BOOKS.
THE COURT OF PEKING.*
ENGLISHMEN who have resided for long in the East, and who have thus been brought into close contact with the realities of Oriental life, are prone to scoff at the ignorance and • A 0 P1119.: Bselionse and J.O.P. Hand. ‘..7
impracticable idealism displayed at times by sentimentalists and political doctrinaires. It is not at all unnatural that they should do so. Yet English sentimentalism has achieved many notable successes. It has struck the shackles off the slave. It has inculcated a high moral standard in the treatment of subject races. On the whole, in spite of occasional instances of milt. placed enthusiasm, and more frequent instances of misrepre- sentation and of injustice done to those whose philanthropy has been tempered by actual experience, the balance of advan- tage both to the nation and to the cause of civilization may be said to lie with the sentimentalists. It is none the less true that the practical politician performs a most useful function when he applies an antidote to what may be termed the vagaries of the sentimentalist, and still more to those of the political doctrinaire. Messrs. Deckhouse and Bland have endeavoured to supply such an antidote. Their recent work on the Court of Peking, which forms a very fitting sequel to the Life of the " Old Buddha," affords abundant instruction, not only to those who are specially interested in the affairs of China, but to all who are in any way concerned with Eastern politics.
The authors of this work have no new gospel to expound They merely clothe some time-honoured truths in new and, from a literary point of view, highly attractive garments. They tell us that every nation gets the government it deserves; that to dub political institutions with the name of Republic no more implies the adoption of Republican principles than the cowl of the monk connotes a love of monastic habits; that Young China—like Young Turkey, Young Persia, Young India, and Young Egypt—is an alien excrescence ; that neither in Chins nor elsewhere can political stability or efficiency be expected from any political institutions that do not conform to the deep-rooted sentiments and traditions of the masses; that the Japanese success was due to the fact that that highly assimilative people were able to graft Western innovations on pre-existing national virtues ; and that Yuan Shih-kai is quite right when lie "realizes that China's beat hope lies, not in a sudden revolutionary destruction of the old order, but in slow steady growth, by educative processes, which shall enable the nation to adapt itself gradually to its changed environ- ment." Moreover, they very rightly insist not only on the necessity of endeavouring to understand the Chinese aspect of social and political life, but on the many obstacles which stand in the way of its true comprehension. A great German scholar, in dealing with the study of the classics, recently said that "the history of the past can be under- stood by no man who cannot transport himself into the souls of men passed away." For a modern Englishman, however, it is far easier to realize the Greek or Roman past than the Chinese present. When we read the dialogue- between Hector and Andromache we can at once make a mental bound over three thousand years. We feel that we are in some measure breathing the same social atmosphere as Homer, and that we are in the presence of a moral code which contains the embryo of our existing social system. Far different is the case in dealing with modern Chinese ethics. As we read the pitiful record of murder, lust, intrigue, and rapine set forth in Messrs. Backhouse and Bland's pages, we cannot but feel that here we are dealing with a society separated from ns by an abyss which it requires an almost superhuman effort of the imagination to bridge. More especially is it difficult to attain that high standard of free- dom from preconceived opinions which bids us remember that " it is impossible for anyone who regards polygamy as a form of immorality' to study Chinese history with intelligent. sympathy." Nevertheless, Messrs. Backhouse and Bland aro unquestionably justified in insisting on this point. It is not only in China, but, as the writer of the present article can testify, in other Eastern countries, that polygamy is at times vigorously and quite honestly defended, on the ground that, from a moral point of view, it possesses merits superior to those of monogamy. These, it may be said, are mere commonplaces familiar to all who have thought over the perplexing problems presented
by Eastern politics. But they are commonplaces which. deserve constant repetition in order that their truth may be pressed on the minds of those who possess no such familiarity. Their importance is accentuated by the vivid illustrations drawn from life which are given in the illuminating work =w- ander review. Messrs. Backhouse and Bland, moreover, afferd' in their own persons an object-lesson to which the attention of the British public may, with the greatest advantage, be directed. It is that sentimentalists cannot claim any monopoly of sympathy for backward races who, in the classic words used by Mr. Gladstone, are "struggling to be free." Through- out their pages may be traced a high appreciation for all that is best in the Chinese national character, and a profound sympathy, which is all the more valuable because tempered by reason and accurate knowledge, with genuine Chinese aspirations.
