^^ wholly disavowcd survival of a once
Buddhism ^Qiniija^ijt creed. I propose in this chapter

to deal with Buddhism in China, where, though
decadent, it is still dominant, and where the explana-
tion of its influence provides a clue to many of the
dark riddles of the national character. Buddhism in
China is indeed a curious mixture of perishing rites
and popular superstitions. There is probably no
country where there are fewer evidences of faith or
devotion, or where, on the other hand, an apparently
doomed system dies so hard. From the squalid and
dilapidated condition of the temples, from the indif-
ference and irreverence with which the worshippers
enact their artificial parts, and from the miserable
status of the priesthood, it might be inferred that the
days of Buddhism were numbered, and that a rival
system was driving it from dishonoured shrines.
Such, however, would be a most superficial view of

MOXASTICISM IN CHINA 373

the case. This mysterious religion, which has sur-
vived the varied competition of Eationalism, Con-
fucianism, and Ceremonialism, and which has an
antiquity not far short of two thousand years in
China, is yet the favourite creed of a community
numbering 350,000,000; and despised and degene-
rate though it be, it will still lift its head and smile
its serene Buddha-smile long after its purer and
prouder and more splendid counterpart in Japan has
crumbled into the dust.

The explanation of this strange anomaly is that
the popular faith has with rare discretion intertwined
Its snper- itsclf with thc popular superstitions. Partly

Btitions

sanction crcatmg aud partly accommodating itself to
them, Buddhism, involved in the sacred ties of
Ancestor Worship, and claiming to dispense the
portions of another life, has wrapped itself in a
covering of triple brass, and can afford to laugh at
its enemies. It has found the key to the inner being
of this inscrutable people, and, in secure command
of the lock, takes good care that none others shall
tamper with the wards. It may safely be contended
that, were it not for the uneasy anxieties of the
Chinese about their souls, and the universal and
cherished cult of the Family Tree, and for the part
played in relation to both by the Buddhist priest-
hood, Chinese Buddhism would long ere now have
languished and disappeared. Dogmas, tenets, ritual,
and liturgy in themselves are of small import to the
Celestials. The stately ceremonial of the official
creed, the intellectual axioms of Confucius, the

374 CHINA

painted image-worship of the Buddhist temple, the
mysticism of the Eationalists, or sect of Lao-tzu,
produce little permanent effect upon their stolid
imaginations. The beautiful teaching enshrined in
the sacred writings as they came from India, the
precepts that made white lives and brought tear-
less deaths, that almost Christianised idolatry, and
might have redeemed a world, have long ago died
down into frigid calculations, tabulating in opposite
columns with mathematical nicety the credit and
debit accounts of the orthodox disciple. Thus on
the one hand the people are plunged in gloomy dread
of a hereafter, determined by the exact laws of moral
retribution ; on the other, deeply embedded in the
springs of their nature, is a fanatical attachment to
their Lares and Penates, and to the worship of the
dead ; and hence it comes about that the religion
which, whatever its shortcomings and disqualifica-
tions, ministers to their requirements in both these
respects, is simultaneously derided and advocated,
neglected and espoused.

No better illustration of this anomalous state of
affairs can be given than the condition and public
Contra- cstimatiou of the Buddhist monks. A
opiSof stranger will at first be puzzled by the
opposite verdicts which he hears passed
upon this class of men. He will hear them denounced
as contemptible outcasts, as pariahs from society,
who have forfeited all the sympathies of humanity
bv cutting themselves adrift from all human ties.
And this is a sentence which to some extent finds its

MONASTICISM IN CHINA 375

corroboration in their forlorn and decrepit appear-
ance, in their cheerless mode of life, and in their
divorce from the haunts and homes of men. On the
other hand he will find these despised exiles supported
by popular contributions, recruited by voluntary
adherents, and engaged in the discharge of essential
rites at the most solemn moments of life and death,
and in the service to the dead. A grosser seeming
contradiction can scarcely be imagined.

And yet it is an identical feeling which is partly
responsible for both attitudes, and which prepares
Its ex- ^^^ these unhappy creatures this opposite
pianation jj^^turc of tolcratiou and contempt. The
peculiar sanctity of the family relations is one cause
both of their ostracism and of their employment.
They are needed to discharge on behalf of others the
very obligations which they have renounced them-
selves. Expelled from the world because they have
ignored the family, they are brought back into it to
testify that the family is the first of all earthly ties.
Can anything more strange be conceived? It is a
creed whose apostates are enlisted as its prophets,
and whose perverts become its priests.

When Sakyamuni first instituted the monastic
order, like St. Anthony he did not contemplate the
Original creation of a priestly office, or the rise of a
r^Str hierarchy. The clerical profession had no
ticism special connection in his mind with monkish
life. The first Buddhist monks, like those of Egj'pt,
were pious men who, in pursuit of their master's
teaching that worldly and carnal ties were the source

376 CHINA

of all evil, and the main obstacle to that serene alti-
tude of contemplation by which absorption into the
higher life at length became possible, severed them-
selves from their fellow-creatures, and sought remote
and unfriended retreats for purposes of spiritual
exercise and self-mortification. They were primarily
recluses and secondarily preachers, but in no resort
priests. It was only in later times, as the first pattern
was forgotten, and accretions developed by other
countries and circumstances grew up, that the mani-
fold accessories of sacerdotalism, particularly among
the peoples of the north, environed and obscured the
original ideal.

The logical carrying out of Buddha's precepts,
however, brought the anchorite into early collision
itsinver- ^^^ ^^ vcLO%\* idoliscd beliefs of Chinese life,
sion iji]^^ essence of monasticism, viz. the re-

pudiation of all earthly connections, the lifelong
abandonment of father, mother, brothers, and sisters,
the surrender of the covenant of wedlock and the
hopes of paternity, above all the utter severance
of the limb from the ancestral trunk, is the very
antipodes of the highest conception of duty that a
Chinese can entertain. Hence arose the dishonour
in which the monkish order has long been held, and
from which it has only rescued its existence by
abandoning its traditions. The monastery has in fact
become the verv converse of what Buddha ever
intended that it should be. The secular has put on
the religious, and the monk has saved himself by
turning priest.

MONASTICISM IN CHINA 377

We have seen how indispensable are his ministra-
tions in the worship of the dead, and in expediting

A 8 irituai ^^ ^^PPy transmigration of the departed
insurance ^q^^ There the mummeries of the temple

are enlisted to fill up the incomplete credentials of
the deceased, and to visS his passport, so to speak, to
another world. To the more pious or superstitious
(there is no distinction between the two classes in
China) they are not less obligatory as a policy of
spiritual insurance, to be taken out with precaution-
ary object during lifetime. The Chinaman is a firm
believer in the doctrine of justification by works ; he
expects a return in the next life exactly proportionate
to the labour and money he has spent or caused to
be spent in deserving it in this. Every mumbled
prayer, every tap of the drum, or clash of the cymbal
by the paid hierophant whom he has engaged, will
be rewarded by so much tangible gain in the next
stage of existence. Metempsychosis may bring him
a worse or a better lot ; he may groan in poverty or
loll in wealth; he may sink to hell or rise to the
acme of paradisal feUcity in a future state. The
Buddhist monks are the established mediums through
whom his merits may be demonstrated and made
known in heaven ; and from whose hands he looks
to receive his official diploma of celestial promotion.
The isolation of the novice from all the ties and
consolations of life may well conflict with Chinese
ostracigm prejudices ; for it is ghastly in its complete-

of the

cloister ucss. Not ouly, as has been said, does he
renounce all relationships and take vows of celibacy.

378 CHINA

but he casts aside even the ultimate syinbol of
identity, his own name. From the hour that he
passes the convent threshold, he is known only by a
religious appellation, in the very grandiloquence of
which there is something pitiful and absurd. Hence-
forward he must shave his head, eat no animal food,
drink no strong drink, and wear no skin or woollen
garment, but only the prescribed vestments of his
order. His life is mapped out before him in a sterile
and dolorous routine. And not only has he ceased
to be a member of domestic society, but as a unit
in the civil community he can scarcely be said to
exist. For he acknowledf?es no real alle^i^iance to the
Emperor, albeit the latter is of the family of the
Gods ; yielding a discretionary obedience to the civil
authorities, with whom he rarely comes in contact,
but concentrating all capacity for duty in a slavish
obedience to the jurisdiction of his abbot or religious
superior.

The terrible exclusiveness of this discipline, re-
pellent though it is to Chinese ideas, would not be
Popular sufficient to account for the odium in which
^^"^ the monastery is held, ware it not for the
suspicion that its stringency is a sham, and that the
cowl is often either assumed as an escape from justice
or worn as a cloak of hypocrisy. It is difficult, for
obvious reasons, to discover how far the charge that
fugitives from the clutch of the law shelter themselves
within the monastery walls is a true one, though it is
certain that when once admitted the culprit is safe
from the bloodhounds of official retribution. I have

MONASTICISM IN CHINA 379

even heard it argued, by way of repudiation of this
charge, that it is only the most abandoned characters,
fleeing from the penalties of a capital offence, who
will take advantage of a refuge so discredited as the
cloister; though to contend that a society is not
criminally recruited because only criminals of the
deepest dye can be persuaded to attach themselves
to it, does not seem to me a very happy method of
exculpation. I am reminded by it of an incident
which I came across while travelling in Greece some
years ago. The public executioner in that country
was a character held in such general detestation that he
was forced to live apart, strictly guarded, on a little
island in the harbour of Nauplia. And not only
that ; but such difficulty was experienced in filling the
place, that the selected candidate was, as a rule, taken
from the criminal class itself — a bandit being par-
doned in order that he might be utilised to cut off
the heads of other bandits. At the time of my visit
one of these worthies had just completed the term of
his office, but whether owing to the unpopularity he
had contracted by its discharge, or to the distrust he
had inspired by his previous habits of hfe, he con-
sidered liimself in so much danger that he solved the
problem of his future mode of existence by entering
a monastery and assuming the cowl. In China he
would presumably have taken this step at an earlier
stage in his career.

Whatever be the truth about the Buddhist
monasteries in China as Cities of Eefuge, and whether
the slur cast upon them by that suspicion be just or

380 CHINA

not, tliere is less room for doubt that the pattern of
ascetic life to which the monk is understood to
Common aspire, is one to which he most infre-
impoBtnre g^^^tly couforms. His celibacy and his
vegetarianism are freely impugned. It is perhaps
only natural that the theory that drinking-water and
vegetables are teeming with animalculse or with the
germs of animal life, should be one which he in-
dignantly rejects, seeing that were he to accept it he
would be hard put to subsist at all, with any regard
at least to the precepts of the Buddhistic canon.
But, alas, he is the victim of more substantial
charges. It is whispered that the odour of meat and
fish, and the tell-tale fragrance of the opium-pipe, are
no strangers to the recluse's cell. With greater
certainty he is accused of being dirty, degraded, and
ignorant, of subsisting on alms which he does nothing
to merit, and of prostituting his worship into a
mummery which he does not himself comprehend.
If even a fraction of these charges be true, there can
be small surprise that the monastic profession is held in
so little repute among a people who are by no means
deficient in their standards of the sober moral virtues.
It may be wondered how a society held in such
slight esteem, and offering so few advantages, save
Different to the stupid or iudolcut, can continually

dfUises or

recruitB replenish its ranks. The means of doing so
are, however, many and varied, even if we reject the
criminal hypothesis to which I have alluded.^ In

^ It is scarcely possible to do so, in the &ce of the evidence of such
an authority and eye-witness as the late Archdeacon Gray, who, in his

MONASTICISM IN CHINA 381

some cases the children are bought at an early age
from their parents; though so strong is the family-
feeling in China that it is only under pressure of the
direst necessity that the average paterfamilias will
consent, even for a price, to part with his offspring,
particularly of the male sex. Sometimes the young
children are kidnapped and sold to the priests ; this
profession being, however, a dangerous one, as if
detected it is punishable by death. More commonly
young lads are voluntarily dedicated by their parents
in fulfilment of some vow, or for the sake of spiritual
gain, the transfer being effected with all the formali-
ties of a mercantile transaction. It is forbidden,
however, by law to surrender the entire male stock
of a family to the cloister ; and in the event of there
being two sons, the younger only may be sacrificed.
A second class of adherents will be those who, from
satiety of the world, or pecuniary collapse, or official
failure, or material disappointment in some form or
other, have decided to abandon the thorny paths of
life, and to seek a safe retreat from its multitudinous
cares. Lastly, there will be some, even in China
and in the nineteenth century, to whom a life
of joyless penance and austerity will appeal with
irresistible force, as an expiation for the sins of the
flesh, and a plank of passage into the world to come
— sad, sorrowful wretches, after the pattern of

work on China, embodying the experience of a long life, said (vol. i.
chap, iv.) that he himself saw at different times in Buddhist monasteries
an escaped murderer, a bVothel-house keeper, and a condemned rebel,
who had been gratefully admitted because he possessed a little money,
which went to swell the corporate funds.

