1300R.S.
THE INSCRUTABLE PEOPLE.*
A CURSORY study of the long list of English works on China published since the Revolution of 1911 suggests several interesting reflections. Imprimis, it suggests that the fact of having travelled so many thousand miles, or lived in places unfrequented by Europeans, does not of itself constitute a sufficient title to authorship; on the contrary, the philo- sophical perception of relative values and perspective often suffers from an exaggerated sense of the importance of super- ficial phenomena, from a. vague impression that men and events which appear so momentous to eyewitnesses must surely be destined to stagger humanity. Secondly, it suggests that, in spite of queue-cutting and Western learning, the actions and reactions of the Chinese mind do not lend them- selves readily to interpretation by casual observers bred under very different traditions of civilization; that nothing less than a scientific system of sociology can provide material for sound judgments in dealing with a subject so vast and so complex. Finally, it suggests a desire for some rational explanation of the perplexing fact that the attitude of Europeans towards China and the Chinese (and, for that matter, towards Japan and the Japanese) may be either one of strong sympathy or antipathy from the outset, as a matter of instinctive and irre- vocable decision. Any one who has observed the life of the Treaty Ports in the Far East can bear witness to this phenomenon. Many Europeans live, move, and have their being amongst the Chinese, as if the whole life of the Orient were but a fantastic shadow-play, a thing separate and remote from the world of tangible realities, much in the same way as the Chinese peasant looks, not unkindly, on the passing foreigner; whilst others, for no apparent reason of training or temperament, fall at once into such close sympathy with the Oriental philosophy that they seem to have found their way home after long wandering. Atavism P Dim voices, memory revivals of long-forgotten lives ? Perhaps. We have seen Sinologues whose mentality could only be explained by the doctrine of reincarnation. But for those who read (and, alas who write) as they run, looking upon the Chinese world as a fantastic shadow-play and themselves as privileged spectators—for those who, whether they praise or blame, remain as spiritually remote from the ideals and traditions of the East as they are from the planet Saturn— no doctrine of reincarnation can either explain them or justify their unceasing additions to the long lint of conflicting opinions on China.
Each of the three books with which the present review is concerned is interesting and instructive in its own way. Mr. J. S. Thomson's work, China Betolutionised, goes far towards explaining tre nature and inspiration of those transient and exotics enthusiasms which have led so many observer's— especially in America—to believe that the Revolution and the Republic are the outcome of conscious, deliberate aspirations on the part of the Chinese people. Mr. Thomson has spent many years amongst the artificially organized Chinese society of Hong Kong; and there he has heard the voice of Young China, singing wild words to strange new tune.. He has come under the magnetic—one might almost say hypnotic— effect of Situ Yatsen's passionate phrase-making, and, as a result, he has produced a book which presents the Chinese people, arm-in-arm with all good Americans (Mr. Thomson is one), as "an altruistic brotherhood of East and West, working for the uplift of the whole world." In the warmth of his advocacy of 'nu forward Americanism in the Orient," he has reconstructed the Oriental in his own " democratic" • (1) Buddhist China. By R. F. Johnston. London John Murray. [15a. net.]—la) The Ctiasse People. By She Venerate Archdeacon Arthur Evan. Hods. London. S.P.C.K. [Cu. not_]-18) China itsreintionised. By J. S.
Mongol, Loadm Werner Laurie. [12e. dd. net.] image, and sees the millennium close at hand. Here, for instance, is a characteristic description of the most notorious of the revolutionary adventurers, Huang Hsing, now a thoroughly discredited refugee in Japan :--
"Huang is considered by the extremists of his party as presi- dential timber. He is a fervent talker, and like Sun, the last man in the world to he an opportunist, which is the great Yuan's one fault in the minds of many of the Chinese people. Huang being is the one reformer who has some Japanese sympathies, on account of his education in Japan. He was born at Changsha in Hunan, where Yale College has a branch."
