t

THE
SPIRIT

or THE CHINESE PEOPLE.

:^^Jk
THE
SPIRIT or THE CHINESE PEOPLE.

WITH AN ESSAY
ON
Civilisation

and Anarchy
BY

KU HUNa=MING,

M.A. (Edin.)

SECOND EDITION
Es

giebt zwei friedliche Gewalten

das Recht und die Schichlichkeit.

Goethe

THE COMMERCIAL PRESS. WORK LTD.

P ^K N (i
I

1922.

{'(

FEB 26 1968

^"'?TYcno^^

^.o

1722.

DEDICATED
TO

SOYKA,

ESQUIRE,

AN AUSTRIAN GENTLEMAN,
AS

Token

of Gratitude

FOR

His chivalrous and great kindness

and

my

to

family during the Revolution

m
China in 1911.

me

Note
The

first

to the

Second Edition.

edition of this

book was published

during the great European war.

In that

first

in

1915

edition I

"The war and

war is over, there is no
I have therefore instead

printed as an appendix, an essay entitled.

the

way out."

Now

that the great

object in reprinting that essay.

printed another essay entitled "Civilisation and Anarchy,"

taken fram a book "Papers fram a Viceroy's

(now out

of print), published just after the

Yamen"

Boxer trouble

in 1901.

Ku Hung-Ming

PREFACE
^THE

object of this book is an attempt to interpret the

^^

spirit

Now

in order to estimate the value of a civilisation,

seems

to

and show the value of the Chinese

me, the question we must

has built and

tools

is

it

not what

fine roads

it

able to build; what beautiful and com-

is

what clever and useful implements,

furniture,

and instruments

what

no, not even

it

ask

what magnificent houses, what

great cities,

fortable

finally

civilisation.

it

has made and

is

what

imstitutions,

able to

arts

make;

and sciences

has invented: the question we must ask, in order to

estimate

the

value of a civilisation,

is,

uhat type

of

men and women it has been

fact, the man and woman,
the

humanity, what kind of

able

to

type of
is

produce,

human

which

a civilisation produces,

which shows the essence, the personality, so

this

speak, the

soul

and women
sonality

the

In

beings

of

and soul

Now

that civilisation.

of a civilisation

show the

in that civilis ation speak,

essence, the personality, the soul of the

of that civilisation
tion,

these

"Le

style,

three

woman and
first

c'est

thinga,

The French say

which

shows the

men and women

of literary composi-

Vhomiiu.'^ I have therefore taken

the

Real

Chinaman, the Chinese

the Chinese language,

three essays in this

show the value

the per-

of that civilisation, the language

men and women

to

men

the

if

essence,

it

volume

as the subjects

of the

to illustrate the spiiit

of the Chinese civilisation.

and

2
have added

tried

two essays in which

to these,

have

show how and why men, foreigners who are

to

looked upon as authorities on the subject, do not really

understand the real Chinaman and the Chinese language.

The

Arthur

Rev.

the

real

not deep

to

wrote

who

is

considered a great sinologue, I have

show does not

really understand

the

language, because, being an Englishman, he

enough,

Chinese

the

show, dose not understand

to

Chinaman, because, being an American, he is

enough to understand the real Chinaman. Dr.

Giles again,
tried

who

Smith,

have tried

Characteristics, I

he

has not

tlje

Chinese,
not broad

is

and the

philosophic insight

broadness which that insight gives.

have wanted to

include in this volume an essay I wrote on J. 0. B. Bland

and Backhouse's book on

Dowager, but unfortunately

famous

the

Empress

late

I have not been able to find

a copy of that essay which was published in the "National

Review"
I

have

some four years ago.

in Shanghai

tried to

show that such men

In that essay,

as J. O. B.

Bland and

Backhouse do not and cannot understand the real Chinese

woman, the highest type of woman produced by the

Chinese

civilisation

men

viz

the

Empress

late

Dowager

Bland and Backhouse are not

simple,
have not the simplicity of mind, being too clever
and having, like all clever modern men, a distorted intellect.* In fact, in order to understand the real Chinaman
and the Chinese civilisation, a man must be deep, broad and
because such

as J. 0. B.

Mencius says,
distort things.

"What
ffi

i^ j?

I hate in

your clever

* ^ ^ ^ 16,"

Bk

men

is

that they always

IV. Part II. 26,

simple, for the three characteristics of the Chicese character

and the Chinese

civilisation

are:

depth,

broadness and

simplicity.

The American
find

it

diflficult to

people, I

may

be permitted to say here,

understand the real Chinaman and the

Chinese civilisation, because the American people,

rule,

broad,

are

cannot

but not deep.

Chinaman

and

the

real

because

the

English, as a rule,

but

not

broad.

The Germans

as

The English

understand

civilisation

simple,

simple,

Chinese

are

again

deep,

cannot

understand the real Chinaman and the Chinses civilisation

because theGermans, especially the highly educatedGermans,

The French,
well the French are the people, it seems to me, who can
understand and has understood the real Chinaman and
the Chinese civilisation best.* The French, it is true,
have not the depth of nature of the Germans nor the
broadness of mind of the Americans nor the simplicity of
mind of the English, but the French, the French people
have to a preeminent degree a quality of mind such as all

as a rule, are deep, broad, but not simple.

the people I have mentioned above as a rule, have not,

mind which, above all things, is necessary in

order to understand the real Chinaman and the Chinese
civilisation; a quality of mind viz: delicacy,
For, in
addition to the three characteristics of the real Chinaman

quality of

The best book written in any European language on the spirit of

the Chinese civilisation is a book called "La Cit6 Chinoise" by G. Eng.
Simon who was once French Consul in China. It was from this book
that Prof. Lowes Dickinson of Cambridge, as he himself told me, drew
his inspiration in writing his famous "Letters from John Chinaman."

and Chinese civilisation which I have already mentioned,

I must here add one more, and that the chief characteristic,
namely delicacy; delicacy to a preeminent degree such as
you will find nowhere else except perhaps among the
ancient Greeks and their civilisation.
It wull

be seen from what I have said above that the

American people

if

they will study the Chinese civilisation,

Germans,
Americans, English and

will get depth; the English, broadness;

and all of
Germans by the study

simplicity;

Uiein,

of

and

the- Chinese

ilio

of

civilisation,

Chinese books and literature, will get a quality of mind

which, I take the liberty of saying here,

they

it

seems

me,

to

them, as a rale, have not to a preeminent

degree, namely, delicacy.
The French people finally, by
ail

of

the study of the Chinese civilisation, will get

broadness, simplicity and a

delicacy

still

which they now have.

all,

finer delicacy

depth,
than the

Thus the study

believe,

be of benefit to

all

the

of

Chinese civilisation, of Chinese books and literature

will,

tha people of Europe

and

America. I have therefore added to this volume an essay

on Chineses scholarship, the sketch of a programme how
to study Chinese, which I made for myself when I made
up my mind and began , after my return from Europe, to

study

the civilisation of

thirty years ago

my own

this sketch of a

now

country, exactly

programme how

Chiese which I hope will be of help to those

to

study

who want

study Chinese and the Chinese civilisation

Ku Hung-ming
Peking, 20 April 1915

to

CONTENTS.

Introduction

1.

The

2.

The Chinese Woman

o.

The Chinese Language.

4.

John Smith

5.

6.

Chinese Scholarship, Part

I.

7.

Chinese Scholarship, Part

II.

Spirit of the Chinese People.

in China.

Great Sinologue.

Appendix

Civilisation

and Anarchy.

INTRODUCTION.
Tht Religion of Good-citizenship
Sage, than wir nicht recht? Wir miissen deu Pobel betriigen,
Sieh nor, wie un^eschickt, sieh nur wie wild er sich zeigt!

Ungeschick und wild sind alle rohen Betrogenen

Seid nur redlich und fuhrt ihn zum Menschlichen an.
Goethe.

<^7THE great war at the present moment

absorbing

is

all

the attention of the world exclusive of every tiling

But then

else.

think this war

must make serious

itself

thinking people turn their attention to the great problem

All civilisation begins by the conquest of

of civilisation.

Nature,

i.e.

and

by subduing

controlling

the

terrific

physical forces in Nature so that they can do no

to

The modern

men.

civilisation

of

harm

Europe to-day has

succeeded in the conquest of Nature with a success,

must be admitted,
civilisation.

But there

even than the

terrible

not attained

hitherto
is

in

terrific

this

world a

physical

it

by any other
force

forces in

more
Nature

and that is the passions in the heart of man. The harm

which the physical forces of Nature can do to mankind,
is nothing compared with the harm which human passions

can do.

Until therefore this terrible force,

passions

is

evident, not only

be,

it

life

possible for

is

had

to

human

no

first

civilisation,

but even no

beings.

early

we just doing the right thing?the mob we most befool them;

See, now, how shiftless land look now how wird !for such is the mob.
Shiftless and wild all sons of
are when you befool them
Be but honest and true, and thus make human, them all.

Arein't

Adam

human

and rude stage of society, mankind

use physical force to subdue and subjugate human

In the
^

the

properly regulated and controlled, there can

II

Thus hordes

passions.

had

of savages

be subjugated

to

But as civilisation advances,

more potent and more eflPective
human passions than phycontrolling
and
subduing
for
The
sical force and this force ia called moral force.

by sheer
mankind

physical

force.

discovers a force

moral force which

the

in

has been effective

past

human

subduing and

controlling

the

population

Europe,

Christianity.

of

is

in

in

the

But now

tins

passions

war with the armament preceding it, seems to show that

Christianity has become ineffective as a moral foi'ce.
Without an

human
to

effective

to control and restrain

Europe have had again'

moral force

passions, the people of

employ physical force to keep civil order. As Carlyle

"Europe is Anarchy plus a constable." The

truly says,

use

of

physical

force

to

maintain

In fact militarism

militarism.

order leads to

civil

necessary in

is

Europe

to-day because of the want of an effective moral force.

But militarism leads to war and war means destruction

and waste. Thus the people of Europe are on the horns
If they do away with militarism, anarchy
of a dilemma.
up
will destroy their civilisation, but if they keep
militarism,

their

civilisation

will

and Lord Kitchner

out Prussian

Prussian

then

arise

down Prussian

belives that

militarism

armed Englishmen.
militarism

the

militarism

he will be able

to

stamp

with three million drilled and

But then
is

through

But Englishmen say that

waste and destruction of war.

they are determined to put

collapse

thus

another militai-ism,

it

seems

stamped

the

to

out,

British

me when
there

will

militarism


Ill

which again will have to be stamped out. Thus there

to be no way of escape out of this vicious circle.

seems

But
there

is.

way of escape? Yes, I believe

The American Emerson long ago said, " I can

is

there really no

easily see the

bankruptcy of the vulgar musket worship,

though great

men

as

God

be musketworshippers

liveth, the

gun

and

'tis

certain,

that does not need another gun, the

law of love and justice alone can effect a clean revolution.'*

Now

if

militarism, there
to

use

is

only one way of doing

what Emerson

calls the

gun

With an

effective

moral

it

and that

is,

that does not need

another gun, the law of love and justice,

force,

down

the people of Europe really want to put

force,

in fact,

moral

militarism

will

become unnecessary and disappear of itself. But now, that

Christianity has become ineffective as a moral force the
problem is where are the people of Europe to find this new
effective moral force which will make militarism unnecessary?
I believe the people of

force in China,

in

Europe

will find this

the Chinese civilisation.

now moral
The moral

which can make militarism

But
good citizenship.
people will say to me, "There have also been wars in
China." It is true there have been wars in China; but,

force in the Chinese civilisation

unnecessary

is

the Religion

of

since the time of Confucius 2,500 years age,

we Chinese
have had no militarism such as that we see in Europe
In China war is an accident, whereas in Europe
war has become a necessity. We Chinese are liable to

to-day.

nave wars, but we do not live in constant expectation of

IV
In fact the one thing intolerable in the

war.

Europe,

it

seems

that every body

is

to

me,

much war

not so

is

constantly afraid that his neighbour as

soon as he gets strong enough to be able to do

to

rob and murder

him and he has

Thus what weighs upon the people

arm

of

it,

will

therefore

himself or pay for an armed policeman

much

state of

as the fact

to

to

come
arm

protect him.

Europe

is

not so

the accident of war, but the constant necessity to

themselves, the absolute necessity to use physical force

to protect themselves.

Now

in China because

of good citizenship, a

man

we Chinese have

does not

feel

the Religion

the need of using

physical force to protect himself; he has seldom the need

even

to call in

and use the physical

force of the policeman,

A man

China is protected
by the sense of justice of his neighbour; he is protected by
the readiness of his fellow men to obey the sense of moral
obligation.
In fact, a man in China does not feel the
of the State to protect

him.

need of using physical force

is

sure that rtght and justice

to protect himself because

is

he

recognised by every body!

as a force higher than physical force

is

in

and moral obligation'

recognised by every body as something which must be

obeyed.

Now

if

you can get

all

mankind

to

agree to

recognise right and justice, as a force higher than physical

force,

and moral obligation

as something

which must be

obeyed, then the use of physical force will become unnece?!sary; then there will be no militarism in the world.
of course there will

criminals,

But

be in every country a few people

and in the world, a few savages who

will not or

are not able to recognise right

and

justice as a force

higher

obligation as something

than physical force and moral

Thus against criminals and

savages a certain amount of physical or police force and
militarism will always be necessary in very country and
which must be obeyed.

in the world.

But people

will

mankind recognise
than physical force.
have

to

right

and

is

to me how are you to make

and justice as a force higher
answer the first thing you will

say

right
I

to

convince mankind of the effieacy of

justice,

convince them that right and justice

do

is

a power; in fact, convince

them

of the power of good-

But then again how are you

ness.

in order to

do

this,

do this? Well,

to

the Religion of good citizenship in

China teaches every child as soon as he

able to under-

is

stand the meaning of words, that the NcUure of

man

is

good,*

Now
of

Euope

ception

nature

the fundamental unsoundness of the civilisation

to-day,

of
is

it

human

evil

seems

and because

me,

to

nature;

lies

in

its

conception

its

of this

wrong conthat

human

wrong conception, the

whole structure of society in Europe has always rested

upon

force.

The two things which the people

have depended upon to maintain

civil

of

Europe

order are Religion

and Law.

In other words, the population of Europe

have been kept in order by the fear of God and the fear
of the Law.
Fear implies the use of force. Therefore
*The

sentence of the
every child in China

first

first

book that

when he

is put into the hands of

goes to school.

VI
in order to keep

had

up the

maintain a large number of expensive idle

at first to

That,

persons called priests.

meant

so

much

able burden

war

Europe

fear of God, the people of

expense, that

upon the

speak of nothing

to
it

at last

In fact in the thirty years

people.

of the Reformation, the people of

rid of the priest.

else,

became an unbearEurope

tried to get

After having got rid of the priests

who

order by the fear of God,

the

kept the population in

people of Europe tried to maintain civil order by the fear

of the

But

Law.

to

keep up the fear of the Law, the

people of Euope have had to maintain another class of

still

more expensive

Now

soldiers.

persons

idle

called

'policemen

and

the people of Europe are beginning to find

out that the maintainence of policemen and soldiers to

keep

order,

civil

is

still

more ruinously expensive than

even the maintainence of

thirty years

war

In

priests.

fact,

in

as

of the Reformation, the people of

the

Europe

wanted to get rid of the priest, so in this present warj

what the people of Europe really want, is to get rid o:
the soldier.
But the alternatives before the people o;
Europe if they want to get rid of the policeman an<
soldier, is either to call back the priest to keep up the

God
God and

the fear of
fear of

maintain
I

or to find something else which, like the

the fear of the Law, will help

civil order.

to

That, to put the question broadly,

think, everybody will admit,

civilisation before the people of

Now

them

after tlie experience

the priests, I do not think

tlie

is

the great problem of

Europe

after this war.

which they have had with

people of Europe will wani

VII
Bismarck has

to call back the the priests.

never go back

to

Canossa."

"

said,

Besides, even

if

We

will

the priests

now called back, they would be useless, for the fear of

God is gone from the j)eople of Europe. The only other
are

Europe therefore, if they

want to get rid of the policeman and soldier, is to find
something else, wnich, like the fear of Grod and the fear of
Now this
the Law, can help them to maintain civil order.
something I believe, as 1 have sjiid, the people of Europe

alternative before the people of

will find in the

what

This something

Chinese civilisation.

have called the Religion of good citizenship.

Religion of good citizenship in China

is

is

This

a religion which

can keep the population of a country in order without

priest

and without policeman or

In fact with this

soldier.

Religion of good citizenship, the population of China, a

population as large,

if

not larger then

tlie

whole population

and

of the Continent of Europe, are actually

practically

kept in peace and order without priest and without police-

man

or soldier.

this

country knows,

soldier,

in

In China, as every one

the

priest

who has been

and the

policeman

in

or

play a very subordinate, a very insignificant part

helping to

Only

maintain public order.

the

most

ignorant class in China require the priest and only the

worst, the criminal class in China, require the policeman

or soldier to keep them in

oi-der.

Thus

say

if

the people

of Europe really want to get lid of Religion and Militarism,

them so much
come to China to

of the priest and soldier which have caused

irouble and bloodshed, they will have to

get this, what

have called the Religion of good citizenship.

VIII
In short what I want
of Europe and
civilisation

there

is

to call the attention of the people

America

to,

just at this

moment when

seems to be threatened with bankruptcy,

an invaluable and hitherto unsuspected

civilisation here in China.

The

that

is

asset of

asset of civilisation is

not

the trade, the railway, the mineral weath, gold, silver, iron

The

or coal in this country.

asset of civilisation

of the

I want to say here, is the Chinaman,

the
Chinaman with his Religion of good citizenThe real Chinaman, I say, is an invaluable asset of
ship.
civilisation, because he is a person who costs the world little
Indeed I would like here
or nothing to keep him in order.
to warn the people of Europe and America not to destroy

world to-day,
unspoilt real

this invaluable asset of civilisation, not to

the real

New

Chinaman

Learning.

as they are

If the

now

change and

spoil

trying to do with their

people of Europe and

America

succeed in destroying the real Chinaman, the Chinese ty

of

humanity

into a

succeed in transforming the real Chinama:

European or American,

i.e.,

will require a priest or soldier to

to say, a

person wh(^

keep him in order, then

surely they will increase the burden either of Religion or

of Militarism of the world,

this

last

item at this

moment

already becoming a danger and menace to civilisation and^

But on the other hand, suppose one could by

some means or other change the European or American
humanity.

type of humanity, transform the European or American

into a real

Chinaman who will then not require a priest o:

him in order, just think what a burde:

soldier to keep

will be taken off

from the world.

IX
But now

to

sum up

in a few plain words the great

Europe arising out

problem of

civilisation in

The people

of Europe, I say, at first tried to

But

order by the help of the priest.

much

priest cost too

Europe then,
priest

after

after

civil

a while, the

expense and trouble.

the thirty years

The people of
war, sent away the

and

called in the policeman

and

of this war.

maintain

soldier to maintain

But now they find the policeman and soldier

more expense and trouble even than the priests.
Now what are the people of Europe to do? Send away the
No, I do not believe the
soldier and call back the priest?
people of Europe will want to call back the priest.
Besides

the priest

civil order.

are causing

now would

people of Europe to do?

of

Cambridge in an

entitled

w.o6." I

**

am

I see Professon

afraid the

the

the

in

article

The War and

the place of the priest

But then what are the

be useless.

Way

Monthly,
" Call in the

Atlantic

out," says:

mob when

and

Lowes Dickinson

once called in to take

more trouble
The priests and

soldier, will give

than even the priest and the soldier.

Europe have caused wars, but the mob

soldiers in

will

bring revolution and anarchy* and then the state of Europe

will

of

Now

be worse than befoie.

Europe

is:

Do

goodness sake don't

Chinaman

call

nrodj citizenship

not

call

call

in

ray advice to the people

back the
the mob,

in the real Chiiiaman

and

his expenence of

priest,

but

lu^ith

we

see it

now

in Russia.

and

for

in

the

his Religion of

2,500 years how

Uce in peace tvithout priest and without soldier.

*or Bolshevism as

call

to

X
In fact I really believe that the people of Europe will
find the solution of the great problem of civilisation after
this war,

here in China.

There

is, I

say here again, an

invaluable, but hitherto unsuspected asset of civilisation

here in China, and the asset of civilisation

Chinaman.

The

real

is

the real

Chinaman is an
new civilisation which

asset of civilisation

because he has the secret of a

the

people of Europe will want after this great war, and the
secret of that

new

civilisation is

Religion of good citizenship.

Religion of good citizenship

Man

what

The

is to

first

have called the

principle of this

believe that the Nature of

to believe in the power of goodness; to

power and efficacy of what the American
Emerson calls the law of love and justice. But what is
the law of love?
The Religion of good citizenship teaches
that the law of love means to love your father and mother.
And what is the law of justice? The Religion of good
citizenship teaches that the law of justice means to be
is

good;

believe in the

true,

to

must be

be faithful,
seltflessly,

man

be

to

loyal;

that

every

woman

absolutely loyal to her husband, thaf

must be selflessly absolutely

or Emperor. In fact the
highest duty in this Religion of good citizenship, I want toi
say finally here, is the Duty of Loyalty, loyalty not only ii
deed, but loyalty in spirit or as Tennyson puts it,

every

in every country

loyal to his sovereign, to his

To reverence

the King as

if

King

he were

Their conscience and their conscience as their King,

To break the heathen and uphold the Christ.

of the Chinese People.

The Spirit

*b^s$;*Se5.-

(A Paper

that

was

to

have read before the Oriental

Society of Peking.)

TjpET me

r^
The

with

first

your

all

explain

permission,

to j-ou

this

what

afternoon

character

I propose,
to

discuss.

have called "The

do not mean here merely to speak of
or characteristics of the Chinese people.

Spirit of the

subject of our paper I

Chinese people."
the

of

Chinese characteristics have often baen

but I think you will agree with

me

described

before,

that such description

or enumeration of the characteristics of the Chinese people

hitherto have given us no picture at all of the inner being

Chinaman.

of the

or characteristics
generalize.

know,

is

The

Besides,

the

of

when we speak

Chinese,

it

is

of the character

not

possible

character of the Northern Chinese, as

to

you

as different from that of the Southern Chinese as

the character of the

Germans

is different

from that of the

Italians.

But what I mean by the spirit of the Chinese people,

is the spirit by which the Chinese people live, something
and
in the mind, temper
constitutionally distinctive
sentiment of the Chinese people which distinguishes them

from

all

other people, especially from the people of

Europe and America.

mean by

modem

Perhaps I can best express what I

calling the subject of our discussion the Chinese

type of humanity, or,

words, the real

to put

Chinaman.

it

in

plainer

and shorter

Now, what
you

the real

is

Chinaman?

with me,

will all agree

That, I

am

sure,

a very interesting subject,

is

moment, when from what we see

going on around us in China to-day, it would seen that the
Chinese type of humanity the real Chinaman is going to
disappear and, in his place, we are going to have a new
type of humanity the progressive or modern Chinaman.
In fact I propose that before the real Chinaman, the old

especially at the present

Chinese type of humanity, disappears altogether from the

world,

we should take a good

last

look at

him and

see if

we

can find anything organically distinctive in him which

makes him

new

from

so different

and from the

up in China

other people

all

type of humanity which

we

see

rising

to-day.

Now
in

the

the

old

which

thing, I think,

first

Chinese type of humanity

will strike

is

Chinaman

applied
that he

to
is

we may say

animals,

a domesticated creature.

of the lowest class of the population in

you

will agree

him,

less

with

me

that there

of the wild animal, of

Rohheit, than you will find in a

European

socie'jy.

In

fact,

of

is

of

the

real

Take a man

China and,

is less

you

there

Using a term

nothing wild, savage or ferocious in him.

which

that

is

I think,

aninality in

what the Germans call

of the same class in a

man

the one word,

it

seems to me,

which will sum up the 1^ij[)ression which the Chinese type

of humanity makes upon you is the English word "gentle,"

By

gentleness I do not

"The

submissiveness.
late

Dr.

D.

J.

mean

softness of nature or

docility of

Macgowan,

"is

weak

the Chinese," says the

not the

docility

of

broken-spirited,

"gentle" I

emasculated

mean absence

But by tbe word

people."

of hardness, harshness, roughness,

or violence, in fact of anything which jars upon you.

There

is

humanity an

in the true Chinese type of

air, so to

you

speak, of a quiet, sober, chastened mellowness, such as

find in a piece of well-tempered metal.

physical
if

and moral imperfections

not redeemed,

at

gentleness in him.

least

The

real

Indeed the very

of a real

softened

Chinaman

by this

Chinaman may be

are,

quality
coarse,

of

but

no grossness in his coarseness The real Chinaman

may be ugly, but there is no hideousness in his ugliness.
The real Chinaman may be vulgar, but there is no
i^ressiveness, no blatancy in his vulgarity.
The real
there

is

Chinaman may be stupid, but there is no absurdity in his

The real Chinaman may be cunning, but there
is no malignity in his cunning.
In fact what I want
to say is, that even in the faults and blemishes of body,
mind and character of the real Chinaman, there is nothing
which revolts you. It is seldon that you will find a real
Chinaman of the old school, even of the lowest type, who

stupidity.

is positively repulsive.

I say that the total impression

of humanity

makes upon you

inexpressibly gentle"

is

When you

inexpressible gentleness in the

find that

it is

which the Chinese type

that he is gentle, that he is

analyse this quality of

real

Chinaman, you

will

the product of a combination of two things,

sympathy and intelligence. I have compared the

Chinese type of humanity to a domesticated animal. Now
what is that which makes a domesticated animal so
liamely,

from a wild animal?

different

It

smething

is

which we recognise as

domesticated animal

the

in

distinctively

human. But what is distinctively hmnan as distinguished

from what is animal?
intelligence.
But the
It is
domesticated animal

of a

intelligence
intelligence.

from reasoning.

Neither does

come

it

such as the intelligence of the fox,

which knows where

even

called

human

intelligence

the vulpine intelligence

of

domesticated animal

the

vulpine

is

or animal
is

but from sympathy, from a feeling of love and

instinct,

attachment.

English

thorough-bred Arab horse understands his

master

not

he

because

grammar nor because he has an

has

This

what

I call

is

possession

of

this

human

humanity,
gentleness.

it

is

human

the possession of

intelligence,
to

the

which

real

this

his
as

intelligence.

quality

which

In the same

sympathetic

gives to ihe

Chinaman,

English

intelligence,

distinguishes domesticsted from wild animals.

way, I say,

English

attached to

human

from mere vulpine or animal

distinguished
the

is

studied

instinct for the

but because he loves and

language,
master.

true

fox,

which comes not from reasoning nor from

intelligence

is

of the

what may be

this,

This intelligence of a domesticated animal

intelligence.

It

instinct,

But

something quite different from

an

him

instinct,

chickens are to be found.

eatable

animals have.

wild,

not a thinking

him from

to

This intelligence which comes from

all,

is

not an intelligence which comes to

It is

and

Chinese type of

his

inexpressible

I once read

who had

somewhere a statement made by a foreigner

lived in both countries, that the longer a foreigner

Japan the more be

lives in

dislikes the Japanese,

whereas

more he

likes the

thfiJonger a foreigner lives in China the

Chinese.

do not know

But, I think,

here, is true.

China

will

Chinese
liking

There

agree with
true.

is

you may

upon the
is

what

if

It

me
is

is

you who have lived in

of

all

said of the Japanese

that what

well

here said of the

is

known

call it the taste for the

longer he lives in

foreigner the

the

that

fact

Chinese

grows

country.

this

an indiscribable something in the Chinese people

which, in spite of their want of habits of cleanliness and

refinement, in
character,

many

their

spite of

makes

mind and
no

defects of

them

foreigners like

as foreigners like

This indescrible something which

other people.

defined as gentleness, softents

and

mitigates,

if

it

have

does not

redeem, the physical and moral defects of the Chinese in

the hearts of foreigners.

have tried

to

This gentleness again

show you,

human

^'mpathetic or trus

product

the

of

is,

what

an

intelligence

as I

call

intelligence

which comes not from reasoning nor from instinct, but

from sympathy from the power of sympathy. Now what

is

power of sympathy of the Chinese

the secret of the

people?
I

will

here venture to give you an explanation

you

hypothesis,

if

power

sympathy

of

like to call

in

it

the

so

of

Chinese

the secret of this

people

The Chinese people have

explanation

is this.

this strong

power of sympathy,

and

my

this power,

liecause they live wholly,

6
or almost wholly, a

Chinaman

life of feeling

is

The whole

of the heart.

life

not

of

life

feeling in the sense of

sensation which comes from the bodily oi^ans, nor feeling

in the sense of passions which flow, as you would say, from

the nervous system, but feeling in the sense of emotion or

human
nature

the heart or

Chinaman

real

which comes from the deepest part

affection

soul.

Indeed I may say here that the

much a

lives so

neglect

more than he ought

requirements of the

life

world composed of body and

explanation

the

of

do,

to

of

man

the

But that

The Chinese
because

they

emotion or

live

wholly a

illustrations of

heart.

My

first

life

of

Let

me

affection.

you two

what

illustration

Wuchang

known

and want

of

this.

power of sympathy

the heart

here, first of

mean by

is

have personally konwn an old friend

in

true

neither here nor there.

is

people, I say, have the

human

the

is

Chinese to the

physical discomforts of unclean surroundings

refinement.

living in this

That

soul.

insensibility

to

even the necessary

of the sense of a

life

human

of emotion or

he may be said sometimes

of the soul, that

affction,

life

of our

life

all,

of

give

living a life of the

Some of you may

and colleague of mine

him when he was

Minister of the

Foreign Office here in Pekin

Mr.

Liang told me, when he

received the appointment of

the Customs Taotai of

and

strive

button,

to

first

Hankow,

that

Linag Tun-yen. Mr.

what made him wish

become a great mandarin,

to

wear the red

and what gave him pleasure then in receiving

was not because he cared for the

appointment,

button, not because

he

would henceforth

be

rich

this
i-ed

and

and we were all of us very poor then in

Wuchang, but because he wanted to rejoice, because this
promtion and advancement of his would gladden the heart
That is what I mean when
of his old mother in Canton.
independent,

say that the Chinese people live a

of

emotion or hunau

ill

the Customs told

My

other illustation

is this.

me he
scamp, who

life

Scotch friend of mine

who
and who

once had a Chinese serv^ant

who
was always gambling, but when my
was a perfect

of the heart

life

affection.

lied,

'squeezed,"
friend

fell

ill

with

typhoid fever in an out-of-the-way port where he had no

to attend

foreign friend

Chinese servant nursed

to

him,

him with

this

awful scamp of a

a care and devotion which

he could uot have expected from an intimate friend or near

relation.

iu

Indeed I think what was once said of a

the Bible

may

also

woman

be said, not only of the Chinese

servant, but of the Chinese people generally:

'Much

is

much."

understanding of the foreigner in

The eyes and

China see many defects

and blemishes in the habits and

in the character of the

forgiven them, because

but his heart

Chinese,

Chinese have a heart,

heart

life

of

they love

is

attracted

or,

emotion or

as

said,

humna

to

them, because the

live

life

of the

affection.