382 CHINA

St. Simeon, who live apart in isolated cells, perform-
ing acts of cruel self-torture, and mumbling in
solitude the accents of an unintelligible ritual.

Their means of subsistence are as varied as the
ranks from which their disciples are drawn. The
Means of large mouasterics possess endowments of
ence property, principally in land, from which

they derive an income, either in rent or in the profits
of the cultivation of their own hands. Voluntary
donations are also made to their funds by those who,
while despising the monastery, cannot dispense with
the services of the monk. The sale of joss-sticks
and incense, of gilt paper and tapers, and the fees
for services, ceremonies, and prayers, are also a
considerable source of emolument. And when all
these fail, there is always begging to fall back upon,
tlie ultimate resort of all creeds in all ages. The
Buddhist priests are no amateurs in the art of
mendicancy. Sometimes large bands of them may
be seen patrolling the streets, and by the discordant
clamour of a gong caUing attention to the unmis-
takable character of the errand which has brought
them down into the thoroughfares of men. By these
different methods they manage to scrape along ; their
buildings and temples just saved from dilapidation ;
their persons and costumes in the last stage of seedi-
ness and decay ; their piety an illusion, their pre-
tensions a fraud; themselves at once the saviours
and the outcasts of society, its courted and its
despised.

I have visited many Buddhist monasteries and

MOJASTIGISM IX CUIXA 383

temples in C3iina; and have usually found that they
correspond to the following description. Three
Monastic buildiugs are ranged one behind the other
temples ^^ terraces, and approached by a series of
paved courts and rows of granite steps. There is
something solemn and imposing in this succession of
structures, each one properly exceeding its prede-
cessor in magnificence, and leading on the imagina-
tion from what it has already seen to what is yet to
come. It is an architectural device that we know
was familiar to the Jews and Egyptians, and that
appears to be common to all Oriental religions. It
is nowhere employed with greater effect than in the
splendid Buddhist sanctuaries and royal mausoleums
of Japan.

The entrance gateway, which is of the nature of
an open temple, sometimes contains a colossal gilt
Entrance ^^ol iu the Centre, representing Maitreya
gateway g^ddha (iu Chiuese Mili Fo), or Buddha To
Come ; and on either side are the four diabolical-
looking monsters, with painted faces and flaming
eyeballs, who represent the deified warriors appointed
to keep guard over the shrines of Buddha, and who
symbolise an absolute command over all the forces
of earth and heaven. They are identical with the
Maharajahs, or Great Kings, of Hindu mythology,
wlio, attended by a host of spiritual beings, march
hither and thither to the protection of devout dis-
ciples and the execution of Buddha's will over the
four quarters of the universe. In China they are
known as the Tien Wong. One of them, with a

38 1 CHINA

white face, holds an umbrella, the circumference of
which, when opened, overshadows the whole earth,
and is lord of the forces of thunder and rain.
Another, with a red face, controls the elements of
fire, water, and air, and plays a species of stringed
instrument, the vibrations of whose chords shake the
foundations of the world. The third, with a green
face, brandishing a sword, and the fourth with a blue
face, clasping a serpent, are typical of supreme
dominion over nature and man. In these figures,
which are common throughout China, and are
uniform in design and monstrosity, the artist has
combined the hideous and the grotesque in very
equal proportions. But little skill seems ever to
have been expended upon their construction.

This gateway leads into a spacious paved court,
at the upper end of which, on a granite platform.
Main ^^ses the fabric of the main temple. A huge
temple high-pitchcd tile roof almost eclipses the
front and side walls, which are commonly destitute of
ornamentation. The interior consists of a big par-
allelogram, divided by circular painted columns into
three main and two side aisles. Fronting the prin-
cipal avenues are the three familiar figures called the
Sang Po, or Precious Ones, which are always found
in the churches of Buddhist monasteries, and which
are incarnations respectively of the past, the pre-,
sent, and the future Buddha ; or, to give them their
correct titles, of Sakyamuni, Kwanyin, and Maitreya.^

* Sometimes in the main hall of Buddhist temples in China this
trinity represents Sakyamuni in the centre, with two of his most famous

MONASTICISM m CHINA 3o3

These idols axe made of clay, thickly gilt, and
highly burnished. Their faces wear that expression
of ineffable self-complacency which is common to
the Buddha all over the East, but which, while in
Japan it is always sublime, in China is apt to
overslip the razor's edge into the ridiculous. The
bodies are seated, and rise from the caljrx of a
lotus-flower. Below the images are altars laden with
weighty bronzes, with big candelabra, and with
censers, a thin smoke curUng upwards from the
slow combustion of blocks of sandalwood, or from
sheaves of smouldering joss-sticks standing in a
vase. On either side of the lateral aisles are ranged
along a recess in the wall the smaller gilt figures of
the Eighteen Lohans or Disciples of Buddha, whose
features exaggerate the silUness, while they alto-
gether miss the serenity depicted in the countenance
of their illustrious master. The prevailing colours
in the surface decorations of the columns and rafters,
which are rudely painted, are everywhere red and
green.

When service is going on, the aisles are laid out
with rows Of long, low, sloping stools, upon which at
intervals rest circular straw hassocks. Behind these
stand the monks intoning the words of the prescribed
liturgy. The service is led by oile of their number,

disciples, Kasbiapa, the first patriarch, represented as an old man,
on one side, and Ananda, the second patriarch, as a young msui, on the
other. Sometimes the two supporters are Bodhisattwas, or prospective
Buddhas, who, in the evolution of their salvation, have reached the
penultimate stage ; and of whom the best known is the jo^'ial image of
Maitreya, the Buddha To Come.

C C

386 CHINA

who officiates at an isolated mat before the great

altar. Their dresses are cut after one pattern, and

are dingy in the extreme, consisting of

Service

loose cotton robes of two colours — ^yellow
and an ashen-grey — with turn-down collars, and a
clasp in front. No monk is allowed, according to
the strict regulation of the canon, to possess more
than one set of garments, and this he is com-
pelled to wear both day and night. Their heads
are clean shaven, a ceremonial which is performed
about twice a month. Here and there on the bald
craniums one may note small disc-like cicatrices, or
scars, burnt in by the hand of the abbot alone, as a
badge of their sacred calling, or in fulfilment of some
particular vow. Their hands are piously folded in
front of them, and the nails have been suffered to
grow to inordinate dimensions.

The expression of their features is usually one of
blank and idiotic absorption ; which is, perhaps, not
Voxel surprising, considering that of the words
nihil which they intone scarcely one syllable do
they themselves understand. The mass-book is a
dead letter to them, for it is written in Sanskrit or
Pali, which they can no more decipher than fly. The
words that they chant are merely the equivalent
in sound of the original sentences, rendered into
Chinese characters, and are therefore totally devoid
of sense. To this stale shibboleth, or ignorant repeti-
tion of unmeaning sounds, they attribute a vital im-
portance.* It is, they point out, the sacred language

* Compare Matthew vi. 7 : * But when ye pray, use not vain re-

MONASTICISM IN CHINA 387

of Fan (the birthplace of Buddha), and is therefore of
divine origin and efficacy. The ^ blessed word Meso-
potamia ' was not more fraught with consolation to
the incurious Christian than is this stupid jargon to
the Chinese bonze. Or let me give a more practical
illustration. The case would be a similar one if the
responses in an English church were to be uttered in
the Greek tongue, transcribed into English spelling
and gabbled out by illiterate rustics — an absurdity
of which, as a matter of fact, our chant-books are
not altogether guiltless, seeing that the responses to
the Commandments in the Communion Service are
always described in their pages as Kyrie Eleison, a
phrase which must be gibberish to nine out of every
ten choristers who read it. The effect upon a service
so conducted, and still more upon the ministrants, is
obvious. No sincerity can be expected of a purely
phonetic devotion. It is vox et prceterea 7iihiL

And yet we must not be too severe upon these
benighted disciples of Buddha in the uplands of
Tenants thc Cclestial Empire. Other churches and

of glass

houses Other creeds have been guilty of the same
pretence, and have found a saving virtue in the
use of an unknown tongue. Jew and Gentile,
Christian and heretic. Catholic and Moslem, have all
acted upon the principle that the more restricted the
understanding the more implicit the acceptance, and
have imparted the secrets of salvation in accents that
kept them secrets still, to be interpreted not by the

petitions, as the heathen do; for they think that they shall be heard
for their much speaking.*

c c :?

388 CHINA

ear of sense, but by that of faith. To this day how
many of the singers in the choir of a Catholic church
understand even a fraction of the Latin litany which
they intone ?

The murmur of the chant is accompanied by

intermittent music from such instruments as the

Oriental loves. An acolyte from time to

Procession

time strikes a drum, the framework of which
is of wood, carved and painted to represent a huge
pot-bellied fish. Another tinkles a bell in the back-
ground, and now and then breaks in the dissonant
clangour of a gong. After a while a fresh note is
struck ; and at the signal the priests separate into two
companies, and proceed for a long time to wind in and
out of the lines of stools in a slow and solemn pro-
cession. Backwards and forwards, in and out, with
measured tread and even steps they pace along, their
hands clasped, their heads bowed, their lips still mur-
muring the same unintelligible refrain, in which may
be distinguished the sounds Omito Fo (Amitabha
Buddha), the repetition of which many thousands of
times is pregnant with salvation.

Behind and beyond the Main Temple extends a
second paved quadrangle, a further temple at the
upper end of which very frequently contains
a marble dagoha^ or sculptural reliquary, with
altars and shrines. Here is concealed some peculiarly
sacred object, very possibly a tooth of the great
Buddha himself. Even devotees have been some-
what staggered by the number of these well-authenti-
cated relics that are scattered throughout the Eastern

MONASTICISM IN CHINA 389

i;vorld; and an early Chinese geographer, visiting
•Ceylon, and being everywhere shown tooth after
tooth, ended by solemnly remarking of his master,
^ He was born with an excessive number of teeth.'

At the rear and sides of the temples are the do-
mestic premises of the monks ; the kitchen, where the
Domestic daily rice is boiled in a huge earthenware vat ;
premises the rcfcctory, where on hard tables and harder
benches it is consumed in silence under the super-
vision of the abbot ; the guest-chambers reserved for
the not too enervating entertainment of guests ; and the
sleeping apartments beyond these, which can rarely,
save by a euphemism, be so leniently described.

The bodies of the monks themselves are in the

greater part of China burned and not buried after

death ; although in the north this is a privi-

Cremation . i r i -n

lege that is reserved lor the Fang-chang,
or head-priests. Contrary to the custom in Japan,
where cremation is universal among the common
people, in China it is only the prerogative or the
peculiarity of the rehgious order. Each monastery
contains its crematorium^ and its campo sa7ito, where
are deposited the ashes of the dead. Tlie body is
placed in a sitting position in an open plank coffin,
and is carried out to the furnace, which is of the siba*-
plest description, consisting merely of a small brick
-chamber or tower, standing by itself in a detached
situation. There the corpse is placed upon the ground,
surrounded and supported by fagots ; the attendant
monks intone a chant; and the mortal remains of
their departed brother are speedily reduced to ashes.

390 CHINA

while the smoke from the pyre escapes through a
single orifice in the roof. Thus, unpretentiously and
with scant attempt at decorum, the mortal coil is-
shuffled off, and its discharged inmate goes on his way
to solve the great mystery.

THE PEOSPECT

' Tn regere imperio popalos, Bomane, memento !
Hee tibi enmt artes, pacisque imponere morem,
Parcere sabjectisy et debellare superbos*

ViBGiL, ^neid VL 851-8

CHAPTEE XII

THE DESTINIES OF THE FAR EAST

Fmdens fiitmi temporis exitum
Caliginosa nocte premit Deus,
Bidetque si mortalis ultra

Fas trepidat. Quod adest, memeato
Componere aequus.

Horace, Carm. Ill, 29.

