Part 25

A modern rage for dull-colored new uniforms has struck gorgeously gowned old China. I shall recite an amusing instance. In the fall of 1911 a band of rebels organized in Sining, in far-western Kansu province. They chose a boy of fifteen as their prophet leader because he bore peculiar birthmarks. He was given the fanciful name of Savior of the Land (Chu Shih Waang). The generals reported that the new force should wear modern uniforms of cotton. The stores were swamped with orders, and every bolt of foreign cotton was immediately bought up, no matter what its design. The Imperial Guards wear gray, and the other divisions wear blue and khaki.

Aviation was introduced in China (really Indo-China) at Saigon on December 1, 1910, by the Holland-Frenchman, Vanderborn. He was followed later in the year at Shanghai by the American, “Bud” Mars. The first Chinese aviator was Fug-Yu, who was trained in America, and who experimented at the Lanchow (east of Peking) camp in 1911. During the revolution a number of Chinese students took lessons in aviation in America and left for the rebel front. Had the war continued it was the intention to destroy Peking by dynamite dropped from air-ships. Both Sun and Yuan are to be congratulated that this necessity was obviated by diplomacy.

China’s antiquity, vast population and warlikeness have been brought in question by some writers. That she had a vast population as far back as the third century before the Christian era is proved by the army records. The Ts’in clan, operating under their celebrated General Peh Ki, slew and beheaded in 293 B. C. 240,000 Hans; in 275 B. C. 40,000 Ngwheis; in 264 B. C. 50,000 Hans; in 260 B. C. 400,000 Chows, and in 256 B. C. 90,000 more Chows, thus exterminating the imperial ancestral clan which instituted the sacrifices and held the sacred tripods. Szma Tsien, the historian, writing at 100 B. C., says the allies lost a million men in fighting this Ts’in clan. After the Christian era the Chinese took fewer plural wives and fought fewer wars. Twenty years ago, an emperor who raised the despised military class to the equal of scholars, farmers and merchants, would have been decapitated. Compare one of the military edicts of the regent, Prince Chun, dated Peking, April, 1911: “We are of the opinion that militarism is the first thing necessary to the upbuilding and preservation of a nation.”

Some of the military proverbs of the old Chinese are:

“The best general thinks of wise strategy before blind courage.”

“A mob does not make a regiment, for a trained man is as effective as a score untrained, and much easier to save in a retreat.”

“A good general can’t blame defeat on bad soldiers, for a good general has no poor regiments.”

“The pike only grabs the duck’s lame leg that can’t kick.”

“The battle may not be for a cycle of years, but the soldier must awake for it every day.”

“A dog that bites the hardest shows his teeth the least.”

“A whisper can bring on a war.”

“Keep your good cannon masked, and your bad guns on brave parade.”

“If the enemy doesn’t know your weakness, you are not weak.”

“It’s the man behind the gun more than the gun, and the man inside the fort more than the wall.”

Chinese literature is not without its stirring war songs, which breathe not only the pathos of the suffering of those at home, but the sacrificing patriotism of the ranks. The following is quoted from Confucius’ Odes, B. C. 551:

THE SOLDIER

I climbed the barren mountain, And my gaze swept far and wide For the red-lit eaves of my father’s home, And I fancied that he sighed.

I climbed the grass-clad mountain, And my gaze swept far and wide For the rosy light of a little room, Where I thought my mother sighed.

I climbed the topmost summit, And my gaze swept far and wide For the garden roof where my brother stood, And I fancied that he sighed.

My brother serves as a soldier With his comrades night and day, But my brother is filial and may return, Though the dead lie far away.

The following far older poem was written in 800 B. C. by Li Hua to commemorate a battle between the ancient Chinese tribe of Wei and the Northern Mongols:

THE BATTLEFIELD

Many men with but one heart; Many lives to sell as one.

Foes and Nature interlock; Sands arise; hills join the shock.

Rivers, death fills like a flood; Red, Wei’s Great Wall too with blood.

Slaves ye shall be if ye yield; Dead men if ye fight the field!

Fled no warrior; name on name, Ghosts approach me, starred with fame.

With such Spartan poetry the early Chinese were able to fire the race with militarism. The ideograph is virile and laconic in the highest degree, just as the Anglo-Saxon of “Beowulf” is more condensed than our later Latinized speech.