Now we have got, I think, a clue to the secret of

sympathy in the Chinese people the power of sympathy
which gives to the real Chinaman that sympathetic or true

human

intelligence,

making him

so

inexpressibly

Let us next put this clue or hypothesis to the

see

test.

whether with this clue that the Chinese people

gentle.

Let us
live

life of

the heart we can explain

not only detached facts

have given above, but also

such as the two illustrations

general characteristics which

we

see in the actual life of the

Chinese people.

As

First of all let us take the Chinese language.

Chinese
I

say,

more

life

that

fact

foreigners in

so

Now

China learn Chinese very

The

is

it

and uneducated persons

children

much
What is

easily,

than grown-up and educated persons.

the reason of this?

the

the Chinese language,

the heart,

of

language of the heart.

also

is

well-known

among

live

reason, I say,

is

becuase children

and uneducated persons think and speak with the language

the modern intellectual education

reason

learn

why

the

is

and

Kingdom

Next

let

they

so

it

may

educated,

As

also

fact,

so difficult to

it

too

are

scientifically educated.

Heaven

of

Chinese language:

you cannot learn

because

In

intellect.

educated foreigners find

Chinese,

.intellectually

think and

Europe,

of

speak with the language of the head or

the

men with

whereas educated men, especially

of the henrt,

is

it

too

said of

be said of the

"Unless you become as

little

children,

it."

us take another well-known fact in the

of the Chinese people.

The

have wonderful memories.

Chinese,

What

is

it

life

well-known,

is

the secret of this?

The secret is; the Chinese remember things with the heart
and not with the head. The heart with its power of
sympathy, acting as glue, can retain things

than the head or

intellect

which

is

much

hard and dry.

for instance, also for this reason that

we

all

of

better
It

is,

us can


9
remember things which we

much

than we can

better

leamt in mature

life.

As

when we were

learnt

children

remember things which we

we

children, like the Chinese,

remember things with the heart and not with the head.
Let us next take another generally admitted fact in the
life

of the Chinese people

their

The Chinese

politeness.

are, it

has often been remarked, a peculiarly polite people.

Now

what

essence

the

is

true

of

politeness?

polite because, living a life of the heart, they

own

feelings

and that makes

It

The Chinese

consideration for the feelings of others.

know

is

are

their

them to show
The politeness of

easy for

it

consideration for the feelings of others.

the Chinese, although not elaborate like the politeness of

the Japanese,

pleasing

is

beautifully experss

The

the heart.

it,

because

la politesse

du

it

is,

as the

on the other

politeness of the Japanese,

hand, although elaborate,

is

French

coeur, the politeness of

not so pleasing, and I have

heard some foreigners express their dislike of

it,

because

it

what may be called a rehearsal politeness a politeness

leamt by heart as in a theatrical piece. It is not a
spontaneous politeness which comes direct from the heart.
In fact the politeness of the Japanese is like a flower
is

without fragrancs, whereas the politeness of a really polite

Chinese has a perfume

ointment

like

the

aroma of a percious
which comes from

instar luiguenti fragrantis

the heart.
Last of

all, let

us take another characteristic of the

Chinese people, by calling attention to which the Rev.

Arthur Smith has made his reputation, viz.:
want of

10

Now what

exactness.

is

the

reason

The

exactness in the ways of the Chinese people?

I say again,

The

heart

is

of

reason,

because the Chinese Hve a Ufe of the heart.

a very deUcate and sensitive balance.

is

not like the head or

You cannot

want

this

for

a hard,

intellect,

stiff,

It is

rigid instrument.

with the heart think with the same steadiness,

with the same rigid exactness as you can with the head or

At

intellect.

In

may

least,

is

it

extremely

difficult

the Chinese pen or pencil which

fact,

is

to

do

so.

a soft brush,

be taken as a symbol of the (3hinese mind.

It is

very

draw with it, but when you have once

of
it, you will, with it, write and draw
mastered the use
with a beauty and grace which you cannot do with a hard
difficult to write or

pen.

steel

Now

the above are a few simple facts connected with

which anyone, even without

any knowledge of Chinese, can observe and understand,
and by examining these facts, I think, I have made good
the

life

my

of the Chinese people

hypothesis

Chinese

the

that

people

live

life

of the heart.

Now
the

life

their

it is

ways.

Indeed,

who have

people
nation,

the

primitive in

made

because the Chinese live a

lite

of the heart,

of a child, that they are so primitive in

it

lived so long

Chinese

many

is

a remarkable

people

of

the world as a great

in

should

of their ways.

fact

many

that for a

to

this

day be

so

which has
China think that the

It is this fact

superficial foreign students of

Chinese have made no prepress in their civilisation and that

the Chinese civilisation

is

a stagnant one.

Nevertheless,

it

11

must be admitted

that, as far as pure intellectual life goes,

Chinese are, to a certain extent, a people of arrested

the

The Chinese, as you

no progress not only in the

development.
little

or

know, have made

all

but also in

physical,

the pure abstract sciences such as mathematics, logic

Indeed

metaphysics.

"logic"

equivalent in
children

who

European

the

in

very

the

words

abstract sciences, because in these the

In

fact,

no

heart

for everything

and

feelings

which does not

statistics,

But

the Chinese have a dislike amounting to aversion.

and the pure

Chinese with aversion,

now

sciences

if

the

fill

sciences as they are

the physical

pursued in Europe, which require you to cut up and

mutilate the

abstract

like

taste for the

engage the heart and feelings, such as tables of

tables of statistics

and
and

exact

The Chinese,
have no

live a life of the heart,

are not engaged.

have

languages

Chinese language.

the

"science"

scientific

body

living animal

of a

theory,

would

inspire

in order

the

to verify

Chinese

with

repugnance and horror.

The Chinese,

I say, as far as pure intellectual life goes,

are to a certain extent, a people of arrested development,

The Chinese
heart.

day

to this

In this

live the life of

respect, the

it

is

who
many of

live

so primitive in

their ways,

people, a

of the

important you should remember that this

nation of children,

mind and

life

a nation of children.

as a nation, are to the present day,

But then

a child, a

Chinese people, old as they are

life

of the heart,

who

are

have yet a power of

which you do not find in a primitive

mind and rationality which has enabled

rationality

power of

12

them

with the complex and

to deal

social

government and

life,

difficult

civilisation

problems of

with a success

which, I will venture to say here, the ancient and modern

nations of Europe have not been able to attain^a success
so signal that they have been able practically
to

keep

in

and order a

peace

greater

and

actually

portion of the

population of the Continent of Asia under a great Empire.

In

what

fact,

want

wondertul

to say here, is that the

peculiarity of the Chinese people is not that they live a life

of the heart.

All primitive people also live a

The Christian people

life

of the

we know,
Matthew Arnold says; "The
peotry of medioeval Christainity lived by the heart and
imagination."
But the wonderful peculiarity of the
Chininese people, I want to say here, is that, while living a

heart

of mediaeval Europe, as

also lived a life of the heart.

life of

of

the heart, the

mind and

Christian

power
which you do not find in the
mediaeval Europe or in any other
In other words, the wonderful

life

of a child, they yet have a

rationality

people

primitive

of

people.

peculiarity of the Chinese

lived so long as a

is

that for a people,

who have

grown-up nation, as a nation of adult

they are yet able to this day to live the

reason,

a child

life

Instead, therefore,

people of arrested
that the

of

life

of the heart.

of saying that the Chinese are

development, one ought rather to

Chinese are a people

who

never grow

old.

a|

sa]
I^

short the wonderful peculiarity of the Chinese people as

mce,

is

that they possess the secret of perpetual youth.

13

Now we
the

can answer the question which we asked in

beginning:

Chinaman, we

man

What
now,

see

the

is

man who

is

The

Chinaman?

real

Hves the Ufe of a

In short

of adult reason with the heart of a child.

the real

man

Chinaman

and

therefore,

heart

the
is

a person

is

of

head of a grown-up

The Chinese

child.

perpetual youth,

of

spirit

tvith the

Now what

the

the

spirit

of

this

You

will

immortality.

national

immortality in the Chinese people?

is

that

what gives

real

Chinaman

possession

of

intelligence.

his

what

inexpressible

This true

human

intellect.

In short

Now

things,

human

sympathy and

it is

a happy union of soul with

the spirit of the Chinese people

if

the

is

a working together in harmony of the

It is

and head.

heart

gentleness

to the

intelligence, I said, is the

product of a combination of two

intelligence.

sympathetic or true

called

of

this discussion I said

Chinese type of humanity

to the

spirit,

secret

national

remember that in the beginning of

real

is

spirit

of perpetual youth, the spirit of national immortality, the

secret

with

of

this

immortolity

is

this

happy union

.soul

intellect.

You

will

now

ask

me where and how

did the Chinese

people get this secret of national immortality

union of soul with

race

of

and nation

answer, of course,

Now you

to
is

will not

intellect,

live

life

me

The

of perpetual youth?

that they got

expect

this happy
which has enabled them as a

to

it

from their
give

Chinese civilisation within the time at

you a

my

civilisation.

on
But I

lecture

disposal.

14
will try to

something of the Chinese

j'ou

tell

civilisation

wliich has a bearing on our present subject of discussion.

Let

one

me

great

civilisation
let

me

critic,

first

of all tell

fundamental

and the

you that there

is,

seems to me,

it

between

difference

the Chinese

modern Europe.

civilisation of

Here

quote an admirable saying of a famous living art

Mr. Bernard Berenson.

Comparing European with

"Our European art has

Oriental art, Mr. Berenson says:

we hardly possess
a masterpiece which does not bear the marks of having been
Now what I want to
a battlefield for divided interests.'"
say of the Europen civilisation is that it is, as Mr. Berenson
says of European art, a battlefield for divided interests;
the fatal tendency to become science and

a continuous warfare for the divided

and art on the one hand, and

on the other; in fact a terrible
and the heart the soul and

of religion
battlefield

the last 2,400 years, there

is

the

In the Chinese

constant conflict.

is

interests of science

and philosophy
where the head

intellect

come

civilisation,

no such

conflict.

into

at least for

That, I say,

the one great fundamental difference between the Chinese

civilisation

and the

civilization of

In other words, what

Europe,

Some

want

to say, is that in

modern

the people have a religion which satisfies their

heart, but not their head,

their

modern Europe.

head but not

and a philosophy which

their heart.

Now

let

satisfies

us look at China.

people say that the Chinese have no religion.

certainly true that in C'hina even the

not take seriously to religion.

European

sense

of

the

word.

It is

mass of the people do

mean religion in the

The temples, rites and

15

Taoism and Buddhism

cei-emonies of

objects of recreation
aesthetic sense,

in

China are more

than of edification;

they touch the

so to speak, of the Chinese people rather

than their moral or religious sense; in

more

to

they appeal

fact,

imagination than to their heart or soul.

their

But instead of saying that the Chinese have no religion,

it is perhaps more correct to say that the Chinese do not
want

do not

feel the need of religion.

Now what

is

the explanation of this extraordinary fact

that the Chinese people, even the

China, do not

mass of the population in

the need of religion?

feel

by an Englishman,

Sir Robert

K.

It is

thus given

Douglas, Professor of

London Univereity, in his study of

Confucianism, says:
"Upwards of forty generations of
Chinamen have been absolutely subjected to the dicta of one
man. Being a Chinaman of Chinamen the teachings of
(>hinese

in

the

Confucius were specially suited to the nature of those he

The Mongolian mind being eminently phlegmatic

and unspeculative naturally rebals against the idea of

taught.

investigating

matters

idea of a future life

beyond

still

system of morality, such as

was

sufficient for all the

experiences.

its

una wakened, a
tliat

enunciaied by Confucius,

That learned English professor

because they have

do not
is

feel

the

wants of the Chinese."

that the Chinese people do

altogether wrong,

With

plain, matter-of-fact

not

is

feel

when he

right,

the teachings of Confucius,

when he

asserts that the

but he

In the

is

Chinese people

the need of religion because the Mongolian

phlegmatic and unspeculative.

says

the need of religion,

first

mind

place religion

16
is

not a matter of speculation.

emotion

feeling, of

the

human

is

it

The

soul.

Religion

something which has to do with

wild, savage

man

of Africa even, as

soon as he emerges from a mere animal

in him,

the soul

called

is

awakened,

and what

life

feels

is

the need of

mind may be

Therefore althoi^h the Mongolian

religion.

a matter of

is

phlegmatic and unspeculative, the Mongolian Chinaman,

must be admitted, is a higher type of man

than the wild man of Africa also has a soul, and, having a
soul, must feel the need of religion unless he has something
who,

think

it

which can take

The

for

truth

him

the place of religion.

the matter

of

Chinese people do not

feel

is,

the

why

reason

the need of religion

the

because

is

they have in Confucianism a system of philosophy and

ethics,

synthesis

human

of

which can take the place

of

and

society

civilisation

People

religion.

say

that

Confucianism

is

not a religion.

Confucianism

is

not a religion in the ordinary Europeai

sense

of

the

Confucianism

In

fact,

But

word.

even in

lies

it

in order to understand

why mankind,

of religion.
religion

is

it

for

is

and

withoi

that,
;

it

it

how Confucianism

we must

try

and

seems to me,

Mankind, it seems to me,

the same reason that they

science, of art

not a religion.]

cai

religion.

take the place of religion

reason

that

can take the place of religion

make men do without

Now

then I say the greantess

thisy

the greatness of Confucianism

being a religion,

true thi

It is perfectly

of philosophy.

feel
feel
feel

find

out

Ciinj
tl

the need ol
the need of

the need ofl

The reason

is

because

17

man
I

a being

is

mean

who has

physical-science.

men

take

that

men do

up the study
so,

Now

a soul.

What

us take science,

let

the reason which

is

makes

Most people now think

of science?

and

because they want to have railways

But the motive which impels the true men of

want to have

aeroplanes.

science to pursue its study is not because they

and aeroplanes. Men like the present progressive

Chinamen, who take up the study of science, because they
want railways and aeroplanes, will never get science. The
true men of science in Europe in the past who have worked
for the advancement of science and brought about the
possibility of building railways and aeroplanes, did not
What impelled
think at all of railways and aeroplanes.
those true men of science in Europe and what made them
succeed in their work for the advancement of science, was
railways

because they

felt

in their souh the need of understanding

the awful myster}' of the wonderful universe in which

Thus mankind,

live.

I say,

feel

the need of religion for

the same reason that they feel the need of science, art

philosophy

and the reason

is

we

because

man

is

a being

and

who

has a soul, and because the soul in him, which looks into
the past

which

and

live

future as well as the present

only in the present

feels

not

like

animals

the need of imder-

standing the mystery of this universe in which they

live,

^til men understand

law,

something

of

the

nature,

purpose and aim of the things which they see in the

universe, they are like children in a dark

the danger, insecurity

fact,

as

and uncertainty

an English poet

says, the

room who

of everything.

feel

In

burden of the mystery of

18
weighs upon them.

universe

Therefore

mankind want

and philosophy for the same reason that they

want reHgion, to Ughten for them "the burden of the

science, art

....

mystery,

The heavy and the weary weight

of

All this unintelligible world."

Art and poetry enable the artist and poet to see beauty
and order in the universe and that lightens for them the

burden of

who

Therefore a poet like Goethe,

this mystery.

says:

"He who

has

need of

religion.

Philosophy also enables the philosophers

art,

method and order

them the burden of

has religion," does not

feel

the

to see

in the universe,

and

for

this mystery.

Therefore philos-

"for whom,"

ophers, like Spinoza,

it

that lightens

has been

said,

"the

crown of the intellectual life is a transport, as for the saint

the crown of the religions life is a transport," do not feel
the need of
scientific

religion.

men

to see

that lightens for

feel

for the

philosophers or

enables the

them the burden of this mystery. Therelike Darwin and Professor Haeckel do

mass of mankind who are not

men

lives are full of

moment

also

the need of religion.

But
whose

science

men

fore scientific

not

Lastly,

law and order in the universe, and

to the

of Nature

men, what

is it

But how does

for the

who

hardships and

mass

of

mankind

are exposed every

shock of accident from the threatening for

and the

the mystery of

of science;

poets, artists,

cruel merciless passions of their fellow-

them the " burden

that can lighten for

all this unintelligible

world?"

religion lighten for the

o:

It is religion.

mass of mankind

the!

19
burden of this mystery?

Religion,

lightens this

say,

burden by giving the mass of mankind a sense of security

and a sense
forces of

In presence of the threatening

of permanence.

Nature and the cruel merciless passions of their

fellow-men and the mystery and terror which these inspire,

religion gives to the

mass

mankind a

of

in

which they can find a sense of

is

a refuge

and that refuge

some supernatural Being or beings who have

belief in

and

absolute power

control over those forces

which threaten

Again, in presence of the constant change,

them.
situde

security

refuge

and transition

of things in their

childhood, youth, old age and death,

own

lives

vicis-

birth,

and the mystery and

uncertainty which these inspire, religion gives to the mass

of

mankind

also a refuge

a sense of permanence
futiu:e life.

a refuge in which they can

and

In this way,

that refuge

is

the belief in a

I say, religion lightens for the

mass of of mankind who are not

poets, artists, philosophers

or scientific men, the burden of the mysterj" of

unintelligible world,

sense

of

find

all

this

by giving them a sense of security and

permanence in their

existence.

Christ said:

**

Peace I give unto you, peace which the world cannot give
and which the world cannot take away from you." That
is what I mean when I say that religion gives to the mass
of

mankind a

sense of security

and a

sense of permanence.

Therefore, unless you can find something which can give to

the mass of
-^curity

and

mankind the same

of

peace, the

same sense of

permanence which religion affords them, the

mass of mankind will always

feel

the need of religion.

20
But

I said Confucianism, without being a religion

can

Therefore, there must be some-

take the place of religion.

thing in Confucianism which can give to the mass of

mankind

and permanence which

find out what this
something is in Confucianism which can give the same
sense of security and sense of permanence that religion
religion

the same sense of security

them.

affords

Let us

now

gives.

have often been asked

dohe

for the Chinese nation.

say what Confucius has

to

Now

can

tell

you

of

many

things which I think Confucius has accomplished for the

Chinese people.

But, as to-day I have not the time, I will

only here try to

tell

you of one principal and most import-

ant thing which Confucius has done for the Chinese nation

the

by which, Confucius
ages would know him, would

one thing he did in his

men in after
know what he had done for
himself said,

life

them.

When

have explained

you this one principal thing, you will then understand

what that something is in Confucianism which can give to

to

the mass of
of

mankind

the same sense of security

permanence which religion affords them.

explain

this, I

must ask you

into detail about Confucius

to allow

and what he

Confucius, as some of you

called a period

me

to

and sense

In order to

go a

little

more

did.

may know,

lived in

what

of expansion in the history of Ollina

period in which the feudal age had come to an end;

is

in

which the feudal, the semi-patrriarchal social order and

form of government had to be expanded and reconstructed.
This great change necessarily brought with

it

not only

21
confusion in the affairs of the world, but also confusion in

men's minds.

have said that in the Chinese

of the last 2,500 years there is

no

must now

conflict

civilization

between the heart

you that in the period

expansion in which Confucius lived there was also in

and the head.

China, as

But

now

in Europe, a fearful conflict between the

and the head.

heart

tell

The Chinese

people in Confucius's

time found themselves with an inmiense system of institutions, established facts, accredited

dogmas, customs, laws

fact,
an immense system of society and civilization
which had come down to them from their venerated

in

In this system their

ancestors.

forward

yet they

b^an

to feel

life

had

system was not of their creation,

that

b}'

it

corresponded with the wants of their actual

them,

was customary, not

it

be carried

to

they had a sense

Now

rational.

life

that this

no means
;

that,

for

the awakening

of this sense in the Chinese people 2,500 j'ears ago

was the

awakening of what in Europe to-day

modem

spirit

the

is

called the

spirit of liberalism, the spirit of enquir}', to find

the wherefore of things.

This modem
China then, seeing the want of correspondence of
the old order of society and civilisation with the wants of

why and

out the

spirit in

their actual

life,

set itself

not only to reconstruct a

new

order of society and civilisation, but also to find a basis for

this

new

order of society

attempts to find a

China then

failed.

new

and

civilisation.

basis for society

Some, while they

and

But

all

the

civilisation in

satisfied the

head

the intellect of the Chinese people, did not satisfy their

heart;

others,

while they

satisfied

their

heart,

did not

22
Hence arose, as I said, this conflict
between the heart and the head in China 2,500 years ago,
as wee see it now in Europe. This confUct of the heart and
head in the new order of society and civiHsation which

men

head.

their

satisfy

made the Chinese people feel discivilisation, and in the agony and despair

tried to reconstruct

satisfied

which
wanted

with
this

all

dissatisfaction

to pull

down and

produced,

Chinese people

the

Men,

destroy all civilisation.

like

men like Tolstoi in Europe to-day,

and suffering resulting from the conflict
between the heart and the head, thought they saw something radicallv wrong in the very nature and constitution of
society and civilisation.
Laotzu and Chuang-tzu, the most
Laotzu, then in China as
seeing the misery

brilliant of Laotzu's disciples,

throw away

China

me

'

to the

Leave

all

told the Chinese people to

Laotzu said

all civilisation.

mountains, to the hermit's

there to live a

true

life

life

to the people of

and follow me

that you have

cell in

follow

the mountauis,

of the heart,

life

of

immortality."

But Confucius, who

also

of the then state of society

saw the suffering and misery

and

civilisation,

thought he

and constitution of
society and civilisation, but in the wrong track which
society and civilisation had taken, in the wrong basis which
men had taken for the foundation of society and civilisation.
Confucius told the Chinese people not to throw away
their civilisation.
Confucius told them that in a tru(
society and true civilisation
in a society and civilisatior
recognised the evil was not in the nature

with

ft

true basis

men

also could live

a true

life,

life

of tlu

23
In

heart.

basis,

fact,

and

society

Confucius tried hard

all

on the right track

civilisation

and thus prevent the destruction

in the last days of his

life,

his

to put

life

to give

it

a true

of civilisation.

But

when Confucius saw

that he

could not prevent the destruction of the Chinese civilisation

what

did he do?

house on

Well, as an architect

who

sees his

burning and falling over his head, and

fire,

is

convinced that he cannot possibly save the building, knows

that the only thing for

and plans

^ain

him

to

of the building so that

do
it

is

to save the

may

drawings

afterwards be built

so Confucius, seeing the inevitable destruction of the

building of the Chinese civilisation which he could not

thought he would save the drawings and plans,

and he accordingly saved the drawings and plans of the
Chmese civilisation, which are now preserved in the Old
prevent,

the

Testament of the Chinese Bilbe

known

as the Wit Ching, five canons.

great service

nation

Canonical Books

five

That, I say, was a

which Confucius has done

he saved the drawings

and plans

for the Chinese

of their civilisa-

tion for them.

Confucius,

say,

when he saved

the drawings

and

plans of the Chinese civilisation, did a great service for the

Chinese nation.
service

But that

is

not the principal, the greatest

which Confucius has done

for the Chinese nation.

The greatest service he did was that, in saving the drawings

and plans of their civilisation, he made a new synthesis, a
new interpretation of the plans of that civilisation, and in
that

new

synthesis he gave the Chinese people the true idea

24
of a State

true, rational,

permanent, absolute basis of a

State.

But then Plato and

Aristotle in ancient times,

and

Rousseau and Herbert Spencer in modern times also made a

synthesis of civilisation,
State,

Now what

is

and

tried to give

a true idea of a

the difference between the philosophy,

made by the great men of

Europe I have mentioned, and the synthesis of civilisation
the system of philosophy and morality now known as
Confucianism? The difference, it seems to me, is this.
The philosophy of Plato and Aristotle aud of Herbert
the synthesis of civilisation

Spencer has not become a religion or the equivalent of a

religion,

the accepted faith of the masses of a people, or

nation, whereas Confucianism has become a religion or the

equivalent of a religion to even the mass of the population

When

in China.

I say religion here, I

mean

religion, not

in the narrow European sense of the word, but in the bros

universal sense.

Goethe say:

'^

Nur

saemtliche 3fenscJu

erkennen die Natur; nur saemtliche Mensclien leben dc

Only the mass of mankind know what

only the mass of mankind live a true human
when we speak of religion in its broad universal

Menschliche
life;

Now

we mean

generally a system

of

conduct which, as Goethe says,

teaching
is

with

is re
life.'

sens

rules

accepted as true ai

binding by the mass of mankind, or at

least,

by the mass

nation.
In this broad an^
word Christianity and Buddhsim ai
religions.
In this broad and universal sense, Confuciai
ism, as you know, has become a religion, as its teachinj

population in a people or
universal sense of the

26
have been acknowledged to be true and
to be binding

its

rules of conduct

by the whole Chinese race and nation, where-

as the philosophy of Plato, of Aristotle and of Herbert

Spencer has not become a religion even

universal sense.

That,

say,

is

in this broad

the difference between

Confucianism and the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle

and
phy

of Herbert Spencer
for the learned,

the

one has remained a philoso-

whereas the other has become a religion

or the equivalent of a religion for the mass of the whole

Chinese nation as well as for the learned of China.

In this broad universal sense of the word, I say Confucianism is a religion just as Christianity or Buddhism is a
religion.

But you

will

remember

say that Confucianism

What

is

not a religion in the European sense of the word.

is

then the difference between Confucianism and a religion

in the European sense of the word?

There

is,

of course,

the difference that the one has a supernatural origin

and

element in

this

it,

whereas the other has not.

But besides

and non-supernatural, there is

Confucianism and a religion
the word such as Christianity and

difference of supernatural

also another difference between

in the

European sense

of

it is this.
A religion in the European
word teaches a man to be a good man. But
Confucianism does more than this; Confucianism teaches a
man to be a good citizen. The Christian Catechism asks:

Buddhism, and

sense of the

"What

is

the chief end of man'?**

Catechism asks:

"What

is

But the Confucian

the chief end of a ci^ise/j?" of

man, not in his individual life, but man in his relation

with his fellowmen and in his relation to the State. The

26
Christian answers the words of his Catechism by saying:

"The

end of

chief

man

words

fucianist answers the

"The

end

chief

citizen, ^^

man

of

Yu, a

Tzii

to glorify

is

is to

God."

The Con-

Catechism by saying:

of his

Hve as a duiiful son and a good

disciple of Confucius, is quoted in the

Sayings and Discourses of Confucius,

saying:

man

devotes his attention to the foundation of

chief

end of man.

religion will come.

citizen, is

the chief end of man

man

its

object to transform

by himself, into a

saint,

angel, whereas Confucianism limits itself to

a good citizen

the
as

In short, a religion in the European

word makes in

a perfect ideal

wise

life

When the foundation is laid, wisdom,

Now to live as a dutiful son and good

not that the foundation

a moral being?"
sense of the

"A

man

into

a Buddha, an

make man

into
i

to live as

a dutiful son and a good

citizen.

In other words, a religion in the European sense of the

"If

wordsaj's:
saint, a

"If

j'ou

want

to

have

religion, j'ou

must be a

Buddha, an angel;" whereas Confucianism ways:

live as a dutiful son and a good citizen, you

you

have religion."

In

fact,

the real difference between Confucianism

religion in the
tianity or

or what
is

European sense

Buddhism,

may be

is

called a

that the one

Church

a social religion, or what

The

greatest service, I say,

the Chinese nation,

State.

made

Now

is

and

of the word, such as Chrisis

a personal religion,

religion,

may

whereas the other

bo called a State religion.

which Confucius has done for

them a true idea of a

that he gave

in giving this true idea of a State, Confucius

that idea a religion.

In Europe politics

is

a science.


27
l)Ut in

China, since, Confucius' time, politics

is

religion.

In short, the greatest service which Confucius has done for

the Chinesa nation, I say,

is

that he gave

them a

book which he wrote in the very

last

days of his

which he gave the name of Ch'un Ch'iu

and Autumn. Confucius gave the name
to

Autumn

to this

life,

(^

be called the

a book
Spiring

of Spring

and

book because the object of the book

is to

give the real moral causes which govern the rise

the Spring and

Social or

Confucius taught this State religion in a

State religion.

Autumn of nations.
Latter Day Annals,

The
like

lx)ok

the

and fall
might also

Latter

Day

In this book Confucius gave a

Pamphlets of Carlyle.

false and decadent state of society

which he traced all the suffering and
that false and decadent state of society and

resume of the history of a

and

civilisation in

misery of

to the fact that men had not a

no right conception of the true nature

civilisation to its real cause

true idea of a State

which they owe to the State, to the head of the

State, their ruler and Sovereign.
In a way Confucius in
this book taught the divine right of kings.
Now I know
all of you, or at least most of you, do you now believe in the
of the duty

I will not aigue the point with

divine right of kings.

here.

I will onlj"

you

ask j'ou to suspend your judgment until

you have heard what

have further

to say.

In the mean-

time I will just ask your permission to quote to you here a

saying of Carlyle.

govern us

Now

is

Carlyle says:

"The

right of a king to

either a divine right or a diabolic

wrong."

want you, on this subject of the divine right of

kings, to

remember and ponder over

this saying of Carlyle.

28
In this book Confucius taught

ordinary relations and dealings between

society, there
fear,

is,

the

as

in

all

men

in

human

that,

and

besides the base motives of interest

of

a higher and nobler motive to influence them in their

conduct, a higher and nobler motive which rises above

considerations of interest

and

human

so in this important relation of all in

society, the

relation between the people of a State or nation

Head

all

the motive called Duty;

fear,

and the

of that State or nation, there is also this higher

and

nobler motive of Duty which should influence and inspire

them

But what

in their conduct.

this duty

the rational basis of

which the people in a State or nation owe

head of the State or nation?

Confucius' time, with

and form

is

of

its

Now

in the feudal age before

semi-patriarchal order of Society

Government, when the State was more or

family, the people did not feel so

much

and firm

Head

of the State, because, as they were all

clan or family,

which they owe

basis for the duty

the tie of kinship

already, in a way,

bound them

also the senior

or

to the

member

less

the need of having a

clear

who was

to the

members

natural

Head

to th^

of oi

affectic

of the StateT

of their clan or family.

