Part 43

The Boswell of Confucius in the Ta Hio (Great Study) writes: “If those who govern states only think of amassing riches for their personal use, they will infallibly attract toward them depraved men, and these depraved men will really govern the state. The administration of these unworthy ministers will call down the chastisements of heaven, and also excite the vengeance of the aggrieved people. The riches of those who have the honor to govern states should rather be justice and equity, and not only talk of justice and equity.” Is this not excellent statesmanship, even if written in China long before the Christian era?

China’s love of peace was inculcated brilliantly by Lao Tse (604 B. C.) in these words: “The least glorious peace is preferable to the most brilliant successes of war. The most splendid victory is but the light from a conflagration.” The Ancients said: “Render no funeral honors to conquerors; receive them with tears and cries in memory of the homicides they have committed, and let the monuments of their victories be surrounded with the tombs of those whose death they brought about.” Confucius, a practical statesman, fifty-three years later, ineffectually combated this philosophy with these words: “They who discuss by diplomacy should always have the support of a military backing”; that is, the mailed fist and the soft word! The feudal system began to totter in China in B. C. 250, under the reign of the emperor-builder of the Great Wall, Tsin Chih Hwang-Ti. The classical examinations gave it the death blow in A. D. 600. With its martial accessory, the feudal system continued in Japan, which tolerated no democratic examinations for office, until the very late date of 1869 A. D., thus lasting there the longest in the world, for it had died in England eight centuries earlier. Such was the beneficent effect of the famous classical examinations and civil service in old China.

The most brilliant maxim on sociology ever written is Chinese:

“Gold is tested by fire: Man is tested by gold.”

On this subject of hardships, Mencius himself wrote, in 315 B. C.: “When Heaven (Tien) is about to confer a responsible office on any man, it first exercises his mind with suffering and his sinews and bones with toil. It exposes his body to hunger and subjects him to extreme poverty. It confounds his bravest undertakings. By all these methods it stimulates his mind, hardens his courage and increases his adaptability.” China was the first country to establish a Price Board, now recommended by all political parties in America for dealing with monopolies until real competition can be again set up. Salt production is a government monopoly. The dealer must buy from the government and sell a fixed quantity at a fixed price in a fixed district. The justice that the government regulates is that the dealer may not adulterate and may not charge an unreasonable profit. If the cost of production is high, the people profit, because the government will not need to collect high taxes in other ways. There is no chance for a crowd of drone-middlemen to get away with immense profits, or for private monopolists to lay a whole people under economic slavery. This is the Chinese theory. In many parts of Eastern Szechuen every farm has its little salt well with bamboo wheel and men treaders. The salt is sold to the government at a fixed price, about two and one-half cents a pound. The Chinese say: “Why do your trusts now want consolidation? The divisions of Europe, by the competition of various ambitions, have made Europe bright and progressive. America’s trusts, by making all things one, will produce decay of genius, invention, liberty and individualism.” A Chinese reformer had written to a rich bribe-taker and bribe-giver for work in one of the industries which he controlled, and he also endeavored to sell to the rich man a copy of one of his books. Chided in later years with seeking employment in his earlier years from a man whom he had later cause to criticize, the reformer said: “The devil is king and has usurped the seats of employment; yet, although he is devil, he owes me employment. A man’s right to work and to retain free opinion are inalienable, and a government, in granting a monopoly, can not sell such rights of the individual; they are a perpetual lien on the monopoly.” Intelligent municipal philanthropy has not been unknown of late years. I will instance an occurrence at Lanchow, a city on the Yellow River (Hoang-Ho) in far western Kansu province. In the fall of 1911 large numbers of people had become a charge upon the city on account of summer floods and consequent famine. By the end of August the moat of the city had become dry. The authorities roofed and partitioned this trench into many houses so as to shelter hundreds of vagrant families.

China has specialized in localization, or home rule. Even in charities this operates. No province, district or city encourages any other district’s imposing its public charges upon it. To illustrate, we shall say that your Chinese interpreter and his wife have accompanied you from Amoy to Chingtu City. The interpreter dies. If you do not send the woman back to Amoy, she will report to the Amoy Guild in Chingtu. That guild will subscribe and send her on her way as far as Chungking, where the Amoy Guild will subscribe and send her in care of the Amoy Guild at Hankau. Eventually, to her great pleasure no doubt, she will reach her people in Amoy. A widow is not molested on her travels; her persistence in widowhood and desire not to sell herself, either as a second wife, slave or strumpet, are highly respected. She would not be encouraged, however, nor would she desire to remain in Chingtu, where, being a stranger, she would be unable to secure employment. The same system would operate inversely if a Chingtu woman were, through misfortune, stranded in far-away Amoy. The Chingtu Guilds in Amoy, Fuchau, Shanghai, Hankau, etc., would relay her onward to her home, where she would be more likely to secure work, remarriage, or properly be a charge upon her own community. A criminal is treated in the same way. He is driven on toward his own community, which can elect whether they desire to board him in jail at public expense or make life so uncomfortable for him by corporal punishment that he will select a virtuous existence in preference to crime.