Tx the two remaining chapters I propose briefly to

sum up the conclusions to which I have endeavoured

to lead the readers of this book, and, in so

Sammary *» i . . p

far as they appear to justify so venturesome
an enterprise, to cast the horoscope of the future.
I desire also to indicate the part that is now being
played, or is likely hereafter to be played, on the
majestic stage to which I have invited attention, by
the Government and the citizens of my own country.
In this first portion of my study of the kingdoms of
the Far East I have dealt with three States alone —
Japan, Korea, and China. Of these, Japan and
China are j)owerful Empires (though in very different
senses of the term) whose orbit in the firmament
of nations may claim a certain fixity, and whose
national existence, in spite of the fact that their

394 THE PROSPECT

political boundaries are liable to modification, is
not likely at any time to be submerged. Korea, on
the contrary, belongs to a class of States of whom
future fixity is the last attribute to be predicated,
and before whom an anxious course of vicissitudes
opens. Though nominally independent, her terri-
tories are overrun by the armies of her jealous neigh-
bours; though actually feudatory, she lacks the
moral strength usually imparted by that tie.

The superficial features of Japanese character

^ and politics are known to all. Her nimble-witted
The future ^^^ light-hcartcd people, the romantic

^ of Japan environment of her past, and the astonish-
ing rapidity with which she is assimilating all that
the West has to teach her, have been praised with
an indiscriminate prodigality that has already begun

' to pall, and has not been without its bad eflects
upon herself. I conceive that no worse service
could have been rendered to Japan than the publi-
cation of the last work in English which 'has been
dedicated to her charms by a well-known English
writer and poet. These overloaded encomiums not
merely cloy the palate ; they foster a growing vanity
against which the Japanese require to be upon their
guard, and which may, unless abated, both provoke
and deserve the chastisement of some smart rebuff*.
Japan is sure enough of a distinguished and even
brilliant future, without being told that she has
exhausted the sum of all human excel! ences in the
present. Moreover, a time of internal fermentation
lies before her in the attempt to graft a purely

THE DESTINIES OF THE FAR EAST 395

democratic product on to a stem from which the
feudal sap has not been entirely expunged, and to
reconcile the widest aspirations of constitutional
liberty with the relics of a theocratic rigime. This
struggle will require the fullest measure of sense
and self-control, and may, perhaps, not be tided
over without crisis and suffering. From such a
trial the patriotism of her people and the liberal
sentiments of her statesmen are capable of bringing
her forth, if not unscarred, at least with vitality
unexhausted; and that in the course of the next
quarter of a century she will take her place on a
level of technical equality with the great Powers of
the West may be accepted as certain. The Eevision
of the Treaties, effected just as these pages pasp into
the printer's hands, will free her from all artificial
trammels, and while ratifying will also test her right
to international autonomy.

Japan has been blamed for squandering too
much money upon armaments, military and naval,
The Great ^^^ ^^^ ucglecting the requirements of
ttieFM*^^ industrial and commercial expansion. It
^*®' is true that her resources are capable of
very considerable development, and that a prudent
finance, already in part inaugurated, will greatly
increase both the numbers and the prosperity of her
people. But the critics to whom I allude lose sight
of the part which Japan aspires to play in the Far
East, and to which her present policy of expenditure
and organisation is strictly subordinated. That part
is determined by her geographical situation. Placed

396 TUE PROSPECT

at a maritime coign of vantage upon the flank of
Asia, precisely analogous to that occupied by Great
Britain on the flank of Europe, exercising a power-
ful influence over the adjoining continent, but not
necessarily involved in its responsibilities, she sets
before herself the supreme ambition of becoming, on
a smaller scale, the Britain of the Far East. By
means of an army strong enough to defend our
shores, and to render invasion unlikely, and still
more of a navy sufiiciently powerful to sweep the
seas, she sees that England has retained that unique
and commanding position in the West which was
won for us by the industry and force of character
of our people, by the mineral wealth of these islands,
by the stability of our Government, and by the
colonising genius of our sons. By similar methods
Japan hopes to arrive at a more modest edition of
the same result in the East. Like the EngUsh, her
people are stubborn fighters and born sailors. If
she can but intimidate any would-be enemy from
attempting a landing upon her shores, and can fly
an unchallenged flag over the surrounding waters,
while from her own resources she provides occupa-
tion, sustenance, clothing, and wages for her people,
she will fulfil her role in the international pohtics of
the future.

And how important a one this may be those
who consider her position in relation both to the
Pacific Ocean and to the neighbouring mainland
of Asia, in the light that is cast upon it by the
ambition of rival Powers, will easily be able to

THE DESTINIES OF THE FAR EAST 397

judge. The opening of the Canadian Pacific Eail
way and Trans-Pacific route on the eastern side;
the ultimate completion of the Nicaragua or some
other interoceanic Canal farther to the south; the
maritime ambitions of Eussia, already dissatisfied with
her base at Vladivostok and thirsting for a Pacific
commerce and a Pacific armament ; the impetus that
will be lent to these desires and the revolution that will
be produced in Northern Asia by the Siberian Rail-
way; the emulous zeal with which foreign Powers^
England, America, France, and Germany, are snap-
ping up the isles and islets of Oceania ; the connec-
tion (certain to increase as time advances) between
Japan and the British Colonies of the Australasian
group — may in the course of the coming century
develop a Pacific Question, the existence of which
is now not so much as suspected, and the outlines
of which can at present be only dimly foreseen. In
the solution of such a question Japan, by virtue of
her situation, should be capable of playing a con-
siderable part. That she should be free to do so,
and should develop the requisite moral force and
strength (in both of which she is at present lacking),
it is necessary that she should hold herself aloof
from foreign entanglements, and, above all, that she
should not come into sustained collision with her old
and hereditary antagonist, China. Whatever might be
the issues of such a struggle — whether, as some aver,
the superior equipment of the smaller Power would
prevail against the administrative rottenness of the
greater, or whether, as more ,think, the mighty

398 THE PROSPECT

millions of the Yellow Eace would roll back the
small island population into the sea — it is pro-
foundly to be desired, in the interests of humanity,
that no such conflict should occur. That the true
poUcy for Japan, ignoring tradition and history and
burying national antipathies, is a friendly under-
standing with China, interested like herself in keep-
ing at a distance the single common peril — namely,
the advance of the Muscovite from the north —
appears to me self-evident, and is, I believe, appre-
ciated by her own statesmen. Such a solidarity,
without taking the form of an offensive and defen-
sive alliance, would be strong enough to preserve
the balance of power in the Far East and to prepare
the way by which Japan may attain to that high
place which she yearns to fill among the nations of
the world.

To the existence of such a compact, Korea, upon
which both parties look with an interested and
Future of j^alous cyc, is somewhat, as recent expe-
Korea rieucc shows, in the nature of an obstacle.
That that petty kingdom cannot expect for long to
retain any real independence, the description which I
have given will have shown. A palace intrigue, the
death of a king or a queen, an internal rebellion, may
at any moment produce an emeute or imbroglio, such
as has abeady invited outside interference, and can
only end in a diminution or abrogation of the national
claims to autonomy. The friends of Korea do wrongly,
in my opinion, in encouraging thie latter pretensions.
A country that is^too weak to stand alone gains

THE DESTINIES OF THE FAR EAST 399

nothing by an affected indifference to external
support. If Korea is not to collapse irretrievably,
she must lean upon a stronger Power; and every
consideration of policy points towards maintaining
China in the position of protector which she has
hitherto filled. After all, Japan would sooner see
Korea a recognised vassal of the Middle Kingdom than
she would see her under the heel of Eussia, or gaze
upon St. Andrew's Cross fluttering in the harbour of
Fusan.

The future of China is a problem the very
inverse of that involved in the future of Japan.
Future of ^hc ouc is a couutry intoxicated with the
China modern spirit, and requiring above all
things the stamina to understand the shock of too
sudden an upheaval of ancient ideas and plunge
into the unknown. The other is a country stupefied
with the pride of the past, and standing in need of
the very impulse to which its neighbour too incon-
tinently yields. Japan is eager to bury the past;
China worships its embalmed and still life-like corpse.
Japan wants to be reformed out of all likeness to
herself. China decUnes to be reformed at all. She
is a monstrous but mighty anachronism, defiantly
planted on the fringe of a world to whose contact
she is indifferent and whose influence she abhors ;
much as the stones of Solomon's Temple look down
upon an alley in modern Jerusalem, or as the Column
of Trajan rears its head in the heart of nineteenth-
century Eome.

In the foregoing pages I have depicted in their

400 THE PROSPECT

own country and capital the characteristics of this
unlovely but admirable people. But I am not sure
The that they are not even more wonderful

Chinese

as aliens whcu sccu outsidc their native land. At
Hongkong, Hanoi, Cholen, Singapore, Penang, Bang-
kok, as also at Rangoon and Mandalay on the one
side, and at Batavia and Manila on the other, they
have established great communities, living con-
tentedly under alien laws, and drawing into their
fingers the reins of a multiform and lucrative com-
merce. Not merely do they absorb and frequently
monopolise the retail trades, but they farm the State
monopolies; they run big steamships and own im-
mense mills ; they float companies with large capital ;
they own and work productive mines. Under
British protection 200,000 of them live serenely in
the city of Hongkong, and 180,000 on the island of
Singapore. In the adjoining native State of Johore,
210,000 out of a total population of 300,000 are
Chinese. Throughout the Malay States they far
outnumber the Malays. In Siam there are said to be
between two and three millions of the Yellow Eace, or
nearly one-third of the entire population. Freed from
the exactions and inquisition of their own Government,
they develop on foreign soil, and for the edification of
foreign commerce, the very qualities which if applied
to the regeneration of their own country might make
her once again the mistress of the Eastern world.

It is sometimes questioned whether this ever-
increasing flood of Chinese emigration may not con-
stitute an ultimate danger to the countries which it

THE DESTINIES OF THE FAR EAST 401

overruns, and whether the invasion of the hordes of
Jinghiz Khan is not capable of a milder twentieth-
Tjjg century reproduction. These apprehensions

ci^YseL have recently received a fresh and formidable

Burrection • - r .i . • ^

impetus from the encouragement given to
them in the scholarly and remarkable work of the late
Mr. Pearson.^ Therein, supported by much learn-
ing, confirmed by ingenious analogies, and rendered
attractive by a luminous and agreeable style, may be
found developed at length the dismal thesis that the
future of Eastern Asia, if not of parts of Central Asia
also, is not for the Wliite but for the Yellow Eace ;
and that neither Great Britain, nor France, nor Eussia,
but China, is the Power into whose hands will pass
the predestined sceptre of the Far East. With both
the premises and the conclusions of Mr. Pearson s
fascinating but melancholy argument I find m3'self
in total disagreement. Before explaining, however,
the points and grounds of difference between us, let
me summarise Mr. Pearson's propositions as far as
possible in his own words.

With the view of sustaining his main and ultimate

induction, Mr. Pearson first marshals the evidences,

Mr. Pear- ^^ he couceivcs them to be, of the power

mente^" ^ud vitality of China. He points to her

avour j.g(jQygjy Qf i^j^Q revolted province of Chinese

Turkestan or Kashgaria from Yakub Beg in 1874^7;
he says she dominates Korea; and he reminds
us that she succeeded in finally stamping out the

* National Life and Character ^ a Forecast^ by C. H. Pearson.