But in Confucius' time the feudal age, as I said, had come

to an end when the State had outgrown the family, when
the citizens of a State were no lenger composed of tl e
members of a clan or family. It was, therefore, then
;

necessary to find a new, clear, rational

and firm

basis for

the duty which the people in a State or nation owe to tho

Head

of the State

their

ruler

and

sovereign.

Now what

iiJ


29
new

basis did Confucius find

for this duty?

Confucius

found the new basis for this duty in the word Honour,

When

was in Japaii last year the ex-Minister of

Education, Baron Kikuchi, asked me to translate four
Chinese characters taken from the book in which, as I said,

'

Confucius taught this Stata

religion

of

The

his.

four

Ming fen ta yi. (iS^>fe^ I translated

them as the Great Principle of Honour and duty. It is for

characters were

this
j

make a

reason that the Chinese

between Confucianism and

all

system of teaching taught by Confucius not a chiao

the general term in Chinese for religion with

designate other religions, such as

j

distinction

special

other religions by calling the

ism and Christianity

religion

of

but

Honour.

ming chiao

Again the term chun

Dr. Legge as "the

way

of the superior

nearest equivalent in the

man,"

European languages

way

which they

Buddhism, Mohammedan(ig j^)

the

tzu chih

in the teachings of Confucius, translated

(^-F-^jE)

means

the

(tS[)

tao

by

for

which the

is

moral law

In
fact, the whole system of philosophy and morality taught by
Confucius may be summed up in one word the Law of the
the

literally,

the

Laiv of the Gentleman.

Gentleman.

Now

man and made

it

Confucius codified this law of the gentle-

a Religion,

The first
Ming fen ta yi
which may thus be

State religion.

Article of Faith in this State Religion is

Honour and Duty

The Great Code of Honour.

the Principle of
called

In this State religion Confucius taught that the only

true, rational,

State,

but of

permanent and absolute

all

Society

and

basis,

not only of a

civilisation, is this

law of the

30

Now

gentleman, the sense of honour in man.

who

politics

of

all

importance of

But

society.

you, all of

no morality in
you, I think, know and will admit the
this sense of honour in men in human

you, even those

am

believe that there is

not quite sure that

all of

you are aware

men

of the absolute necessity of this sense of honour in

the carrying on of every form of

the proverb which says:

among
of

even

human

society

"There must be honour even

the carrying on of a society

Without the sense of honour in men, all
and civilisation would on the instant break down
thieves,"

for

thieves.

society

and become

how

sit

down

bound by the

gamble

to

sense of

all

honour

Now

life.

recognise
to

feel

But you

feel

themselves

would on the instant

unless

all

if

there were

how

merchant

fulfil

the sense

of

no

will say that the

merchant who repu-

law-courts,

ther.

what then?

True,

Besides, the

can the law-court make the defaulting

By

his contrant?

honour in men,

together for a time by force.

you that

merch-

trading would become

diates his contract can be taken to the law-court.

law-court

trivial

men when

themselves bound by the sense of

to fulfil their contracts,

impossible.

and

The merchants again

become impossible.
ants recognise and

unless

pay when a certain colour

of cards or dice turns up, gambling

honour

show you

to

Let us take, for example, such a

this is SO?

they

me

Will you allow

impossible.

matter as gambling in social

but

for

in fact, as

force.

society

But then

In

fact,

without

can only be held

I

think

can show

force aloue cannot hold society permanently toge-

The policeman who compels the merchant

to fulfill

31

do his duty?
1

y what?

how does he make the policeman

You know he cannot do it by force: but then

of a republic

i)it;.side.nt

But the lawyer, magistrate or

uses force.

contract,

Either by the sense of honour in the policemen

or hy fraud.

In modern times
magistrate
I

now

to say

.-A-ry

and

man

and

over the world to-day

China

the

president of a republic

do his duty by fraud.

ian, mf^istrate

all

also in

modem

In

and president

lawyer,

make

am

politician,

the policeman

times the lawj'er, politic-

of a republic tell the police-

must do his duty, because it is for the good of

society and for the good of his country
and that the good
of society means that he, the policeman can get his pay
that he

without which he and his family would die of

regularly,

The

starvation.
;

lic

who

the policemen this, I say, uses/rawcZ.

I say it
because the good of the country, which for the

tells

is fraud,

policemen means
keeps

lawyer, politician or president of a repub-

him and

fifteen

shillings a

lawyer, politician, magistrate

to

which the

'

and president

twenty thousand pounds a year,

lectric light,

'

motor cars and

life

supply him.

all

which barely
means for the

of a republic ten

with a fine house,

the comforts

and

blood labour of ten thousands of

I say

it is

luxuries

men has

to

fraud because without the recogni-

tion of a sense of honour

the sense of honour which make^
the gambler pay the last penny in tis ix)cket to the player

who wins from him,

transfer

and

withouf.

tJiis

possession of property

week,

his family from starvation,

equality of the rich

and poor in

of honour,

all

which makes the

in-

sense

society,

as well as the


32
transfer of

money on a gambling

whatever and no binding

has no

table,

force.

Thus the

justification

lawyer, politic-

magistrate or president of a republic, although they

ian,

jtalk of the

good of

society

and the good

of the country,

depend upon the policeman's unconscious sense of

honour which not only makes him do his duty, but also
makes him respect the right of property and be satisfied

Jreally

with

a week, while the lawyer, politician

fifteen shillings

and president of a republic receive an income of twenty

thousand pounds a year. I, therefore, say it is fraud
because while they thus demand the sense of honour from
the policeman they, the lawyer, politician, magistrate and
president of a republic in modern society believe, openly
say and act on the principle that there is no morality, no
sense of honour in politics.
;

You

will

remember what

Carlyle, I told you,

that the right of a king to govern us

or a diabolic wrong.

Now

politician, magistrate

and president

Carlyle

calls

a diabolic

is

this fraud of the

wrong.

said

either a divine right

modern lawyer,
what

of a republic is

It

is

this

fraud,

this

men in modern society, who say and

on the principle that there is no moralit}', no sense of
honour in politics and yet plausibly talk of the good of
society and the good of the country; it is this Jesuitism
Jesuitism of the public

act

which, as Carlyle says, gives

rise to

"the widespread

suffer-

ing, mutiny, delirium, the hot rage of sansculottic insurrections,

the

cold

rage

of

resuscitated

tyrannies,

degradation of the millions, the pampered

units" which

we

see in

modern

frivolit^'^

society to-day.

brutal
of the

In short,

it

33
this

is

combination of fraud and

Militarism,

lawyer and policeman,

force,

Jesuitism

and

which has produced

Anarchists and Anarchism in modern society, this combination of force and fraud outraging the moral sense in man
and producing madness which makes the Anarchist throw
bomb and djTiamite against the lawyer, politician, magistrate and president of a republic.

In fact, a society without the sense of honour in men,

and without morality in its politics, cannot, I say, be held
For in such a society^
Uygeiher, or at any rate, cannot last.
the policeman, upon whom the lawyer, politician, magistrate and president of a republic depend to carry out their

He

fraud, will thus argue with himself.

must do his duty

policeman,

is

for the

if

society.

also a part of that society

family, at least, the

Now

good of

is told that he
But he, the poor
to himself and his

most important part of that

society.

by some other way than by being a policeman,

perhaps by being an anti-policeman, he can get better pay

improve the condition of himself and his family, that

to

also

means the good

of society.

In that way the policeman

must sooner or later come to the concliLsion that, as there is

no such thing as a sense of honour and morality in politics,
there is then no earthly reason why, if he can get better
no reason why,
pay, which means also the good of society

instead of being a policeman,

revolutionist or anarchist.

he should not become a

In a society when the policeman

once comes to the conclusion that there

if

is

no reason why,

he can get better pay, he should not become a revolution-

ist

or anarchist

that

society is

doomed.

Mencius said

34

"When

the book in which

and

Antumn

he taught the State

and in which he showed that the

of his

in

Spring

Confucius completed his

Annals"

religion,

society of his time

which there was then, as in the world

no

to-day,

men and no morality in politics

when Confucius wrote that book, "'the

sense of honour in public

was

doomed;

Jesuits

and anarchists

afraid."

(lit.

became

of his time,

bandits)

(fLSMiFii)*

But the return from the digression. I say, a society

without the sense of honour cannot be held together,
cannot last. For if, as we have seen, even in the relation
l>etween nen connected with matters of little or no vital

and

importance such as gambling

trading

human

in

honour is so important and neceseary, how much more so it must be in the

relations between men in human society, which establish
society, the recognition of the sense of

the

two most

essential

Family and the

State.

institutions

in

Now, as you

all

that society,

know, the

tl

rise

civil society in the history of all

nations begins always witl

the

The Church

institution

of

marriage.

Europe makes marriage a sacrament,

and

inviolable,

ge in Europe
the sanction

is
is

i.e.,

religion

something

God.

But that

is onl}'

The

an outward, formal

true,

inner, the really

binding sanction for the inviolability of marriage

it

sacrec

The sanction for the sacrament of marria|

given by the Church and the authority fc

or so to speak, legal sanction.

see

ii

in countries where there

Meucins Bk,

III,

is

no church

as

religion,

is

wo
the

Part II IX, 11.

\i

85
sense of honour, the law of the gentleman in the

woman.

Confucius

"The

saj'S,

man and

recognition of the law of

the gentleman begins with the recognition of the relation

between husband and wife."

*In other words, the reco-

gnition of the sense of honour

in

all

countries where there

law of the gentleman

is civil

society, establishes

The

institution of marriage

I said that the State religion

which Confucius taught

the institution of marriage.

establishes the

is

the

Familg.

a Code of Honour, and I told you that Confucius

this

Code out of the law of the gentleman.

must

made

But now

you that long before Confucius' time there existed

tell

undefined and unwritten code of the law of the gentleman

known

as

manners.

li

(|g) the law of propriety, good taste or

China

great statesman arose in

the

man known

great Law-giver of China, generally spoken of as the

of

good

Later on in history before Confucius' time a

Chou (^ ^)

(b.

c.

1135)

who

first

defined,

as the

Duke
fixed,

and made a written code

of the

known then

the law of propriety, good taste

in China as

or good manners.
ill

China,,

Chou

li

This

made by

the

Z/,

first

law of the gentleman,

written code of the gentleman

Duke

of

Chou, became known as

the laws of good manners

of the

Duke

This Code of the laws of good manners of the

<

hou may be consideral as the pre-Confucian

ihina,

or,

of

Chou.

Duke

of

religion in

as the Mosaic law of the Jewish nation before

*4'

/^ llie

Utiiveral order

XII

4,

36
Ohrisiianity

the Religion of the Old Dispensation

is called,

of the Chinese people.

dispensation

the

Law

which

was

this religion

of the old

code of the law of the

good manners of the Duke of

gave the sanction for the sacrament and

gentleman called the

Chou

It

written

first

first

of

The Chinese

inviolability of marriage in China.

to

this

day therefore speak of the sacrament of marriage as Clioii

Kung
the

Chill Li

Duke

(^

Chou,

of

^ ;^ n^) the law of

By

good manners

of

the institution of the sacrament of

marriage, the pre-Confucian or Religion of the old Dispen-

China established the Family.

sation in

for all the stability

China.

of

the

family

in

This pre-Confucian or Religion of the Old Dis-

known

manners of the Duke

Chou in China might thus be called a Family religion

pensation
of

and permanence

It secured once

as the law of good

which Confuciu-

as distinguished from the State religion

afterwards taught.

Now
gave a

called the

In

other

more

Confucius in the State religion which he taught,

new

Dispensation,

so to speak,

to

what

I have

Family religion which existed before his

words,

Confucius

comprehensive

application

new,

gave

the

to

time.

and

wider

law

the

of

gentleman in the State religion which he taught; and

a;^

the Family religion, or Religion of the Old Dispensation

in

China before his time

marriage,

so Confucius,

in

instituted

more comprehensive application

in the State religion

the

sacrament

of

giving this new, wider, and

to the

law of the gentlemai;

which he taught,

instituted a

new

37
This new sacrament which Confacius

sacrament.

ted, instead of calling it //

called it

ming fen

the

Law

institu-

good manners, he

of

which I have translated as the

ta yi,

Honour and Duty or Code of Honour.

of this ming fen ta yi or Code of Honour

Great Principle of

By

the institution

Confucius gave the Chinese people, instead of a Family

religion,

which they had before

State religion.

now

Confucius, in the State religion which he

as under the old dispensation, the

taugnt that,

religion the wife

sacrament

the

and husband

of

marriage,

in a family are

hold their

to

marriage inviolable, so under the

State religion
their

which he now gave, the

Emperor in China,

called

m ing

fen

Duty or Code

new

of

are

bound by

gave,

Family

bound by

contract

CThinese people

of

the Great Principle Honour and

Honour hold the contract of allegiance
of

ta yi

to

new sacrament

called

Honour which Confucius

ming fen

instituted,

of Allegiance, as the old sacrament called

Li, the

Law

of

and

new sacrament

this

between them as something sacred and inviolable.

short, this

of

dispensation of the

Good Manners

sacrament of marriage.

of the

is

ta yi, or

In

Code

a Sacrament

Chou Kung Chih

Duke

of

Chou

In this way Confucius, as

is

I said,

gave a new, wider, and more comprehensive application

to the

law of the gentleman, and thus gave a new

pensation to what I have called the

CJhina before his time,

and made

it

dis-

Family religion in

a State religion,

38
In other words, this State religion of Confucius makes
a sacrament of the contract of allegiance as the Family
Religion in China before his time, makes a sacrament of

As by

the contract of marriage.

the sacrament of marriage

established by the Family Religion the wife

absolutely loyal to her husband, so

contract of allegiance called

Honour

by

is

bound

to be

this sacrament of the

ming fen

ta

or Code of

yi,

established by the State religion taught by Con-

fucius in

China, the people of China are bound to be

^absolutely loyal to the Emperor.

This sacrament of the

Vcontract of allegiance in the State

taught by

religion

Confucius in China might thus be called the Sacrament or

Ileligion of Loyalty.

You

will

remember what

I said to

you that Confucius in a way taught the Divine right

But instead

kings.

of saying that Confucius

of

taught the

Divine right of kings I should properly have said that

Confucius taught the Divine duty of Loyalty.
or absolute duty of loyalty to the

Confucius taught derives

its

Emperor

This Divine

China which

in

sanction, not as the theory of

the Divine right of kings in Europe derives

sanction

its

from the authority of a supernatural Being called God or

from some abstruse philosophy, but from the law of the

gentleman

the sense of honour in man, the

honour which in
husband.

In

all

fact,

countries

same sense

makes the wife

of

loyal to her

the absoluty duty of loyalty

of

the

Chinese people to the Emperor which Confucius taught,

derives

its

sanction from the same simple sense of honour

which makes the merchant keep hie word and

fulfil

his

39
and the gambler

contract,

plaj^

game and pay his

the

gambling debt.

Now,
the
the

what I have

as

religion

Church

of

the

called the

dispensation

old

religion in all countries,

the sacrament

and

Family

religion,

China

in

by the

and

institution of

inviolability of marriage establishes the

Family, so what I have called the State religion in China

which Confucius taught, by the

institution of this

new

sacrament of the contract of allegiance, establishes the

State.

who

If

you

first

will consider

the

instituted

what a great

inviolability of marriage in the world has

ity

and the cause

of civilisation,

understand what a great work this

when he

instituted this

service the

done for human-

you will then,

is

the

new sacrament and

established the

The

institution

sacrament of marriage secures the stability and

permanence of the Family, without which the

would become
of

I think,

which Confucius did

inviolability of the contract of allegiance.

of

man

and established the

sacrament

The

extinct.

civilisation

would

State,
all

race

institution of this sacrament

the contract of allegiance

permanence of the

human

secure

without which

the

stability

human

be destioyed and

society

and
and

mankind would

return to the state of savages or animals. I therefore said to

you that the

greatest thing

the Chinese people

State

is

which Confucius has done for

that he gave

true, rational,

them the

true idea of a

permanent, and absolute basis of a

40
and in giving them

State,

he made

that,

a religion,

it

Stale religion.

Confucius taught this State religion in a book which,

as I told you, he wrote in the very

book
In

to

this

of the contract of allegiance called

Code

of

Honour.

and

generally

(^

^^^

(^^::k.^)

days of his

life,

This

ming fen

sacrament

ta yi, or

the

therefore

often

spoken of as Chun Chiu ming fen

'::k.
^) or simply Chun Chiu ta

ta yi,

i.e.,

of the Spring

Code

last

which he gave the name of Spring and Autumn.

book Confucius first instituted the new sacrament
is

the Great Principle of

yi

Honour and Duty

and Autumn Annals, or simply the Great

and Autumn Annals. This book in

of the Spring

which Confucius taught the Divine duty

Magna

Charta of the

Chinese nation.

sacred

covenant,

sacred

the

social

of loyalty is the
It

contains the

contraiet

by

which

Confucius bound the whole Chinese people and nation to

be absolutely loyal to the Emperor, and this covenant or
sacrament, this Code of Honour,
Constitution not only

of

the

is

State

and only true

and Government in

the one

China, but also of the Chinese civilisation.

Confucius said

was by this book that after ages would know him

what he had done for the world.
it

am

know

afraid I have exhausted your patience in taking

such a very long way to the point of what I want to sayi

But now we have got to the point where I last left youj
You will remember I said that the reason why the mass
mankind will always feel the need of religion I meai
religion in the Euro^x^an sense of the word
is becai

41
religion gives

them a

refuge, the belief in

Being called God in which

and the sense

thej'

an

all

powerful

can find a sense of security

permanence in their existence. But I said

and morality which Confucius

of

that the system of philosophy'

known as Confucianism, can take the place of

religion, can make men, even the mass of mankind do

taught,

without

Therefore,

religion.

there

must

be,

said,

something in Confucianism which can give to men, to the

mass of mankind, the same sense of security and sense of

permanence which religion gives. Now, I think we have
found this something.
of loyalty
religion

to

the

This something

is

the Divine duty

Emperor taught by Confucius

which he has given

Now, this absolute

Emperor of every man,
Chinese Empire gives,
minds of the Chinese

in the State

to the Chinese nation.

Divine

duty

of

loyalty

to

the'

woman, and
as

child in the whole

you can understand, in the

an al^solute, transEmperor; and this

belief in
the absolute, transcendent, almighty power
of the Emperor it is which gives to the Chinese people,
to the mass of the population in China, the same
sense of security which the belief in God in religon gives to
the mass of mankind in other countries.
The belief in the
cendent,

absolute,
also

almighty

transcendent,

secures in

population,

power

the

the absolute stability

to

the

almighty power of the Emperor

minds of the Chinese j)opulation

and permanence of the State. This

and permanence of the State again secures

the infinite continuance and lastingness of sociely.
This
infinite continuance and lastingness of society finally

al)Solute stability

42
minds

the

in

secrures

immortaUty

the

of

immortality of the

power

almighty

Chinese

the

of

Thus

race.

race, derived

of

it

population

beUef in the

this

is

the

from the

in the

belief

Emperor given to him by the

which gives to the Chinese people,

the

Divine duty of loyalty,

the mass of the population in China, the same sense

of

permantince in their existence which the belief in a future

of

life

gives

religion

to

the

mass

mankind

of

in other

countries.

Again, as the absolute Divine duty of loyalty taught

by

Confucius

the

nation,

the

immortality

the

secures

so

cult

of

of

the

ancestor- worship

race

in

taught

in

Confucianism secures the immortality of the race in the

Indeed, the cult of ancestor-worship in China

family.

not founded so

much on

the belief in a future

belief of the immortality of the race.

dies, is

as in the

Chinese,

when he

not consoled by the belief that he will

hereafter, but

by the

great-grand-children,

is

life

live

life

belief that his children, grandchildren,

all

those

dearest

to

him,

will

remember him, tliink of him, love him, to the end of time,

and in that way, in his imagination, dying, to a Chinese,
is like going on a long, long journey, if not with the hope,
at least with a great "perhaps" of meeting again.
this

cult

of

ancestor-worship,

duty of loyalty,
people the

of

permanence in their existence

and the same consolation when they

live

which the

belief

of

Thus

with the Divine

Confucianism gives to the Chinese

same sense

while they

mass

in

together

mankind

in a future

life

die

in religion gives to the]

in other countries.

It is for his

i'

reason

43
same importance

that the Chinese people attach the

cult of ancestor-worship as they

do

Mencius said:

Divine duty of loyalty to the Emperor.

"Of the three great

have no posterity."

sins agaiust

to this

to the principle of the

piety the greatest is to

filial

Thus the whole system

of teaching of

Confucius which I have called the State religion in China

two things, loyalty

consists really only of

and

filial

piety

I^

{& #)

parents

to

^1^6

^^^^i

Chinese the san kang,

in

Chung

Chinese,

three Articles

(H jM)

of

three

Emperor; second,

first,

filial

Hsiao.

Faith, called in

cardinal

Confucianism or the State religion of China,

<wder of importance

Emperor

to the

duties in

are, in their

absolute duty of loyalty to the

piety

and

ancestor- worship

third

marriage and absolute submission of the

inviolability of

wife to the husband.

The

last

two of the three Articles

were already in what I have called the Family religion, or

religion of the old dispensation in

time

but the

Emperor

him

first

was

Article

first

China before

absolute

duty of loyalty to the

Faith

This

to the Chinese nation.

absolute

duty

of

loyalty

Confucianism takes the phice and

to
is

in

God

the

first

Article of

Emperor in

the equivalent of the

the

belief in

God.

Confucianism has this equivalent for the

belief

First Article of Faith in all religions

It is because

down by
now dispensation

taught by Confucius and laid

in the State religion or religion of the

which he gave

C\)nfucius'

of religion that Confucianism, as I

have shown you,

can take the place of religion, and the Chinese people, even
the mass of the population in China, do not feel the need of
religion.

44
But now j'ou will ask me liow without a belief in God
which religion teaches, how can one make men, make the
mass of mankind, follow and obey the moral rule which
Confucius teaches,

Emperor,

as

belief in

God

rules given

absolute

the

duty of loyalty to the

you can by the authority

make men

gives,

of

God which

the

follow and obey moral

Before I answer your question,

by religion?

you allow me first to point out to you a great mistake

which people make in believing that it is the sanction
given by the authority of God which makes men obey the
rules of moral conduct.
I told you that the sanction for
the sacrament and inviolability of marriage in Europe is
given by the Church, and the authority' for the sanction,
But I said that was only
the Church says, is from God.
an outward formal saction. The real true inner sanction
will

for

the

marriage, as we see it in all

no Church religion is the sense of
the gentleman in the man and woman.

honour, the law of

Thus
moral

of

inviolability

countries where there

is

the real authority for the obligation to obey rules of

conduct

moral

the

is

sense,

the

law

of

the

The belief in God is, therefore, not

make men obey rules of moral cond%jt.

gentleman, in man.
ne^o^sary to

and
Sir

which has made

It is

this fact

Tom

Paine in the

Hiram Maxim

last century,

sceptics like Voltaire

and

rationalists like

to-day, say, that the belief in

God

is

fraud or imposture invented by the founders of religion

and

kept

up

preposterous
intellect,

by

libed.

have

all

priests.

All

But that

great

men,

all

always believed in God.

is

a gross and

men

with great

Confucius also

45

believed in God, although he seldom spoke of

Napoleon with his great, practical

As

God.
'There

is

The

mass of mankind.
intellect is that of

Men

names

to this

Fichte

calls

philosophical

God

belief in

of

men

of

i.e.,

''At

the

fifty

the

the

have given different

great intellect

Divine idea

knew

Order of the

Divine

Divine Order of the Universe.

it

of great

Spinoza: a belief in the Divine Order of

Confucius said:

Ordinance of God" *
Universe.

fool

different

is

the Universe.

in

But the belief in God of men of

from the belief in God of the

no God.'"

great intellect

Even

the man
has said in his heart,

"Only the

the Psalmist says:

with a vulgar and shallow intellect

it.

intellect believed

of

language in China

it

The German

the Universe.
is

called

Tao

In

the

But Avhatever name men of great intellect may

give to this Divine Order of the Universe, it is the!
knowledge of this Divine Order of the Universe which

Way.

makes men

of great intellect see the absolute necessity of

obe}dng rules of moral conduct or moral laws which form

part of that Divine Order of the Universe.

Thus, although the belief in God

is

not necessary to

make men obey the rules of moral conduct, yet the belief
God is necessary to make men see the absolute necessity

in

of obeying these rules.

necessity

of

enables and

It is the

knowledgs of the absolute

obeying the rules of moral conduct which

makes

obey those rules.

all

men

of great intellect follow

Confucius says:

"A man

*^ ^Discourses and Sayings Chap, 11

4.

and

without a

46
knowledge of the Ordinance of God, i.e., the Divine Order
of the Universe, cannot be a gentlemanf But then, the mass
of

mankind, who have not great

the reasoning which leads

knowledge
therefore

of the Divine

men

cannot follow

of great intellect to the

Order of the Universe and cannot

understand the absolute necessity of obeying

Indeed, as Matthew Arnold says:

moral laws.

apprehended as ideas

rules,

intellect,

first,

"Moral

and then rigorously

The
mankind have neither force of intellect enough
apprehend them as ideas nor force of character enough
follow them strictly as laws."
It is for this reason that

followed as laws are and must be for the sage only.

mass
to

to

of

the philosophy and

morality taught

and Herbert Spencer have a value only

But the value

of

religion

enables and can

make even

have not force of

intellect

is

the

Plato, Aristotle

b)'

for scholars.

that

mass

it

of

enables men,

mankind who

nor force of character,

to strictly

and obey the rules of moral conduct. But tlien

how and by what means does religion enable and make
men do this? People imagine that religion enables and
follow

makes men obey the

men

rules of moral conduct

the belief in God.

a great mistake.

makes men
conduct
^them.

is

really

The

But
one

that, as I

and

by teaching

have shown you,

sole

authority

is

which

obey moral laws or rules of moral

the moral sense, the law of the gentleman in

Confucius said:
f

*'A moral law which

Discourses and Sayings Chap.

XX

3.

is

outside

11

47
of

man

Even Christ in teaching

"The Kingdom of God is within you."

not a moral law."

is

His religion says

I say, therefore, the idea whith people have that religion

makes men obey the rules of moral conduct by means of

Martin
teaching them the belief in God is a mistake.
Luther says admirably in his commentary on the Book of
Daniel:
"A God is simply that whereon the human
If the resting
heart rests with trust, faith, hope and love.
is

the God,

then

right,

wrong, then the God,

God taught by
I

call

God

it,

in the
a

religion

men

enabling
the

a trust,

this

rightly

call

this

belief

or,

as

I called

refuge, the belief in

it,

in

a refuge.

God, taught by

only a faith, a trust, helps towards

obey the rules of moral condect,

to

belief

mankind,

This belief in

therefor, only a resting, or, as

Divine Ordsr of the Universe taught by

although

religion,

the resting is

if

too, is illusory."
is,

Men

refuge.

faith,

Nevertheless,

said,

religion

too, is right;

in

God

gives

men,

to

for, as I

mass of
permanence

to the

a sense of security fbd a sense of

in their existence.

But

if

the belief in

God taught by

religion only helps

make men obey the rules of moral conduct, what is it

then upon which Religion depends principally to make
to

men,

to

make

moral conduct?
say says:

pagan
insisted
to

the mass of mankind, obey the rules of

It is inspiration.

"The

Matthew Arnold truly

whatever creed, the

Empedocles as well as the Christian Paul, have
on the neceseity of inspiration, a living emotion

make moral

noblest souls

actions perfect."

of

Now what

is this

inspira-

48
parmount

tion or living emotion in Religion, the

upon

Keligion

of

which,

as

Religion princpally

said,

make men, to enable and make even

mankind obey the rules of moral conduct

depends

virtue of

to

the mass
or moral

laws?

You

will

remembe

I told

word: the

Law

gentleman

is

Confucius

a secret."

Nevertheless Confucius
of ordinary

man

who

also

knew

of Confucius,

this secret

called

The ignoble

of the people, too,

can carry out this law of the gentleman."

Goethe,

of the people

secret.

men and women

the

For

this reason

law of the gentle-

an "open secret."

it

where and how did mankind come

it is

"The simple

says:

men and women

even can know something of this

law

"The law

be found everywhere, and yet

to

of

in one

calls this

Confucius says:

sscret.

intelligence

nature of ordinary

summed up

be

of the Gentleman.

of the gentleman a
of the

you that the whole system

may

the teachings of Confucius

Now

to discover this secret?

Confucius said, you will remember,

I told

you that the

recognition of the law of the gentleman began with the

recognition of the relation of husband and wife
relation between a

the secret,

man and woman

the open secret of

gentleman of Confucius, was

and woman.

woman

true

Thus

law of the

the

discovered

by a

man

But now, again, how did the man and the

discover this secret

Cc(u)fucius?

in marriage.

Goethe,

first

the

the law

of the

gentleman

of

49
I told

you that the nearest equivalent in the European

languages for the law of the gentleman of Confucius,

moral law.

Now what

is

is

the difference between the law of

the gentleman of Confucius and moral law

mean

the

moral law or law of morality of the philosopher and moralist

as distinguished

from

by religious teachers.

religion or law of morality taught

In order

to

understand

th'"s

diffe-

rences between the law of the gentleman of Confucius

and moralist,

the moral law of the philosopher

find out the difference that there is between

the moral law of the philosopher

The moral law

is

first

religion

and

we must
But Reason, as

of the philosopher tells us

means our reasoning power,

generally understood,

that slow process of

us

let

and moralist.

obey the law of our being called Reason.

it

and

mind

or intellect which enables us to

and recognise the definable properties and

qualities of the outward forms of things.
Reason, our
reasoning power, therefore, enables us to see in moral
distinguish

relations only the definable properties

moi'es, the morality,

as

it

is

and
alone,
power
Reason, our reasoning

justice.

cannot make us

qualities, the

rightly called, the outward

manner and dead form, the body,

wrong, or

and

see

the

so to speak, of right

undefi/nahle,

living,

absolute

essence of right and wrong, or justice, the life or soul, so

to speak, of justice.

For

this reason

Laotzu says:

moral law that can be expressed in language

absolute moral law.

The moral

is

"The
not the

idea that can be defined

50
with words

is

tells

our being, called Conscience,

the Wise

Man

devices in a

and apt

us

^.e.,

Hebrew

in the

man's

But then,
there are manj

our heart.