It is a relief to turn from such fantasies to the scholarly work of Mr. R. F. Johnston on Buddhist China.' In the profound seclusion and kindly welcome of the peaceful hillside homes, where contemplative Chinese abbots and monks still follow The Way, Mr. Johnston finds a world of gentle philosophy, "shrines of truth and beauty," far more satisfying to the soul than all the strenuous activities of the West's triumphant materialism. With the Buddhist gospel of gentle kindliness and renunciation he finds himself in sympathy so complete and intelligent that he looks with benign tolerance on the evidences of rascality (which he does not deny) amongst the rank-and-file of the priesthood in China, and on their failure to inspire the life of the common people with anything approaching to religious enthusiasm. It is enough for him to have found, " amidst the forests and crags and waterfalls of her cioistral mountains," a remnant of the very Elect, and to look with the eye of faith for the dawn of a great Buddhist revival—partly inspired from Japan—which shall restore to China her glories of art and poetry and culture. Mr. Johnston's temperamental sympathy with the theology and philosophy of the East is the more impressive because, in his critical examination of Buddhism, in this book and in others, he has made valuable contributions to the general study of comparative religion. He writes with the authority of an expert on the origins and evolution of the various schools of Buddhist teaching in China, and on the important work which has been done dining the past ten years by the small group of Chinese scholars interested in the preservation of Buddhist literature. No doubt, in the process of his researches, something of idealism has found its way into his conclusions; possibly his critical judgment has been unconsciously influenced at times by his, "grateful appreciation of the unvarying courtesy and hospitality extended to him by the abbots and monks in whose romantic mountain homes he has spent the happiest days of his fifteen years' sojourn in China "; bat, on the whole, his work affords convincing proof of the exist- ence of very genuine religious emotion and interests amongst the Chinese, and of "the intimate connexion between etbice and statesmanship in this chosen land of moral philosophers." Mr. Johnston rightly holds that the forces which mould the character and shape the aspirations of one of the greatest razes of mankind cannot be a matter of indifference to the rest of humanity, whose future history must be profoundly affected, for better or for worse, by the nature of the ideals and ambitions that inspire the makers of the new China. He holds that, because of the great part which Buddhism has played for many centuries in directing some of the main currents of Chinese literature and social life, it cannot fail to exercise again an immense influence upon Chinese thought, when once it has shaken itself free from some of its grosser forms of superstition. And in order that the Western reader "may enter into partial communion with that mysterious entity which has baffled and bewildered so many Western minds and has so often been declared inscrutable—the soul of China," Mr. Johnston introduces us to some of the least familiar aspects of Chinese Buddhism, and conducts us on a pilgrimage to some of the great monasteries, which are still the strongholds of Buddhist influence amang the Chinese
people.
Yuan Shih-kars recent restoration of the worship of Heaven, and the popular revival of Confucianism all over China, give to Mr. Johnston's observations on the prospects of a Chinese State religion an immediate and peculiar interest. The attitude of the average Chinese scholar of to-day towards this question may fairly be regarded as identical with that of the Emperor K'ang Hsi. This great ruler recorded his views in an Edict which stands engraved on a stone tablet at the entrance to the P'u Chi monastery, as follows
since Our boyhood, have been earnest students of
Confucian lore, with the constant aim of learning the proper duties of a good ruler. We have had no leisure to become minutely' acquainted with the sacred books of Buddhism therefore We are not qualified to disown the deeper mysteries of that faith. But We are satisfied that ' Virtue' is the one word which indicates what is essential in both systems. We and, moreover, that heaven. delights to give life and nourishment ; the gracious and com- passionate Puss loves to bring all living creatures to saleation. The one creates, the other saves: but there is no antagonism, no divergence of aim."
The deep and appreciative sympathy which Archdeacon Moule displays throughout his instructive handbook on The Chinese People naturally springs from sentiments. very different from those which determine Mr. Johnston's point of view, lint it is equally scholarly, broad-minded, and discriminating. At a missionary who has given fifty years of his life to the preaching and practice of Christianity, Arch- deacon Moule naturally looks to the spreading influence of the Christian faith, professed by a Chinese Church freed front all foreign control, to deliver China from the political dangers and social disorganization which threaten her. The spirit in which he discusses the land and the people, religious thought in China, literature and education, and the pressing problems of the present situation, is imbued with a simple, deep-rooted faith in the inherent virtues of the Chinese people, and in the ultimate triumph of good over evil. Tolerance of the most benevolent kind is manifested in his attitude towards many things which, as a Christian and a friend of China, he deplores. He has grave misgivings, for instance, as to the efficacy of 'Western ideas, those ideas which gave birth to the Revolution, as regenerating forces adaptable to the needs and traditions of the Chinese people. He doubts whether these forces are in themselves legitimate, wholesome, pure, and die." interested. He deplores the Board of Education's iconoclasm, its proposal" to supersede the classical script by a revolutionized language for the people." He tees in the new patriotism "the effect of a succession of electric shocks, and those from outside ; not the uplifting influence of a deep.rooted natural and national principle, but rather the dictation and suggesting voice of Western teachers, and of not always wholesome Western influence." Herein Archdeacon Motile and Mr, Johnston come, from different points of view, to much • the same conclusion.
For the fame and abiding influence of Confucius, Arch- deacon Monte professes deep respect, frankly declaring that. " the attempt recently made by some ardent spirits of Young Chinn to discredit the writings of Confucius and Mencius, as out of accord with Republican principles, cannot succeed, save. with great discredit cast upon Chinese intelligence and most justifiable amour propre." Such an opinion coming from/ such a source leads inevitably to the reflection : How different might have been the record and results of Christian mission work in China, since the first days of the' Jesuits and Dominicans at Peking, had this spirit of wise tolerance and sympathy prevailed amongst the preachers of the Gospel, had they perceived thus clearly the dividing line between the domain of thought and the domain of morals.
As regards the history and practice of Buddhism, however; Archdeacon Motile can find no saving virtue or consolation in its poetic and contemplative aspects, holding, as he does, that " there is nothing in the history of Chinese religious thought and practice in past centuries, which can lull the conscience of the Church to sleep with the fancy that China has not been so badly off, after all, with her own faiths."
In these three books the reader will find China presented from three widely separate standpoints—those of the surface observer, the philosophical scholar, and the missionary worker: Quot !minims, tot sententiae; in all three there is food for profitable reflection.
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