D D

402 THE PROSPECT

Mohammedan rebellion in Yunnan. These are the
testimonies to her internal organisation and strength.
Casting his eyes over a wider range, he next ob-
serves the phenomena to which I have already
alluded. He sees Chinamen flooding Singapore and
the Malay Peninsula, beginning to settle in Borneo
and Sumatra, encroaching upon tlie labour markets
of California and Australia, and already supplanting
the natives in Hawaii and other islands of the Pacific.
He draws attention to the flexibility and versatility
of the Chinese character, to their easy adaptation to
extremes of climate, to their excellence as labourers,
their industry as merchants, and their docility as
colonists. Finally, he contemplates the acquisition
by the Power thus endowed by nature, of the re-
sources of modern invention, of a network of rail-
ways connecting the great cities of the Empire with
each other and with adjoining countries, of telegraphs
and steamers, of the use of foreign capital, of large
armies drilled and equipped on the European model,
of artillery and scientific implements of war, and,
above all, of the leadership of a really great man.
Nay, intoxicated by the enchantment of the picture,
he is actually willing to dispense with the last-named
advantage : —

* The Chinese do not need even the accident of a man of
genius to develop their magnificent future. Ordinary states-
manship, adopting the improvements of Europe, without
offending the customs and prejudices of the people, may make
them a State which no Power in Europe will dare to disre-
gard ] with an army which could march by fixed stages across

THE DESTINIES OF THE FAR EAST 403

Asia, and a fleet which conld hold its own against any that
the strongest of European Powers conld afford to keep pei**
manently in Chinese waters.' *

Such being the grounds of his confidence in the
future of China, Mr. Pearson next proceeds to indi-
The new ^^^^ what ill his opinion she may be expected
Tth^ to do. * On three sides of her lie countries
^"^"^ that she may easily seize, over which very
often she has some old claim, and in the climate of
which her people can live. It is more than probable
that some of these will pass under Chinese rule.'
Borneo will certainly be hers. * Expansion towards
the south and south-west seems most probable ; but
she is not debarred either towards the north and
west.' Xepal might be wrested from England, parts
of Turkestan from Eussia, and the Amur Province
from the same Power. The danger of this military
advance would be still further accentuated if China
became a Mohammedan Power.

Finally Mr. Pearson sums up his presentment
of the triple future that awaits his protege^ as a
ix)rd8of colonising Power, a military Power, and a
thefatare i^j-^^jj^g Power, and the corresponding de-
cline that threatens the Caucasian stock, in the
foUowinof lan^ua<?e : —

' On the whole it seems diflScult to doubt that the black
and yellow belt, which always encircles the globe between
the Tropics, will extend its area and deepen its colour with
time. The work of the white man in these latitudes is
only to introduce order and an acquaintance with the best

* National Character ^ p. 112.

D D 2

40i THE PROSPECT

industrial methods of the West. The countries belong to their
autochthonous races ; and these, though they may in parts
accept the white man as a conqueror and organiser, will
gradually become too strong and unwieldy for him to con-
trol ; or, if they retain him, will do it only with the condition
that he assimilates himself to the inferior race. . . . The
citizens of the black and yellow races will then be taken up
into the social relations of the white races, will throng the
English turf or the si'om of Paris, and will be admitted to
intennarriage. ... D )es anyone doubt that the day is at
hand when China will have cheap fuel from her coal-mines,
cheap transport by railways and steamers, and will have
founded technical schools to develop her industries ? When-
ever that day comes, she may wrest the control of the world's
markets, especially throughout Asia, from England and
Germany. ... A hundred years hence, when the Chinese,
Hindus, and negroes, who are now as 2 to 1 to the higher races,
shall be as 3 to 1 ; when they have borrowed the science oi
Europe and developed their still virgin worlds, the pressure
of their competition upon the white man will be irresistible.
He will be driven from every neutral market, and forced to
■confine himself within his own. . . . With civilisation equally
diffused, the most populous country must ultimately be the
most powerful; and the preponderance of China over any
rival — even over the United States of America — is likely to
be overwhelming.'

It will be conceded that Mr. Pearson has not
■erred on the side of timidity in this forecast, at once
Objection ^o Complimentary to China and so lugubrious
pied°weT for ourselves, and that the colours of his
^^^ palette are applied with no hesitating or
piecemeal brush. One objection alone he admits,
and that in order to refute it. The theor}'' of con-
tinued Chinese expansion outside China proper might
seem to be qualified by the enormous unoccupied

THE DESTINIES OF THE FAR EAST 405

area at her disposal within. Equivalent in size to
twenty-two, or, as others say, to twenty-six Englands,
she could maintain a population of 650,000,000 or
750,000,000 ; i.e. she might increase for fifty years
before requiring relief by exodus. In fact, from her
superior fertility, China could support more hi-
habitants than England to the square mile, and
might duplicate her numbers before she needed to
trouble her neighbours. To which considerations
might be added the conservative genius of Chinese
government, and the discouragement offered to native
emigration. This line of reasoning Mr. Pearson
answers by pointing out that though the Taiping
Eebellion forty years ago, which lasted for fourteen
years, cost China from twenty to fifty million lives,
and though between 1842 and 1882 the nation is
calculated to have decreased by thirty millions, yet
it was during this very period that she continued to
pour her colonists into Siam, Malaysia, the Straits
Settlements, America, Peru, and Australia.

I have now summed up, I hope with fairness,
Mr. Pearson's argument, and will proceed to show
Reasons ^^J'i ^^ ^^7 opiuiou, it is for the most part
muhJ^Mr. unsound. I am conscious, of course, of the
^*^*^ extreme fallibility of any individual specula-
tions as to the future ; and am quite prepared to
believe that a priori my own forecast is more likely
to be hivalidated than one proceeding from so ac-
complished a scholar as Mr. Pearson. But if the
latter writer had, as I believe, never been in China,
but only studied the Chinese question from the

406 THE PRO:SPECT

academic distance of an Australian study ; and if,
further, I can show his premises to be of questionable
validity and authority, there will be some reason for
regarding his conclusions with suspicion ; the more
so that they are, to the best of my knowledge, shared
by no contemporary authority who either knows or
has resided in China itself.

I will follow Mr. Pearson's reasoning in the order
in which he has himself displayed it, premising that
Alleged much of it has already been answered in

Buccessea

of China anticipation in the pages of this work. The
suppression by China of the rebellions in Kashgar
and Yunnan justifies no such complimentary inference
as Mr. Pearson has drawn. The former depended
only upon the personality of a single individual,
Yakub Beg, appealing to religious fanaticism and
taking advantage of the military weakness of China
at a distance of 3,500 miles from her base. With
the removal by poison of the usurper, the movement,
almost without fighting, collapsed. Similarly the
Taiping and Mohammedan rebellions, so far from
testifying to the might of Cliina, demonstrated the
full measure of her weakness ; for the resources of
the Empire were strained almost to breaking point
to cope with the double peril, which not less than
twenty-five years of fighting were required to sup-
press. My account of the situation in Korea will
have shown that however creditable to the astuteness
of the suzerain Power, China's authority there can
scarcely be cited as an evidence of material or
military strength.

THE DESTINIES OF THE FAR EAST 407

I next turn to the argument based upon the
colonising genius of China, as illustrated in the
The maritime countries and islands of the Far

Colonial

question East, as wcll as in more distant lands
possessing a frontage on the Pacific Ocean. It is
assumed that the steady infiltration of Chinese
emigrants into these regions, and the control of the
labour market which they so rapidly acquire, are
the inevitable precursors of a complete political
and commercial domination. These anticipations I
do not share. Chinese emigration I believe to be
dictated by the animal interests of self-maintenance,
and by the craving of masculine labour to find an
outlet, which is denied to it by the selfish and
rapacious tyranny of the Chinese administrative and
economic system at home ; ^ and to be divorced

^ Since writing these words I have met with a curious confirma-
tion of their accuracy in the report of a Chinese official, who was sent
by his Government as Consul-General to Singapore in 1898, to report
upon the reasons which induced so many thousand Chinamen to
voluntarily expatriate themselves imder foreign dominion. He wrote :
* When asked why they do not take the opportunity of returning and
settling in their native land, their knitted brows and frowning coim-
tenances might be observed, and the following complaints were
generally made : They said that they feared the so-called ** investiga-
tions '* of their local mandarins ; the oppression of the j^amen-under-
lings ; and the extortions of their clansmen and neighbours, instances
of which could be given without number. They complained that
those who happened to return home had been maliciously accused as
pirates and robbers ; as purchasers of contraband in arms and ammu-
nition in order to supply sea pirates ; and as buyers and kidnappers
of coolie slaves for the purpose of supplying foreign ruffians. Some
of them had had their baggage and belongings — the savings of years —
forcibly taken away from them and partitioned amongst local ruffians ;
and some had had their houses pulled down and were forbidden to
build on the land of their buying. Alone and unprotected, considered
to be strangers and aliens amongst their own kindred, to whom could
they apply for help, surrounded as they were on aU sides by rapacious

408 THE PROSPECT

from any ulterior intent of conquest or dominion.
The Marquis Tseng, in his famous article,^ wrote as
follows : —

* The Chinese have never been an aggressive race. His-
tory shows them to have always been a peaceful people, and
there is no reason why they should be otherwise in the
future. China has none of that land-hunger so characteristic
of other nations, and, contrary to what is generally believed
in Europe, she is under no necessity of finding in other lands
an outlet for a surplus population. Considerable numbers of
Chinese have at different times been forced to leave their
homes, and push their fortunes in Cuba, Peru, the United
States, and the British Colonies ; but this must be imputed
rather to the poverty and ruin in which they were involved
by the Taiping and Mohammedan rebellions, than to the
difficulty of finding the means of subsistence under ordinary
conditions.^ In her wide dominions there is room and to
9pare for all her teeming population. What China wants is

hawks, of high and low degree ? Hence, having taken a lesson from
experience, none of the wealthier Chinese in foreign countries cared
to return to the land of their ancestors. Those who did go to China
to trade or travel, went either as British or Dutch subjects, under the
protection of a foreign Government.* A further confirmation of the
same opinion is furnished by a recent lecture of a well-known Dutch
Professor, Dr. de Groot, of Leyden, whose countrymen in the East
Indies appear to have been seized with a similar panic to Mr. Pearson.
He argues in reply that these fears are either baseless or grossly
exaggerated, and must be traced in the main to palpable ignorance
regarding the chief causes of Chinese emigration, which he limits to
the two provinces of Euangtung and Fukien. These causes he describes
as the absence of irrigation and dearth of rain, the primitive condition
of agriculture, the discouragement and non-existence of native indus-
tries, the superabundance of day-labourers, and the low rate of wageg.

* * China, the Sleep and the Awakening,' Asiatic Quarterly Bevtew,
January 1887.

' This statement cannot be implicitly accepted, seeing that the
emigration of Chinamen to the ports and islands of the Eastern
Archipelago, and to Aiastralia and America, had begun long before the
Taiping or Mohanm:iedan rebellions ; and was the natural consequence
of poverty acting upon an overcrowded population.

THE DEStlNIES OF THE FAR EAST 409

not emigration, but a proper organisation for the equable
distribution of the population. In China proper much land
has gone out of cultivation, whilst in Manchuria, Mongolia,
and Chinese Turkestan there are immense tracts of country
which have never felt the touch of the husbandman.'

This reasoning is for the most part true, though
it is to be regretted that neither the Marquis Tseng
nor any other Chinese statesman seems to have
persuaded his Government to deduce from it the
only practical lesson, viz. that public works in China
would provide that very occupation and outlet for
lack of which expatriation is forced upon her
citizens.

An examination of the Chinese emigrant com-
munities in British, French, Dutch, or Spanish
Character territories, Icads to the same conclusion as

of Chinese , ^

colonists to their character and objects. For, on
the one hand, the Chinese are by nature tractable,
orderly, and content to be governed. They fully
appreciate the benefits of a just and organised
administration. In a petition which was being
signed while I was in Singapore, praying for a
continuation of the term of office of the retiring
Governor, Sir Cecil Smith, the Chinese population
of the colony mentioned among other grounds of
his popularity and of their gratitude, his suppression
a few years before of the Chinese Secret Societies,
which were as much a curse to themselves as they
were a danger to others. On the other hand, the
Chinese population in the above-mentioned places
is of a two-fold character. Either it is composed of

410 THE PROSPECT

a floating element who come down from China to
make money for themselves, because there are a better
opening and higher wages than at home, but who
contemplate as speedy a return as possible to their
native country ; or it consists of a sedentary popu-
lation, who never mean to go back at all, because
they prefer the city of their adoption, and have
married the women of the country. Ugly as is the
Chinaman to the European eye, he possesses the gift,
unique in the world, of making himself acceptable
as a husband to the women of half-a-score of different
races. He weds, with equal readiness and satisfac-
tion to both parties, the Korean, the Annamite, the
Cambogian, the Siamese. (With the Malays, who
are Mohammedans, it is, of course, different.) This
connubial facility is an element on the side of order
and good conduct, for it establishes him, not merely
as a wanderer, but as a contented citizen in the
land of Moab. At the same time it severs him, so
to speak, from the parent stock; for he loses the
connection with the mother country which a Chinese
spouse ahd connections would fortify, while tlie
ensuing generation is hybrid both in origin and
sympathy. I doubt, indeed, whether emigrants have
ever anywhere established a permanent dominion,
who did not bring their wives along with them.