Bible says,

Therefore,

heart.

when we

take Coi

law of our being and obey

science, our heart, as the

are liable

The mora
we must obey the law

not the absolute moral idea."t

law of the moralist again

to obey,

it,

not the voice of what I hav^

called the soul of justice, the indefinable absolute es3en(

of justice, but the

many

devices in a

In other words Religion

tells

man's

heart.

us in obeying the law

our being we must obey the true law of our being, not th|

animal or carnal law of our being called by

law of

the

famous

mind

of the

flesh,

law of self-preservation and reproduction

of our being called
Spirit,

man.

St.

Paul the

laio

Littre, as the

but the true law

of the mind^ of the

and defined by Confucius as the law of the gentleIn short, this true law of our being, which Religion

what Christ calls the Kingdom of God

Thus we see, as Confucius says, Religion is a

us to obey,

tells

by

Paul the

and very well defined by the

Auguste Comte, Monsieur

disciple of

St.

within us.

spiritualized,

is

deeper law than the moral

philosopher and moralist.

law of the

"Ex

Therefore, Christ said:

cept your righteousness (or morality) exceed the righteous-

ness

(or

morality)

of

the Scribes and Pharisees

(i,e.,

philosopher and moralist) ye shall in no wise enter into

the

Kingdom
Now,

Confucius

of

like
is

Heaven."
Religion,

also

the

law of the gentleman of

deeper law than the moral law of

the philosopher and moralist.

The moral law

of

the

51
philosopher and moralist

tells

we mast obey

us

the law of

our being called by the philosopher, Reason, and by the

But, like Religion, the law of the

moralist, Conscience.

gentleman of Confucius

we must obey the

us

tells

of our being, not the law of being of the average

true

law

man

in

the street or of the vulgar and impure person, but the law

what Emerson calls ''the simplest and purest

minds" in the world. In fact, in order to know what the
law of being of the gentleman is, we must first be a
gentleman and have, in the words of Emerson, the simple
and pure mind of the gentleman developed in him. For
of being of

this reason

Confucius says:

'*It is

Nevertheless Confucius says

is, if

U (^)

Chinese

in

Confucius has been

propriety,

good
taste

we

taste

for

will study

and

try to acquire

good

variously

taste

in

teaching of

the

translated

Now

this

good

of a gentleman,

taste,

when

as

ceremony,

the fine feeling and good

is

^ Discourses and

is

nothing

This sense of honour, called

is

moral law of the philosopher and moralist,

*tk

is

called the sense of honour.

law of the gentleman of Confucius

but the sense of honour.

really

applied to moral action,

by Confucius the law of the gentleman,

i*

The word

and good manners, but the word means

taste.

fact, the

else

we can know what the

of the gentleman.

what, in European language,

In

that can raise

man."*

can raise the standard of the

the fine feeling or good

man

and not the moral law that

the standard of the moral law,

law of the gentleman

the

Sayings Chap.

XV

not like the

a
28.

dry, dead

52
knowledge of the form or formula
like

of right

the Righteousness of the Bible in

instinctive,

living,

vivid perception

absolute essence of right and

of

wrong or

and wrong, but

an

Christianity,

the indefinable,

justice, the life

and

soul of justice called honour.

How did the man

Now, we can answer the question
relation
of husband
and woman who first recognised the
and wife, discover the secret, the secret of Goethe, the law
of the gentleman of Confucius?
The man and woman
who discovered this secert, discovered it because they had
:

the fine feeling, the good taste of the gentleman, called

when applied to moral action the sense of honour, which

made them see the undefiiiable, absolute essence of right
and wrong or justice, the life and soul of justice called
Honour. But then what gave, what inspired the man and

woman

to have this fine feeling, this good taste or sense of

honour which made them see the soul of justice called

Honour?
it.

This beautiful sentence of Joubert will explain

"Les hommes ne sont

Joubert says:

A man

ceux qu'ils aiment.

neighbour unless he

made

loves

justes qu'envers

cannot be truly just to his

him."

Therefore the inspiration

man and woman

what Joubert calls

true justice, the soul of justice called Honour, and thus
enable them to discover the secret the open secret of
Goethe, the law of the gentleman of Confucius is Love
the love between the man and the woman, which gav(
birth, so to speak, to the law of the gentleman that secret.
"which

the

see

the possession of which has enabled

build

up

society

and

civilisation,

mankind not only

to

but also to establish Jj

53
religion

You can now understand

God.

to find

Goethe's

confession of faith which he puts into the mfjg)th of Faust,

beginning with the words:

dome above?

Lifts not the

Heaven

Doth not the

firm-set Earth beneath us lie?

Now,

you that

I told

its

God taught

not the belief in

it is

by religion, which makes men obey the rules of moral

What

conduct.

conduct

is

makes men obey the

really

the law of the gentleman

Heaven within us

rules of moral

the

Kingdom

which religion appeals.

to

the law of the gentleman

really the

is

life

of

Therefore
of religion,

whereas the belief in God together with the rules of moral

conduct which religion teaches,

But

speak, of religion.

if

the

is

life

only the body, so to

of religion

is

the law of

the gentleman, the soul of religion, the source of inspiration

in

religion,

Love.

is

This love does not merely

mean the love between a man and a woman from whom

mankind only first learn to know it. Love includes all
true

human

affection,

the

feeling of

affection

between

parents and children as well as the emotion of love and

kindness, pity, compassion, mercy towards all creatures;

in fact, all true

human emotions

contained in that Chinese

word JcM, (f^) for which the nearest equivalent in the

European languages is, in the old dialect of Christianity,
is

the most godlike quality in

man,

dialect,

humanity, love of humanitj'-,

or, in

godliness, because

and

in

modern

one word, love.

it

In short, the soul of religion, the source

of inspiration in religion is this Chinese

or call

it

by what name you

like

word Jen, love

first came into

which

54

man and

the world as love between a

then,

woman.

This,

the inspiration in religion, the paramount virtue

is

upon which religion, as I said, depends principally to make men, to enable and make even the mass of
mankind obey the rules of moral conduct or moral laws
which form part of the Divine Order of the universe.
in religion,

''The law of the gentleman begins with

Confucius says:

the recognition of husband and wife; but in

reaches,

it

and

reigns

rules

its

utmost

supreme over heaven and earth

the whole universe."

We

have

emotion that

is

now found
in religion.

emotion in religion

Church

inspiration,

the

living

this inspiration or living

found not only in religion

mean

This inspiration or living emotion

religion.

known

is

the

But

everyone

who has

is

an impulse which
makes him obey the rules of moral conduct above all
to

ever

felt

considerations of self-interest or fear.

spiration or living emotion that

every action of

men which

motive of self-interest or

is

In

fact,

in religion

is

this in-

found in

not prompted by the base

but by the sense of duty and

This inspiration or living emotion in religion,

honour.
say,

is

fear,

is

found not only in religion.

religion is that the

But the value of

words of the rules of moral conduct

which the founders of all great religions have left behind

them have, what the rules of morality of philosophers and
moralists

have not, this inspiration or living emotion

which, as Mathew Arnold says,

makes

it

easy for

men

to

lights

obey them.

up those rules and

But this inspiration

or living emotion in the words of the rules of conduct of

55
again

religion

is

found not only in religion.

words of really great

men

All the

in literature, especially poets^

have also this inspiration or living emotion that

The words

religion.

of Goethe,

instance,

for

in

is

which

have just quoted, have also this inspiration or living

But the words

emotion.

of

great

men

in .literature,

unfortunately, cannot reach the mass of yina^ng because

all great

men

in literature speak the language of educated >/

men, which the mass of mankind cannot understand.

The founders

of all the great religions in the world

this advantage, that they

have

were mostl}' uneducated men^

and, speaking the simple language of uneducated men, can

make

the mass of,/manking understand them.

value, therefore, of

religitJfi,

the real value of

religions in the world, is that

or living emotion which

mankind.

it

it

came

contains even to the mass of

how

this inspiration or

into religion, into all the great

religions of the world, let us find out

came

real

the great

can convey the inspiration

In order to understand

or living emotion

The

all

how

these religions

into the world.

Now, the founders of all the great

world, as we know, were all of them men

religions in

the

of exceptionally

or abnormally

strong emotional nature. This abnormally strong emotional nature made them feel intensely
the emotion of lover or human affection, which, as I have
said, is the source of the inspiration in religion, the soul

of religion.

human

This intense feeling or emotion of love or

affection enabled

them

to see

what

the indefinable, absolute essence of right

have called

and wrong or

56
justice, tlie soul of justice

and

which they

called righteousness,

this vivid perception of tlie absolute essence of justice

enabled them to see the unity of the laws of right and

wrong or moral laws. As they were men of exceptionally
strong emotional nature, they had a powerful imagination,

which unconsciously personified

this unity of

To

as an almighty supernatural Being.

moral laws

this supernatural

almighty Being, the personified unity of moral laws of

their imagination, they gave the

name

of

whom

God, from

they also believed that the intense feeling or emotion of

love or

human

which they

affection,

felt,

came.

In this

way, then, the inspiration or living emotion that

came

religion

is

into religion; the inspiration that lights

in

up

the rules of moral conduct of religion and supplies the

amotion or motive power needful for carrying the mass of

mankind, along the straight and narrow way of moral
conduct.
it

But now the value

of religion is not only that

has an inspiration or living emotion in

its

rules of moral

conduct which lights up these rules and makes

men

to

The value

obey them.

religions in the world,

for

is

it

easy for

of religion, of all the great

that they have an organisation

awakening, exciting, and kindling the inspiration or

living emotion in

men

rules of moral conduct.

religions of the world

is

necessary to

the belief in God.

believe, is

But that

is

this great mistake of the Christian

times which has

all

the

the great

called the Church.

The Church, many people

men

make them obey

This organisation in

made honest men

founded

to teach

a great mistake.

It is

Churches in modern

like the late

Mr.

J.

A.

57
Fioude

fee]

disgusted with

lieard in

modern Christian Churches.

tlie

"Many

Mr. Froude says:

a hundred sermons have I

England on the mysteries

of the faith, on the

divine mission of the clergy, on apostolic succession, etc.,

but never one that I can recollect on

common

honesty, on

commandments, 'Thou shalt not lie' and

'Thou salt not steal.' " But then, with all deference to
Mr. Froude, I think he is also wiong when he says here

those primitive

that the Church,

the Christian Church,

ought

to teach

The aim of the establishment of the Church no

doubt is to make men moral, to make men obey the rules
of moral conduct such as "Thou shalt not lie" and "Thou
morality.

But the function, the true function of

shalt not steal."

the Church in

all

the great religions of the world,

not to

is

teach morality, but to teach religion, which, as I have

shown you, is not a dead square rule such as "Thou shalt

not lie" and "Thou shalt not steal," but an inspiration, a
living emotion to make men obey those rules.
The true
function of the Church, therefore,

is

but to inspire morality, to inspire

fact, to inspire

and

fire

makes them moral.

men with
is

awakening and kindling

emotion in

men

moral conduct.

necessary to

Now,

to be

moral; in

all

an organisation, as I
an

inspiration

make them

the

said,

or living

obe}' the rules of

But how does the Church awaken and

kindle this inspiration in

as well all

religions of the

men

a living emotion which

In other words, the Church in

great religions of the world

for

not to teach morality,

men?

know, the founders of

all

the great

world not noly gave an inspiration or

\/

68
living emotion to the rules of moral conduct

which they

taught, but they also inspired their immediate disciples *

with a feeling and emotion of unbounded admiration, love,

and enthusiasm

for their person

and

character.

When

the great teachers died, their immediate disciples, in order

to

keep up the feeling and emotion of unbounded admira-

and enthusiasm which they felt for their

That, as we know, was the
origin of the Church in all the great religions of the world.
The Church thus awakens and kindles the inspiration or
living emotion in men necessary to make them obey the
rules of moral conduct, by keeping up, exciting and
arousing, the feeling and emotion of unbounded admiration, love, and enthusinsm for the person and character of
the first Teacher and Founder of religion which the
tion,

love,

teacher, founded a Church.

immediate disciples originally

felt.

Men

rightly call not

only the belief in God, but the belief in religion a faith, a

trust;

but a trust in

whom?

In the

first

teacher and

who, in Mohammedanism

founder of their religion

is

and in Christianity the Mediator. If

you ask a conscientious Mohammedan why he believes in
God and obeys the rules of moral conduct, he will rightly

called the Prophet

answer you that he does

med the
why he

Prophet.
believes in

If

it

because he believes in

you ask a conscientious Christian

God and obeys

the rules of moral

conduct, he will rightly answer you that he does

he

loves Christ.

Moham-

Thus you

see the belief in

it

because

Mohammed,

the love of Christ, in fact the feeling and emotion, as I

said of

unbounded admiration,

love,

and enthusiasm

for

59
the

first

Teacher and Founder or religion which

functionof the Church

men

is

to

it

is

the

keep up, excite and arouse in

the source of inspiration, the real power in all the

great religions of the world

make men,

to

make

by which

the mass of

the}'^

are able to

mankind obey the

rules of

moral conduct.*

Jn have been a long way, but now

question which you asked

me

awhile ago.

can answer the

You

asked me,

remember, how without a belief in God which

how can one make men, make the mass
of mankind, follow and obey the'raoral rule which Confucius teaches in hi^) State religion
the absolute duty of

you

will

religion teaches

loyalty to the

Emperar?

have shown you that

it is

not

the belief in God taught by religion which really makes

men obey moral rules or rules of moral conduct. I showed
you that religion is able to make men obey the rules of
moral conduct principally by means of an organisation
called the Church which awakens and kindles in men an
inspiration or livige motion necessary to make them obey
those rules.
Now, in answer to your question I am going
to tell

you that the system of the teachings of Confucius,

called Confucianism, the State religion in China, like the

Church

religion in other countries,

rules of moral conduct also

makes men obey the

by means of an organisation

corresponding to the Church of the Church religion in

other countries.

This organisation in the State religion of

* Mencius, speaking of the two pnrest and most Christlike characChinese history, said: "When men heard of the spirit and

ters in

temper of Po-vy and Shu-ch'i, tlie dissolute ruffian became unselfish and
the cowardly man had courage." Mencius Bk. Ill, Part II IX, 11.

'
1

60
Confucianism in China

Church

is

the school.

The

school

is

the

As

of the State religion of Confucius in China.

you know, the same word "chiao" in Chinese

is also

the word for education

China

is

the school, religion

In

to

the

fact, as the

for religion

Church in

Chinese means educa-

The aim and object of the school in China

is not, as in modern Europe and America to-day, to teach
men how to earn a living, how to make money, but, like
the aim and object of the Church religion, to teach men to
understand what Mr. Froude calls the primitive commandment, "Thou shalt not lie" and "Thou shall not steal";
in fact, to teach men to know what is right, and wrong.
"Whether we provide for action or oonversation, says Dr.
Johnson, "whether we wish to be useful or pleasing, the
tion.

requisite

first

right

is

the

religions

and moral knowledge of

and wrong.

But then we have seen that the Church

religion

is

able to

make men obey

conduct by awakening and kindling in

or living emotion, and that

of the

Church

the rules of moral

men an

inspiration

awakens and kindles

this

inspiration or living emotion principally by exciting

and

it

arousing the feeling and emotion of unbounded admiration, love,

and enthusiasm

for the character

and person of

Now, here
there is a difference between the school
the Church of the
State religion of Confucius in China
and the Church of
the Church religion in other countries.
The school the
the

first

Teacher and Founder of religion.

II

61

Church of the State religion in China it is true, enables

and makes men obey the rules of moral conduct, like,
the Church of the Church religion, also by awakening and
kindling in men an inspiration or living emotion.
But
the means which the school in China uses to awaken and
kindle

this

ditlerent

The

inspiration

or

living

emotion in men are

from those of the Church of the Church religion.

Church of the State religion of Confucius

school, the

awaken and kindle this inspiration

or living emotion in men by exciting and arousing the
feeling of unbounded admiration, love, and enthusiasm
in China, does not

for

Confucius.

inspire in his

Confucius

in

his

lifetime

did

indeed

immediate disciples a feeling and emotion

unbounded admiration,

and enthusiasm, and,

after his death, has inspired the same feeling and emotion
in all great men who have studied and understood him.
of

love,

But Confucius even while he lived did not inspire, and,

after his death, has not inspired in the mass of mankind

>K

same feeling and emotion of admiration, love, and

enthusiasm which the founders of all the great religions
in the world, as we know, have inspired.
The mass of-^
the

the

population

Confucius

medan

as

in

the

China

mass

countries adore

do not

and worship Jesus Christ.

not

belong

to

the

worship

Mohamand worship Mohammed, or as

the mass of the population

religion.

and

adore

population

the

of

in

in

European countries adore

In this respect Confucius does

class of

men

called

founders of a

In order to be a founder of a religion in the

European sense

of

the

word,

man must have an

62
abnormally strong emotional nature.

was descended from a race

Confucius indeed

of kings, the house of

Shang,

the dynast}' which ruled over China before the dynasty

under which Confucius lived

strong

emotional

a race of men who had the

nature of

the

Hebrew

But

people.

Confucius himself lived under the dynasty of the House

of

Chow

men who had

race of

the fine intellectual

Thus Confucius was,

nature of the Greeks.

if I

may

use a

comparison, a Hebrew by birth, with the strong emotional

nature of the

Hebrew race, who was trained

who had all that which

in the best

in the

intellectual culture,

intellectual culture of the civilisation of the

give him.

In

like

fact,

Europe, the great Goethe

the

great

whom

best

Greeks could

Goethe in

modern

Europe

the people of

will

one day recognise as the most perfect type of humanity,

the real European which the civilisation of

Europe has

produced, as the Chinese have acknowledged Confucius to

be ths most perfect type of humanity, the real Chinaman,

which the Chinese

Goethe,

belong

I
to

say,

civilisation has

Confucius was

the class

of

men

produced
too

like the great

cultured

be what he

immediate

The

was,

to

called founders of religion.

Indeed, even while he lived Confucius was not

to

man

except by

his

known

most intimate and

disciples.

school in China, I say, the

religion of Confucius,

does

r.ot

Church

of the State

awaken and knidle the

inspiration or living emotion necessary to

make men obey


63
the rules of moral conduct by exciting and arousing the
feeling

and emotion

of admiration,

awaken and kindle the

necessary to

inspirations or

make man obey

and enthusiasm
living

feeling

taste

school

is

formed

and good manners; the educa-

completed by the study of music."

tion of the character is

The

emotions

and emotion

aroused by the study of poetry; the judgement

by the study of good

China

in

the rules of moral conduct?

"In education the

Confucius says:
is

love,

But then how does the school

for Confucius.

the Church

of the State religion in

China

awakens and kindles the inspiration or living emotion in

men

necessary to

make them obey

duct by teaching them poetry

really great

men

in

the rules of moral con-

in

fact,

men

In

whatsoever things are

fact,

just,

good report,

the

of

Homer and

of the few

if

Ihere be

school,

makes

any

man,

whatsoever things are true,

whatsover things are pure,

whatsoever things are lovely,

China,

rules of

in literature can refine the raw, natural

can transmute him."

praise

in the

the quality of nobleness in his poetry, says:

**The nobleness in the poetry of

great

is

Matthew Arnold, speaking

moral conduct of religion.

all

which, as I told you, has

literature,

the inspiration or living emotion that

Homer and

the works of

whatsoever things are of

viitue

and

if

there be

any

the Church of the State religion in

men

making (hem think on

think

on

these

these things,

things,

and

in

awakens and kindles

the inspiration or living emotion necessary to enable

make, them obey the rules of moral conduct.

and

64
But then you
of really great

will

men

remember

I told

in literature,

Homer, cannot reach the mass

great

men

you that the works

such as the poetry of

of

mankind, because

all

speak the language of educated

in literature

men which the mass of mankind caimot understand.

Such being the case, how then does system of the teachings
of Confucius, Confucianism, the State Religion in China,

awaken and kindle

mass

in the

of

mankind, in the mass

of

the population in China, the inspiration or living emotion

necessary to enable and

Now,

conduct?

make them obey

the rules of moral

you that the organization in the

China corresponding to the

I told

State Religion of Confucius in

Church Religion in other countries,, is

But the real organization in the State
Religion of Confucius in China corresponding exactly
to the Church of the Church Religion in other countries
the Family.
The real Church of which the School
is
an adjunct the real and true Church of the
is but
Church

the

of

School.

the

State

with

Religion
its

of

Confucius

in

China,

is

the

ancestral tablet or chapel in every house,

ancestral Hall or

Temple

in every vilhige

Family
and its

and town.

have shown you that the source of inspiration, the

motive power by which
are able to

make men,

all

to

real

the great Religions of the world

make

the mass of

mankind obey

is tlie feeling and emotion of

unbounded admiration, love and enthusiasm which it i&
the function of the Church to excite and arouse in men for

the rules of moral conduct,

the

first

Teachers and Founders of those Religions.

Now

the source of inspiration, the real motive power by which

It

65
the State Religion of Confucius in

men,

to

obey

the

make
rules

the

mass

of

moral

China

the

of

make

able to

is

China

|)opulation in

conduct

the

is

''Love

for

The Church of the Church

"Love Christ." The Church
of the State Religion of Confucius in China
the ancestral
says "Love your father and your
tablet in every family
mother." St, Paul says:
"Let every man that nametb
their father

and mother.

^^

Religion, Christianity, says:

the

name

of Christ depart

of the book

on

from iniquity."

But the author

(#^)

the

Filial Piety,

written in

Han

dynasty, the counterpart of the Imitatio Christi in China,

says:

"Let everyone who loves his father and mother

depart from iniquity."

In

motive power, the source of

religion, Christianity, is the

as the

short,

essence,

Love of Christ, so the essence,

the motive power, the source of real inspiration

State Religion,

Confucianism in China,

Piety, with
Confucius says: "To gather in the

father

and mother"

the

Church

real inspiration of the

Filial

is

its

of the

the "Love

of

cult of ancestor

worship.

same place where

our fathers before us have gathered; to perform the same

ceremonies which they before us have performed; to play
the same music
respect to those

which they before us have played

whom

fact,

to serve

they were living, and

now

departed, as

is

pay

who

if

they were

if

still

the highest achievement of Filial Piety."

Confucius, further says:

dead,

to

them now dead as

were dear to them; in

with us, that

they honoured; to love those

"By

cultivating respect for the

and carrying the memory back

to the distant past,

66
That then is how
the State Religion in China, Confucianism, awakens and

the good in the people will grow deep."

kindles in men, the inspiration or living emotion necessary

and make them obey the rules of moral conduct,

the highest and most important of all these rules being the
absolute Duty of Loyalty to the Emperor, just as the highest
and most important rules of moral conduct in all the Great
to enable

Religions of the world

Church Religion,
Him," But the

is

fear of

God.

In other words, the

"Fear God and obey

Christianity, says:

State Religion of Confucius, or Confuc-

"Honour the Emperor and be

him."

The Church Religion, Christianity, says: "If you want

ianism, says:

loyal to

to

fear

God and obey Him, you must

first

love Christ."

State Religion of Confucius, or Confucianism, says:

honour the Emperor and be

and mother."

you want

to

must

love your father

first

Now
flict

have shown you why

it

is

loyal to

that there

"If

him, you

no con-

is

between the heart and the head in the Chinese

civiliza-

tion for these last 2,500 years since Confucius' time.

reason

why

there

people, even the

feel

is

no such

mass

sense of the word;

do not

feel

The_

conflict is because the Chin(

of the population in China,

the need of Religion

The

mean Religion

do

n<

in the Europe

and the reason why the Chinese peopl

the need of religion

is

because the Chint

people have in Confucianism something which can take

place of Religion,

That something,

tl

have shown you,

the principle of absolute Duty of Loyalty to the Emperoi

the Code of

Honour

called

Ming fen

ta yi,

which Confucii

teaches in the State Religion which he has given to

tl

67
Chinese

The

nation.

greatest

which Confucius has done

giving
ahsolute

them
Duty

this State

therefore

service,

said,

the Chinese people

for

in

is

ReHgion in which he taught the

of Loyalty to the

Emperor.

it necessary to say about

Thus much I
Confucius and what he has done for the Chinese nation,
because it has a very important bearing upon the subject of

have thought

our present discussion, the Spirit of the Chinese People.

For

what

want

you and you

understand

it

have told you, that a Chinaman, especially

if

to tell

will

an educated man, who knowingly

throws away the Groat Code of Honour, the

in the State Religion of Confucius in China,

Duty

the absolute Divine

whom

Sovereign to

a Chinaman

of Loyalty

to

Ming fen

man who

has

lost

Finally,

let

me

shortly

the

sum up what

on the subject of our present discussion

Chinese People or what

man

and the

is

Emperor or
the

of

spirit

spirit of the

Jlc is

no

of the Chinese

mind

want

is

man who

to say

Spirit of the

The

real

lives the life

with the simple heart of a child,

Chinese people

Now

the

the real Chinaman.

have shown you,

of adult reason

soul with intellect.

if

you

wnll

is

a happy union of

examine the products

in their standard works of art

and

happy union of soul

which makes them so satisfying and
What Matthew Arnold says of the poetry of

literature,

you

with the

intellect

delightful.

ia yi

Chinaman.

longer a real

of a

is

which teaches

the

Chinese people, the spirit of his nation, of his race:

Chinaman,

he

up or

he has once given his allegiance, such

is

gives

forgets,

from

will find that it is this

68

Homer

is

true of all Chinese standard literature, that "it

has not only the power of profoundly touching that natural

heart of humanity, which

it is

the weakness of Voltaire that

he cannot r^ach, but can also address the understanding

with

Chinese people, as

is

it

Now

calls

imaginative reason.

what Matthew
Matthew Arnold says:
is

really

modern
is

spirit's life,

neither the senses

and imagination,

Now

if

is

it

and

the poetry of mediaeval Christianity liyed

by the heart and imagination

day,

the spirit of the

poetry of later Paganism lived by the senses

understanding

the

Greek poets

seen in the best specimens of the

products of their art and literature,

"The

rationality."

calls the poetry of the best

the priestess of imaginative reason.

Arnold

and

Voltaire's admirable simplicity

all

Matthew Arnold

of the

Butr the main element

modern European spirit

of
to-

and understanding, nor the heart

the imaginative reason.*'

it is

true

what Mathew Arnold says here that

modern spirit of the people of

the element by which the

Europe

to-day,

if

would

it

live right

native reason, then you can see

of

Europe

has

to live, is imagi-

valuable for the people

this Spirit of the Chinese people

which Matthew Arnold

valuable

how

it

is,

should study

I say,
it,

and trying

But now before

this Spirit

explain to

imaginative

try to understand

ignoring, despising

a warning.

calls

and how important

it,

to destroy

love

is,

this

reason.
it

is

it,

spirit

How

that you
instead of

it.

I finally conclude, T

want

to give

you

warn you that when yo\i think of

of the Chinese People, which I have tried to
you, you shoulcj be^r in mind that it is not a
I

want

to


69
philosophy, theosophy, or any

science,

theosophy or "isin" of

The

Madame

"ism,"

the

what you

Spirit of the Chinese People is not even

would

like

Blavatsky or Mrs. Besant.

mentality an active working of the brain or

call a

mind.

The

you,

a state of mind, a temper of the soul, which you

is

Spirit

of the Chinese People,

want

to

cannot learn as you learn shorthand or Esperanto

mood, or in the words of the

short, a

blessed

Now

of all

last

you a few

want

to

lines of poetr}'

ask your permission to

from the most Chinese

Wordsworth, which
have said or can say, will describe

of the English poets,

thing

in

a serene and

poet,

mood,

recite to

and

tell

blessed

mood which

is

better than anyto

you the serene

the Spirit of the Chinese People.

These few lines of the English poet will put before you in

a way

cannot hope to do, that happy union of soul with

intellect in the

blessed

Chinese type of humanitv', that serene and

mood which

pressible gentleness.

Abbey

says:

**
.

gives to the real

Wordsworth
nor

Chinaman

in his lines

less I trust

I may have owed another gift

Of aspect more sublime
that blessed mood
In which the burthen of the mystery.
In which the heavy and the wear}' weight
Of all this unintellgible world

To them

Is lightened

that serene and blessed mood

In which the affections gently lead us on

Until the breath of this corporeal frame

his inex-

on Tintern

70

And

even motion of our

human

Almost suspended, we are

blood

laid asleep

In body, and become a living soul

While with an eye made quiet by the power
Of harmony, and the deep power of joy,

We

see into the life of things."

The

serene

and

blesed

into the life of things: that

is

Spirit of the Chinese People.

mood which

enables us

imaginative reason, that

to

see

is

the

71

THE

WOMAN.

CPilNESE

Matthew Arnold, speaking of the argument taken from

which was used in the House of Commons to
support the Bill for enabling a man to marry his decased
the Bible

wife's sister,

"Who

said:

will

when

considers the matter, that

believe

when he

really

the feminine nature, the

feminine ideal and our relations with them are brought

and apprehensive genius of the

which invented the Muses,
and Chivalry, and the Madonna, is to find its last word on
this question in the instiution of a Semitic people whose
wisest King had seven hundred wives and three hundred
into question, the delicate

Indo-European

race, the

race

concubinces?"

The two words

want

for

above long quotation are the

Now what

is

the Chinese

my

purpese here from the

words "feminine ideal."

feminine ideal?

What

is

the

Chinese people's ideal of the feminine nature and their

But before going further, let me,

Matthew Arnold, and respect for his

relations to that ideal?

with

all

deference to

Indo-European

race, say here that the

Semitic race, of the old

Hebrew

people

feminine ideal of the

not such a horrid

is

one as Matthew Arnold would have us infer from the fact

that their

concubines.

Hebrew

wisest

King had a multitude

For here

people, as

we

can find a virtuous

rubies.

The heart

is

find

the feminine
it

woman?

of her

of wives

and

ideal of the

old

in their literature*

"Who

her price

above

for

husband doth

is

far

safely trust in her.

She

rises also

while

is

it

yet night

and giveth meat

household and a portion to her maidens.

hands
is

and her

to the spindle

not afraid

of

snow

for

household are clothed in

to

She layeth her

She

fingers hold the distaff.

her household;

scarlet.

with wisdom and in her tongue

her

for

her

all

She openeth her mouth

is the

She

law of kindness.

looketh well to the ways of her household and eateth not

Her children rise up and

and he praiseth her."

the hread of idleness.

hlessed, her

husband

This, I think,
ideal

after all,

It

of

is

Muses,

is

this

her

not such a horrid, not such a bad

feminine ideal of the Semitic race.

