China Old and New
Confucianism and Modern China. By Reginald F. Johnston, K.C.M.G. (Gollancz. 8a. 6d.) Far Eastern Front. By Edgar Snow. (Jarrolds. 18s.) The Pageant of Chinese History. 13y Elizabeth Seeger. (Routledge. 8s. 6d.) THE problems of China are indeed no more various than the books from the West which seek to illuminate them.
But there is a fundamental difference between the stand- point of East and West explained by Sir Reginald Johnston in a quotation from Dr. L. P. Jacks : " Men attach greater value to what they say . . . than to what they do." This was intended as an indictment of the twentieth-century Westerner ; it has always been true of China, and Sir Reginald rightly suggests that the remark might well have been made by Confucius.
Sir Reginald has prepared a convincing case for the retention of Confucianism as a standard of life for Modern China. On the other hand, those Chinese who have been trained in the manner of the West no doubt disapprove of those very tenets which Sir Reginald praises. But apart from its propagandist purpose Confucianism and Modern China will be a valuable book to the student of China not as yet familiar with more portentous tomes on the Sage, in that it clarifies many aspects of Confucianism which are somewhat confused in general Western opinion. The most important perhaps is the definite establishment of the fact that Confucianism is a way of life—a code of social standards— rather than a religion. That it is an excellent code Sir Reginald is convinced, and no one, from a street musician to a Cabinet Minister, can doubt that China would indeed be a more felicitous country if the precepts of Confucius were still maintained there.
Far Eastern Front is proof—if even more were needed— that the majority of those who now control China's destiny have deliberately forgotten Confucius and his ideals. It is a sorry story, not only of Japanese aggression but also of inefficiency and corruption among the Chinese, that Mr. Edgar Snow relates. He was a Special Correspondent in China during the Manchurian adventure and later in Shanghai. The tone of the book is fundamentally anti-Japanese, and Mr. Snow describes incidents of which he himself was a witness or in which he was a participant, which must destroy for ever the idea which still persists in some quarters that the Japanese went nobly forth on to the mainland of Asia
in the same spirit as that in ivhich the British went to the defence of " poor little Belgium." Mr. Snow makes some startling assertions about .the attack on the Chapei quarter of ShtMghai, and rightly impugns the administration of the
International Settlement for allowing the Japanese to use the. Settleinent as a base of operations. However, his
attempts to provide the historical background for these momentous activities in Asia are less sure, and these parts of the book should be read with the mental reservation to
seek elsewhere for a more accurate and dispassionate pre- sentation of the facts.
Unfortunately Lieutenant Commander Sutton's The Chinese People is too detailed to give the reader that sense of proper proportion essential to a book of this kind. Commander Sutton, like Sir Reginald Johnston, believes that young China should now seek " a synthesis, a harmony of East and West, of new and old, of material and spiritual, without yielding any part of their people's true soul." It is a fine ideal for three hundred million Chinese, but, as he says, " political responsibility for the people requires leaders and ability to recognize the worthy ones, and it is here that China has failed so signally."
Completely at the other end of the scale of histories is The Pageant of Chinese History. Here are the facts of China presented for the consumption of apple-cheeked children. Miss Seeger hopes also to appeal to " grown-ups." Thus her manner is halfway between that of Sir James Barrie and Mr. Walt Disney. No one is a " bad man." without being " a cruel wicked ogre." Modern children may still like this kind of thing, but it is manifestly impossible to present a reasonable view of China in this
way.
Red China gives us an enthusiast's view of the reorganiza- tion of rural economy effected in the Communist districts of China. A dispassionate survey of this most vital aspect of the Chinese political scene is significantly always omitted by Western writers. Mao Tse-Tung, the President of the Soviet provinces, declares that he is refused even necessary social service supplies from without ; evidently he has replied by forbidding any impartial observer to enter the territory he controls. Despite assertions to the contrary in the Kuomintang Press, it is apparent that Communist ideology is spreading, and it is certainly true that the Chinese Red Army have repulsed no fewer than six attacks by the entire strength of the Nationalist Armies. Under the nose of all Western observers, but as yet unnoticed by them, it may well be that in Kiangsi new forces are growing which will eventually shape the destiny of China, and finally the whole of Asia. In any case, as Commander Sutton rightly points out, there can be no decision on the future of China until the relation of the Kuomintang to the Chinese Com- munist Party is clearly and rigidly defined.
BOSWORTH GOLDMAN.
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