Confucius believed in revenge upon a murderous enemy of one’s family. He replied to a question of a pupil on this matter: “Have only your weapons for a pillow.”

Two of the promising colonels in the southern republican army are graduates (1909 class) of the American West Point Academy. They were admitted on the personal recommendations of President Roosevelt. One is Colonel Wen Ying Hsing, a nephew of Wen Tsung Yao, who is assistant minister of foreign affairs of the Nanking Republican Assembly. Colonel Wen has seen hard service as military adviser of the Canton Provincial Assembly. The other “West Pointer” is Colonel Chen Ting, brother of Doctor Chen Shin Tao, minister of finance of the Nanking Republican Assembly.

On one of my rambles through the narrow streets of Canton I dropped into an artist’s shop on Yuck Tsze Street and selected some treasured, delightful opal-colored paintings, full of spirit, of the old picturesque three-masted Manchu war-junks which in the early days one saw sometimes beating into the reaches and broads of the flooded waters of Kwangtung province. The yellow shields, emblazoned with ideographs, hang over the midship bulwarks of the ship. The latticed red rudder is high above the water so that it may drag the unwieldy keelless boat around. The great blue sweeps, with yellow eyes, stretch from the galley-ports. The ship itself has eyes on the bow. The overhanging cabin in the high stern is crowded with men, stores and bronze cannon. The low red prow cuts the olive green sea into white foam. The red triangular flags flaunt challenge from all the masts. The great square brown matting sails spread like clouds above the blue-gowned leadsman in the bow. Dipping under the horizon are the fleeing black banners of the enemy, and the sea-gulls scatter in terror. Only the serrated blue hills are brave along the iron shores.

The first important names in connection with the building and drilling of China’s modern navy are Captain Lang, R. N. (British), and Captain Siebelin (U. S. N. and H. S. M.). These men prepared the fleet for the war with Japan in 1894, which developed Admiral Ting and Captain Teng as China’s sole naval heroes, who, however, could do little with an inefficient war board (Ping Pu) behind them. The captured battleships _Chen Yuen_ and _Ting Yuen_ are in Japan’s retired list. They were very fine ships for their day, and resisted heavy punishment in the battles of the Yalu and Wei Hai Wei. The navy training schools are at Tientsin, Chifu, Nanking, Fuchau, Shanghai, Amoy, and there will be another at Nimrod Bay, south of Ningpo. Admiral Beresford, on his visit to China in 1898, advised with the Chinese officials, especially Li Hung Chang, regarding navy matters, and some cruisers were built in England, though the two best battleships were built in Germany. Captain Bradley Osbon, an American, served for years in developing the Chinese navy.

The Chinese cruiser _Hai Chi_, painted the regulation gray, and spreading the gorgeous yellow dragon flag, took part in King George the Fifth’s coronation festivities at Spithead in July, 1911, and in September, 1911, she came to New York and anchored beneath Grant’s tomb. Conspicuous friendliness on both occasions was shown to the officers and crew as a mark of the new interest in China which has arisen in Britain and America especially. Similar cruisers, the _Hai Chow_ and the _Hai Yung_; gunboats of the _Po Pik_ class; and torpedo boats of the _Wu Pang_ class, were in constant use in China in the ante-republican days. One day they were watching that Portugal did not encroach at Macao; a week later shelling rebels around the great cities which line the Yangtze River or making a dash to the Gulf of Pechili to be ready to take on board the infant emperor. The cruiser _Fei Hung_, the first Chinese warship built in America, was launched at Camden, New Jersey, on April 24, 1912. Larger cruisers are building in England, and when Chinese politics and finances are more settled, it is proposed to order battleships from both Britain and America, and form three fleets, the Northern, Yangtze Central and Southern fleets. Shanghai can dock the smaller vessels, but British Hongkong alone has up to this time been able to dock battleships in Chinese waters. China has as yet no submarines. The British navy maintains several submarine torpedo boats at Hongkong, and in that land-locked harbor, of all others in the world, the moral effect upon an enemy would be terrifying.