Madonna and

course not so etherial as the

feminine

the

call

also

ideal

of

the

Indo-European

the

race.

the Madonna and

hang up as pictures in one's
you put a broom into the hands of the Muses

However, one must,

think, admit,

the Muses are very well to

room, but

if

or send your

Madonna

into the kitchen,

have your rooms in a mess and you

you

will

l)e

sure to

will probably get in the

morning no breakfast at all. Confucius says, "The ideal is

When men
not awaj'^ from the actuality of human life.
human
something
away
from
the
actualitj'^
of
life
take
that is not the true ideal."*
But if the
as the Ideal,
Hebrew feminine ideal cannot be compared with the
Madonna and the Muses, it can very well, I think, compare

with the modern Eurojiean feminine

ideal of the

to-day.

ideal,

the feminine

Indo-European race in Europe and America

will not speak

^M

of the suffragettes in England.

The Universal Order XIII.

73
But compare the old Hebrew feminine ideal with the
modern feminine ideal such as one finds it in modem
novels, with the heroine, for instance of Dumas' Dame aux

By

Camelias.
that of

all

the

way,

it

may

interest people to

the books in European literature which have

been translated into Chinese, the novel of

Madonna

know

Mud

of the

Dumas

with the

as the superlative feminine ideal has

had the greatest sale and success in the present up-to-date

modern China, This French novel called in Chinese the
Cha-hvAi-nu (^ ;^ ;^) has even been dramatised and put
on the stage in all the up-to-date Chinese theatres in China.

Now

if

you

will

Semitic race, the

compare the old feminine

woman who

is

not afraid of the snow for

her household, for she has clothed them

all in scarlet,

the feminine ideal of the Indo-European race

to-day,

Lady who has no

the Camel ia

ideal of the

in

with

Europe

hoiLsehold,

and

therefore clotheth not her household, but herelf in scarlet

and goes with a Camel ia flower on her breast to be

photographed then you will understand what is true and
what is false, tinsel civilization.
:

Nay, even
ideal, the

if

you

will

woman who

whose fingers hold the

of her household

the

up

to-date

and

compare the old Hebrew feminine

layeth her
distaff,

hands

who

to the spindle

and

looketh well to the waj'S

eateth not the bread of idleness, with

modem

Chinese

woman who

la3'eth

her

hands on the piano and whose fingers hold a big lx)uquet,

who, dressed in tight fitting yellow dress with a band
of tinsel gold around her head, goes to show herself
and sing befoi-e a miscellaneous crowd in the Y. M. C. A.

n
Hall
then

if

you compare these two feminine

know how

from true

fast

and

far

modern China

you

ideals,

drifting

is

will

away

For the womanhood in a nation

civilization.

is

the flower of the civilization, of the state of civilization in

that nation.

But now

come to our question what is the Chinese

feminine ideal? The Chinese feminine ideal I answer, is
essentially the same as the old Hebrew feminine ideal with
one important difference of which I will speak later on.
The Chinese feminine ideal is the same as the old Hebrew
ideal in that it is not an ideal merely for hanging up as a
picture in one's room nor an ideal for a man to spend his
whole life in caressing and worshipping. The Chinese
feminine ideal is an ideal with a broom in her hands to
sweep and clean the rooms with. In fact the Chinese
to

written character
radicals

(^)

broom.

for

a wife

meaning a woman and

In classical Chinese, a wife

the Provision

is

Room a

is

composed

(^)

meaning a
Keeper of

called the

Mistress of the Kitchen

Indeed the true feminine

ideal,

the

two

of

(^4*^)

feminine ideal of

alll

people with a true, not tinsel civilization, such as the old!

Hebrews, the ancient Greeks and the Romans,

the same as the Chinese feminine ideal
ideal is

is essentially

the true feminine

always the Hausfraii, the house wife,

menage or

But now

is

dame

la

de

chatelaine.
to

feminine ideal, as
times,

go
it

summed up

more
is

into details.

Tlie

handed down from the

in three obediences

ChuK
earli*

t3& )

a""

75

Four Virtues ( H
Now what are the four virtues?
)
The are: first womanly character (^^); second,
womanly conversation (-^ g") third, womanly appearance
a"<i lastly, womanly work ( ;^
) Womanly
)
(
character means not extraordinary talents or intelligence,
.

^^

but modesty, cheerfulness, chastity, constancy, orderliness,

blameless

conduct

conversation

language,
speaking.

brilliant

talk,

but

never to use coarse or violent

words,

of

Womanly

manners.

perfect

means not eloquence or

choice

refined

and

know when to speak and when to stop

Womanly appearance means not beauty or

to

and faultlessness
wouaanly work means not any

piettiness of face, but personal cleanliness

and

in dress

special

skill

spinning

attire.

room,

but

never to

and work

giggling

lastly,

or ability,

in

assiduous

time

waste

the

attention
in

to

the

laughing and

kitchen to prepare clean and

wholesome food, especially when there are guests in the

These are the four essentials in the conduct of a

house.

woman

down in the "Lessonss for Women" (^|S)>

Ta Ku (if ::^ |^) or Lady Ts'ao, sister of
historian Pan Ku {^ 0) of the Han Dynasty.

as laid

written by Ts'ao

the great

Then again what do

the Three 01)ediences

the Chinese feminine ideal

sacrifices or

self

woman
3C)

is

"live for's."

unmarried, she

when married, she

^)
(^ ^

ti

is

mean?

is to live for

is to live

and, as a widow, she

t3t

-?)

In

fact,

(H

t) in

They mean really three

That is to say, when a
her father (ft

for her

is to live

the chief end of a

not to live for herself, or for society

husband

^ t
({ij

for her children

woman

in China

not to be a reformer

76
or to be president of the
to live

end

woman's natural

even as a saint or to do good

of a

woman

in China

feel

world

to the

not

the chief

good daughter, a

to live as a

is

Society

good wife and a good mother.

foreign lady friend of

me whether

it

is

true that

mine once wrote and asked

we Chinese believe, like the

Mohamedans, that a woman has no soul. I wrote back

and told her that we Chinese do not hold that a woman has
no soul, but that we hold that a woman, a true Chinese
woman has no self. Now speaking of this "no self" in the
Chinese woman leads me to say a few words on a very
difficult subject,
a subject which is not only difficult, but,
I am afraid almost impossible for people with the modern
European education to understand, viz. concubinage in

This subject of concubinage,

China.
only a

difficult,

afraid, is not

But, as the English poet says,

public.

Thus

fools rush in

I will try

Cliina

am

but also a dangerous subject to discuss in

is

my

where angels

fear to tread.

why concubinage

best here to explain

not such an immoral custom as people genomll

imagine.

The

first

concubinage

is

thing

that

it

want
is

to

woman which makes concubinage

possible, but also not
let

me

tell

on

say

immoral.

in

uives.

of

the Chinese

China

not

only

But, l)efore I go furtlior,

you here, that concubinage

mean having many

subject

this

the seJJIessness in

By Law

allowed to have only one wife, but he

in

China does not

man is
as many

in China, a

may have

77
handmaids or concubines as he

maid or concubine
an eya rack;

when you

or eyes on

China, I said,
life

is

in caressing

ideal

for

is,

husband.

hand rack or me-kaki

to rest your hands

called te-kaki. a

is

where

to say, a rack

i.e

In Japanese a hand-

like.

Now

are tired.

man

not an ideal for a

to

live absolutely,

to

spend his whole

The Chinese feminine

and worshipping.

a wife

the feminine ideal in

selflessly

when a husband who

Therefore

invalided

from over work with

requires a

handmaid, a hand rack or eye rack

him

to get well

and

to

fit

him

his

brain

for her

or

sick

is

and

mind,

to enable

for his life work, the wife in

China with her selflessness, gives it to him just as a good

wife in Europe and America gives an arm chair or goat's
milk to

hfir

husband when he

is

sick or requires

fact it is the selflessness of the wife in

duty, the duty of self sacrifice

to

In

it.

China, her sense of

which allow a

man

in

China

have handmaids or concubines.

"why ask selflessness and

sacrifice only from the woman? What about the man?" To
this,
I answer, does not the man,
the husband, who toils
But

{leople will say to

me,

and moils
gentleman

to support his family,

who has

and

especially if

do his duty not only

to

he

is

to his family,

but to his King and country, and, in doing that has, some
time even to give his

life

The Emperor Kanghsi

issued

does he not also

make

sacrifice?

which he

on his death bed, said that "he did not know until

then what a
is."

in a valedictory decree

And

life

of sacrifice the life of

yet, let

me

an Emperor

in

China

say here by the way, Messrs. J. B.

Bland and Backhouse in their

latest

book have described

78
Emperor Kanghsi as a huge, helpless, horrid Brigham
Young, who was dragged into this grave by the multitude
But, of course, for modern men
of his wives and children.
like Messrs. J. P. Bland and Backhouse, concubinags is

this

inconceivable except as something horrid, vile and nasty,

men can

because the diseased imagination of such

conceive

and horrid things. But that

Now what I want to say hei-e is
is neither here nor there.
from the Emperor down to
that the life of every true man
the ricksha coolie and every ii-ue woman, is a life of
sacrifice.
The sacrifice of a woman in China is to live
solflessly for the man whom she calls husband, and the
sacrifice of the man in China is to provide for, to protect at
of nothing except nasty, vile

all costs

woman

the

or

women whom he has taken into his

may bear him. Indeed to

house and also the children they

people
I

who

talk of the immorality of concubinage in China,

would say that

concubines
in his

is less

motor

car,

me

to

the Chinese mandarin

selfish,

who

picks

who

kee

immoral than the Europea

less

up a

helpless

woman from

public street and, after amusing himself with her for one
night,

throws her away again on the pavement of the

public street the next morning

his concubines

may

be

selfish,

The Chinese mandarin with

but he at least provides a

house for his concubines and holds himself for

ble for the
if

the mandarin,

motor

cjir is

is selfish, I

not only

"The honour
Blay,

life

maintenance of the women he keeps.

selfish,

responsi-

In

fact,

say that the European in his

but a coward.

Ruskin

says,

of a true soldier is verily not to be able to

but to be willing and ready at

all

times to be slain."

79
In the same way

woman

in China,

husband, but

is

woman. a true
and be true to her

the honour of a

I say,

not only to love

him.

to live absolutely, selflessly for

In

the

especially,

Religion
explain,

China.

is

gentlewoman or

which

Loyalty

of

the religion

the

of

lady

man,

China,

in

have

the

as

elsewhere

tried

the

fact,

woman,

this Religion of Selflessness is the religion of the

to

gentleman in

Until foreigners come to understand these two

the "Religion of Loyalty"

religions,

and "the Religion

of

Selflessness" of the Chinese people, they can never under-

stand the real Chinaman, or the real Chinese

But people
Can a man who
other
yes,

women

Why

will

^ain

For the

down

whether a

and

man

tries in

To

real test that

to

truly loves his wife

is

have

this I answer,

a husband really

he should spend his whole

and caressing

at her feet

about love?

have the heart

besides her in his house?"

loves his wife is not that

lying

"What

say to me,

really loves his wife

not?

woman.

The

her.

whether he

life

in

real test

is

anxious

every thing reasonable, not only to protect her,

but also not to hurt her, not to hurt her feelings.

bring a strange

woman

hurt her feelings.

into the house

But

here, I say,

Now

must hurt the

it is

what

to

wife,

have called

the Religion of selflessness which protects the wife from

being hurt:

it is

this absolute selflessness in the

China which makes

when
house.

it

possible

she sees her husband bring another

In other words,

it is

woman

for her not to feel

woman

in

hurt

into the

the selflessness in the wife in

China which enables, permits the husband

cubine without hurting the wife.

to take a con-

For here,

let

me

point

80
out, a gentleman,

real

gentleman in China, never takes

a concubine without the consent of his wife and a

gentlewoman or lady in China whenever there

reason that her husband should

is

real

a proper

take a concubine,

will

many

cases

never refuse to give her consent.

know

where having no children the husband

of

middle age

after

wanted take a concubine, but because the wife refused to

I know even of a case where

give her consent, desisted.

mark

the husband, because he did not want to exact this

selflessness

refused,

from his wife who was sick and in bad health,

when urged by

the wife,

of

the wife, to take a concubine, but

il

without his knowledge and consent, not only

bought a concubine, but actually forced him

concubine into the house.

In

fact,

to take the

the protection for the

wife against the abuse of concubinage in China

of her husband for her.

is

the love

Instead, therefore of saying that

husbands in China cannot truly love their wives because

they take concubines, one should rather say
the

husband

the privilege

in

and

China

it

is

so truly loves his wife that

liberty of taking concubines

because

he has

whthout fear

and lil)erty. This liberty,

sometimes and even when the sense of

of his abusing that provilege

this privilege is

honour in the men in the nation

anarchic (Jhiim, often abused.
for the wife in

a concubine,

is

But

is

low as now in this

still

I say the protection

China where the husband

the love of her

her husband, and,

good

taste in the real

nmn

in a thousand

husband

must add here, his

Chinese gentleman.

among

is

allowed to take

for her, the love of

tact.

the

wonder

perfect
if

the ordinary Euroj)eans

on

and

Bl

who can keep more

Americans,

woman

one

tlian

same house without turning the house into a

In short,

pit or hell.

in the real Chinese

and

keei)S a

this tact,

the perfect good

gentleman which makes

China not

the wife in

it is

to feel hurt,

in tho

figliting cock-

when

the

it

taste

possible for

husband takes

handmaid, a hand rack, an eye rack in the

samo house with

her.

But

to

sum

up,

it is

the Religion

the woman,

of selflessness, the absolute selflessness of

the

gentlwoman or lady and tho love of the husband for his

the perfect good tasto of a real Chinese
wife and his tact,

gentleman, which, as

I said,

makes concubinage

not only possible, but also not immoral.

"The Ijaw

of the

Gentleman lakes

its riso

in China,

Confucius said,

from the relation

between the husband and the wife."

Now

in order to convince those

husWnds

who might

still Ije

seeiv

China truly love, can deeply love

their wives, I could produce abundant proofs from Chinese
history and literature.
For this purpose 1 should particularly like to quote and translate here an elegy written on the
death of his wife by Yuan Chen {% i^) poet of the T'ang
tical

that

in

dynasty.

But unfortunately the

piece

is

tion here in this already too long article,

ed with Chinese, however,

affection,

who wish

affection, true love

to

too long for quota-

Those acquaint-

know how deep

the

and not sexual passion which

modern times is often mistaken for love, how deep the

love of a husband in China for his wife is, should read this
elegy which can be found in any ordinary collection of the
T'ang poets. The title of the elegy is,(iE
^) "Lines
to case the aching heart."
use
this elegy
But as I cannot
in

82
for

my

poem of
modern poet who was once a secretViceroy Chang Chih-tung. The poet went

purpose, I will, instead, give here a short

four lines written by a

ary of the late

together with his wife in the suite of the Viceroy to

chang and

after staying there

Immediately after he too had

the

poem on

leaving

many

Wu-

years, his wife, died.

Wuchang. He wrote
The words in Chinese are.

to leave

Wuchang.

m A A ^
^ m ^ n
m ^ ^ XL yK
M m ^ m m

]:

-is

The meaning
This grief

is

in English

is

something

common to everyone.
years how many can

One hundred
But

'tis

heart breaking,

Together we came,

The

like this:

attain?

ye waters of the Yangtze,

but together we return not.

feeling here is as deep,

if

words are fewer, and the language

not deeper; but the

is

simpler, even than

Tennyson's
Break, break, break

On

thy cold grey stones,

*

But

And

sea

for the touch of a vanished

the sound of a voice that

hand.

is still

But now what about the love of a wife in China for

her husband?
I do not think any evidence is needed to
prove this.
It is true that in China the bride and bride-

groom

as a rule never see each other until the marraige day,

83
and

and bridefrom the

yet that there is love between even britle

groom, can be seen in these four Hues of

T'ang dynasty:

ix)etry

m m ^ ^ ^ ^1 m
f# H^ ^ m n M
U: f& i& m f^ ^ m
m m m m A m M
iii

The meaning

in English of the above is something like

this.

In the bridal chaml)er

'Waiting

for the

last

morning

night stood red candles;

to salute the father

and mother

in the hall,

Toilet

finished,

in

a low voice she asks her sweetheart

huslmnd,

"Are the shades

in

my

But here in order

painted eyebrows quite

to

understand the above,

you something about marriage in China.

ever}' legal

^)
^)
(Mi
(^ M)
iWi

assking for the name,

is

i.e.,

i.e.,

fixing the day of marriage; fourth

i.e.,

must

tell

H)

first,

formal proposal; second

receiving the silk presents,

(H

mode?"

la

There are in

marriage in China six ceremonies (;^

the bride; fifth

goose,

il

betrothal:

(^

331)

third

fetching

f^) pouring libation before the wild

plighting troth, socalled because the wild goose

supposed to be most faithful in connubial love; sixth

{M M) temple

presentation.

Of these

six

ceremonies,

the last two are the most important, I shall therefore here
describe

The
day,

is,

them more

in detail.

fourth ceremony, fetching the bride at the present

except in

my

province Fukien where we keep up

84
the old customs,

much

trouble

generally dispensed with, as

and

exf)ense to the bride's family.

now, instead of being fetched,

When

house.

it

the

bride

receives her at the gate

entails too

The

bride

sent to the bride-grooms'

is

arrives

there,

bridegroom

the

and himself o^^ns the door

of the

and leads her to the hall of the house. There

the bride and bride-groom worship Heaven and Earth (^^
bridal chair

M),

thoy

to say,

i-e.

fall

on their kness wtih their

faces

turned to the door of the hall with a table carrying two red

burning candles

lieforo the

open sky and then the husband

pours libations on the ground,

wild geese

(if

in presence

of the pair of

wild goose cannot be had, an ordinary goose)

which the bride has brought with

her.

This

the

is

cortnnony called Tien yen pouring libation before the wild

goose;

plighting of troth between

vowing

to bo true to hor,

faithful

From

as the pair of

and

man and woman

she, to be true to

ho

him, just as

wild goose they see before them.

moment, they become, so to speak, natural

sivcctJteart husband and siveelheart wife, lx)und only by the
moral law, the Law of the Gentleman, the word of honour
which thoy have given to each other, but not yet by the
Civic Law.
This ceremony therefore may bo called the
this

moral or ruligious marriage.

After

this

comes the ceremony called

the

(^

mutual salutation between bride and bride-groom.

bride standing on the right side of the hall

hor knees before the bride-groom,

to her at the

bride-groom

same time.

now

he

first

f^)

The

goes on

going on his knees

Then they change

places.

T\\v

standing wlxere the bride stood, goes on

85
his knees to her,

Now

this

sho

ceremony

to point out here,

returning the salute just as he did.

proves l)eyond

between

this is perfect equality

husband and

As
1)6

mutual

of c///ao 7>i

all

siilutation,

wish

doubt that in China

man and woman,

between

wife.

said before, the

ceremony of plighting troth may

called the moral or religious marriage as distinguished

may

from what

three days after.

which comes

called the civic marriage,

In

the moral or religious marriage, the

man and woman becomes husband and

moral Law before God. The contract
between the man and woman. Tne State

wife
so

the

all

the

solely

is

or, as, in

the Family takes the place of the State in

civic life

Ijefore

far

China,

social

State acting only as Court of appeal,

and

the

Family takes no cognisance of the marriage or contract

man and woman

between the
called the

here in this, what I have

In fact on this

moral or religious marriage.

day and until the

civic

day of the marriage, the bride

is

not only not introduced,

but also not allowed to see or be seen by the

i

first

marriage takes place on the third

members

of the

ride-groom's family.

Thus

for

two days and two nights the bride-groom and

the bride in China live, so to speak not as legal, but, as

sweetheart

husband and

then comes the

last

siveet-hcart wife.

On

the third day,

ceremony in the Chinese marriage

the Miao-chien, the temple presentation or civic marriage.

I say,
laid

on the third day because that

down

in the

save trouble

Book

of Rites

and expense,

it

is

is

(H H

the rule de rigucur as

^ M)

But now

to

generally perfonned on the

86
day
by,

This ceremony

after.

when

place,

of

living

the

temple presentation, takes

the ancestral temple of the family clan

But

course in the ancestral temple.

towns and

in

where there

cities

is

near

for people

no ancestral

is

temple of the family clan near by, the ceremony

is

per-

formed before the minature ancestral chapel or shrine

which

is

in the house of every respectable family, even the

This ancestral temple, chapel or shrine

poorest in China.

with a tablet or red piece of paper on the wall, as

said

elsewhere,

the church

is

have

Religion

the State

of

of

Confucius in China corresponding to the church of the

Church Religion in Christian

This ceremony
father of the bride

member

of the

ancestral tablet

countries.

the temple presentation

groom or

family,

failing

going on his knees before tho

thus announcing

ancestors that a young

member

to the spirits of the

dead

family has

now

the

of

Then

brought a wife home into the family.

groom and bride one

begins by the

him, the nearest senior

after the other,

From

her knees before the same ancestral tablet.

moment

tho

the

bride

each goes on his anc

this

man and woman becomes husband and wife,Law or God, but l)efore the

not only before the moral

Family, before the State, before Civic Law.

have there-

there called this ceremony of

miao

chicn, temple presenta-

tion in the Chinese marriage,

the

civic or civil marriage.

Before this civic or

civil

according

Book

(^ in
this

to

the

M ^ J^ M)

marriage, the
of

When

Rites,

woman,

is

not a

the bride happens

ceremony of temple presentation, she

is

the bride,legal

wife

to die befoi

not allowed

87
according to the

Book

of Rites

to be buried

in the family

burying ground of her husband and her memorial tablet

is

not put up in the ancestral temple of his family clan.

Thus we
China

a legal civic marriage in

woman and the man. The

woman and the family of her

not between the

is

contract

see the contract in

between the

is

She

husband.

is

not married to him, but hito his family.

In the visiting card of a Chinese lady in China, she does

Ku

not write, for instance, Mrs.

"Miss Feng, gone

from) Tsin

The

An

to the

home

Hung-miug, but
of the family

adjusts her dress,"

literally

(originally

^ ^ JH R ^ tt)

(li

China being between the

woman and the family of her hiuiband, the husband and
wife can neither of them repudiate the contract without the
contract of marriage in

consent of the husband's family.

here, is the

This

Europe and

marriage in Europe and America,

call

The

America.

what we Chinese

is

man and

But in China the marriage

civic marriage, a contract

man,

to point out

a sweet-heart marriage, a marriage, bound solely

by love between the individual

woman.

want

fundamental differeuce between a marrit^e in

China and a marriage in

would

is,

not between the

but betiveen the ivovian

and

the

the individual

as I have said, a

woman and

the

family of her husband,

in which she has obligations not only to him, but also to

his family,

and through the

family,

to

social or civic order; in fact, to the State.

point out here that

which gives

it

solidarity

social or civic order,

is

society,

Finally

to

the

let

me

this civic conception of marriage

and

stability to the family, to the

to the State in

China.

Until there-

88
fore, lot

me

l>e

porinittod to saj' horo,

the

iXK)ple in

Europe

and America understand what true civic life moans, understand and have a true conce[)tion of what it is really to \)e a
citizen,

a citizen not each one living for himself, but

one living

first

for his family,

civic order or State,

and through that

each

for the

there can thon bo no such thing

as a

stable society, civic order or State in the true sense of the

word.

State such as

we

modern Europe and

see it in

America to-day, where the men and women have not a

true conception

of civic

life,

such

a State with

parliament and machinery of government,

you

like,

may

big Commercial Concern, or as

it

times of war, a gang of brigands and pirates,

In

State.

fact, I

may

all

its

be called,
really

but

is,

if

in

not a

permitted further to say here,

it

is

the false conception of a State as a big commercial concern

having only the

selfish material interests of those

who have

the biggest shares in the concern to bo considered,

false

this

conception of a Stato with the esprit de corps o^

brigands, wkich

now going on
tion of civic

is,

at bottom, the cause of the terrible wi

In short, without a true concej

in Europe.
life

there can be

true State,

how can

man who

does not marry,

which ho has

to defend,

himself a patriot,

no true State and without

there be civilisation.

we

who has no

cannot bo a

Chinese

Ciill

To

us Chinese,

no hoi
and if calls

family,

patriot,

him a brigand

imlriot.

In fact in order to have a true conception of a Stato or

one must

civic order,

family,

family

and
life,

to

first

have a true conception of a

have a true conception of a family,

one must

first

of all

have a true conception

of

of

89
marriage,

marriage not as a sweetheart

marriage, but as a

civic marriage which I have in the above tried to describe.

But

to

morning

how

you can

the sweet-heart wife waiting for the

to salute the father

toilet finished, in

Now

from the digression.

return

picture to yourself

and mother

of her husband,

a low voice, whispers to her sweet-heart

husband and asks if her eyebrows are painted quite & la

mode Here you see, I say, there is love between hiLslwnd
and wife in China, although thej' have not seen each other
before the marriage
even on the third day of the marriage.
But if you think the love in the above is not deep enough,

then take just these two lines of poetr}' from a wife to her
absent husband.

1^

m ^ ^

M:

^ m m

B$

The day when you think of coming homo.

Ah! then my heart will already be broken.
Rosalind in Shakesp^mre's

"O

her cousin Celia:

thou knowest
cannot

l3e

man
i

sounded

my

affection

Portugal."

for her husliand in

pretty
I

am

it

little coz,

in love

that

But

the love of a woraau,

China and

of the husl)and for his wife in

be sounded;

says to

it"

hath an unknown bottom,

Now

of

also the love of the

China, one can truly

many fathom
has an unknown bottom

say, is like Rosalind's love,

deep and cannot

like the

bay of

which,

I said,

Portugal.

But, I will
j

my

coz, coz,

how many fathom deep

like the Ixiy of

a wife

"As you Like

there

is

now

sjieak of the difference

between the Chinese

feminine

ideal

and the

90
feminine ideal of the old Hebrew people.
lover in the

The Hebrew

Songs of Solomon, thu addresses his lady love

O my

**Thou art beautiful,

comely as

as Tirzah,

love,

baniiersl"

People

who

have seen beautiful dark-eyed Jewesses even

to day,

will

army with

Jerusalem, terrible as an

acknowledge the truth and graphicness of the picture which

the old
race.

Hebrew lover here gives of the feminine ideal of his

But in and about the Chinese feminine ideal, I want

to say here, there is

nothing

terrible either in

a physical or

Even the Helen of Chinese history, the

who with one glance brings down a city and with

in a moral sense.
beauty,

another glance destroys a kingdom

MA

19) she

is terrible

will

sum up

the total

I said that

the one

impression which the

Chinese type of humanity makes upon you

word, "gentle."

In an essay

only mataphorically.

on "the Spirit of the Chinese people,"

word which

^j^AM^^

If this is true of the real

is

the English

Chinaman,

it is

woman. In fact this "gentleness'^

Chinaman, in the Chinese woman, becorai

truer of the real Chinese

of the real

The meekness,

divine meekness.

woman

in

China

"Paradise Lost,"

God
la

is

like

is

who

that

the submissiveness of
of

Milton's Eve in

tl
tl

says to her husband.

thy law, thou, mine; to

know no more

woman's happiest knowledge and her

praise.

Indeed this quality of perfect meekness in the Chinese

feminine ideal you will find in the feminine ideal of no
other people,

Roman.

of

This

no other

perfect,

civilization,

divine

Hebrew, Greek or

meekness in the Chines(

feminine ideal you will find only in one civilization,

tlie

91
Christian

reached
If

you

when

civilization,

that civilization

Europe

in

perfection, during the period of the Renaissance,

its

will read the beautiful story of Griselda in Boccacio's

Decameron and

shown

see

you

there,

the

will

feminine

Christian

true

ideal

then understand what this perfect

submissiveness, this divine meekness, meekness to the point

of

absolute

means.

In

selflessness.
short,,

(rue Christian

in

the Chinese

feminine ideal

in this quality of divine meekness, the

feminine ideal

is

the Chinese feminine ideal,

with just a shade of difference.

If

you

will

carefully

compare the picture of the Christian Madonna with,

the Budhist
fairies

and

Kuan

Yin,

but

with the pictures of

genii painted by famous Chinese artists,

will be able to see this difference,

the

not

women

Christian

the

you

difference between

feminine ideal, and the Chinese feminine

Madonna
The
Chinese feminine ideal.

meek and so is the

Christian Madonna is
But the
etherial and so is the Chinese feminine ideal.
Chinese feminine ideal is more than all that; the Chinese
feminine ideal is debonair. To have a conception of what
this charm and grace expressed by the word debonair mean,
ideal.

you

The

will

Christian

have

to

is

go to ancient Greece,
o uoi canipi

Sperchesoque et virginibus bacchata Lacaenis

Taygeta

In

you

have

go to the

fields of

Thessaly

and the streams of Spercheios,

to the hills alive

with the

dances of the Laconian maidens,

the

fact

will

to

hills of Taygetus.

92
Indeed

want

even

to say here that

now

China

in

Sung Dynasty (A.D. 960), when

Sung
narrowed, petrified, and in a way,

since the period of the

what may be

has

philosphers
vulgarised

called the Confucian Puritanism of the

the

has

lost

much

debonair.

since then, the

of the grace

Therefore

charm expressed by
fominine

women

Confucianism, the spirit of the

spirit of

Chinese civilization

tlie

you

ideal,

and chaim,

you want

if

word

will

womanhood

expressed

to

China

by word

see the grace

and

debonair in the true Chinese

have

to

go to Japan where the

there at least, even to this day, have preserved the

pure Chinese civilization of the T'ang Dynasty.

grace

in

It is this

and charm expressed by the word debonair combined

with the divine meekness of the Chinese

which gives the

woman,

even

ais of distinction

to the poorest

In connection

feminine

ideal,

(^ -^) to the Jaiyancsc

woman to-day.

Japanese

with this quality of charm and grac

expressed by the word debonair, allow

me

to quote to yoi

here a few words from Matthew Arnhold with which h

contrasts the brick-and-mortar Protestant English feminim
ideal with the delicate Catholic French feminine ideal.l
Comparing Eugenie de Guerin, the beloved sister of the
French poet Maurice de Guerin, with an English vvomar
who wrote jx)etry Miss Emma Tatham, Matthew Arnok
says:
"The French woman is a Catholic in Ijangued(X',

the English
the

brick

representing
let

me

woman

is

a Protestant at Margate, Margate

and mortar image

add,

it

of

English

in all its prose, all its

all its salubrity.