Passing from thence to the argument that rests
upon the capabilities of China as a great military
Power, I have said enough in previous pages of this
book to show that in my judgment any such esti-
mate is a delusion. Many European writers appear

THE DESTINIES OF THE FAR EAST 411

to think that because China has so many millions
of stalwart and tough-limbed sons, she must there-
Miiitory forc possess SO many hundred thousands of
of China cxcelleut fighting soldiers ; and that because
she has arsenals, where, under European eyes, she
turns out European cannons, projectiles, rifles, car-
tridges, and powder, she has therefore an organised
force capable of being placed in the field against,
and of giving serious trouble to, a European army.
No such opinion has, I believe, ever been entertained
or advanced by a competent critic. There is no
country in the world where the military profession
is of smaller account, or where the science of war-
fare is less intelligently studied than in China. The
phrase cedant arma togce is there no aspiration for
honourable peace, no sigh of satisfaction over the
conclusion of a successful campaign, but is the con-
fession of an abiding contempt for the art that
prefers the sword to the pen. The Chinese army,
under Chinese officers, even with muskets in its
hands and cartridges in its pouches, is an undisci-
plined rabble of tramps, about as well qualified to
withstand a European force as a body of Hyde Park
processionists would be to repel a charge of the Life
Guards. Whatever the Chinese rank and file have
already shown themselves capable of doing under
European lead, whatever they might do were such
lead repeated in the future,^ they are, viewed as a

^ I am not here discussing the contingency, which I have else-
where contemplated, of the Chinese forces being utilised for purposes
of defence, or even ultimately of offence, by an alien Power either in
complete or in partial occupation of the country, or placed (in virtue

412 THE PROSPECT

national army, a relatively inferior military instru-
ment to the weakest contingent in the force of the
feeblest European State.

Under these conditions, which might be predicted,
in a scarcely less degree, of the naval as well as of
Chinese the military forces of China, to talk, as Mr.

reconqueet ^^ , ru »

impossible Pearsou does, of a Chinese army marching
by fixed stages across Asia, or even confining itself
to the more humble operation of recovering the
adjoining countries which once acknowledged the
sovereignty of Peking, appears to me the wildest
freak of fancy. No one who had the least acquaint-
ance with the state of the frontier garrisons in
Kashgaria, or with the feelings of the Mohamme-
dan population of those regions, could ever speak
seriously of China wresting from Eussia any portion
of Eastern Turkestan. The idea of her marching
through Tibet, and across the Himalayas, to recover
Nepal from Great Britain, is scarcely less fantastic ;
while, on the day when Eussia is compelled by
military or diplomatic repulse to hand back to her
the Amur Province, it will no longer be possible to
return a negative answer to the question of the
American poet —

Is civilisation a feulure,

And is the Caucasian played out ?

of a compact with the Chinese Government) in control of the military
and naval forces of the Empire. Such a use of the Chinese army,
which is not so utterly improbable in the far future as to be unworthy
of consideration, might invest China with a defensive strength at
present undreamed of; and might even (though this is less likely)
suggest ideas of expansion. But it is obvious, ex hypothesis that the
authority so extended would not be that of Chinese sovereignty, which
is the particular point raised by Mr. Pearson^s argument.

THE DESTINIES OF THE FAR EAST 413

To an even more nebulous future, into which not
even the charms of an unfettered imagination will
The dream seduce me, bclougs the epoch when, accord-

of social

apotheosis ing to Mr. Pearson, Chinese gentlemen will
throng the salons of Paris and the clubs of Pall
Mall; when a Cliinese patron of the turf will lead
back to the weighing-room a winner of the English
Derby ; and when the problem of superfluous woman-
hood will be solved by the apparition at Christian
altars of eligible Chinese husbands.

What Mr. Pearson appears to have lost sight of,
in casting his political horoscope for China, is on the
Influence ouc hand thc influence that must inevitably

of national

character be excrciscd upou it by the faults as well as
the virtues of the national character, by the morale
of Chinese oflScialdom, and by the quality of Chinese
administration ; on the other hand the lessons of
history, which are written in characters so large that
he who runs may read. He omits from consideration
the Chinese system of government — short-sighted,
extortionate, universally corrupt — and the temper of
the people, averse from national enterprise, untrained
to conquest, devoid of patriotic ardour, content to
stagnate. In the face of these obstacles not even the
exemplary sobriety of Chinamen, their industrial
energy, or their genius for accumulation, can turn,
that which is a stationary if not a receding, into a
dynamic and aggressive force.

We are led by the teachings of history to the
same conclusion. So far from taking naturally to a
career of conquest, it is rather in her power of assimi-

414 THE PROSPECT

lating those by whom she has herself been con-
quered, that China has displayed her greatest strength.
Lessons of ^wo and a half centuries ago the millions
i^»9tory ^^ China succumbed easily to the assault of
a few hundred thousand Tartars, whose yoke they
have ever since contentedly borne. Four centuries
earlier they had in similar fashion accepted a Mon-
gol master. What the Mongols did, and what the
Manchus did, I fail to see why others should not do
after them, whose power, as compared with theirs, is
in the same ratio as a field-gun to a Roman catapult,
or a repeating rifle to the cross-bow. Nay, the work
of detrition has already begun and proceeds apace j
nor is it the least peculiar feature of Mr. Pearson's
daring forecast that it should have been framed in
an epoch which, so far from revealing any symptoms
of recovered or expanding strength, has on the con-
trary witnessed a steady and still unarrested decline.
It is entirely during the last half, and mainly during
the last quarter, of a century that Tongking, Annam,
and Cochin China have been wrested from the grasp
of China by France, that Siam has repudiated her
ancient allegiance, that Burma, once a vassal, has
been absorbed into the British system, that the
Liuchiu Islands, also a tributary State, have been
allowed to pass tacitly into the hands of Japan,^ that
Korea has become a playground for the jealous
rivalry of foreigners, that the Amur and Ussuri

' The annexation by Japan of the Liuchiu Islands, which had for
centuries accepted the overlordship of China, and had sent an annual
Tribute Mission to Peking, was the outcome of the Formosan Expedition
in 1874. The Chinese behaved feebly in the matter ; and the Japanese
who swaggered and assumed the offensive, won.

THE DESTINIES OF THE FAR EAST 415

Provinces have been pusillanimously ceded to Russia.
And yet, in face of this unbroken record of con-
traction, against which there is nothing to set but
the recovery of Kulja,^ we are invited to believe that
the Power which has suffered this continuous diminu-
tion is on the threshold of a mighty revival, and is
predestined to overrun the universe.

Another danger which Mr. Pearson has over-
looked, and which, though it need not seriously affect
Daugerof ^^^ national existence of China, must yet
rebellion ^ipplc her powcr of external advance, is the
chance of internal disruption. The items that com-
pose the vast congeries of peoples and communities
still acknowledging the Chinese sway, are but loosely
strung together. Even if we omit from consideration
the Tibetans, the Mongolians, and the enormous mass
of Turki and Mussulman subjects, ever hovering oh
the brink of revolt, there is in China proper little or
none of that cohesion which is essential to national
strength. Each province is an independent unit,
with its own government and army, capable in times
of convulsion of breaking away without difficulty
from the central fabric. No real bond of union con-
nects the northern with the southern portions of the
Empire, whose peoples cannot even understand each
other's dialect. In some of the outlying provinces
the lower orders, though lightly taxed, are plunged

' China has received an even greater credit than she deserves for
this achievement, which was a personal triumph for the diplomacy of
the Marquis Tseng. In consenting to the retrocession, which was,
after all, the fulfilment of a solemn compact, Russia took very good
care to get her quid pro quo, which there was nothing in the compac|
to authorise.

416 THE PROSPECT

in chronic penury. The authority of the dynasty is
maintained by its sacrosanct associations, by a highly
organised and interested official hierarchy, and by the
prestige of Peking. But were the capital occupied
by an enemy, as it could be with very little difficulty
(particularly by an enemy advancing from the north),
the Emperor expelled, and the d}Tiasty overturned,
it is doubtful whether China would persevere in any
protracted resistance, or initiate a policy of revenge.
The various elements of disorder scattered throughout
the Empire would each find its local focus, and a
reign of emulous anarchy and universal dislocation
might be expected to ensue.

What then, it may be asked, it this picture of a
resuscitated and conquering China be rejected as a
The real brilliant extravaganza of the imagination, is
de8tmy ^^^ alternative future that may be antici-
pated for this extraordinary people ? As regards the
physical diffusion of the Yellow Eace, Mr. Pearson
is possibly right. Borneo and Sumatra and New
Guinea will be the industrial spoil of her frugal
colonists. She may completely swamp the Malays
in Malaysia ; she maj^ gain a firmer foothold in Siam.
Her intrepid sons may cross the ocean and knock»at
new and unsuspected portals. Whether a Manchu
Emperor handles the vermilion pencil in the halls of
the Forbidden City, or whether for the proclamations
of the Son of Heaven is substituted the ukase of a
Muscovite Tsar, that expansion, like the swelling of
the sap within the rind, will continue. But extension
of race is not the same thing as extension of empire,

THE DESTINIES OF THE FAR EAST 417

and physical multiplication may even be a symptom
of political decline. The extinction of China is im-
possible and absurd. A population of 350,000,000
human souls cannot be extirpated or bodily trans-
ferred. On the contrary, I believe it will increase,
and swell, and continue to overflow. But in this
movement I detect no seed of empire, and I foresee
no ultimate peril for the White Eace.

On the contrary, I think it may be argued that
European administration and protection are essential
Race and couditious for thc coutinuauce of that very
empire progrcss which is supposed to constitute
their peril. It is in British communities and under
the security of British rule that the expansion of
Chinese energies has hitherto attained its maximum
development. Why is the Yellow Eace to turn round
and rend its benefactors ? Why is it to destroy the
very system to secure which it acquiesces in expa-
triation from its own country, and to erect a repro-
duction of that from which it has fled ? To me it
appears no more improbable that Chinamen should
continue to accept European domination, in any
country to which the overflow of population may
propel the emigrant stream, than is the spectacle of
their present condition in Hongkong or Singapore.
The Yellow belt in the Far East may conceivably
snatch from the White the bulk of the spoils of com-
merce, and the best of the wages of toil ; but that
it will ever seriously clutch at the keys of empire,
or challenge the racial dominion of the West, I am
quite unable to believe.

E E

418 TUE PROSPECT

CHAPTER Xm

GREAT BRITAIN IN THE PAR EAST

Grave mother of majestic works,

From her isle-altar gazing down,
AVho, God-like, grasps the triple forks,

And, king-like, wears the crown.

Tennyson.

Perhaps the most gratifying reflection suggested by
these observations on the more distant kingdoms of
The nMe the Asiatic continent is the part that must
Britain inevitably be played in their future by this
country. The inhabitants of a small island on the
face of the northern seas, we exercise, owing to the
valour of our ancestors and the intrepid spirit of
our merchants, a controlling suffrage in the destinies
of the Far East. That influence may, fortunately,
be employed in the undivided interests of peace.
Friendly relations between ourselves and Japan will
assist her in that mercantile and industrial develop-
ment, in which she is following in our own footsteps,
at the same time that it will confirm to us the
continued command of the ocean routes. A similar
attitude towards China will strengthen her in a
resistance, for which there is yet time, against the

GREAT BRITAIX IN THE FAR EAST 419

only enemy whom she has real cause to fear, and
will facilitate our own commercial access to her
territories by land. Warfare with Eussia need only
ensue from attacks made upon British interests or
British territory elsewhere, and assuredly will not be
proyoked by ourselves. The possibilities of dispute
with France, with which I shall deal in my next
volume, are dependent upon her own action, which,
if it is confined to the regions at present under her
sway, and respects the liberties of intervening States,
need awake no protest from England. Whatever
the future may bring forth, to this country it cannot
fail to be a matter of capital importance, seeing that
the Empire of Great Britain, though a European,
a Canadian, and an Australian, is before all else an
Asiatic dominion. We still are, and have it in our
hands to remain, the first Power in the East. Just
as De Tocqueville remarked that the conquest and
government of India are really the achievements
which have given to England her place in the
opinion of the world, so it is the prestige and the
wealth arising from her Asiatic position that are the
foundation stones of the British Empire. There, in
the heart of the old Asian continent, she sits upon
the throne that has always ruled the East. Her
sceptre is outstretched over land and sea. * God-
like,' she 'grasps tlie triple forks, and, king-like,
wears the crown.'