In recent years the naval policy of China has been developed by Prince Tsai Hsu. Admiral Sah Chen Ping, who commanded the Yangtze fleet which operated against the republicans in October, 1911, and against the pirates who attacked Yale College, at Changsha, in 1910, has visited America, and entertained the American round-the-world fleet at Amoy in 1908. He has a son in a western American college. General Li Yuen Heng, one of the two greatest republican generals, was really trained for the navy at Pei Yang and Chifu Colleges, and in Japan. Admirals Jiu Cheng, Li Chun, of the Canton riots of April, 1911; Tan; Ching, who entertained the American fleet at Amoy; Commander Hsu Chen Pang, who was educated at Hartford, America; Admirals Liu and Hai Chun; Admiral Chin Yao Huan and Commander Wu Chung Lin, both of whom visited New York on the cruiser _Hai Chi_, are all well known. Commanders Chen, Yang and Wong represented China when the cruiser _Fei Hung_ was built at Camden, New Jersey, in 1912. When the republican troops took the Shanghai arsenal it discouraged the navy, which could not secure ammunition in time for effective work. The fleet then went over to the red, white and blue sun flag, and later landed a republican army in Shangtung province at Chifu to flank the imperial left wing operating at Tsinan. The fleet also made a demonstration against Chin Wang Tao on the gulf of Pechili, thus forcing the imperialists to hold several divisions in the north to protect Peking. This enabled the republicans to follow up the Nanking victory, drive General Chang out of Nganhwei province, and made the Whei River instead of the Yangtze River the republican front. If America undertakes with a Pacific fleet to back up for all time the “non-partition of China” policy, the writer is not a believer in a Chinese navy at present, outside of possibly one dreadnought a year when the finances are revised. Of course a strong revenue and police fleet for the rivers should be provided. Attention should rather be given to China’s army, so that she may be able to do her own police work as far as Russian or other intruders are concerned. Having no oversea colonies, she really has no use for a navy at present, excepting that one dreadnought a year would, if necessary, lend a little more than moral support to America’s altruistic and non-land-grabbing policy in the Far East.

The Chinese are splendid sailors, and as is well known, they invented the water-tight compartment in their junks, sanpans and wupans forgotten centuries ago. I have had much intercourse with the watermen of the southern provinces and can speak well of their seamanship. They compose the crews of the mercantile fleets which cross the Pacific, and have brought their ships through those awful circular typhoons which rage for days. They have also developed modern yacht designers like Ah King at Hongkong, and they are quick at the tiller and boom. I have, in writing of the Chinese, given perhaps a hundred instances of things which they do oppositely to the Occidental manner. Here is the one hundred and first: Holding their nostrils, they dive feet foremost, like the pearl fishermen of the Manaar Gulf of Ceylon! When our launch screws would get tangled with the many ropes of Blake Wharf, Hongkong, I have often seen half of the crew merrily jump overboard with knives in their teeth, and work under water for an extraordinary length of time; and though some writers call the Chinese stolid and humorless, I have always seen them highly appreciative of applause and good-natured laughter over the unexpected incidents that arise in an Oriental day’s work. On one occasion the writer, who was exhausted with the tide, was saved from drowning at Junk Bay, Hongkong, by the quick-witted efforts of a native laota (coxswain) who deftly swung his launch within reach, and whose ready arms reached out to “chiu ming” (save life).