Protestantism,

uncomeliness,

and

Between the external form

"

93
and fashion

of these

two

between the Catholic Madlle

lives,

de Guerin's nadalet at the Languedoc Christmas, her chapel

of

moss

saint,

at Easter time, her daily reading of the life of

between

English
*

'union

of

setting

Church fellowship

in

with

worshippers at

the

Hawley Square, Margate," her singing with the

voice, the

animating

My
'

Jesus to

Tia

life

and the bare, blank, narrowly

Miss Tatham's Protestantism, her

this

all

sweet

soft,

lines.

know, and

everlasting,

feel His Blood flow

heaven below
!

'

tis

young female teachers beloning to the Sunday

Thomas Rowe, a venerable
and her "Mr.
school
what a dissimilarity. In the ground of the
class-leader"
two lives, a likeness; in all their circumstances, what
An unlikeness, it will be said, in that which
unlikeness!
her

is

non-essential

and

no.

The

indifferent,

Non-essential,

indifferent.

signal

the English Protestantism's setting of

not an

matter;

indifferent

cvght ye

to

all

to

its

have

left

modern.

common

Thi

the other undone.'^

all,

in the Chinese feminine ideal, the

which preminently distinguishes

feminine ideal of

religions life is

weakness.

a real

in

wish to point out to you here the most

important quality of
quality

is

it

have done, and not

Last of

yes;

want of grace and charm

all

other people

This quality in the

women

from

her

the

or nations ancient or
in China,

it

is ture, is

to the feminine ideal of every people or nation

with any pretension to civilization, but this quality,

want

to say here, developed in the Chinese feminine ideal to such

a degree

of perfection as

you

will find it

nowhere

else in

94
the world.
the

This quality of which

I speak,

two Chinese words yu hsien

is

(^ ^)

described by

which, in the

Women," by
Lady T'sao, I translated as modesty and cheerfulness.
The Chinese word yu (0) litei-ally means retired, secluded^
occult and the word hsien (^) literally means "at ease or
quotation I gave above from the "Lessons for

||

leisure."

For

word

Chinese

the

yu,

the

English

only gives you an idea of

"modesty,

bashfulness"

meaning.

The German word

But perhaps the French pudeur comes nearest

it.

all.

This pudeur,

may

its

Sittsamkeii comes nearer to

say here,

to

it

of

this bashfulness, the^

word yu (^) is the

The
more a woman has
all
womanly
qualities.
essence of
this quality of pudeur developed in her, the more she has
in fact, the
" more~ "she is
of womanliness,
of femininity,
-" a
^-j

When on the contrary a woman

perfect or ideal woman,
loses this quality expressed by the Chinese word yu (^),

quality expressed by the

Chinese

>

loses this bashfulness, this

her womanliness,

her

pudeur, she then loses altogether

femininity,

and

with that,

meat

or

Thus,

flesh.

it

this pudeur,

is

expressed by the Chinese word yu

(^)

in

quality

this

the

her

human

perfume, her fragrance and becomes a mere piece of

Chinese

feminine ideal which makes or ought to make everey true

Chinese
to

show

woman

instinctively feel

herself in public; that

the Chinese idea,

crowd

in

the

to

hall

and know that

it

is

it is

wrong

indecent, according to

go on a platform and sing before a

even

of

(^

\^)

fine, it is this yu, lisien

the
,

Y.

M.

C.

A.

In

this love of seclusion, this

sensitiveness against the "garish eye of

day;"

thin

pudeur

95
which gives to the true
no other woman in the
Chinese woman in China as
world,
a perfume, a perfume sweeter than the perfume of
ill

the Chinese feminine

ideal,

to

violets, the ineffable

fragrance of orchids.

In the oldest Love song,

I believe, of the world,

which

News two years ago the

Book of Poetry^, the Chinese

I translated for the Peking Daily

first

piece in the Shih CJiing or

feminine ideal
The

An

is

thus described,

birds are calling in the air,

ielet

by the

The maid

Oh

is

river-side;

meek and

debonair,

Fit to be our Prince's bride.

The words yao Viao (^lE) have the same signification

- the words yu hsien
(^ [Hj) meaning literally yao (^)
secluded, meek, shy, and t^ao (|fg) attractive, debonair,
and the words shu nu (j|j ^) mean a pure, chaste girl or
weman. Thus here in the oldest love song in China, you
have the three essential qualities in the Chinese feminine
ideal, viz. love of seclusion,

grace
of

all,

Chinese
she

bashfulness or pudeur, ineffable

and charm expressed by the word debonair and

purity

or chastity.

woman

is

is attractive

feminine ideal,

chaste

In short, the

she

is

and debonair.

the

real

containing the

pactical

conduct of

Home

thus

life

and

the Chinese

Woman."

^;

which

have

Life, the first part of the

book

In the Confucian Catechism

Conduct of

is

last

or true

bashful, has pudeur;

This then

"Chinese

translated as the

real

teaching

(ff

of

Confucius

concludes with the description of a

on the

Happy

96
"When

wife

and children dwell

in unison,

harp and

lute well-played in tune,

Wlien brothers live in concord and in peace,
The strain of harmony shall never cease.
Make then your
thus always gay and bright.
You wife and dear ones shall be your delight."
'Tis like to

Home

This

Home

State with

in

its civic

China

is

the minature Heaven,

order, the Chinese Empire,

as

is

the real

Heaven, the Kingdom of God come upon this earth,

Chinese people.

the

to the

Thus, as the gentleman in China with his

honour, his Religion of Lo3'alty

State, the Civic Order,

is

the guardian of the

woman,
lady, with her debonair charm
her pudeur, and above all, her

in China, so the Chinese

the Chinese gentlewoman or

and

grace, her

purity,

Religion of Selflessness,

minature Heaven, the

is

Home

the the Guardian Angel of the

in China.

97

THE CHINESE LANGUAGE,

All foreigners

who have

tried to learn

Chinese say that

But is Chinese a
'lifficult language? Before, however, we answer this question, let us understand what we mean by the Chinese
language. There are, as everybody knows, two languagesI do not mean dialects,
in China, the spoken and the
written language.
Now, by the way, does anybody know
the reason why the Chinese insist upon having these two
distinct, spoken and written languages?
I will here give
you the reason. In China, as it was at one time in Europe
when Latin was the learned or written language, the peorliinese

is

a verj' difficult language.

ple are properly divided into

ted
is

two distinct

and the uneducated. The

classes, the educa-

colloquial or spoken language

the language for the use of the uneducated,

language
In this
try.

is

way

That

and the written

the language for the use of the really educated.

half educated people do not exist in this counis

the reason,

I say,

upon having two languages.

why

Now

the Chinese insist

think of the conseq-

uences of having half educated people in a country.

at

Europe and America to-day.

Look

In Europe and America

from the disuse of Latin, the sharp distinction

between the spoken and the written language has disappe-

since,

iued, there has arisen a class of half educated people

are allowed to use the

people,

who

same language as the

who

really educated

talk of civilisation, liberty, neutrality, milit-

arism and panslavinism without in the least understanding

98
what

mean.

these words really

Militarism

is

mob

the half educated man, the

the world to-day,
that

is

People say that Prussian-

language?

come

to

My

to the question

answer

is,

dozen languages that

world except,

Chinese a

yes and no.

Let us

in

But-

grammar,

or

difficult
first

tak&

know,

Malay,

the

language in

easiest

Spoken Chinese

is difficult

even because

has no

it

without

fact

even because of

Malay

however, cannot be true.

without

case,

But people have

rule

or

the-

easy because

is

and irregular verbs; in

any rule whatever.

that Chinese

compared with the half

an extremely simple language without

me

seems^

men

The Chinese spoken language,

tense, without regular

city;

is

say, is not only not difficult, but as

to

it

the real danger to civilisation.

is

the spoken language.

is

me

to

of half educated

neither here nor there.

Now

it

But

a danger to civilisation.

said

its

simpli-

grammar.

That,

like Chinese,

is

also a

simple language without grammar or rules, and yet Eur-

opeans who learn

and

it,

do not find

in itself

for the Chinese people colloquial or spoken Chinese at

least is not a difficult language.

and

Thus

it difficult.

But

for educated

expecially for half educated Europeans

China, even colloquial or spoken Chinese

is

Europeans

who come

a very

to

difficult

language; and why? Because spoken or colloquial Chinsei

is,

as I said, the language of uneducated

oughly uneducated men

Now

as a proof of this,

men,

of thor-

in fact the language of a child

we

all

know how

easily

European

children learn colloquial or spoken Chinese, while learned

99
philologues and sinologues insist in saying that Chinese
so difficult.

Chinese, colloguial Chinese, I say again,

My

the language of a child.

who want

foreign freiends
little

first

to learn

advice therefore to

Chinese

is

"Be

is
is

my

ye like

you will then not only enter into the

Heaven, but you will also be able to learn

children,

Kingdom

of

Chinese."

We now come to

the written or book language, written

But here before

Chinese.

go further,

let

iven

li

and

under two categories and

difficult

wen

li.

But

think, should be,

use Latin, call

officinalis

minor

(common

my

that, in

opinion,

is

classification,

plain dress written Chinese; official

uniformed Chinese, and

like to

call

The proper

not a satisfactory classification.

say there

The Missionthem easy

are also different kinds of written Chinese.

aries class these

me

full court dress Chinese.

them:

litera

communis

or business Chinese)

(lesser classical Chinese)

and

If

you

or litera

litera classica

litera classica

major

(higher classical Chinese.)

Now many
been called

foreigners have called themeselves or have

Chinese

"Wriling

scholars.

an

article

on

Chinese scholarship, some thirty years ago for the N. C.

Daily News I then said:

"Among Europeans

publication of a few dialogues in

in China, the

some provincial patois

or the collection of a hundred Chinese proverbs at once

entitles a

man

to call himself a

is," I said, "of coure

extraterritoriality

Chinese scholar." "There

no harm in a name, and with the

clause

in

the

treaty,

an Englishman

100
in

China may with impunity

so

it

pleases

this:

stored

up in that portion

have called the

court

who

foreigners

want

call

which

of Chinese literature

an

say

is

civilisation

majora, the literature in

Clas^sica

Chinese?

dress

here

say

to

if

themselves Chinese

have any idea of what an asset of

scholars,
is

Now what

him."

how many

himself Confucius,

call

of

asset

full

civilisation,

because I believe that this Classica majora in Chinese

raw natural
patriots,

be

will

literature

able

men who

transform one day even the

to

now

are

fighting

civil

the object of civilisation, as Ruskin says,

mankind

into civil persons

seness, violence, brutality

But revenons
a

Europe as

but with the fighting instincts of wild animals;

transform them into peaceful, gentle and

Now

in

difficult

ct

7ios

language?

will

do away with coar-

Is

then written Chinesei

answer again

even what

is,

yes and no.

have called the

court dress Chinese, the classica majora Chinese,

difficult,
it

is

because,

like

extremely simple.

make

fighting.

moutons.

My

I say, written Chinese,

who

and

persons.

is to

is

full]

not

the spoken or colloquial Chinese,]

Allow me

average specimen taken at random

show you by an

to

how extremely

simple,^

when dressed in full court

The specimen I take is a poem of four

written Chinese even

dresa

uniform,

lines

is.

from the poetry of the T'ang dynasty describing what|

sacifices the

Chinese people had

to

make

in order to protect]

their civilisation against the wild half civilized fierce

from the North.

The works

of the

poem

Huns

in Chinese are:

101

m m
^ ^
^ ^
^
^ m

n u ^ m M'
m n ^ m m
M ^
ji #
^ m ^ m A
^w
tsj

which translated into English word for word mean:

Swear sweep the Huns not care

self,

Five thousand sable embrodery perish desert dust;

Wuting

Alas!

They vowed

From

dream inside men

English version of the poem

free

this

riverside bones,

are Spring chambers

Still

something like

is

sweep the heathen hordes

to

off their

native soil or die:

Five thousand taselled knights, sable- clad.

All dead

now on

the desert

lie.

Alas! the white bones that bleach cold

Far
Still

off

along the "Wuting stream.

come and go

Home

as living

Now,

if

you

will

English version, you

how

men

somewhere in the loved one's dream.

compare

will see

how

it

with

my

in words, style

in thought,

how

In order

and

deep in feeling

and

style,

How

plain

plain in words

simple in ideas, the original Chinese

and simple

poor clumsy

ideas:

is.

and yet how deep

it is.

to

have an idea of this kind of Chinese

deep

thought and deep feeling in extremely

simple language,

you will have to read the Hebrew Bidle.

literature,

The Hebrew

Bible

is

one the deepest books in

all

the

102
literature of the world

language.

Take

and yet how plain and simple in

Thy men

become a harlot!

faithful city

**How

this passage for instance:

every one loveth

and foUoweth

gifts

this

in the highest

and companions

places are disloyal traitors

is

of thieves;

rewards; they

after

judge not the fatherless neither doth the cause of the

widow come before them." (Is.

passage from the same prophet:

21-23), or this other

"I

to be their high officials

And

and babes

the people shall be oppressed.

himself proudly against the old

What

the honourable!"

awful
today.

state of

In

fact, if

go

civilise

to the literature of the

Gkeeks or
are

to

living language
still

them.

the base against

The picture of the

we see it in China

have literature which can

mankind, you

have to

will

HebreAv people or of the ancient

Chinese literature.

now become dead

people

to

children

child shall behave

man and

a picture!

you want

make

shall rule over

The

a nation or people as

transmute men, can

will

But Hebrew and Greek

languages, whereas Chinese

is

the language of four hundred million

living to-day.

But now to sum up what I want to say on the Chinese

Spoken as well written Chinese is, in one

language.

sense, a very difficult language.

it is

and French are

many
but

rules.

because

It is difficult,

Many European

complex.

difficult

Chinese
it

is

not because

languages such as Latin

because they are complex and have

is difficult

deej).

It

is

not because
difficult

it is

complex,,

because

it

is

language, for expressing deep feeling in simple language.

103
That is the
In fact, as

secret of the diflficulty of the

I

have said

else

where, Chinese

of the heart: a poetical language That

even a simple

what

have your

and the

is

is

a language

the reason

letter in prose written in classical

why

Chinese

In order to understand written Chinese,

reads like poetry.

especially

Chinese language

I call full court dress

full nature,

the

Chinese, you must

and the head, the

heart

soul

intellect equally developed.

It

is

reason that for people with

for this

modern

European education, Chinese is especially difficult, because

European education developes principally only one
part of a man's nature his intellect. In other words,

modem

Chinese

is

difficult

to

man

education, because Chinese

is

with

modem European
and modem

a deep language

European education, which aims more at quantity than

quality of- knowledge is apt to make a man shallow.
Finally for half educated people, even the spoken language, as I have said,
it

may

is difficult.

For half educated people

be said of them as was once said of rich men,

is easier for

it

a camel to go through the eye of a needle,

than for them

for this reason

to
:

understand high

became

w-ritten

classical

Chinese

Chinese and

is

a language

only for the use of really educated people.

written Chinese, classical Chinese

is difficult

In

short,

because

it is

the language of really educated people and real education

is

a difficult thing but as the Greek proverb says, "all

beautiful things are difficult."

But before

men

of

written

conclude,

Chinese

let

to

me

here give another speci-

illustrate

what

mean by

104
simplicity

and depth

of feeling

which

is

to be

found even

in the Classica Minora, literature written in official uni-

formed Chinese.
poet written on
are

It is

New

M m

poem

by a modern
The words in Chinese

of four lines

year's eve.

m ^ m
^ m ^ m
m ^ m m ^ -m
M ^ m m
m

m
m
m
m
which, translated word for word, mean:
At

-^

fM,

'if^

Don't say home poor nass year hard.

North wind has blown many times

Next year peach willow

hall front trees

Pay-back you spring light

free translation

full eyes see.

would be something

TO

MY

Fret not,-^though poor

cold.

like this:

WIFE.

we

yet can pass the year

Let the north wild blow ne'er so chill and drear,

Next year when peach and willow are

in bloom,

You'll yet see Spring and sunlight in our home.

Here

is

another specimen longer and more sustained.

It is a poem by Tu Fu, the Wordsworth of China, of the

T'ang Dynasty. I will here first give my English transla-

The

tion.

subject

is

MEETING WITH AN OLD FRIEND.

In

life,

Like

friends seldom are brought near;

stars,

each one shines in

its

sphere.

105

oh!

what a happy night!

We sit beneath the same lamplight.
Our youth and strength last but a day.
You and I ah our hairs are grey.
Friends!
Half are in a better land,

To-uight,

With tears we grasp each other's hand.

Twenty more years, short, after all,

I once

again ascend your hall.

"When we met, you had not a wife;

Now you have children, such is life!
Beaming, they greet their father's chum;

They ask

rae

The

is

from where I have come.

Before our say, we each have said,
table

already laid.

Fresh salads from the garden near,

Rice mixed with millet, frugal cheer.

When
And

we meet?

shall

'tis

hard

to

know.

wine freely flow.

know, will do no harm.
My old friend's welcome is so warm.
To-morrow I go, to be whirled
Again into the wide, wide world.
so let the

This wine,

The above, my version I admit, is almost doggerel,

is meant merely to give the meaning of the Chinses

which
text.

But here

but poetry

is

poetry

the Chinese text which

is

not doggerel,

simple to the verge of colloquialism,

yet with a grace, dignity pathos and nobleness which I

cannot reproduce and which perhaps it is impossible to

reproduce, in English in such simple language.

106

A ^. ^ 49 1.
^ ^ ^ H ^r
n -m m m
w m '^ 1^ ^
r. + m
m ^ m
'J?

ft

M ^ ^
# n

M M
m
^ ^ m m
m m ^ ^
m ^ m ^
Wi m ^
% ^ ^. ^
pg ^ ^ M
5a ^ m -M
itx\

fr

Rg

- ^ ^

^ ^

si5

ji

m-

111

!3^

1^

^
m
^
n
:tf

^t

^ ^

+^

^ m
^ M i^

;g
ie

107

JOHN SMITH IN CHINA.

"The
not his
fushion

Philistine not only ignores all conditions of life

which are

own but he also demands that the rest of mankind should

its mode of existence after big own. "...Gtoethe.

W.

Mr.

Stead once asked:

"What

is

the secret of

His answer was: "Like

iiuthor, like reader; because the John Smiths who read
her novels live in Marie Ck)relli's world and regard her as
the most authoritative exponent of the Universe in which
Marie Corelli's popularity?"

they

live,

move and have

Arthur Smith

Now
and the

is

the difference between the really educated person

half educated one

is

The

this.

person wants to read books which will

truth about a

which

be.

John Smith

in

to be a superior person to the

Rev.

Arthur Smith writes a book

that he, John Smith,

person

very

*
ist,

"Der

er will

-ollen,"

is

a very

China wants very

Chinaman and the

to prove conclusively

much

Therefore, the Rev.

superior person to

Arthur Smith

John Smith, and the

become a Bible to John Smith.

dear to

Characteristics"

Philister negiert nicht

auch d;iss
Goethe.

alle

the real

him what he wants

prompts him to wish that

much

Chinaman.

him

will tell

the thing to be, what his vanity

the thiiig should

really educated

tell

whereas the half-educated person

thing,

prefers to read books

the

What Marie

their being."

John Smiths in Great Britain, the Rev.

to the John Smiths in China.

to the

('orelli is

nur andere Zustande

als

is

"Chinese

der seininge

ubrigen Menschen auf seine Weise existieren

108
But Mr. W. Stead

who now

neighbours

his

Consequently

says,

have

lately

"It

rule

is

the

John Smith and

British Empire."

taken the trouble to read the

books which furnish John Smith with his ideas on China

and the Chinese.

The Autocrat
under the heads
**A11

at the Breakfast

of arithmetical

Table classified mind&

and algebraical

intellects.

economical and practical wisdom," he observes, "i&

an extension or variation of the arithmetical formula

2 plus 2 equal 4- Every philosphical proposition has the
moie general character of the expression a plus h equal c."
Now the whole family of John Smith belong decidedly ta
the category of minds which the Autocrat calls arithmetical
intellects.
John Smith's father, John Smith senr, alias
John Bull, made his fortune with the simple formula
^ plus '2 equal 4- John Bull came to China to sell his
Manchester goods and to make money and he got on very
well with John Chinaman because both he and John
Chinaman understood and agreed perfectly upon the
formula 2 plus 2 equal 4. But John Smith Junr, w^ho
now rules the British Empire, comes out to China with his
head filled with a plus h equal c w^hich he does not
understand and not content to sell his Manchester goods,^

wants

to

civilise

the Chinese or, as

he expresses

it,

to

Anglo-Saxon ideals." The result is that John

Smith gets on very badly with John Chinaman, and, what
is still worse, under the
civilising influence of John
Smith's a plus h equal c Anglo-Saxon ideals, John
Chinaman, instead of being a good, honest, steady
*

'spread

109
customer for Manchester goods neglects his business, goes
to

Chang Su-ho's Gardens to celebrate the

becomes a mad, raving reformer.

Constitution, in

fact

""'

I have lately, by the help of Mr. Putnam Weale's

Reshaping of the Far East" and other books, tried to

lapile a

Catechism of Anglo-Saxon Ideal for the use of

The

Chinese students.
j

this:

What

1.

The
2.

j
'

the chief end of

end

of

man

is to

something like

man?

glorify the British

Empire.

Do you believe in God?

Yes,
3

chief

is

result, so far, is

when

What

go to Church.

do you believe in when you are not in

Church?
I believe in interests
4.

What

To
5.

in what will pay.

is justification

by faith?

believe in everyone for himeslf

What

is

justification

by works.

Put money in your pocket.

What is Heaven?
Heaven means to be able
Road* and drive in victorias.
6.

7. What

is

to live in

Bubbling Well

Hell?

Hell means to be unsuccessful.

8.

What

is

a state of

Sir Robert Hart's

9.
*

What

is

human

perfectiblity?

Custom Service

in China.

blasphemy?

The most fashionable quarter

in Shanghai.

no
To say

that Sir Robert Hart

is

not a great

man

of

genius.
10.

What

To

obstruct British trade.

is

the most heinous sin?

11.
For what purpose did God create the four
hundred million Chinese?
For the British to trade upon.
12.
What form of prayer do you use when you pray?

We

thank Thee,

Lord, that we are not as the

wicked Russians and brutal Germans

are,

who want

to

partition China.
13.

Who

is

the great

Apostle

of the

Anglo-Saxon

Ideals in China.

Dr. Morrison, the Times Correspondent in Peking.

It

may

be a libel to say that the above

is

who
Putnam Weale's book

statement of Anglo-Saxon ideals, but any one

take the trouble to read Mr.

not deny that the above

Anglo-Saxon

who

ideals of

reads ^Ir.

a true

is a fair

representation

will
will

of the

Mr. Putnam Weale and John Smith

Putnam Weale's

books.

The most curious thing about the matter is that the

John Smith's Anglo-Saxon ideals is
really taking effect in China.
Under this influence John
Chinaman too is now wanting to glorify the Chinese
Empire. The old Chinese literati with his eight-legged
essays was a harmless humbug.
Bat foreigners will find
to their cost that the new Chinese literati who under the influence of John Smith's Anglo-Saxon ideals ara clamouring
civilising influence of

for a constitution, are likely to

become an intolerable and

Ill

John Bull Senior

dangerous nuisance.

In the end

will not only find his

Manchester goods trade ruined, but

I fear

he will even be put to the expense of sending out a

General Gordon or Lord Kitchener

poor old

to shoot his

John Chinaman who has become non compos mentis

under the civilising influence of John Smith's Anglo-Saxon
ideals.
But that is neither here nor there.
friend

What
this.

It

I
is

comes out

to

want to say here in plain, sober English is

a wonder to me that the Englishman who
China with his head filled with all the arrant

nonsense written
along at

Take

all

this

whom

with the Chinese with

he has

to deal.

specimen, for intsance, from a big volume,

"The Far

entitled

books about the Chinese, can get

in

East:

its

history

and

its

questions," by

Alexis Krausse.

"The crux
of

of the

whole question

Western nations

the

in

the

aflFecting

Far Fast

the Powers
lies

in

the

appreciation of the true inwardness of the Oriental mind.

An

Oriental

not

only

sees

things

from

different

standpoint to (!) the Occidental, but his whole train of

thought and mode of reasoning are

at variance.

The very

sense of perception implanted in the Asiatic varies from

that with

which we are endowed!"

After reading the last sentence an Englishman

3hina,
le

ly
[t

in

when he wants a

piece of u'hite paper, if he follows

ungrammatical Mr. Krausse's advice, would have to
to his boy:
"Boy, bring me a piece of black paper."

is,

)reigners

think,
in

to

the credit of practical

China that

they

can

men among

put away

all

this

112
nonsense about the true inwardness of the Oriental mind

when they come

to

deal

practically

wiih the Chinese.

on best with the

Chinese and are the most successful men in China who
stick to 2 plans 2 equal 4, and leave the a plans h equal c
theories of Oriental inwardness and Anglo-Saxon ideals to
John Smith and Mi. Krausse.
Indeed when one
In

fact I

believe that these foreigners get

remembers that in those old days, before the Rev.

Arthur Smith wrote his "Chinese Characteristics," the
relations

between the heads or taipans of great British

and their Chinese

compradores* were always those of mutual affection,
passing on to one or more generations; when one
remembers this, one is inclined to ask what good, after all,
baa clever John Smith with his a plus h equal c theories
of Oriental inwardness and Anglo-Saxon ideals done,
firms

such

as

Matheson

Jardine,

either to Chinese or foreigners?

Is there

then no truth in Kipling's famous dictum

Of course there is.

is East and West is West?
you deal with 2 plus 2 equal 4, there is little or no
difference.
It is only when you come to problems such as
that East

When

a plus h equal

that there

equation a plus 6 equal

must have

real

aptitude

is

But

between East and West.

c

in

be able to solve the

to

between East and West, one

for

higher mathematics.

misfortune of the world to-day

equation a plus h equal

a great deal of difference

is

Far Eastern problems,

Chinese employed by foreign

between them and Chinese merchants.

The

that the solution of the

firms

in

is

in

China to be agents

113
the hands of John Smith

who not

only rules the British

Empire, but is an ally of the Japanese nation, John

Smith who does not understand the elements even of
algebraical problems.

b equal

solution of the equation a plus

between East and "West

difficult

The

problem.

For in

it

a very complex

is

there are

and

many unknown
and the
Tuan Fang,

quantites, not only such as the East of Confucius

East of Mr,

Kang Yu-wei and

the Viceroy

but also the West of Shakespeare and Goethe and the West

Indeed when

John Smith,

of

a plus

there

very

is

equal

little

and the AVest

you

have

your

solved

equation properly, you will find that

difference between the East of Confucius

of Shakespeare

and Goethe, but you

find a great deal of difference between even the

will

West

of

Dr. Legge the scholar, and the West of the Rev. Arthur

Smith.
I

Let

me

give

concrete

illustration

of

what

mean.

The

Rev.

histories says:

Arthur

Smith,

speaking

"Chinese histories are antediluvian,

of

Chinese

not merely in

their attempts to go back to the ragged edge of zero of time

for a point of departure, but in the interminable length of

the sluggish and turbid current which carries on

ite

bosom

not only the mighty vegetation of past ages, but wood, hay

and stubble past

all

reckoning.

None but

relatively

timeless race could either compose or read such histories:

none but the Chinese memory could

its

capacious

abdomen?"

store

them away in

114

Now

us hear Dr. Legge on the same subject.

let

Dr.

Legge, speaking of the 23 standard dynastic histories of

China, says:

"No

nation has a history so thoroughly digested; and

on the whole

it is

trustworthy."

Speaking of another

Dr. Legge says:

"The work was not

"great

Chinese literary

published, as

collection,.

once supposed by

Imperial authority, but under the superintendence and at

expense

the

(aided

by other

officers)

of

Yuen Yun,

Governor-General of Kwangtung and Kwangse, in the 9th

year of the

last reign, of

of so extensive a

among

literature

Kien-lung 1820.

work shows a public

The

spirit

publication

and

zeal

for

the high officials of China which should

keep foreigners from thinking meanly them."

The above then

is

is

what

mean when

I say that there

a great deal of difference not only between the East and

West but

who can
West

also

between the West of Dr. Legge, the scholar

appreciate

of the Rev.

and admire

zeal for literature,

Arthur Smith who

is

Smiths in China.

i_^^:_^^!T'3~>-~.

and the

the beloved of John

115

A GREAT SINOLOGUE.
Don't forget to be a gentleman

of sense, while

you try to be a great

scholar;

Don't become a

fool,

while you try to be a great scholar.

Confucius Sayings, Ch: VI.

have

11.

been reading Dr. Giles, "Adversaria

lately

Siuica," and in reading them, was reminded of a sax'ing

Consul Mr. Hopkins that "when foreign

China speak of a man as a sinologue, they

of another British

residents in

generally think of

him

as a fool."

Dr. Giles has the reputation of being a great Chinese

scholar.

Considering the quantity of work he has done,

that reputation

is

the quality

and

But

not undeserved.

time that an attempt should be

real value of

made

think

it

is

now

to accurately estimate

Dr. Giles' work.

In one respect Dr. Giles has the advantage over

sinologues past and present,

he possesses the

he can write good idiomatic English.

But on the other

and

hand Dr. Giles

utterly lacks the philosophical insight

sometimes even

common

sense.

He

sentences, but he cannot interpret

thought.

all

literary gift:

can translate Chinese

and understand Chinese

In this respect, Dr. Giles has the same charac-

as the Chinese literati.

Confucius says, "When
men's education or book learning get the better of their

teritics

natural qualities, they become UteratV (Chap. VI. 16.)

To the Chinese

literati,

books and

merely materials for writing books and so

upon books.

They

live,

move and have

literature

thej' write

are

books

their being in a

116
world of books, having nothing to do with the world of
real

human

and

literature are only

life.

never occurs to the

It

books and literature

enable

him

means

books

literati that

The study
but the means

an end.

to

to the true scholar is

to interpret, to criticise, to

understand

of
to

human

life.

Mathew Arnold

says, "It is

either of all literature,

spirit,

or

the

through the apprehension

entire history of the

human

of a single great literary work as a connected

whole, that the power of literature makes

in all that Dr. Giles has written,

itself felt."

there

is

But

not a single

sentence which betrays the fact that Dr. Giles has concei-

ved or even tried to conceive the Chinese literature as a

connected whole.
It is this

want

which makes him

materials in
-dictionary.

his

of philosophical insight in Dr. Giles

so helpless in the

books.

It is in

merely a collection

Take

for

arrangement
instance

his

of his

great

no sense a dictionary at all. It is

of Chinese phrases and sentences,

translated by Dr. Giles without

any attempt

arrangement, order or method.