But not only are we politically concerned in
the evolution of these complex problems by reason
of our Imperial situation in Hindustan : our own

K K '2

I

4-20 THE PROSPECT

fellow-citizens are personal actors in the drama which

I have described, and the reflex action which it

exercises upon them is a subject of study

influence jjqj^ jggg interesting than the part which they

upon o x^ J

England play, or are capable of playing, themselves.
Englishmen and English influence have been takeu
to the Far East by one of three purposes — commerce,
the difiusion of the faith of Christ, or the responsi-
bilities of empire. In the first category we are the
heirs of the Portuguese and the Dutch, of whom
the former survive only at the dilapidated port of
Macao, while the latter, in their island possessions,
lie outside of the track which I have been examining.
From the former, too, we inherited the self-imposed
duty of carrying the cross which has sent our
missionaries into all lands, and which, if it inspires
the enthusiasm of Exeter Hall, is a source of not
inferior anxiety to Downing Street. In the domain
of empire the conquest of India has carried us for-
ward on a tide of inevitable advance that leaves us
knocking at the inland door of China and over-
lapping the northern frontier of Siam. The wars
at the end of the last century and in the first
half of this, which were part of that Expansion of
England which has been so ably portrayed by a
contemporary historian, gave us Singapore, which,
lying on the ocean highway from West to East, is
the greatest coaling station of the Orient, and Hong-
kong, which is the second port of the British Empire.
It has not been without war that we have won even
a mercantile entry into those countries at whose

GREAT BRITAIN IN THE FAR EAST 421

Treaty Ports our flag is now in the ascendant, and
which have benefited by our intercourse with them
not less than we ourselves.

I have shown by figures in the course of this
book, in the cases both of Japan and China, that
commer- the Commercial supremacy of Great Britain
mac/SF'^ in the Far Eastern seas, though sharply
Britain assailed by an ever-increasing competition,
has not as yet been seriously shaken. When we
learn that out of the 3,340 vessels that passed
through the Suez Canal in 1893, no fewer than
2,400 were British, while next on the list came the
Germans with 270, the French with 190, and the
Dutch with 180, we may form some idea of the
extent to which that ascendency is still pushed in
Eastern waters. How vital is its maintenance, not
merely for the sake of our Empire, but for the
sustenance of our people, no arguments are needed
to prove. It is only in the East, and especially in
the Far East, that we may still hope to keep and
to create open markets for British manufactures.
Every port, every town, and every village that
passes into French or Eussian hands, is an outlet
lost to Manchester, Bradford, or Bombay.

In the commercial competition of the Far East,

Germany, as the above returns indicate, comes

second, and never loses ground. France is

Our rivals

a doubtful third. The real rivalry, how-
ever, is rather between Europeans of whatever
nationality and the Chinese, whose unrivalled busi-
ness capacities now seek the widest fields, and,

422 THE PKOSPECr

backed up by immense capital and untiring energy,
daily steal more ground from beneath the feet of
the West. The English merchants complain in
some places that their interests are insufficiently
cared for and pushed by their consuls or diplomatic
representatives ; and I have heard of cases in which
systematic dilatoriness or contemptuous indifference
in high places has seemed to justify some measure
of exasperation ; although the reply of the impugned
authorities is not without force — viz. that they are
sent out not to act as touts in behalf of this or
that particular enterprise, but to secure fair play to
all ; and that the prestige acquired with the native
functionaries by an attitude of vigilant impartiality
in their country's interest is forfeited upon suspicion
of acting even as patriotic partisans. The complaint
seems, in China at any rate, to have been partly
prompted by the success that attended the early
efforts of a recent German Minister at Peking in
securing contracts for his countrymen, and by alarm
at the projected operations of some large financial
syndicates who swooped down a few years ago upon
Tientsin. These have now retired re prope infecta ;
and I do not myself think that over the whole field
of action the charge of neglect of British interests is
one that has any serious foundation.^

* When I first published an analogous statement to this in the
pages of an English review, I was answered by a British merchant,
that what his class complained of \Va8 not that British representatives
or consuls declined to act as touts for them, but that they did not
prevent the representatives of other foreign Powers in the Far East
from acting in a similar capacity for their countr^vmen. This is, I
think, expecting a Httle too much pf diplomatic or consular interven-

GREAT BRITAIN IN THE FAR EAST 423

At the same time, it is evident that business
competition is much keener now than it ever was
contrac- before. Large fortunes are made with

tion o^ . ,«

business difficulty ; the merchant princes and magni-
ficent hongs of an earher day have disappeared;
Messrs. Jardine, Matheson & Co. remain ahnost
afone among the great houses whose establishments
and operations a generation ago were the talk of
the East. Men do not now expect fortunes ; they
are content with competencies. Wealth is more
evenly distributed, and is dislocated by slighter
shocks. It may be for this reason that speculation
is more indulged in than of yore, and that the
share-and-stock market of Hongkong has so many
tales of woe to tell. Everywhere the traveller finds
the British merchants banded together in a powerful
confederacy, possessing strong views, and a very
outspoken articulation in the local English press,
re^ardin^T matters from a somewhat narrow but a
very intelligible and a forcibly argued standpoint,
and occupied in slowly accumulating the where-
withal which shall enable them some day to return
home. The struggles and the interests of these men,

tion. He farther complained of the * persistent attitude of con-
temptuous indifference displayed by Parliament towards all com-
mercial matters/ and of the absence of discussions upon questions
affecting British Empire and Trade in the Far East. If only my
correspondent knew how ignorant is the House of Commons of those
subjects, and how perilous is its interference when it begins to dabble
in matters which it does not understand, he would hardly deplore an
indifiference which is at least preferable to partisanship or stupidity.
Parliament never did much to help, and will probably, before it
ceases, have done a good deal to injure, the Eastern Empire of Great
Britain.

424 THE PROSPECT

who bear the heat and burden of the day in foreiorn
lands, and whose gains, if they are their own, are
also their country's, deserve a warmer sympathy
than they commonly receive.

As regards the Christian missions, I may sum up
my former argument. They are no monopoly either
Christian ^^ ^^^ Protcstaut Church or of the English
missions people. lu Japan, in Korea, in China, in
Tongking, in Annam, in Siam, Eoman Catholic
missionaries, French or Spanish, but chiefly the
former, have been long established, have drawn
around themselves native communities amongst
whom they reside, and have acquired a numerical
hold unquestionably greater than that of their
Protestant successors. Among these the English,
after the Cliina Wars and the Treaties, took the
lead. But an even greater activity is now being
displayed by the Americans, who are flooding the
Far East with their emissaries, male and female, and
are yearly pouring thousands of pounds' worth of
human labour into China and Japan. The English
missionaries appear on the whole to be more care-
fully selected and to belong to a superior type.
The good done by these men, in the secular aspect
of their work, in the slow but sure spread of educa-
tion, in the difiusion of ungrudging charity, and in
the example of pure lives, cannot be gainsaid. On
the other hand, it is impossible to ignore the facts
that their mission is a source of political unrest and
frequently of international trouble ; that it is sub-
versive of the national institutions of the country in

GREAT BRITAIN IN THE FAR EAST 42&

which they reside, because, while inculcating the
Christian virtue of self-respect, it tends to destroy
that respect for others which is the foundation of
civil society ; that the number of converts is woe-
fully disproportionate to the outlay in money, brain
power, and life ; and that, from whatever cause, the
missionaries as a class are rarely popular with their
own countrymen. Indeed, one of the most striking
phenomena of Enghsh-speaking society in the
countries to which I have referred is the absolute
severance of its two main component items, the
missionaries and the merchants, neither of whom
think or speak over favourably of the other, and
who are rarely seen at each other's table. Tlie
missionary is offended at what he regards as the
mere selfish quest of lucre ; the merchant sneers at
work which is apt to parade a very sanctimonious
expression, and sometimes results in nothing at all.
I have come to the conclusion that it is futile either
to apportion the blame between the two parties or
to hope that any argument can effect a reconcilia-
tion. There are. of course j may cases where no
such divergence exists, and where a harmony of
interest and intercourse prevails ; but I have not
found them sufficiently numerous to invalidate the
general proposition. What may be the future of
missionary effort it is impossible to predict; but it
would be a service of international value could some
means be devised, not of arresting or diverting, but
of controlling its operations, which are at present as
random as the winds of heaven simultaneously let

426 THE PROSPECT

loose from the iEolus-bag of all the Churches in
Christendom.

Everywhere that I have been I have found
English life retaining its essential characteristics.
English The Englishman expatriates himself with-

life in the

Far East out a sigh iu the pursuit of livelihood,
adventure, health, or duty. He is too robust to be
homesick, too busy to repine. But he keeps up a
constant and unbroken communication with home,
and is familiar with all that is passing tliere. For
Parliament, perhaps, he cares little, because the
debates are over and forgotten long before they
reach him, and because with the bulk of the votes
he has no concern; but for the national Flag he
cares a great deal. Loyalty is his passion ; and the
toast of ' The Queen ' is drunk with as boisterous a
fervour in Far Kathay as at a Unionist banquet in
St. James's Hall. Mr. Gladstone would not have
been compHmented had he been informed of the
result of a voluntary poll that was taken among
tlie readers of the principal newspapers, at the time
of the last General Election, in Yokohama, Hong-
kong, and Singapore. In business matters the
merchant works on, looks forward, and saves for
his decennial holiday; but he means to spend his
declining years nowhere else than on his native
soil. In the meantime he sustains a perpetual and
innocent illusion by an importation of all the
adjuncts, and a repetition of most of the habits, of
home life. Magnificent club-houses afford a meeting
ground for tiffin in the middle of the day, for

GREAT BRITAIN IN THE FAR EAST 427

billiards and smoking when the day's work is over.
Some of these institutions, as at Shanghai, Hong-
kong, and Singapore, are as well furnished with
English newspapers and periodicals as any of the
palaces of Pall Mall. In his passion for games,
which keeps him healthiest of all the foreign settlers
in the East, while the German grows fat, and the
Frenchman withers, the Englishman plays lawn-
tennis under a tropical sun; he has laid out golf
links at Hongkong and Chefoo ; cricket matches are
as frequent and excite as keen an interest as the
doings of a county team at home ; nay, I have even
heard of football and hockey at Singapore, within
seventy miles of the Equator. A racecourse must
be constructed outside every town where there is a
sufficient settlement; the annual race meeting, in
which the owner frequently buys or breeds, trains,
and rides his own ponies, is one of the events of
the year ; and the winner of the Hongkong or
Shanghai 'Derby' enjoys a more than ephemeral
renown. On festive occasions dances reunite the
sexes; and, where it is not too hot, riding is a
favourite recreation.

Throughout the Far East excellent and well-
informed newspapers are owned and edited by Eng-
lishmen ; and among them ' The Japan Daily
Mail,' the ' North China Daily Xews,' and the
' Straits Times,' as well as several others, would be a
credit to the Press of any European country. Their
telegraphic information is scanty and bad ; but that
is the fault of the telegraphic agency upon whom

428 THE PROSPECT

they one and all depend, and whose shortcomings-
are a byword throughout the East. If these papers-
frequently attack the local representatives of British
government, it must be remembered that Englishmen
like to grumble, and that the Press is commonly the
mouthpiece of the non-official and mercantile com-
munity, who enjoy picking a bone with the salaried
servants of Government.

The domestic environments of life are not less,
reminiscent of the old country. The exterior of the
Domestic housc couforms to climatic needs, and spreads
^'® itself out in airy verandahs ; but the furniture

is not seldom imported direct from home. The
national love for neatness and decorum appears in
the private grounds, the bunds, and public gardens-
of the cities where the English are in the ascendant ;
and, were every other mark of British influence
erased to-morrow, it would always remain a marvel
how from a scorching rock had been evolved the
Elysian graces of Hongkong.