The short story of China’s navy would not be complete without a word on the naval engagements of the China-Japan War of 1894–5 over Korea, when the whole world breathlessly watched the first trial of modern ironclads, and when the Chinese on several occasions really showed fearlessness under hopeless conditions. At the end of July, 1894, Chinese troops arrived at the Yalu River (which divides Korea and Manchuria) to reinforce General Yeh and Yuan Shih Kai, under cover of the cruiser _Chi Yuen_ (2,300 tons, 17.5 knots), the _Kuang Yi_ (1,030 tons, 16 knots), etc. On July 25th this fleet was met by the much superior Japanese fleet consisting of the _Yoshino_ (4,100 tons, 23 knots), _Akitsushima_ (3,150 tons, 19 knots), and _Naniwa_ (19 knots). After a hot exchange the _Chi Yuen_ escaped from the faster _Yoshino_ by superior work in the stokehold. The _Kuang Yi_ ran aground. Admiral Ting, the one big name in China’s navy, with a weak squadron, daringly sailed from Pechili Gulf on September 14th for the Yalu, landed stores, and skilfully evaded Admiral Ito’s and Rear-Admiral Tsuboi’s squadrons. On September 17th, Admiral Ting led the way with the _Chen Yuen_ (7,400 tons, 15-knot German-built battleship) and the _Ting Yuen_, a twin battleship, in the center, the other vessels on the wings, to meet the Japanese fleets which were advancing in column. Ito passed wide of the right wing of the Chinese. At 6,000 yards the Chinese opened fire ineffectively, but the Japanese reserved their fire until 3,000 yards’ range was reached. The Japanese passed through to the rear, and drove off the smaller Chinese warships. The larger Chinese vessels swung to starboard to keep their bows toward the circling Japanese. The Japanese armored cruiser _Fuso_ (3,700 tons, 13 knots), built in England, steamed in close to the Chinese line. The _Hi Yei_, protected Japanese cruiser (2,250 tons, 14 knots), crossed between the Chinese battleships _Chen Yuen_ and _Ting Yuen_, and as could be expected, both were so damaged that they had to seek the Japanese rear. The slow Japanese _Akagi_, gunboat (614 tons, 13 knots), was hit by the Chinese left wing. The second Japanese squadron now came up, and at once attacked the Chinese front, the first Japanese squadron having completed the circle, attacking the Chinese rear. The Japanese then withdrew and reformed, but the Chinese were not able to reform their line. The Chinese _Yuen Wei_ (gunboat, 1,350 tons, 16 knots) on fire, headed for the Yalu, where she sank with the brave Captain Teng. The Chinese _Chao Yuen_ (gunboat, 1,350 tons, 16 knots) was accidentally rammed by the unmanageable Chinese _Chi Yuen_ (coast defense, 2,300 tons, 17 knots), and both sank, leaving only the two Chinese battleships, which kept fighting and following the Japanese as best they were able. The second Japanese squadron sank the Chinese _King Yuen_ (coast defense, 2,900 tons, 15 knots), while the first Japanese squadron circled around the two Chinese battleships, which could not be maneuvered to advantage. The Chinese _Ting Yuen_ cleverly planted a shell into the Japanese _Matsushima_ (coast defense, 4,277 tons, 16 knots, French built). At 5:30 P. M., after seven and one-half hours’ fighting, the Japanese withdrew for repairs, although they had three armored coast defense, 4,200-ton, 16-knot ships in good condition, two armored and six protected cruisers, all of which answered their helms.

On October 18th, the Chinese battleship _Chen Yuen_ struck at Wei Hai Wei and was seriously injured. On February 5, 1895, at 2 A. M., by a bold move, the first of its kind in naval war, the Japanese torpedo boats raced for an entrance to narrow Wei Hai Wei harbor. Eight boats got in under the high-pointed guns of the fort and fired eleven torpedoes. One torpedo from boat “9” struck the Chinese battleship _Ting Yuen_, which steamed for shallow water, where the Chinese blew her up (this is the battleship which the Japanese later raised and used against the Russians in 1904). The Japanese lost torpedo boats “9” and “22”.

On the morning of February 6th, five more Japanese torpedo boats headed for the harbor, and four entered, torpedoing the Chinese _Lai Yuen_ (coast defense, 2,900 tons, 15 knots) German built; the _Wei Yuen_ (corvette, 1,300) and tender _Pan Fah_. The Chinese torpedo fleet attempted to escape from the western entrance, but were captured or destroyed by the first Japanese squadron. The Japanese towed mortar platforms near the western entrance, and pounded the remaining Chinese battleship _Chen Yuen_, which sank, as her deck was not armored (later raised by Japanese and used against the Russians in 1904). On February 17th, Admiral Ito steamed in, and China’s one fighting naval hero, Admiral Ting, brave but unfortunate, committed suicide. The Japanese secured as prizes the _Kang Chi_, third-class cruiser (1,030 tons, 16 knots), built at Shanghai; the _Ping Yuen_ (coast defense, 2,600 tons, 10 knots), built at Shanghai, and the _Kuang Ping_ (third-class cruiser, 1,030 tons, 16 knots), built at Shanghai. The battle showed the world that a large, fast mosquito fleet, with longer-range guns, can whip even a few bulldog battleships, if the maneuvering of the latter is crippled by lucky shots early in the engagement. In other words, a fleet of faster unarmored cruisers, converted _Lusitanias_, for instance, whose full gun and engine power is effectively maintained, by choosing and keeping their favored range, could in the open sea finally whip poorly handled units of slower battleships.