As

at selection,

a dictionary for the

purposes of the scholar. Dr. Giles' dictionary

is

decidedly

of less value than even the old dictionary of Dr. Williams.

Dr. Giles' Chinese biographical dictionary,

admitted,

is

a work of immense labour.

Dr. Giles shows an

judgment.

utter

lack

of

the

it

must be

But here again

most

ordinary

In such a work, one would expect to find

notices only of really notable

men.

117
Hie manns ob patriam pngnando vulnera passi,
Quique sacerdotes casti, dam vita manebat,
Qaique pii vatea et Phoebo digna locuti,
Inventaa aut qui vitam excoluere per artes,

Quique

But
with

side

sui

memores

aliquos fecere merendo.

by side with sages and heroes of antiquity,

and mythological personages, we find

ra^'thical

Ku Hung-ming, Viceroy
Chang Chi-tung and Captain Lew Buah, the last whose

General Tcheng Ki-tong, Mr.

sole title to distinction is that

he used often to treat his

foreign friends with unlimited quantities of

Lastly these "Adversaria,"

tion

will not, I

am

afraid,

Dr.

champagne

Giles latest publica-

enhance Dr. Giles reputation

and judgment. The subjects chosen,

most part, have no earthly practical or human

as a scholar of sense
for the

would

seem that Dr. Giles has taken

the trouble to write these books not with any intention to
tell the world anything about the
Chinese and their

interest.

It

really

but to show what a learned Chinese scholar Dr.

and how much better he understands Chinese than
anybody else. Moreover, Dr. Giles, here as elsewhere,
shows a harsh and pugnacious dogmatism which is as
un philosophical, as unbecoming a scholar as it is un pleasliterature

Giles

ing.

is

It is these characteristics of sinologues like

Dr. Giles

which have made, as Mr. Hopkins says, the very name of

sinologue and Chinese scholarship a byword and scorn

among

practical foreign residents in the

I shall

publication

Far East.

here select two articles from Dr. Giles latest

and

will try to

of foreign scholars

show

that

if

hitherto writings

on the subjects of Chinese learning and

118
Chinese literature have been without
interest, the fault is not in

human

or practical

Chinese learning and Chinese

literature.
|

The

article

first

The point

"What

entitled

is

is

piety.'*|

filial

disciple

meaning of two
asked what is filial piety.

(-g,

(lit,

in the article turns upon the

Chinese characters.

Confucius said

se

nan

|g)

colour difficult)

"The

question is, and has been for

what do these two characters
mean?" After citing and dismissing all the interpretations and translations of native and foreign scholars alike,

Dr. Giles says,

twenty

centuries

past,

Dr. Giles of course finds out the true meaning.

to

show Dr.

I shall

In order

and unscholarly dogmatic manner,

here quote Dr. Giles' words with which he announGiles harsh

Dr. Giles says:

ces his discovery.

'It

may seem presumptuous

to declare that the

the surface, and

after the

above exordium

meaning lies k la Bill Stumps ( !) upon

you have to do, as the poet says, is to

all

Stoop, and there

Seek

"When

it

it is;

not right nor

left

'What

Tzu-hsia asked Confucius,

is

filial

piety?' the latter replied simple,

"

*se

to define it, nan {^)

and appropriate answer."

(-fe)

intelligible

here that
character

to

show

if

se

difficult,'

a most

not here enter into the niceties of Chinese

I shall

grammar

is

that Dr. Giles

Dr. Giles
(-g.)

is

is

is

wrong.

right in

I will

only say

supposing that the

a verb, then in good grammatical

119
Chinese, the sentence would not read

nan

sc

^)

(-g,

but

se chih wei nan ('fejSl^ M) *o define it, is difficult.

The
impersonal pronoun' chih (;^) if, is here absolutely indis-

pensable,

if

the character

se (-g,)

here

But apart from grammatical

is

used as a verb.

niceties, the translation

as given by Dr. Giles of Confucius answer,

when taken

with the whole context, has no point or sense in

at all.

it

Tzu hsia asked, what is filial piety? Confucius said.

"The difficuly is with the manner* of dong it. That
merely when there is work to be done, the young people
should take the trouble of dong it, and when there is wine
and food, the old folk are allowed to partake it, do yoo
really think that is filial piety?"
(Discourses and Sayings

Ch.

II. 9.)

this,

that

Now

the whole point in the text above

importance

is

laid not

upon

ivhat duties

perform towards your parents, but upon how

manner, with what

The

spirit,

you

lies in

in

you
what

f)erforra those duties.

greatness and true efficacy of Confucius moral

teaching, I wish to say here, lies in this very point which

Dr. Giles

fails

to see,

the

namely that

point

the

in

performance of moral duties, Confucius insisted upon the

importance
lies

Tiot of the ichat,

religion,

For herein
and
moral conduct and the

but of the hoiv.

what

the difference between

between mere roles of

is

called

morality

vivfying teaching of great and true religious

moral and what kind of

Campare
"e,

tell

another saying of Confucius

plausible speech

and

fine

teachers.

you what kind of action is

action is immoral.
But true

Teachers of morality merely

J^o^"^^

Ch'iao yen ling

manners (Discourees and Sayings Ch.

I.

3.)

120
do not merely

teachers

religious

you

tell

True

this.

religious teachers do not merely inculcate the doing of the

outward

but insist upon the importance of the manner,

act,

True

the inwardness of the act.

religious

teachers teach

that the morality or immorality of our actions does not

consist in ivhat

we do

do, but in hoiu

it.

what Matthew Arnold calls Christ's method in

teaching.
When the poor widow gave her mite, it was
This

his

we

is

not ^vhat she gave that Christ called the attention of his

The moralists said,

^'Thou shalt not commit adultery." But Christ said, "I
say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust
hearers

to,

but hoiv she give

it.

her hath already committed adultery."

after

In the same way the moralists in Confucius' time

Children must cut firewood and carry water for

said:

their parents

and

said,

"No;

that

is

them the

yield to

wine in the house: that

no^

is

filial

filial

True

piety,"

not consist in the mere outward

best of the food

and

But Confucius

piety.

filial

piety does

performance of these

True filial piety consists in hozv,

with what spirit we perform these

services to our parents.

in

what

services.

manner

manner,
The difficulty,

of doing

it.

said

Confucius,

is

It is, I will finally say here,

with

the

by virtue

of this method in his teaching, of looking into the inwardness of moral actions that Confucius becomes, not as the
Christian missionaries say, a mere moralist and philosopher, but a great and true religious teacher.

As a

further illustration of Confucius method, take the

present reform

movement

in China.

The

so called

pro-

121
mandarins with applause from foreign newspapers
are making a great fuss even going to Europe and
America, trying to find out what reforms to adopt in

gressive

But unfortunately the salvation of China will not

depend upon uhat reforms are made by these progressive
mandarins, but upon how these reforms are carried out.

China.

It

seems a pity that these progressive mandarins,

of going to

Europe and America,

could not be

For

made

to stay at

home and study Confucius.

mandarins take

until these

instead

to study constitution

to heart Confucius' teach-

ing and his method and attend to the how instead of the

nhat in

this

and suffering

ment

matter of reform
will

come out

nothing but chaos, misery

of the present reform

move-

in China.

The

Dr. Giles "Adversaria Sinica"

other, article in

which I will briefly

examine,

is

"The four

entitled

classes."

The Japanese Baron Suyematzu

in

an interview said

that the Japanese divided their people into four classes,

soldiers,

farmers, artisans

Giles says.

"It

its

earliest

Upon

incorrect to translate shih

is

soldier; that is a later

"in

and merchants.

meaning."

use

the

this

Dr.

(-i:)

as

Dr. Giles further says,

word shih

{-i:)

referred

to

civilians."

Now
use,

the

the truth

is

word shih

ancient China, as

it

noblesse of the sword.

army were spoken

just
(-jr)
is

on

the other side.

In

its earliest

referred to gentlemen

now

Hence the officers and

(m ("ir 2$L)

of as shih'

who

in Europe, bore arms,

in

the

soldiei-s of

an

122
The

sM (^)

were called

civilian official class in ancient Chiea

When

clericus.

the feudal system in

China was

abolished (2nd cent. B.C.,) and fighting ceased to be the

only profession of gentlemen,

into

noblesse of the robe as

this civilian official class rose

and constituted the

distinguished from the shih (tt) the

became

prominence,

lawers

nohlesses of the sword.

11. E. the

why

Viceroy Chang of

the foreign consuls

who were

in full dress, wore swords.

Wuchang

me

once asked

civil functionaries,

In reply I said that

when

it

was

because they were sJdh (-i) which in ancient China meant

not a civilian scholar, but a gentleman who bore arms and
served in the army.

orders that

all the

H.E. agreed and

the next

pupils in the schools in

day gave

Wuchang

should

wear military uniform.

This question therefore which Dr. Giles has raised

whether the Chinese word shih

military

man

has a great

(-jr)

means a

practical

civilian or a

interest.

For the

question whether China in the future will be independent

or

come under

a foreign

she will ever have an

yoke

will

efficient

depend upon whether

army and

that question

again will depend upon whether the educated and govern-

China will ever regain the

meaning and conception of the word shih

ing class in

civilan scholar, but as a

true
(-jr)

ancient

not as

gentleman who bears arms and

able to defend his country against aggression.

is

123

CHINESE SCHOLARSHIP.
^eaOE

PART

I.

Not long ago a body of missionaries created a great deal

amasement by styling themselves, on the cover of some
scientific tracts, as "famous savants" su ju (^'f^).
The
idea was of course extremely ridiculous.
There is certainly
not one Chinaman in the whole Empire who would venture
to arrogate to himself the Chinese word ju, which includes
in it all the highest attributes of a scholar or literary man.
We often hear, however, a European spoken of as a Chinese
scholar.
In the advertisement of the China Revien:, we are

of

told that

"among

scholarship
of

is

the missionaries a high degree of Chinese

assiduously cultivated."

regular contributors,

known names,

"all,"

indicative of

we

list

is

then given

are to beUeve,

"well-

sound scholarship and thorough

mastery of their subject."

Now

in order to estimate the high degree of scholarship

said to be assiduously cultivated by the missionary bodies in

China,

it is

not necessary to take such high ideal standards

as those propounded by the Grerman Fichte in his lectures

upon the Literary Man, or the American Emerson in his

The late American Minister to Germany,
Mr. Taylor, was acknowledged to be a great German
scholar; but though an Englishman who has read a few
plays of Schiller, or sent to a magazine some verses translated from Heine, might be thought a German scholar among
his tea drinking circles, he would scarcely have his name

Literary Ethics.

124
Yet among Europoans

oppear as such in print or placard.

in China the publication of a few dialogues in some provin-

or collection of a hundred proverbs, at once

cial patois,

entitles a

man

There

to be called a Chinese scholar.

no harm in a name, and, with the

course,

clause in the treaty,

impunity

We

call

an Englishman

himself Confucius

have been led

so

if

in

it

of

is,

exterritorial

China might with

pleases

him.

to consider this question because

it is

thought by some that Chinese scholarship has passed, or

and

passing, the early pioneering,

stage,

when

is

is

about to enter a new,

students of Chinese will not be content with

dictionary-compiling or such other brick-carrying work, but

attempts will be

made

at

works

of construction, at transla-

most perfect specimens

tions of the

of the national literature,

and not only judgment, but final judgment, supported with

and arguments, be passed upon the most venerated

names of the Chinese literary Pantheon. We now propose
to examine
1st, how far it is true that the knowledge of
reasons

Chinese

among Europeans

is

undergoing

this

change:

2ndly, what has already been done in Chinese scholarship;

3rdly,

what

present day;

is

the actual state of Chinese scholarship at the

and in the

last place,

to point out

conceive Chinese scholarship should be.

that a dwarf standing

upon the shoulders

It

what we

has been said

of a giant is apt to

imagine himself of greater dimensions than the giant;

it

still,

must be admitted that the dwarf, with the advantage of

position, will certainly command a wider and more

his

extensive view.

AVe

shoulders of those

will,

therefore,

who have

standing

upon

the

preceded us, take a survey of

125
the past, present, and future of Chinese scholarship; and

we should be

in our attempt,

if,

led to express opinions not

who have gone before us, these

we hope, may not be construed to imply that we
any way plume ourselves upon our superiority: we claim

wholly of approval of those

opinions,
in

only the advantage of our position.

then,

First,

that

the

Europeans has changed,

is

knowledge of Chinese among

only so far true,

it

seems

to us,

know"The once

that the greater part of the difficulty of acquiring a

ledge

of

the

language

has

been

removed.

prevalent belief," says Mr. Giles, "in the great difficulty of

acquiring a colloquial knowledge, even of a single Chinese

dialect

has long since taken

fictions."
ge,

its

place

among

other historical

Indeed, even with regard to the written langua-

a student in the British Consular Service, after two

Peking and a year or two at a Consulate,

years' residence in

can now readily make out at sight the general meaning of

an ordinary despatch. That the knowledge of Chinese

among foreigners in China has so far changed, we readily
admit; but what is contended for beyond this we feel very

much

inclined to doubt.

After the early Jesuit missionaries, the publication of

Dr. Morrison's famous dictionary

point dc depart of
scholarship.

monument

all

The work

will certainly

of the earnestness, zeal

the early Protestant Missionaries.

class of scholars of

might be taken as

is justly

r^arded as the

that has been accopplished in Chinese

whom

Sir

remain a standing

and conscientiousness

of

After Morrison came a

John Davis and Dr. Gutzlaff

Sir John Davis really

representatives.

126
Chinese, and he was honest enough to confess

knew no

He

himself.

without

certainly spoke

much

difficulty read

it

Mandarin and could perhaps

a novel written in that

dialect.

But such knowledge as he then possesed, would now-a-day&

scarcely qualify a man for an interpretership in any of the
Consulates.

It

very remarkable that the

nevertheless

is

notions about the Chinese of most Englishmen, even to this

day, will be found to have been acquired from Sir

Davis's book on China.

more Chinese than

himself
late

Sir

Dr. Gutzlaff perhaps

John Davis; but he attempted

knowing a

off as

more than he

great deal

John

knew a

Mr. Thomas Meadows afterwards did good

The

did.

service in

exposing the pretension of Dr. Gutzlaff, and such other

as the missionaries

Hue and Du

Halde.

little

to pass

After this,

men
it

is

curious to find Mr. Boulger, in this recent History of China,

quoting those

men

as authorities.

In France, Remusat was the

first to

occupy a Chair of

Chinese Professorship in any European University.

labours

we

are not in a position to express

one book of his attracted notice:

novel,

**The

Two

John

Stirling,

who

read

it

to Carlyle,

man

of genius after the

dragon pattern."

the novel

in Chinese,

read, but

it

takes

But
of

and by Carlyle

with delight, and said that the

book was certainly written by a

is called

an opinion.

was a translation

The book was read by Leigh

Cousins."

Hunt, and by him recommended

to

it

Of his

is

of genius, but

man

The Ju Kiao Li,* aA

a pleasant enough book k>

no high place even among the

*3i j^

"a

inferior

127
class of

books of which

it is

a specimen.

Novertheless

it

is

ahvays pleasant to think that thoughts and images from the

brain of a

Chinaman have

minds as those

of Carl vie

actually passed through such

and Leigh Hunt.

After R^musat followed Stanislas Julien and Pauthier.

The German poet Heine says that Julien made the wonder-

and important discovery that Mons. Pauthier did not

understand Chinese at all and the latter, on the other hand,
ful

also

made a

namely that Monsieur Julien knew

discovery,

no Sanscrit.

Nevertheless the pioneering

these writers

was very

considerable.

work done by

One advantf^e they

was that they were thorough masters of their own

langu^e. Another French writer might be mentioned,

possessed

Mons. D'Harvey
poets

is

St.

a breach

literature in

Denys, whose translation of the T'ang

made

into

one department of Chinese

which nothing has been done before or

since.

In Germany Dr. Plath of Munich published a book on

China, which he entitled "Die Manchurei."
wTiten in Germany,
well done.

it

is

latter portions of the

all

books

a solid piece of work throughly

Its evident design

origin of the present

Like

Manchu

was

to give a history of the

djmasty in China.

But the

book contain information on questions

we know not where to find in

any other book written in a European language. Such
work as Dr. Williams's Middle Kingdom' is a mere nursery
story-book compared N^ith it.
Another German Chinese
scholar is Herr von Strauss, formely the Minister of a little
connected with China, which

German principality which has since 1866 been swallowed

up by Prussia. The old Minister in his retirement amused

128

He pubhshed

himself with the study of Chinese.

Lao Tzu, and

tion of

recently

of the

a transla-

Shih King.

Faber, of Canton, speaks of some portions of his Lao

being perfect.

His translation of the Odes

very spirited.

We

Tzu

as

said to be

not been able to

unfortunately,

have,

is also

Mr.

procure these books.

The

scholars

we have named above may be regarded

as

sinologues of the earliest period, beginning with the publication

Dr.

of

The second

Morrisons's dictionary.

began with the appearance of two standard works:

Tzu Erh Chih

of

Sir

Thomas Wade;

2nd,

period
1st,

the

the Chinese

Classics of Dr. Legge.

As to the first, those who have now gone beyond the

Mandarin colloquial in their knowledge might be inclined to
regard

work

it

But

slightingly.

the

most

attempted, of

all

perfect,

it

is,

notwithstanding, a great

within the limits of what was

the English books that have been published

on the Chinese language.

The

book, moreover, was written

in response to a crying necessity of the time.

book had

way

to be written,

that took

away

all

and

lo! it

Some such

was done, and done in a

chance of contemporary as well as

future competition.

That the work

of translating the

Chinese Classics had to

be done, was also a necessity of the time, and Dr. Legge has

accomplished
tomes.

it,

and the

The quantity

result is a

of work done

dozen huge, ponderous

is

certainly stupendous,

whether may be thought of the quality.

In presence of

huge volumes we feel almost afraid to speak. Noverthcless,

it
must be confessed that the work does not
these

129
altogether

Mr. Balfour

us.

satisf}'

remarks that in

justly

translatmg these classics a great deal depends upon the

terminology employed by the translation.

Now we

the terminology employed by Dr. Legge

inadequate,

and in some

for the form.

that

feel

harsh, crude,

is

places, almost unidiomatic.

So

As to the matter, we will not hazard our

far

own

opinion, but will let the Rfev. Mr. Faber of Canton speak for

"Dr. Legge's

us.

says,

Legge has not a philosophic understanding

that Dr.

We

author."
read

own noteson Mencius," he

and

"show
of his.

are certain that Dr. Legge could not have

translated these

tried to conceive

works without having in some way

and shape

to his

own mind

the teaching of

Confucius and his school as a connected whole; yet

it

is

extraordinary that neither in his notes nor in his disserta-

Legge let slip a single phrase or sentence

show what he conceived the teaching of Confucius really

tions has Dr.

be,

as a

whole.

philosophic

Altogether,

therefore.

to

to

Dr.

Legge's judgment on the value of these works carmot by any

means be accepted as

and the

final,

Classics is yet to come.

translator of the Chinese

Since the appearance of the two.

works above mentioned, many books have been written on

China: a few,

it

is true,

of really great scholastic impor-.

tance; but none,

we

ship has reached

an important turning

First, there is

ture."

It is,

believe

Mr.

showing that Chinese scholar-

Wy lie's

"Notes on Chinese Litera-

however, a mere catalogue, and not a lxx>k

with any literary pretension at

Maj'ers's "Chinese Readers

work

point.

that can

lay

claim

all.

Another

Manual."
to

any

is

the late Mr.

It is certainly

degree

of

not a

perfection.

130
it is a very great work,
the most honest
and unpretending of all the books that have
been written on China. Its usefulness, moreover, is inferior
only to the Tzu-Erh-Chi of Sir Thomas Wade.

Nevertheless,

conscientious

Another Chinese scholar

of note

sinologues,

is

Mr. Herbert A. Giles

Like the early French

of the British Consular Service.

Mr. Giles possesses the enviable advantage

clear, vigorous,

upon becomes

and

at

Every

beautiful style.

once clear and luminous.

object

of a

he touches

But with one or

two exceptions, he has not been quite fortunate in the choice

of subjects worthy of his pen.
One exception is the

may be

"Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio," which

taken as a model of what translation from the Chinese

But the Liao-chia-chih-i a remarkably

should be.
ful literary

work

of art

though

it

beauti-

be, belongs yet not to the

highest specimens of Chinese literature.

Next

Dr.

to

translations of the

Legge's labours,

Nan-hua King

of certainly the highest ambition.

experienced,

when we

first

of

Mr.

Balfour's

Chuang-tzu

We

is

recent

a work

confess to having

heard the work announced, a

degree of expectation and delight which the announcement

of

an Englishman entering the Hanlin College would

have raised in us. The Nan-hua King is acknow-

scarcely

ledged by the Chinese to be one of the most perfect of the

h^hest specimens of their national literatural. Since its

appearance two centuries before the Christian era, the
influence of the book upon the literature of China is scarcely
inferior to the
effect

works

of Confucius

upon the language and

and his

schools; while

its

spirit of the poetical and


131
imaginative literatual of succeeding dynasties

is

almost as

exclusive as that of the Four Books and Five Chinese upon

But Mr. Balfour^s work

the philosophical works of China.

not a translation at

is

all;

it

simply a mistrandation.

is

is a heavy, and for us, daring

upon a work upon which Mr. Balfour
must have spent many years. But we have ventured it, and

we acknowledge,

This,

judgment
it will

to pass

be expected of us to

believe

make good our judgment.

with us

if

we were

to

raise

the question

true

"But,"

quote from the Chinese preface of Lin Hsi-chung, a

recent editor of the

is

the

of

interpretation of the philosophy of Chuang-tzu.

we

We

Mr. Balfour would hardly condesend to join issue

Nan-hua King

necessary to understand

first

"in

reading a book,

it

the meaning of each single

word: then only can you construe the sentences, then only
an you perceive the arrangement of the paragraphs; and
then, last of

all,

can you get at the central proposition of the

whole chapter."

Now

every ps^e of Mr. Balfour's transla-

marks that he has not understood the meaning of

many single words, that he has not construed the sentences
correctly, and that he has missed the arrangement of the
paragraphs.
If these propositions which we have assumed
tion bears

-can be

proved to be true, as they can easily be done, being

merely points regarding rules of grammer and syntax,

then follows very

meaning and
But

clearly that

it

Mr. Balfour has missed the

central proposition of

whole chapters.

of all the Chinese scholars of the present

day we

are inclined to place the Reverend Mr. Faber of Canton at

the head.

We do not

think that Mr. Faber's labours are of

132

more

scholastic value or a higher

than the works

of others, but

we

d^ree

sentence he has written shows a grasp

philosophy principles such as

scholar of

the

aims,

and

of

literary

and

we do not find in any other

What we conceive these

present time.

we must reserve for the next portion of the

when we hope to be able to state the methods,

principles to be

present paper,

of literary merit

find that almost every

objects of Chinese scholarship.

13;^

CHINESE SCHOLARSHIP.
O

M-.

=3C^

PART

II.

Mr. Faber has made the remark that the Chinese do not
understand any systematic method of

enquiry.

scientific

Nevertheless in one of the Chinese Classics, called "Higher

Education,"* a work which

scholars as a

Book

considered by most foreign

is

of Platitudes, a concatenation is given of

the order in which the systematic study of a scholar should

The

be pursued.
heiUii'

to

student of

Chinese camot perhaps do

than follow the course laid down in that book nameh%

begin his study with the individual, to proceed from the

individual

to

the

family,

and

from the family

to

the

Government.

and indispensable

First, then: it is necessary

that the

student should endeavour to arrive at a just knowledge of the

principles of individual conduct of the Chinese.

he

and

examine and

will

see

carried out in the

life of

and

these principles are applied

complex

social relations

direct

his study,

to

the government

administrative institutions of the country.

me

as

we have

and

Such a program-

indicated, can, of course, be followed out

only in general outline; to carry

the devotion and
lifetime.

and family

Thirdly, he will be able then to give his

the people.

attention,

how

Secondly,

it

fully out

would require

undivided energies of almost a whole

But we should
Known among

certainly refuse to consider a

foreigners as the

"Great Learning."

man

134
a Chinese scholar or a attribute to him any high degree of
scholarship, unless he had in some way made himself

The German

familiar with the principles above indicated.

poet Goethe says

what

nature,

thing,

is

is

the

character,

it is

"In the works

of

man, as in those

above every-

really deserving of attention,

intention. ^^

Now

of

in the study of national

pay attention,

also of the first importance to

not only to the actions and practice of the people, but also to

and theories; to get a knowledge of what they

consider as good and what as bad, what they regard as just
and what as unjust, what they look upon as beautiful and
what as not beautiful, and how they distinguish wisdom
from foolishnees. That is what we mean when we say that
their notions

the student of Chinese should study the principles of indivi-

In other words, we mean to say that you

dual conduct.

must

get at the national ideals.

we answer, by

be attained:
literature, in

which

If

the

it is

asked

study

how

this is to

the

national

of

revelations of the best

and highest as

well as the worst side of the character of a people can be

The one

read.

object,

therefore,

which should engage the

attention of the foreign student of Chinese,

national
studies

literature

it

may by

serve only as

necessary for

now

Let us

Chinese

literature.

"rest

people:

him

to

preparatory

go through should

means towards the attainment

object.

"The

the

of

the standard

is

whatever

see

civilisations of

upon those

of

how

the student

is

of that

one

to study

the

Europe," says a German writer,

Greece,

Rome and

Palestine;

the

Indians and Persians and Persians are of the same Aryan

135
and are therefore related
and the in fluence of the intercourse with the Arabs during
the Middle Ages, upon European culture has not even to
But as for the Chinese,
this day, altogether disappeared."
the origin and development of their civilisation rest upon
stoch as the people of Europe,

foundations altogether foreign to the culture of the people

The

Europe.

of

foreign

student of Chinese literature,

therefore, has all the dsadvantages to

from the want

result

notions.

of

community

overcome which must

primary ideas and

of

be necessary for him, not only to equip

It will

himself with these foreign notions and ideas, but also,

and
and

if,

these equivalents do not exist, to disintegrate them,

to see to

these

first

Europe languages,

of all. to find their equivalents in the

ideas

which

man

side of the universal nature of

and notions may be

referred.

Take,

for

instance, those Chinese words of constant recurrence in the

Classics,

and generally translated

volence," (tl) "justice,"

(H) and

Now when we come

to take these

with the context, we

feel

do not connote

all

into English as ''bene-

''propriety."

(jg).

English works together

that they are not adequate: they

the ideas the Chinese words contain.

Again, the word "humanity,"

is

perhaps the most exact

equivalent for the Chinese work translated "benevolence;"

but then,
different

"humanity" must be understood

from

its

in a

sense

idiomatic use in the English language.

venturesome translator would use the "love" and "right-

eousness" of the Bible, which are perhaps as exact as any

other,

the

having regared both for the sense of the words and

idiom

of

the

language.

Now,

however,

if

we

136
disintegrate

and

words convey,
at

their

full

primary notions which these

refer the

to the universal

signijQcnace

nature of of man,

we

get,

namely, "the good,"

"the

true^" and "the beautiful."

But, moreover, the literature of a nation,

be studied at

all,

it

if

is

to

must be studied systematically and as

one connected whole, and not fragmentarily and without

plan or order, as
scholars.

it

has hitherto been done by most foreign

"It is," says Mr. Matthew Arnold, "it

the apprehension, either of

of the

human

spirit,

or

all literature,

makes

itself felt."

through

of a single great literary work,

commected whole that the

as a

is

the entire history

Now how

real

power of

literature

we have seen, do the

little,

foreign students conceive the Chinese literature as a whole

How

little,

therefore,

do they get at

in fact, do they

little,

know

it

its

How

significance?
little

does

it

How
become

a power in their hands, towards the understanding of the

character of the people

With

the exception of the labours

Legge and of one or two other scholars, the people of

Europe know of the Chinese literature principally through

of Dr.

the translations of novels, and even these not of the best,

but of the most commonplace of their

class.

Just fancy,

if

a foreigner were to judge of the English literature from the

works

of

Miss Rhoda Broughton, or that class of novels

which form the reading stock of Echool-boys and nurserymaids

It was this class of Chinese literature which Sir
Thomas Wade must have had in his mind, when in his
!

wrath he reproached the Chinese with "tenuity of

intellect."

Another extraordinary judgment which used

to

be

"

137
passed upon Chinese literature was, that

was excessively

it

Thus the Chinese people were

over-moral,

actually accused

same time most foreigners are

of over morality, while at the

pretty well agreed that the Chinese are a nation of liars!

But we can now explain

trashy novels
tion

among

we have

by the

this

students of Chinese

many

work

of transla-

was formerly confined

exclusively to the Confucian Classics.

are of course a great

besides the

fact that,

already naticed, the

Nevertheless, there

other things in these writings

besides morality, and, with all deference to Mr. Balfour,

we

think that "the admirable doctrines" these books contain

and wordly" as they have

been judged to be. We will just submit two sentences and
Balfour if he really thinks them "utilitarian and
ask Mr.
mundane." "He who sins against Heaven," said Confucius
in answer to a Minister, "he who sins against Heaven has
are decidedly not "utilitarian

no place where he can turn

says: "I love

life,

to

Again, Mencius

and pray."

but I also love righteousness: but

cannot keep them both,

would give up

life

if

and choose

righteousnenss.

We

have thought

it

worth while

order to protest against Mr.

we think

that

to diggress so far in

Balfour's judgment, because

such smart phrases as

"a bondslave

to

antiquity," "a past-master in casuistry" should scarcely be

employed in a work purposely philosophical, much

applied to the most venerated

was probably
of

led astray

name

in China.

by his admiration

less

Mr. Balfour
of the

Prophet

Nan-hua, and, in his ej^emess to emphasise the super-

iority of the Taoist over the

orthodox school, he has been

138
betray en into the use of expressions which,

we

are sure, his

calmer judgment must condemn.

But

We

from our digression.

to return

have said that

the Chinese literature must be studied as a connected whole.

Moreover we have noted that the people of Europe are

accsustomed to conceive and form their judgment of the

China

literature of

the

name

solely

of Confucius

is

from those writings with which

associated ; but, in fact, the literary

had only just begun with the labours

and has since continued through eighteen
At the
dynasties, including more than two thousand years.
time of Confucius, the literary form of writing was still very
activity of the Chinese

of Confucius,

imperfectly understood.