Everywhere, too, I have found the Englishman
enjoying that reputation for integrity and superiority
English t^ chicanery, corruption, or intrigue, which
character, j^^^ given him his commanding position

in the world. The officials are of a higher type
than those by whom other Powers are represented,
and are frequently drawn from services specially
organised and recruited. Nothing, indeed, is more
striking in travel than the character and personality
of the men who are sustaining in positions of varied
trust the interests of Great Britain in far lands. The

GREAT BRITAIN IN THE FAR EAST 429

larger atmosphere of life and the sense of responsi-
bility seem to free them from the pettinesses of a
home existence that is too apt to be consumed in
party conflict, and to suggest broader views of men
and tilings. The same high tone exists through the
various strata of society and employment, and the
clerk behind the counter of the English bank will be
no less a gentleman both in birth and education than
the Governor in his palace or the Minister in his
Lefration. I do not think that the same can be said
of the Germans, or of the French, or of the Dutch.
Commerce has not yet become popular among the
upper classes of German society. In France promo-
tion is too frequently the reward of political fidelity,
of journalistic service, or of successful Chauvinism,
to admit of a continuons evolution of useful public
servants. How many of the blunders made by that
people in Tongking have been due to the character
of the men who in times past have been appointed to
positions of importance without the faintest know-
ledge of the country or qualifications for the post, it
would be hard to conjecture.

Similarlv, thouifh our rivals and anta^ronists in-
variably ascribe our poUtical success and our wide-
British spread Empire to a more than ordinary
diplomacy (jupii^ity, I havc uot fouud that this im-
pression is anywhere shared by the Eastern Powers
with whom, by virtue of our commanding commercial
position and the multiplicity of our interests, we are
brought into frequent, and sometimes contentious,
contact. On the contrary, it appears that English

430 THE PROSPECT

Governments compose their disputes, settle tlieir
boundaries, and conclude their treaties, with a
greater facility than other Powers, and that English
consuls are looked up to as the leading men by every
section of the community in which they reside, and
are frequently appealed to by others as arbiters in
matters lying outside their official ken. Though, too,
we are credited by France with being the most ag-
gressive of peoples, this accusation does not seem to
tally with the voluntary evacuation of Port Hamilton,
in deference to the susceptibilities of China and
Korea, nor with our conduct in disposing of the vast
heritage that came into our hands upon the annexa-
tion of Upper Burma ; whilst it comes with ill grace
from a people who have recently perpetrated the
indefensible outrage upon Siam. Similarly, though
it has frequently appeared in print, particularly in
America, that Great Britain alone stands in the way
of Treaty Eevision in Japan, the facts which I have
elsewhere displayed will have shown the baselessness
of the charge, which none know better than the
Japanese statesmen themselves.

There are certain points in connection with our
tliplomatic representation in the Far East to which it
British may not be out of place to call attention.

representa- rni * t-i • /-\/¥» i

tives The foreign Uince has sometimes appeared
to regard certain of these posts as of only secondary
importance, and as refuges for failures elsewhere, or
at least for persons ])ossessing no peculiar qualifica-
tions. To my mind, there are few more important
appointments than those to tlie Courts of Japan and

GREAT BRITAIX IN THE FAR EAST 431

of China, and, in a somewhat less degree, of Siain ;
and yet it has in times past occurred that gentlemen
have been appointed to these posts who have no
personal acquaintance with the East or knowledge of
the problem with which they may require to deal.
The reception accorded to Mr. O'Conor, on his nomi-
nation to the British Legation at Peking in 1892,
sufficiently indicated the rejoicing of the British
community in the Far East at the appointment of a
man who really knew both the country to which he
was accredited and the business which he would
have to transact. There appears to be still an im-
mense opening in the Far East for a diplomatic
career. We maintain at Tokio, at Peking, and at
Bangkok, a number of so-called Student Interpreters,
whoj after passing a preliminary examination at
home, go out to the East, undergo a steady course of
instruction in the language of the country in which
they will pass so much of their lives, and thence are
drafted into the Consular Service. From their ranks
have sprung such men as the late Sir Harry Parkes,
whose name is as famiUar a household word in Japan
and in China as is that of his still-surviving name-
sake in Australia ; Mr. Satow, the present British
Minister at Tangier ; and others whose names will
occur to the memory. There is just as great scope
for the production of such men, and even greater
need for their services now than in bygone days.
The Far East demands a knowledge that can onlv be
acquired after years, and a statesmanship that must
have been in part nurtured in a local atmosphere.

432 THE PROSPECT

The great position attained by the late Sir William
White at Constantinople, starting from a similar
origin, may be emulated in countries where also there
is an Eastern Question not much less important than
the control of the Bosphorus or the ownership of
St. Sophia. I would fain hope that among the rising
generation may be found some who will be worthy
heirs of these great traditions.

In another respect the Foreign OflSce appears to
me to have neglected an elementary part of diploma-
suggested ^^c edhcation, and an indispensable adjunct
ipJdar''^ to the smooth working of the diplomatic

re erence j^g^Qj^i^g QuC WOuld SUrcly CXpCCt tO find

in the British Legation in every foreign country,
most of all in the East, a compact, well-chosen, and
serviceable library of the best books relating to the
country in question, and the political problems which
it is likely to suggest. Such libraries were in part
collected many years ago. I found the fragments of
such a one at Peking, just as I remember routing out
from a dusty closet the debris of another at Teheran,
At Meshed I could not discover a single publication
on the Afghan Frontier Question. Similarly, at
Bangkok there was not one volume relating to the
frontier between Burma, Siam, and China, though
a small but excellent literature exists upon the
subject, and might at any moment be required for
official reference. My impression is that at Tokio
there is a similar absence. What is wanted in
each case is, not a library of general reference,
but a collection of authoritative works, within a

GREAT BRITAIN IN THE FAR EAST 433

I limited range, to which recourse can be had at

any moment. As soon as the nucleus of such a
\j collection had been formed, a few pounds a year

^ would amply suffice for the necessary increment,

which should be carefully selected and sent out from
home. The India Office has sometimes extended
such a patronage to useful publications, purchasing
a certain number of copies, and distributing them
among the localities concerned ; but I have never
heard of the Foreign Office exercising a similarly
wise generosity.

Other diplomatic anomalies, easily removable, if
deemed of sufficient importance, have come under
Diplomatic ^Y ^oticc whilc travelling in the Far East.
anomalies ^^ Pekiug it might bc wcU wcrc thc diplo-
matic staff of Great Britain to include an Indian officer
or attache^ so many are the purely Indian questions
that come up for discussion with the Tsungli Yamen,
upon which there is no one on the spot to throw the
necessary light. An even greater desideratum is the
appointment of a commercial attache (similar to one
or two analogous officials in Europe), who should
travel about from post to post in the Far East, and
visit the inland districts ; and who should report
iipon the changing taste ani style of the native
markets and upon the economic products of the
country, as well as collect any information that
might be of service to British merchants. In days
of such acute competition, when the representatives
of foreign Powers resort to a more than diplomatic
strategy in the interests of their countrymen, no

p F

434 THE PROSPECT

legitimate step should be neglected for the protection
and extension of British trade. To the unins true ted
eye it further seems a strange anomaly that whilst
Japan, China, and Siam are under the Foreign Office,
Hongkong, which all but touches the Chinese main-
land, and the Straits Settlements, which actually touch
Siam, should be under the Colonial Office; while
Burma again, which touches both Siam and Cliina,
is under the India Office. Perhaps some day we
shall arrive at a more rational concentration of
interests, possibly even, as has been suggested, at the
creation of a new department which shall deal with
the British affairs of the Asiatic continent.

Great as is the position which I have depicted as
being enjoyed by Great Britain in the Far East, I
Future of bclicve that it will be greater still. The im-
Britain provcmcut of cxistiug and the creation of
Far East new mcaus of communication are rapidly
developing a solidarity between the East and the
West which our grandparents would have deemed
impossible. Fusion and not disintegration will be
the keynote of the progress of the coming century.
There remain now but few countries to which access
has not already been gained ; though there are
several whose political stability is precarious, or
whose political boundaries are not determined. As
soon, however, as fixity can be predicated of either
of these departments — much more, if of both —
commercial exploitation will begin. For this object
British energy, British capital, and British experience
will be required. The Power which has been longest

GREAT BRITAIX IX THE FAR EAST 435

in the field, which enjoys the best geographical
position for the distribution of its commerce, or
the dissemination of its influence, and wliich can
command the largest resources, must infallibly
triumph in any such competition. Our position in
India gives us the certain command of the main land-
routes and railroads that will lay open the Far East
in the not distant future. Our position upon the
ocean, if duly safeguarded, should assure to us the
control of the maritime highway.^ Furthermore, the
country which has scattered milUons in propping up
the rotten Republics of the New World may very
well repay its age-long debt to the Old by a similar,

even if a tardy, service.

Above all will this task be facilitated by the in-
creasing diffusion of the English tongue. Already
The spoken in every store from Yokohama to

English * , _

language Raugoon ; already taught in the military
and naval colleges of China, and in the schools
of Japan and of Siam ; already employed in tlie

* I introduce this qualificfttion because the naval strength of Great
Britain in the Far East, i.€, in the waters between Singapore and
Vladivostok, when compared with the combined fleets of France and
Kussia, can scarcely be said to possess that incontestable predominance
without which security cannot be predicated. In April 181)4 the
British squadron in the Far East consisted of 2 ironclads (aggregating
11,150 tons), 20 unarmoured vessels, comprising 7 cruisers and 7
gimboats ; and 6 torpedo-boats (aggregating 29,850 tons) ; or a total
tonnage of 41,000, with a complement of 3,400 men. At th'* snmo
period the French fleet consisted of 2 ironclads (6,350 tons), 1 cruiser,
and 20 smaller vessels, mainly gunboats, as well as 14 river- steamers ;
with a total tonnage of 14,370, or, excluding the river- steamers,
12,050, and a complement of 2,580 men. The Russian squadron
consisted of 11 vessels, viz. 1 cruiser, 5 sloops, and 5 gunboats, with
a total tonnage of 15,510, and a complement of 1,650 men.

436 THE PROSPECT

telegraphic services of Japan, China, and Korea,
and stamped upon the silver coins that issue from
the mints of Osaka and Canton; already used by
Chinamen themselves as a means of communication
between subjects from different provinces of their
mighty Empire — it is destined with absolute certainty
to be the language of the Far East. Its sound will
go out into all lands, and its words unto the ends of
the world. That this splendid future is no idle dream
of fancy, but is capable of realisation at no indefinite
period, none who have travelled widely in Eastern
Asia will doubt. Moral failure alone can shatter the
prospect that awaits this country in the impending
task of regeneration.

We sailed wherever ship could sail,
We founded many a mighty State ;

Pray God our greatness may not fail
Through craven fears of being great !

INDEX

Alcock, Sir R., 224

Americans in Korea, 169, 176, 177,

195, 213, 215, 280
Amherst, Lord, 289
Amur, The, 220, 360, 408, 415
Ancestor Worship in China, 310,

878-4

in Korea, 110

Aoki, Viscount, 69

Aomori, 15

Army, Japanese, Korean, Chinese.

vide sub those titles.
Asia, Fascination of, 1-6
Aiidience Question at Peking,

285-296

Barrow, Col. E. G., 46
Beacons in Korea, 124-5
BeU, John, 288

— CoL Mark, 299, 357
Bellonet, M. de, 213
Brinkley, Capt., 19
Brought on Bay, 91
Broughton, Capt. \V. R., 91
Buddha, 1, 375-6, 383
Buddhism in China, 372 390

— in Japan, 57

— in Korea. Vide §ub Monks ;
and Korean Religion.

Campbell, C. W.,87, 100-1, 106
Canton, 347, 359, 363, 436
Carles, W. R., 87, 100
Cesarevitch in China, The, 293, 298
Chang An Sa, 113
Chang Chih Tung, Viceroy, 844
Chemulpo, 87, 92-3, 158, iVJ, 180,

182, 195-6, 212
Chia Ching, Emperor, 289 90

China, Emperor ot 240, 248, 254-
255, 257, 259-61, 378

— Empress Dowager of, 255-9,
275, 292, 843

— Future of, 399^17

Chinese Administratioa, 289-40,
803, 366-8, 413

— Agriculture, 245, 248

— Armv, 847-67, 411-2

— - Character, 237-8, 368, 410

— Colonists, 400, 402, 407-10

— Foreign Policy, 296-301

— In Japan, 27

— In Korea. Vide *»6 Korea.

— Navy, 858-60

— Newspapers, 362-3

— Population, 245, 248, 417

— Relicrion, 372-90
Ching, Prince, 282
Chow Han, 329

Christianity in Korea, 192-7, 310.