The history of China abounds in examples of noble men and women who have died rather than be false to their con- victions. Their biographies constitute bright oases in the general wilderness of corruption, mendacity, and intrigue depicted by Messrs. Backhouse and Bland. Thus the Ming General, Shill K'o-fa, when taken prisoner by the Manchus, refused high office. He remained loyal to his worthless Sovereign, and to all offers replied, " I ask of you no favour except death." Similarly, in 1841, Wang Ting-lin, Grand Secretary to the Emperor and Grand Councillor, gave advice to the Emperor which was unwise, but was certainly courageous and patriotic. It was rejected, whereupon he " indited a valedictory memorial and hanged himself." The wife of a Mohammedan, Ali Arslan by name, was torn from her husband and taken into the palace of the Emperor, Ch'ien Lung. " The Model Beauty," as she was termed, refused to see the Emperor and armed herself with a dagger to defend her chastity. Enraged at her conduct, the Dowager Empress summoned her to her residence, which, with singular inappropriateness, was termed " The Palace of Motherly Tranquillity," and told her that she would be allowed "the privilege of committing suicide." She at once hanged herself. Even more illustrative of Chinese manners and customs is the episode of the Chief Examiner Po Sui. The worst rulers of China have always attached great importance to the exami- nations for literary degrees being conducted with honesty and impartiality. By a disgraceful intrigue initiated by a Court enemy, Po Sui, who appears to have been an honestand capable man, was unwittingly induced to give certificates to two students who had never passed the examination. The fraud was discovered. His Imperial master then issued a decree in which, after saying, with the canting hypocrisy which appears to have been the predominating feature of Chinese Royal utterances, that "the tears flow down Our cheeks," he ordered Po Sui and all his assistants to be decapitated. It affords some grim satisfaction to learn that the man who plotted his death, Su Shun by name, met with a similar fate two years later.
Instances such as these, which excite either admiration or compassion, abound. But as a general rule the feeling elicited by the perusal of Messrs. Bathhouse and Bland's pages is one of horror and disgust. The ferocity at times displayed surpasses anything recorded in the moat savage annals of European mediaeval history. In 1812 an attempt was made on the life of the reigning Emperor. The criminal was "put to death by the slow slicing process, after his two sons had been beheaded before his eyes." About the same time, in connexion with an attack on the Palace, the Emperor (Chia Ch'ing) recorded that the men guilty must "of course" all be dismembered at once, save the two leaders, who, after being examined by his Majesty in person, would be "duly punished by the lingering death." At an earlier period one Nien Keng- Yao was convicted of treason. He was allowed to commit suicide, but the Imperial Decree added: "His eons are very numerous; one of them, Nien Fu, resembles his father in character and deeds; let him be decapitated forthwith. Let the rest of his sons over fifteen years of age be banished for life to a malarious region on the remotest frontiers of Yunnan." The account of the massacres which took place on the occasion of the sack of the Tartar city at Sianfn ao late as October, 1911, is truly appalling. The following also may be cited as an illustrative episode of Chinese history. Li-Tzu-Ch'eng's rebellion in the seventeenth century shook the Ming dynasty to its base. The Emperor, thinking all was lost, decided to commit suicide, and before doing so to slaughter most of the members of his family. The final scene is thus recounted:— " The Emperor summoned the Princess Imperial from the Palace of Peaceful Old Age. She was only just fifteen years of age. Wildly he glared at her, saying: By what evil fortune were you born into our ill-starred house?' Seizing his sword, he hacked off her right arm, and she sank dying to the floor. He then went to the pavilion of Charity Made Manifest and there killed his second daughter, the Princess of Feminine Propriety. Finally, he sent eunuchs to greet in his name the Empress Consort, and to the senior concubines of his late brother, Hsi Tieing, strongly advising both to commit suicide. Entering the Palace of Feminine Tranquillity, he saw his Consort hanging dead from the rafters, whereat he cried aloud: 'Death is best, the only way for us alL'" As to official corruption, that canker which eats into the heart of all Oriental Governments, the records of the Near East may be searched in vain for operations on the grand scale adopted by the venal Ministers of China. By one of those caprices so common in the East, which everywhere is an far ultra-democratic that there is always a earriOre ouverte sun talents, a certain Ho Shen, who was a sergeant of the Palace Guards, rose to high position in the time of Ch'ien Lung, one of the best of the Ming Emperors. He attracted the attention of " The Everlasting Lord " by the utterance of a smart epigram. He amassed a fortune of seventy millions sterling. His property was confiscated, and he was ordered to commit suicide in "a long-winded decree" by Ch'ien Lung's successor, Chia Ch'ing, who was not animated by any sense of duty or by any desire to purify the public service, but who hated Ho Shen and coveted his wealth. Somewhat similar instances have occurred in far more recent times. Li Lien- Ting, who only died in 1911, amassed enormous wealth and caused " a public scandal greater than anything Peking had known since the days of Ho Shen?'
Summarizing the conclusions to be drawn from three centuries of Chinese history, Messrs. Backhouee and Bland any that "one of the most obvious is to be found in the per- sistent coincidence of periods of demoralization in the State with the ascendancy of eunuchs at Court." The Old Buddha, albeit she did nothing during her lifetime to check the evil, attributed the disasters which occurred towards the close of her reign to this cause.
A recent and apparently well-informed-writer in the Times asks; "Has there been reform in the Administration; has there been any development of resources, any increase of the confidence in the Government which is essential to economic progress?" " To all these questions," he adds, "the reply must be in the negative." Is there, in fact, any real prospect that a society such as that portrayed by Messrs. Deckhouse and Bland can be regenerated by a travesty of Parliamentary institutions, or by the nominal adoption of Republican principles P The chances that any permanent benefits will be derived from the adoption of any such methods are, in troth, infinitesimally small. The only immediate hope of China would appear to lie in the establishment of a strong but just
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