Here

let

us remark that in the study of a litherature,

there is one important point to be attended to, but

has hitheto been completely

of Chinese

lost sight of

know

but then you

Now

which the name

to any degree of
concerned:

works not

by foreign students

namely, the form of the literary writings.

be sure," said the poet Wordsworth,

manner. ^^

which
'

'To

"it was the matter,

the matter always comes out of the

true that the early

writings with

of Confucius is associated

do not pretend

it

is

prefection, as far as the literary

form

is

they are considerod as classical or standard

so

much

for their classical elegance of style or

perfection of literary form, as for the value of the matter

they contain.
sty,

The

father of

Su Tung-po,

remarks that something approaching

of a prose style

may

of the

Sung dyna-

to the formation

be traced in the dialogues of Mencius.

Nevertheless Chinese literary writings, both

in

prose

and

139
poetry, have since been developed into

The writings

styles.

differ

way
of

of the

many forms and

Western Hans, for instance,

from the essavs of the Sung period, much in the same

as the prose of

Addison

or

Lord Bacon

Goldsmith.

from the prose

is different

The wild exaggeration and

harsh diction of the poetry of the six dynasties are as unlike

and brilliancy of the T'ang poets as the

weak and immature manner of Keats is unlike the
strong, clear, and correct splendour of Tennyson.
the purity, vigour,

early

Having
the

thus, as

we have shown, equipped himself with

and notions of the people, the

primary principles

student will then be in a position to direct his study to the

social relations of the people;

to see

how

these principles

and carried out. But the" social institutions,

manners and customs of a people do not grow up, like
mushrooms, in a night, but are developed and formed into
what they are, through long centuries. It is therefore

are applied

necessary to study the history the of peoble.

historj'^

of the Chinese people is as yet almost

European

scholars.

The

so-called

Now

the

unknown

to

History of China, by

Mr. Demetrius Boulger, published recently,

is

perhaps the

worst history that could have been written of a civilised

Such a history as Mr. Boulger

if written of some such
savage people as the Hottentots.
The very fact that such
a history of China could have been published, servses only
to show how very far from being perfect yet is the knowledge of Chinese among Europeans.
Without a knowledge
of their history, therefore, no correct judgment can be

people like the Chinese.

has wTitten might be tolerated

140
Such works
as Dr. Williams's Middle Kingdom and other works on
China from want of such knowledge, are not only useless

formed of the

social institutions of a people.

for the purpose of the scholar, but are even misleading for

the mass of general readers.

Just to take one instance,

The Chinese

the social ceremony of the people.

tainly a ceremonious people,

and

is

it

are cer-

true that they

this to the influence of the teaching of Confucius.

owe

Now

Mr. Balfour may speak of the pettifogging observances of

a ceremonial life as much as he pleases; nevertheless, even
"the bows and scrapes of external decorum," as Mr. Giles
them, have their roots deep in the universal nature of

calls

of

man, in that

side of

human

nature, namely, w^hich

we

"In the use of

"what is import-

have defined as the sense of the beautiful.

ceremony," says a

disciple of Confucius,

ant, is to be natural

ways

of the ancient

where in the

this is

what

Emperors,"

Classics:

realiy beautiful in the

Again,

"Ceremony

of expression of reverence."

is

(the

is

it

is

said some-

simply the expression

EhrfHrcld of Goethe's

Wilhelm Meister.) We now see how evident it is that a

judgment of the manners and customs of nation should be
founded upon the knowledge of the moral principles of the
people.

Moreover the study, of the Government and

ical institutions of

a country,

which, we have said should

be reserved by the student to the

must

also

be

last stiige of his labours,

founded upon an understanding of their

philiosophical principles

We

polit-

and a knowledge

will conclude with a quotation

of their history,

from "The "Higher

Education," or the Book of Platitudes, as foreigners con-

141
sider

it.

'"The

Govemmeni

of the

Empire,"

it is

said in

admin istration
the State b^ins with

that book, "should b<^in with the proper

of the State;

the administration of

the regulation of the family; the regulation of the family

begins with the cultivation of the individual."

is

This, then,

what we mean by Chinese Scholarship.

Thia article on Chinese Scholarzaliip was written and published in

the "N.C. Daily

ago!

Newj"

in

Shanghai in 1881.

Exactly

thirdy yeare

142

AND ANARCHY,

CIVILIZATION

OR
TEH MORAL PROBLEM OF THE FAR
EASTERN QUESTION.

MOTTO
Was
Es

ist

ist

aber die grosse Aufgabe unserer Zeit?

die Emancipation, nicht blosa die der Irlander, Griechen, &c.,

sondern es ist die Emancipation der ganzen Welt, absonderlich
Europa's, das mtindig geworden ist,

Heine "Keisebilder."

To many

no doubt, what

people,

called

is

the Far

Eastern question means merely the immediate future of the

But any one who

Chinese Empire,

will give

a moment's

serious thought to the subject, cannot fail to see that the

question does not end there.

For, rising far above mere

economic questions of trade and finance and

tions of peace

and war

arising out of international disputes

over material interests, there

question also
serious

moral

political ques-

is

issue;

and perhaps more

real

involved in the Far Eastern

an

issue

than the

immensely more
political future of

the Chinese Empire.

In the htstory of the

we

are told that

'at

first

Christian Crusado in Europe

the second Council held at Clermont in

France, the Pope (Urban II.) himself delivered a stirring

address to the multitude

and

as he proceeded, the pent-up

emotions of the crowd burst forth and cries of Devs vult

rose simultaneously from the audience."

To us now

the

143
emotions of that crowd seem very inexplicable.

Indeed,

we look now with the light

religious,
and narrow
foolish,

the Christian Crusades, when,

of

this

centurj'^

at

the

which they were undertaken, appear to

VK?en
have
extravagant and infatuated enterprises on the
part of the people of Europe wilfully to disturb the people
of the East.
But when we study the intellectual and moral
development of the people of Europe, we cannot help
admitting that the Christian Crusades, wilful and infatuated
expeditions of fanaticism and cupidity though they were,
had nevertheless a serious moral design and function to
There was
fulfil in the civilization of the human race.
truly a veritable Dciis vu.lt (God's will) in that movement,
apparently of bigotry and greed. For the eventual result of
the Christian Crusades of the middle ages, was, as we know
now, the first means of breaking up the then strict
monastic civilization of Europe.
After the Crusades, came
Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation.
"The
final result of the Crusades," says M. Guizot in his History
of Civilization, "was a step taken towards the emancipation
political objects for

of the

human

spirit."

Looking now at the present movement of the European

nations to

the

Kolonial Politik

Far East,

who

w^hich

in

Gennany

is

called

can doubt but that the modern

Crusade of this Nineteenth Century, although apparently a

and selfish objects of

trade in view, has also a moral design and function to fulfil
in the civilization of the liuman race.
The scene at Kiel in
(Germany and the strangely mediaeval language of the

a movement with only

gros.sly material

144

German Emperor when he solemnly pronounced

vult

tha Deua

upon the modern Crusade, reminded one very strangely

of the scene at Clermont in France in 1095,

then,

the eventual result of the

if

''Kolonial Tolitik,"

may

not, like

Christendom, end in modifying,

and

Who

knows,

modern Crusade, called

the Middle Age Crusades
if

not entirely changing,

modern Europe.
any idea of the probable
future aggressiveness of the yellow race, which inspired the
apparently last of the mediaeval Emperors of Europe to
paint his famous picture of the Yellow Peril {die gelbe

the civilization
It

was

structure of society in

this thought, rather than

Gefahr)
But, truly, to any one

who

takes the trouble to study

the moral culture and social order of the people of the Far
East,

really inconceivable

it is

yellow race can in

itself

how

the civilization of the

be a source of danger to the people

To Europeans, and especially to unthinking

Englishmen, who are accustomed to take what

of Europe,
practical

modern

political

economists

call ''the

standard of living" as

the test of the moral culture or civilization of a people, the

actual

life

and of the people of the East at

no doubt appear very sordid and
But the standard of living by itself is not a

of the Chinese

the present day,

undesirable.

proper

test of

living in

tively

the civilization of a people.

America at the present day,

higher than

American

will

it is

in

Germany.

millionaire,

who

is,

The standard
I believe,

of

much

But although the son of an

regards the simple and compara-

low standard of living among the professors of a

German

University,

may doubt

the value of the education

145
in such a Universily, yet

no educated man,

I believe,

who

has travelled in both countries, will admit that the Germans

ure a

less civilized

In

fact,

people than the Americans.

standard of living

may

the condition of the civilization, but

To

itself.

properly be taken as

it is

take a physical illustration.

not the civilization

Heat

is

the condi-

and health in an animal body; but the degree

body is not in itself a true and absolute test
of the fineness or coarseness of the structure and oi^anisation of that body.
An animal body of really fine structure
and organisation may from abnormal causes become very
In the same way the standard of living among a
cold.
l^eople may from economic causes become very low; but
tion of life

of heat in the

that in

itself

is

not a proof that the moral culture or

civilization of that people is

potato crop in Ireland

depression in Great Britain

The

a low one.

and a long period

may

failure of

of continued trade

very considerably lower the

standard of living in those countries, but one would not,

judging from that alone, say that the Irish or the British
people have become less civilized.

But

if

mere standard of living

is civilization?

It

is

really

is

not civilization

as difficult

to

what

define

what

among nations is as to pronounce what real

education is among individual men.
I will, however,
illustrate what I mean by civilization by a concrete example.
civilization

Captain Basil Hall, R.N., visiting Korea in 1816, thus gives

his impression of
'

an old

*Tlie politeness

and

petty

Korean magistrate

ease with

himself were truly admirable; and

which he accommodated

when

it is

considered that


146
that hitherto, in all probability, he was ignorant even of our

manners would seem to point not

only to high rank in society, but also to a high degree of
civilization in that society not confirmed by other circumstaBe that as it may, the incident is curious as showing
nces.

existence, his propriety of

may be in different
much the same in all.

that however different the state of s6ciety

countries, the forms of politeness are

This polished character was very well sustained by the

as he

was pleased with our

we seemed

efforts

to

oblige

chief,

him and

he immediately took an
interest in
He was very inquisitive and was always highly
gratified wiien he discovered the use of anything which had
puzzled him at first.
But there was no extravagant outbursts of admiration, and he certainly would be considered a
man of good breeding and keen observation in any part of
whatever

to care about,

the would."

Now, what
society that

mean by

civilization is this.

Any

slate of

can produce such a type of humanity as Captain

Hall in the above describes,

is

a civilized society.

If the

above account gives the type of character of the educated or

upper classes of society under the

civilization of the people of

the Far East, the following description of the characteristics

of the Chinese

show the

by the

late Dr.

D.

J.

Macgowan may

influence of that civilization

serve to

upon the common

people:

"In the foregoing survey

tile life of

of the industrial

and mercan-

the Chinese," says Dr. Macgo\\'an, '"the one not-

able feature to bo observed in this people

combining,

which

is

one of the

is

chief

their capacity for

chamctoristics

of

147
civilized

To

men.

thein organisation

and combined action

are easy, because of their inherent reverence for authority

and

their law-abiding instincts.

Their docility

is

not that of

a broken-spirited emasculated people, but results from habits

of self-control

and from being long

communal

local,

loft to

self-government in

or municipal matters; as regards the State,

Were the

they learn self-reliance.

of these people placed

poorest

and

would as soon organise themselves into a body

of the

same

least cultured

by themselves on an

station in life

who had been

island,

they

politic as

men

tutored in rational

democracy."

From
of the

the above accounts of the civilization of the people

Far East,

civilization

it

should be abundantly evident that such a

cannot in

itself

the people of Europe.

that there

it

must be admitted

The

Europe and the Far East.

seems to me,

it

civilization

Nevertheless,

undoubtedly a conflict of civilization going on

is

at present between

however,

po^ibly be a source of danger to

of the yellow

is

mce and

the civilization of the

a conflict between the

white race.

It is rather

the Far East

and what may be

conflict,

not a conflict between the

civilization of

called the raedia>val civiliza-

tion of Europe.

Any one who

the

spirit of

has given any attention to the study of

modern

institutions

failed to observe that for the last

in Europe cannot have

hundred

j^ears there

has

been growing up in Europe under the general name of what

-called

Liberalism, the consciousness of a

xxnd notions of a

mav

new

new moral

social order quite distinct

culture

from what

be called the old mediaeval culture and social order.

At

148
the end of the

just before the

last centun',

Da

a Frenchman,

Revokition,

germe de roison qui commence a

Indeed,

now

it is

notions of \\hat

is

Clos,
se

French

first

y a un

^'11

said:

developper en France.'^*

generally recognised that the ideas

now

called Liberalism were

and

properly

first

understood and promulgated by the French philosophical

But

writers of the last centur3^

curious that

it is

hitherto have remained unrecognised

it

should

and unsuspected how

mucli the French "philosophers" owe to their study of

Chinese books and Chinese institutions, the knowledge of

which was then brought

ies.

Any

works

one

now who

of Voltaire,

to

Europe by the

Diderot,

and

especially L' esprit des lois

of ^lontesqieu, can see for himself

knowledge

of Chinese

the rise of the

''

what an impetus that

books and institutions gave,

germe de raison^^ spoken of by

least to the rapid

now

Jesuit missionar-

will take the trouble of reading the

if

Da

not to

Clos, at

development and expansion of what are

called Liberal ideas.

ing into Liberal ideas

Tliat ''germe de raison'' develop-

finally, as

we now

all

know, brought

about the "cidbute generaV* or general breaking-up of the

mediaeval institutions of Europe in the last centur}'.

What an
here, that the

irony of Providence, I cannot help remarking

Roman

Catholic missionaries

who came

out

China to convert the heathen Chinese, should themselves

have been the means of carrying the ideas of the Chinese

to

civilization

to Earope,

ideas

which were the means of

breaking-up that very mediicval civilization to which those

missionaries

Chinese

spent their

lives

in

trying

to

convert the

149
have been a loug way

my

subject of

This conflict of

essay.

modem

the conflict of

but now we have come

civilization, or rather

Liberalism and ancient Medievalism,

the Moral Problem of the Far Eastern question

is

to the

It is

not a conflict of the white race with the yellow race, but
is

rather a struggle

on the part

of the people of

it

Europe to

themselves completely from their ancient mediseval

free

in one word,

civilization.

It

Kullnrhampf

of the present day.

The

is,

hire)

of
,

call

the

source of the mediajval moral culture of Europe is

the Christian Bible.

book

what the Gennans

what Goethe

like the Iliad of

grand book and

will

The moral grandeur

The

or ^Eneid of Vii^il,

never be wholly
of the
out,

as

lost to

is

a very

the world.

Old Testament and, as Mr.

the prepossessingness of the

and the

and simplicty
the New Testament all these have gone
to speak, of the best types of humanity

personality of Jesus Christ

into the bones, so

it

world literature {Wclt-Litera-

Homer

Matthew Arnold points

of his teaching in

Christian Bible, taking

calls

directness

which Europe has produced. What is more, it will always

remain of permanent force and value to those upon whom
(ioethe's Welt-Literad'rc

can exert an influence.

Europe, in order fully to

Bible, they

people

must be

who produced

feel

in the

But

it

is

For the average men of

not so with ordinary men.

the force of the Christian

same

the Bible.

intelectual state as the

But now

it is,

I think,

Du

Clos

hrs greatly changed the intellectual state of the average

men

generally admitted, ilmt ihc "germe de ra/so?i" of

of

Europe.

For such men the Christian Bible becomes

150
understanding,

difficult of

not altogether unintelligible,

if

and as a consequence must

The

moral culture.

cease to be a source of true

late Professor

school board meeting in

London

Islands had no religion at

all,

mind

it

Huxley
that

said once at a
these

if

(British)

would not enter into his

by the agency

to introduce the religious idea

of the

Bible.

In one word, we believe

modern

Liberalism,

not so

if

true

tlie

moral culture of

perhaps,

strict,

is

much

broader one than the mediieval culture of Europe derived

from the Christian

The one appeals chiefly to the

The new moral culture

Bible.

passions of hope and fear in man.

on the other hand appeals to the whole intelligent powers of

man's nature: to his reason as well as to his feelings. The

men

theory about man's nature in the old culture was; "all

are born in sin,"

human

i.e.,

nature

theory of the modern moral culture

radically

good and

"The

The method

fear of the

method

Lord

is

of education of

of

The

radically bad.

that man's nature is

developed and appealed to

moral well-being and

will of itself produce

the world.

properl}''

if

is

is

social order in

the old culture began

with

Wisdom."

Tho

the beginning of

modern

culture says:

higher education consists in bringing out

"A

course of

{educere)

developing the intelligent powers of man's nature."*

or

The

language of the old culture derived from the Christian

Bible

is

figurative language

*From

the

Ta

hsio

translated by Dr. Legge,

Oreat Learning.

^ ^,

language of pictures, symbols

or the method of higher Education

and known

to foreigners as the

Book

of t\\e

151

The language

and metaphors.

of

modem

moral culture

is

In the langua-

concrete language: the language of science.

"To him that ordereth his

shown the salvation of God."
"He who would
In the language of the other it is said:
have good government in his country must begin by putting
his house in order, and to do that, ho must begin by

ge of the one

it

said:

is

conversation aright shall be

attending properly to his personal conduct."

The

above,

then,

a summary

is

the

of

diflference

between the old medireval moral culture and what we have

called the

modern moral

with regard to

human

in language.

The

culture of

nature, in

effects of

Europe upon tho

life

institutions will,

we

of the

Europe in the theory

method

of education

peopU and

their social

believe, also be different.

tho one upon the people

is

and

the old and modern cultures of

and

The

civil

effect

of

power
the modern moral culture wUl

blind, jxissivc obedience to

and authorit\\ The effect of

be what Dr. Macgowan, speaking of the characteristics of
tho Chinese, says: "self-reliance on the part of the people
as regards the State." The result of the mediaeval moral
culture of Europe, in one word, was Feudal Government.
The result of the modern moral culture which goes under
the name of Liberalism will be what Dr. Ma(^owan calls
"rational democracy" i.e., government by free institutions.

Now, European

wTiters are accustomed to speak of the

higher Christian civilization as compared with what

called the Confucian civilization of the people of the

The

East.

same

object of the

two

the moral well-being of

civilizations

man and

no doubt

is

is

Far
the

the keeping of civil

152
But

order in the world.

modern moral

culture of

if

what

Europe

have said of the old and

is true,

it

must,

think,

be admitted that although perhaps the civilization founded

upon a moral culture which appeals to the passions of hope

and fear is a stronger and even a stricter civilization, yet
surely the civilization fou.nded on a moral culture which
appeals to the calm reason of man, is if not a higher, yet a
broader civilization, one more difficult to attain, and once
attained, more enduring and permanent.
In

seems to me that it is really the difficulty of

new modern moral culture on the part of the

fact, it

attaining the
jKBople of

Europe and not the

which

at present the real danger, not only to the people

is

of Europe, but to the destiny

race.

The population

civilization of the yellow race

and

of Europe,

lost the sense of the force

keeping

civil order,

any moral
what

or

culture to use

force at all, but

is

as a restraining

force for

to be kept in order,

by sheer phsyical

not by

force of police

"The state of modern

Anarchy plus a constable. " A

Militarism.

called

Europe," said Carlyle "is

French writer put

of their old mediaeval

sufficiently attained to the

it

have now

human

having for the most part

and sanction

moral culture and not having

modern moral

civilization of the

it

better:

"C'est la force en attendant

Ic

droit.''

But the enormous cost necessary for maintaining this

immense scale of militarism in modern Europe is becoming
ruinous to the economic well-being of the people. To
escape from this ruin the people of Europe,

have two courses open

to

them

it

seems to me,

either to struggle hard for

153
the attainment of the

But back

meditevalism.

Europe

will

new modern
to

culture or to return to

mcdisDvalism

never consent to return.

nach Canossa," the great Prince Cismrrck

the people of Europe, even

if th(*y

lias said.

nicht

Indeed,

are willing, cannot

get back to the true medisevalism of the past.

of Europe in

people of

the

"Wir gehen

now

The people

trying to return to media^valism will only

arrive either at the extravagances of the Salvation

Army

or

the jugglery of the Ultramontanism of the Jesuits.

any one would like to know what a force

destructive of civilization and all true moral culture the
extravagances of the Salvation Army may one day become
in Europe, he should read the history of the last Taiping
Rebellion in China.
The Chinese Christians of that
rebellion, throwing away their national moral culture
appealing to reason, went beack to the moral culture of medireval Europe, which appeals to the passions of hope and
fear in the hearts of the multitude, and the result was
devastated provinces and the sacrifice of a million lives.

Now,

As

if

for the

Ultramontanism of the

Jesuits, it is

worse than the extravagances of the Salvation Armj'.

intellectual jugglery of

outrage upon

human

of the Jesuits is

outrage will be, as Carlyle has pointed out,

suffering,

mutiny, and delirium

insurrections,

brutal

the

cold

rage

The

an
The reaction against such an

Ultramontanism

nature.

even

"widespread

the hot rage of sansculotic

of

resuscitated

Tyarnnies;

degradation of the millions, the pampered frivolty

that awful spectacle, 'the Throne of Iniquity

decreeing injustice by a law.' "

of the units;

154
In plain language the practical outcome of Jesuitism

may

be defined as the Gospel, to use a vulgar expression, of

knowing on which side your bread is buttered. The social

order founded upon such a mean and base mental habit
cannot last. After Louis Napoleon of France came La
Debdcle, the Commune of Paris.
Who knows what is in
store for the people of Europe if they were to go back
to media}\\alism and succeed only in arriving at the
Ultramontanism of the Jesuits?
I

have said that the civilization of the yellow race can

The danger

never be a danger to the people of Europe.

lies rather, it

way

in

their

governments to deal with this

Europe,

in

seems to me, in the ignorant and the wanton

which the "pampered units"

and

especiall}'^

in

of

Europe are urging

The press
which is the

civilization.

England,

mouth-piece of the "pampered units," unites in urging

what

is

called the

gunboat policy in China and writes with

equanimity upon the partition of China.

it

wonder if
how much it would
order and police the
Jjut I

ever occurred to anyone to calculate

Europe to restore
hundred million people of China when once the rule of
the mandarins is broken up and the population becomes
rabid like the people lately in Armenia, in Turkey.
The
late General Gordon said: "Remember this: an unsatisfied
people means more troops."
Whatever may be said of the
helplessness and abuses of the rule of the mandarins in
China at the present day, their rule is a moral and not a
police rule.
Militarism is necessary in Europe but not in
China. The foreign gunboat policy has done and will only
cost the nations of

four

"

155
do harm
as

to the interests of all concerned; foreigners as well

In

Chinese.

opinion,

ray

establishment of an

the

international School for the higher study of Chinese history'

and

and

Shanghai

in

literature

sending of a large

mumber

same time the

Europe

at the

of Chinese students to

and America will do more to foster even the interests of

foreign commerce than the most powerful fleet the European
But if once Militarism becomes
nations can send out.
necessary in China, the Chinese will have to become a
military power or will have to be kept down by militar}*
power from outside. In either case the whole world will
have

pay for this added military burden of the world.

to

Militarism
are

necessary in Europe becaase the people

is

Militarism

unsatisfied.

civilization

C'est

la

is

the knight or protector of

force en attendant

function in the mediaeval language of Tennyson,

"To break
?.c,, to

Its true

droit.

le

is

the heathen and uphold the Christ,

keep down rowdyism, savagery and anarchy.

the Militarism of Europe lately

against anarchy

is

being made use

and rowdyism, but against

But

true civilization,

The

{gainst the good government of the Chinese people.

more the Militarism

the burden of

The only
Europe

its

of

Europe

thus misused, the more

cost will increase.

possible way,

to escape

is

not

of,

for

therefore,

the people

of

from the ruin resulting from the burden of

what
under

their Militarism, is to struggle for the attainment of

we have

called the

the general

name

new moral

culture,

of Liberalism.

which now

How

the people of Europe to attain this,

long

it is

it

lies

will take for

im^iossible to say.

156
Indeed,

it

me

seems to

that the Liberalism of Europe at the

Lord Beaconsfield,
speaking of the Liberahsm of the England of his time, said
that he was astonished to find that it had become an
The Liberalism of Europe to-day, it seems to
oligarchy.
an oligarchy of
mo, has become also an oligarchy:
''pampered units." The Libleralism of Europe of the last

end of this

century has retrograded.

century had culture, but the Liberalism of to-day has

The Liberalism

culture.

understood

ideas.

of the

^Todern

Liberalism

newspapers and makes use of the great

past only as catch- words

read

past

lost its

books
reads

and
only

liberal phrases of the

and cant phrases

for

its selfisli

The Liberalism of the last century fought for

justice.
The false Liberalism of to-day fights
and
The Liberalism of the
for
rights
trade
privileges.
only
The false Liberalism of
of the past battled for humanity.
interests.

right

and

to-day only tries to further the vested interests of capitalists

and

financiers.

If

of the last centuiy

we can imagine one

who had

to

of the great Liberals

do the cruel work of killing

kings and almost destroying kingship,

what he would say

rise

from the dead,

to the false Liberal of to-day

in the language of Shakes[~>eare's Brutus:

What,

shall

one of

would be

us,

That struck the foremost man of all this world

But for supporting robbers, shall we now
Contaminate our fingers with base bribes
And sell the mighty space of our large honours
I*^or

so

much

trash as

may

be gras|,^d thus?

had rather be a dog and bay the moon

157

Than such
But we

a Roman.
I believe the

will not be altogether hopeless.

movement

eventual result of the present

called Kolonial

Politik will be a revival of true Liberalism in Europe.

Ouizot, in his lectures

on European

M.

speaking of

civilization,

the design and function of Middle-age Christian Crusades

upon Christendom in Europe,

"To

the

chroniclers,

first

whom

Crusaders of

The

differently

who

histories
it

as monsters

is

to the first

only objects of hatred and contempt

evident that those

them.

and consequently

the former were hui the expression,

Mohammedans were
is

says:

of

thus speak of them do not

it

speak quite

the later Crusades

clear that they look

know

upon them no longer

that they have to a certain extent entered into

have lived with them; that relation

sympathy have been established between
them," Thus, the minds of both, M. Guizot goes on to
say, but particularly of the Crusaders were delivered from
those prejudices which were the offspring of ignorance.
their ideas; that they

and even a

"A

sort of

step," he says finally,

enfranchisement of the
This modern

"was thus taken towards the

human

Crusade

spirit."

of

Europe

Politik will eventually complete the

the

human

spirit in

Europe and America.

enfranchisement of the

human

Kolonial

called

enfranchisement of

The complete

spirit will at last

produce a

universal true Catholic civilization; a civilization founded

not upon a moral culture appealing merely to the passions

of hope

and

fear

in

man, but upon a moral culture

appealing to the calm reason of man, deriving

its

sanction

158
not from any power or authoiily outside, but as Mencius

from the innate love in man's nature for mercy, for

justice, for order, for truth and for truthfuhiess.
put

it,

Under the new civilization freedom for the educated

man will not mean liberty to do what he hkes, but liberty
to do what is right.
The serf or the man not yet civilszed
does not do Avrong because he fears hioid or the police-

man's baton in
the freed

world and

this

man

of the

new

he for

neither the hiout, nor policemen, nor hell

longer necessary.
right;

He

But

hell fire in the next.

civilization is

fire

whom
is

any

does right becouse he loves to do

and he does no wrong, not from motive

of abject

or craven fear, but because he hates to do wrong.

In

all

he makes the rule not of

authority from without but of reason and conscience from
within his one rule to follow. He can live without rulers,

matters in the conduct of

but he does not

call

live

life,

without laws.

Therefore, the Chinese

^^

Keen tzu (^ Keen is

an educated gentleman a
German Koenig or King, a kinglet, a

the same word as

little Icing of

men.)

The American Emerson, relating an incident of his

visit to England when he and Carlyle together visited
Stonehenge, the oldest monument in that country, says:

"On Sunday we had much

on a rainy day.
My friends asked whether there were any Americans any
Americans with an American idea. Thu.<3. challenged I
discourse

bethought

myself

neither

of

caucuses

nor of congress,

neither of presidents nor cabinet ministers, nor of such as

would make

of

America another Europe.

thought only

159
and par^t minds.

of the simplest

but those
I

who hold

should hardly

it

a dream which

it

is

ears, to

which

the only true one.'

opened the dogma of no-government and non-resistance.

man
it is

of

your English

ridiculous, yet

have never seen in any country a

I said: "it is true that I

my

I said, "Certainly, yes;

fanatics

care to relate to

might be only

So

are

it

of sufficient valour to stand

plain to
respect.

me
I

that

can

no

less

up

easily see the

musket worship and

'tis

for this truth

valour than this can

and yet

command

bankruptcy of the vulgar

gun that
and justice

certain as^God liveth, the

does not require another gun, the law of love

alone can effect a clean revolution."

The

future civilization of the world lies as a

raison" qui commence a

se developper,

as

Du

"genne de

Clos said of

the modern Liberalism, in this American idea of Emerson.

What

is

more, this American idea of Emerson

East.

Eastern question.
lie

the

what may be
the Confucian civilization of the people of the Far
Herein then lies the moral problem of the Far

bottom of the Chineses

called

lies at

entirely

civilization, or rather

The

solution of that problem does not

with congress nor with parliaments, neither

with emperors, kings, nor with cabinet ministers.

solution

lies,

to use

The

Emerson's words, with the simplest and

minds that are to be found in Europe and America.

The poets have sung the hymns of this new civilization.

purest

The German Heine, who

calls himself the

Battle for the emancipation of the

Human

Menschheit-Befreiungs-Kri^es) sings,

Ein neues Lied,

ein besseres Lied,

Knight

of the

Spirit (Ritter des

160

Freunde, will ich euch dichton

Wir
The

wollen hier auf Erden schon

Das Himmelreich errichten.

Scottish Robert Burns sings,
Then let us pray that come it may,
As come it will for a' that,
That sense and worth o'er a' the earth,
May boar the gree and a' that
For a' that, and a' that
It's coming yet for a' that,
That man to man the wide warl' o'er,
Shall brithers be for a' that.

Lastly, the
calls the

French Beranger

sees as in a vision,

holy alliance of the people

peuples) and sings,

J'ai vu la Paix descend re sur la terre,
Semant de I'or des flours et des epis
L'air 6tait calmo et du dieu do la guerre

Elle ^touffait les foudres assoupis.

Ah

disait-elle,

^aux

par

la vaillanco,

Frangais, Anglais, Beige, Russe ou Germain

Pouples, formez une sainte alliance

Et donnez-vous

la

main.

what he

(Sainto alliance

des

...nnnnn'^t^'*

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UNIVERSITY OF

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1922

FROM

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LIBRARY

Ku, Hung-F.ing

The spirit of the Chinese

people 2d ed.