Vide sub Missionaries.
Chun, Prince, 240, 256
Chung, Prince, 256
Clan-govemraent in Japan, 35 7
Chmate cf the Far East, 8
Coal-mines in China, 251, 340,

365

— in Korea, 190
Commence. Vide sub Trade.
Confucianism in China, 267, 310,

373

— m Korea, 110, 142, 154
Constitution, Japanese. Vide sub

Japanese.
Customs Service, Chinese, 187,
219, 297

Dallet, P6re, 86, 158, 209
Daveluy, Ev^que, 96

438

INDEX

Diet, Japanese. P'«W^«w 6 Japanese. '
Doiifzlas, Prof. R. K., 240, 282
Du Halde, 245
Dutch in Korea, 85-6

East India Company, 7, 175, 185
Elgin, Earl of, G2, 272-8, 81G
Emperor of China. Vide sub China.

— of Japan. Vide sub Japan.
English in the Far East, 418-86

— Lan<^iage in the Far East,
485-6

Enomoto, Visconnt, 72
Extra-territoriality in Japan, 61,
64

F/'XGSHCJ, 249, 826, 842
Forci^^ers in China, 297

— in Japan, 55, 77
Foriuosa, 8, 845, 860
France in the Far East, 10, 51, ,

800
Franco-Chinepe War (1884), 345,

852, 855, 859, 860
Frazer, J. G., 158
French in China, 297, 815-8, 827,

859

— in Korea, 124, 198-4, 2C1, 218,
280

Fiisan, 87-90, 200, 227

Gensan, 87, 90-1, 121
Germans in Korea, 176, 177, 280
GivHcng, 174, 188, 210
(iold in Korea, 188, 190-1
Gordon, General C. G., 239, 856,

362
Granville, Earl, 228
Gray, Archdeacon, 880
'Great Japan Union,* 88, 75
Griffis, AV. E., 86, 96, 152, 158
Grimaldi, 245
Groot, Dr. de, 408

Hakodate, 61

llnmel, Hendrik, 85, 97, 106, 120,

145, 165, 209
Ham-heung, 115
Han River, 92, 127-8, 188, 174,

182

Hanabusa, 152, 202
Hankow, 344-5, 368
Hanneken, Capt. von, 354
Hart, Sir Robert, 187, 297
Hidevoshi, 84, 86, 89, 200
HilHer, W. C, 168
Hongkong, 802, 868, 400, 428
Hong Sal Mun. 142-3
Hope, Sir J., 224

House of Representatives in
Japan. Vide sub Japanese Diet.
Hsien Feng, Emperor, 255, 290

Ietasu, 85

Ignatieff, General, 222

Imbert, Msgr., 198

Imperial Rescripts, Japanese, 80,

82
India, Importance of, xii, 10-11,

419
luouve. Count, 24, 26, 67
Ito, Count, 24 5, 27, 82, 84, 87, 38,

42, 45, 72. 80, 203, 207, 238
Iwakura, 202
Ivemitsu, 201

* Japan Daily Mail,' 19, 427
Japan, Emperor of, 80, 88-41, 48,
45

— Future of, 894-8

— Newspapers in, 19
Japanese Administration, 24-7,

41-4

— Army, 17, 46 8, 896

— Character, 53-6, 894-5

— Constitution, 28, 27, 80, 31, 84,
88,40

— Diet, 17-24, 27-35, 88, 41-4. 69,
78 4

— Finances, 49

— Land-tax, 28, 64

— Law and Law Courts, 16, 64-78

— Manufactures, 51

— Ministers, 18-19, 28

— National Debt, 49

— Navy, 17, 29, 85, 45, 890

— Religions, 57-9

— Salaries, 20, 29

— Trade, 60-2

Jardine, Matheson & Co., 428

Jehol, 276, 288

Jmghiz Khan, 2, 246, 401

INDEX

439

Jinsen or Inchiun, 92
Jiyuto Party, 29

Kaishinto Party, 29

Kang Hsi, Emperor, 261, 265

Kashgar, 848, 355

Keiuu Kang San, 103, 107, 118

Kien Lung, Emperor, 261, 267,

270, 271. 274, 288
Kim Ok Kiun, 154
Kioto, 15, 57
Kirin, 270, 841, 847, 349
Klaproth, 245
Kobe, 15, 61
Korea, x, 11, 287-8, 394, 406

— British Policy towards, 227-30

— Chinese in, 89, 91,93, 117, 121,
128, 141, 185, 190, 209-222

— Chinese Kesident in, 129, 166,
176, 183, 184, 220-1

Suzerainty of, 122, 148, 146,

174, 20922, 231-8

— Crown Prince of, 148, 155,
157-8, 163, J 68-9

— Future of, 894, 898-9

— Japanese Policv towards, 56,
199-208,282-8,399

— King of, 110, 113, 126, 140, 141,
145, 150, 151-2, 154-6, 158, 160,
162 8, 167-9, 172, 174, 188,
210-2, 217-8, 219

— Karae of, 88

- Queen of, 152, 156-7
Korean Administration, 159, 171-
173, 176

— Agriculture, 115, 181

— Aristocracy, 100, 162, 173

— Army, 137, 148, 164-70, 227

— Character, 98-9, 196, 204

— Currency, 178-81, 188

— Dancing-girls, 133

— Dress, 93-4, 130-2

— Education, 177

— Harbours, 88-98

— Hats, 184-7

— Houses, 115, 129-80

— Inns, 119

— Language, 97

— Minerals, 189-91

— Ministers, 161, 165

— Monarchy, 146, 155, 158-9

— Mourners, 185-6

— Paper, 188

Korean Population, 96, 125
Hace 17

— Rebellions, 147, 152, 154, 203,
219, 224

— ReHgion, 104-10

— Revenue, 174

— Roads, 111, 182

— Scenery, 98, 108-4, 123

— Spirit-worship, 109-10

— Sport, 112-8

— Stone-throwing, 189

— Telegraphs, 220, 227

— Temples, 141-2

— Travel, 101-2, 111-2, 118-9

— Women, 95-6, 181-3
Kuang Hsu, Emperor, 257-61
Kublai Khan, 247, 265
Kulja, 223, 284, 298, 356, 415
Kung, Prince, 240, 255, 281-2

Lano, Captain, 354

Lay, H. N., 858

Li Hung Chang, Viceroy, 153,
176, 187, 208, 208, 214, 217,
218, 219, 221, 224-5, 288, 289-
242, 840, 848, 848, 860, 356,
365

Liuchiu Islands, 291, 414

Lowell, P., 87

Macao, 420

Macartney, Earl of, 245, 288-9,
291, 296

— Sir H., 284
Maitreva, 884-5

Malay Peninsula, 7,400, 405, 408,
410

Mapu, 92

Marco Polo, 247, 249

Maubant, M., 192

Michie, A., 380

Mikado. Vide sub Japan, Em-
peror of.

Missionaries in China, 805-85,
424-5

— in Japan, 57-9

— in Korea, 85, 192-7, 218
Mitford, A. B., 48

Mixed Residence in Japan, 75-7,

79
Monasteries and Monks in China,

872-90

440

INDEX

Monasteries and Monks in Korea,

103^, 110, 136, 141, 144
Morrison, Rev. R., 807
Moukden, 340, 349
Mouraviefif, General, 222
Mutsu, Mr., 26, 33

Naoasaki, 16, 61
Naktong River, 182
Nam San, 124-5
Newchwang, 340-1 *
Ni Taijo, 121, 209
Niigata, 61

OToNOB, N. R., 188, 280, 294,

431
Oknbo, 202

Okuma, Count, 20, 29, 67-8
Oliphant, L., 224
Opium Question, 304
Oppert, E., 96
Osaka, 61, 180, 436

Paik-tu-san, 106

Pamirs, Chinese and the, 298-9

Parkes, Sir Harry, 70, 96, 215,

282-3, 481
Pearson, C. H., 401-17
Pechili, Gulf of, 228, 238
Peiho River, 238-9
Peking, 122, 146,192,209,210-11,

214, 220, 226, 237, 240, 243,

245-79, 327, 342, 3*47, 366, 416,

433

— British Legation, 278-9

— Dnim and Bell Towers, 267

— Examination Building, 266-7

— Hall of the Classics, 268

— Lama Temples, 268-70, 271

— Observatory, 265

— Palace, 248, 253-4, 260, 273

— Population, 240, 247, 417

— Streets, 251-3

— Summer Palace, 272 5, 289,
317

— Temple of Confucius, 267
of Heaven, 261-4

— Walls, 246-7

* Pekmg Gazette,' 292, 319, 362-

868
Periy, Commodore, 61

Port Arthur, 841, 850, 859

— H'amUton, 220, 225, 228-9,
430

— Lazareflf, 91, 224, 227
Pouk-han, 124, 144
Prjevalski, General, 299, 357
Pyongyang, 83, 174, 182, 190, 191

QUELPABT, 85

Railway, Siberian^ 800, 341, 897
RaUways in China, 298, 339-45

— in Japan, 15- 16

— in Korea, 184
Rosebery, Earl of, 229, 242
Ross, Rev. J., 86, 195

Russian PoUcy towards China,

297-9
Russians in Korea, 175, 186-7,

222-7, 230
Ryong-san, 174, 183

Saghaun, 8

Saigo, 48, 202

Sak Wang Sa, 107, 121

Sam Kok San, 124, 144

Satow, E. M., 98, 431

Satsuma Rebellion, 86, 48

Scherzer, M., 210

Shanghai, 186, 888, 347, 859, 863

Shang-ti, 268, 312

Shan-hai-kuan, 340

Shimonoseki, 16, 46, 61

Shufeldt, Commodore, 214

Shun Chih, Emperor, 286

Singapore, 400, 402, 407, 400, 417,

420, 427
Siuen, Emperor, 268
Soshif Japanese, 33
Soul, 92, 110, 117, 120-70, 180,

195, 207, 230

— Big BeU, 189

— Ground Plan, 127

— Houses, 129

— Pagoda, 141

— Palaces, 129, 145-61, 160, 163

— Population, 125-6

— Royal Procession in, 164-8

— Streets, 128, 130-1, 187-8

— Temples, 141-2

— Walls and Gates* 121-2

INDEX

441

y

Stembiirg, Baron Speck von, 848
Syel Chong, 07

Taipino Rebellion, 308, 323, 849,

40o, 406, 408
Tai Wen Kun, The, 140, 140, 152,

157, 198, 202, 214
Taku, 238, 316, 340, 350
Tariff Reform in Japan, 61, 64-5
Tientsin, 214, 238, 241 2, 338,

840, 842, 847, 350, 359, 863,

422

— Convention (1885), 208, 208,
218, 233

— Massacres (1870), 195, 239,
283, 329

Tigers, Korean, 118
Tinmen River, 222, 226, 238
Tokaguto, 196
Tokio, 15 16, 56, 58, 61
Trade, British, in the Far East, 7,
50, 421-3, 434

with China, 302

with Korea, 185, 227

— French, in the Far East, 51,
802, 421

— German, in the Far East, 51,
802, 421

— Japanese, 50-2

— Korean, 184-8

Treaties, British, with China, 290,

815-7
with Korea, 70, 174, 175,

186, 215

— French, with China, 815, 317-
818

— Japanese, with Korea, 89, 175,
202, 203, 205, 215

with Mexico, 76

-=— Russian, with Korea, 175, 226

Treaty Ports of China, 802-8, 824,

863, 421

of Japan, 61, 77

of Korea, 87-93, 174, 186

— Revision in Japan, 26, 82, 58,

60-80, 895, 431
Tseng, Marquis, 220, 240, 278,

283, 386-7, 858, 408, 416
Tsungii Yamen, 229, 240, 281-4,

818, 824, 333, 433
Tsushima Islands, 87, 89, 186,

201, 224
Tung Chih, Emperor, 255-8, 290
Tung Chow, 342

Varat, Ch., 96

Verbiest, F., 265

Vladivostok, 56, 87, 91, 188, 186,
220, 222 8, 841, 897

Wade, Sir T., 291-2
Wei Hai Wei, 359
Weltervree, J., 85
Whampoa, 816, 359
Williams, Dr. W., 276, 292
Woosung, 316, 339
Wuhsueh Massacres, 819, 829

Yakub Beo, 355, 401, 406
Yalu River, 106, 118, 182
Yamagata, Count, 26, 69
Yang-hwa-chin, 138, 174
Yezo, 75

Yokohama, 15, 61
Younghusband, Capt. G. J., 48
Yung Lo, Emperor, 267, 272, 277,

286
Yunnaji Rebellion, 355, 406, 408

PRINTED BT
BPOTTWWOODE AND CO., NEW-STUKKT 8QUABE

LONDON

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