On one other occasion the crew of a Chinese warship quitted themselves like men. That was when the gunboat _Chen Wei_ alone engaged the whole French fleet of armor-clads at Foochow, August 23, 1884. I quote the report of an independent eye-witness, Commissioner Carrall of Sir Robert Hart’s Imperial Customs Service: “Exposed to the broadsides of the _Villars_ and the _D’Estaing_, and riddled by a terrific discharge from the heavy guns of the _Triomphante_, the little _Chen Wei_ fought to the last. In flames fore and aft, drifting helplessly down the stream and sinking, she plied her guns again and again, till one of the French torpedo boats, the Volta, dashing in through the smoke, completed the work of destruction with a well-placed torpedo.”

The successful rush of an unsupported republican torpedo boat at Hankau on November 19, 1911, past the whole line of blazing imperial shore batteries, in broad daylight, is considered by the foreigners of Hankau as dangerous and courageous a piece of work as the recent revolution exhibited.

XVIII

MODERN EDUCATION IN CHINA

There are twelve modern universities available for the education of the four hundred millions of people in China, located respectively at Hongkong, Shanghai, Nanking, Changsha, Wei Hsien (Shangtung province), Tientsin, Suchow, Tai Yuan, Peking, Hangchow, Wuchang and Canton. One of these is British, nine Mission, one Chinese, and one American Collegiate.

Hongkong University counts among its former law students Wu Ting Fang, foreign minister of the Nanking republicans; among its medical students Doctor Sun Yat Sen, president of the Nanking republican government; and Kang Yu Wei, the original reformer of China, who inspired the imperial reform edicts of 1898. The university is a growth of Queen’s College, Anglican (London Mission), and other foundations. Part of the land was given by a generous Parsee, Mr. Mody, and part of the endowment by Sir Paul Chater, both residents of the colony. One gift of $1,000 came from Chang Ming Chi, at the time viceroy of Canton (Kwangtung province). The Hongkong and Cantonese Chinese are generous contributors. The colonial government and other private founders intend to put the university on a broad basis worthy of the great colony, and equipped for the vast opportunity offered to influence China in the ways of permanent progress. The Cantonese are, and have always been, leaders of republicanism and modernity, and most of their advanced students will avail of the superior advantages offered by the new Hongkong University. There are nearly half a million Chinese in the crown colony itself. Chinese pupils of the London Mission Girls’ School on Bonham Road, Hongkong, have recently won high honors in the art examinations of the Royal Drawing Society, London.

The splendidly housed and equipped St John’s University at Shanghai is American Episcopal. The tourist should take a rickshaw out to Jessfield suburb, five miles from the River Bund, and see its modern buildings, with adapted Chinese roofs. Its leading spirit has for years been a New Yorker by birth, Doctor Francis Pott, son of the noted publisher. Its theological school is, of course, Episcopalian. Most important is its famous medical school, headed by Doctors Boone, Lincoln, Jefferys, Tucker, Myers, and Fullerton, whom all Central China loves. Chinese doctors, such as Tyau, Waung and Koo, assist. The school of arts is equally famous and brilliant, though perhaps not so imperative. I hope the day will soon come when this model university will have a larger science school, not of mediocre equipment, but endowed by some American at least half as richly as a standard American college would be endowed in science. The library, museum, dormitories and teachers’ school all need endowments. The university has a full-fledged modern athletic department, and it is thrilling to see the Chinese boys “play up, play up, and play the game” of American football, baseball, etc. The football team has mowed down the Municipal Police team on many occasions. Track teams and rowing teams from St. John’s are yet going to make China famous at Olympics and Henleys. Military drill is exceedingly popular, and many of the four hundred boys, who represent every province, jumped into the front rank in winning China’s republican revolution, though St. John’s has not yet taught politics. It should and will perhaps add a strong branch in political economy. The debating society is popular, as one could expect in the New China, and the dramatic society is successful, for the Chinese are born actors. The students also have a modern orchestra. The university is not a “griffin”, for it dates back to 1879. Five large buildings stand on the twenty acres of campus.