The community, closely related in cousinship, makes the family clan responsible for the misfortunes and crimes of its members. If a criminal breaks the law, the law does not bother itself long with the criminal. By one fell swoop it makes the clan take the criminal’s course in hand for the rest of his life. There is much talk of revising China’s code, the slogan being the American maxim: “Crime is personal.” China’s code in this particular does not need revision. It saves the state much expense; it is more effective also in real permanent reform. It is the most scientific system of reform ever invented, and beats all farming out of criminals, parole, coals of kindness, pellets of advice, pardons, abolishing of stripes, preachings, coddlings, threats, music-treatment, trepannings, religious advice, hypnotic treatment, flowers, sentiment, visits of the jail angel, etc.! Don’t whip the criminal alone; whip the criminal’s six elder brothers and cousins because they must have been lax in instruction and watch. They will see that never again will they suffer for the scamp’s dereliction! The Chinese say, “Don’t whip your trusts; whip your electorate! They will forever after see that the trusts do not break bounds; they will watch the charters.” Guilt then is not personal; it is communal. We are our brother’s keeper, and if we allow him to meet with misfortune or do wrong, we must suffer with him. How quickly would the Chinese scientific system of localization and communism correct and limit crime, poverty and misfortune.

British vessels trading in China are manned entirely with Chinese crews. During the dock strike in Britain, in August, 1911, the dockers refused to handle the cargoes of vessels which employed Chinese. China then entered a claim for damages, because her citizens were ill-treated, and the Chinese guilds threatened to embarrass the British vessels when they returned to load in the East. The writer has had some experience with such a situation in Hongkong, where the British government exercises a strong hand in preventing the spread of stevedore strikes. The use of the boycott in China calls for special study. In no land is it more in use. It is a powerful weapon for securing justice when laws and diplomacy fail either because of weakness or venalty. China, of course, has no navy to support her diplomacy. Recent boycotts in China have been the following: In 1904 the merchant guilds of Canton and Hongkong desired to support, among other things, China’s protest against the American Exclusion Act. A boycott of American goods and American ships was ordered, and the loss to American trade ran into the millions. In 1908 the Japanese landed arms for pirates in Macao, South China, and with the powerful Japanese navy compelled the Chinese officials who had seized the smuggling steamer _Tatsu Maru_ to give her up. The Chinese guilds of Hongkong and Canton then boycotted Japanese ships, causing the Toyo Kisen Kaisha a loss of millions in earnings and a deficit of $300,000 for the year’s operation. Japan probably would have again declared war on China with this excuse if she had not feared America’s naval support of China’s general cause under the Hay “non-partition of China” policy. The loss to Japan ran into many millions. In 1910 the same body of Chinese guilds boycotted American trade as a reply to the long and costly detainment of Chinese on Angel Island, San Francisco.

We shall hear more and more of international boycotts by the Chinese, and should study the question. They hover on the borderland of justice, and are recommended by many of the women’s clubs of America in dealing with monopolies. They will be misunderstood. They will produce much annoyance and trouble. They are mighty weapons in the hands of the clannish Chinese. Many fortunes of millionaires were really produced by boycotts. For instance, Mr. B controls the X railway, which latter has used the Y railway as a connection for freight. Mr. B wants to buy the Y railway for a song. He diverts all the freight he can to the Z railway, and when the Y railway fails, he buys its stock for a song. Then he restores the freight of the X railway to the Y railway, whose earnings rise and make his fortune, which is immediately entrenched under nonretroactive and nonrestitution laws. In China the boycott is only used by the guilds for patriotic purposes. Of course, we traders in America and Britain object because we suffer, but looking with Chinese eyes and with a world-economical vision at the matter, we must admit that the Chinese guilds are not ignoble or selfish and that their use of the boycott is a mighty diplomatic weapon. It has humbled Japan without the use of a soldier or a thirteen-inch broadside. By threatening a boycott, Wu Ting Fang and the Shanghai Assembly at the darkest hour of the republican revolution, prevented certain nations from making a loan to the imperialists, which was the most brilliant and potential move of the revolution. It really won for the southern cause, the military capture of Nanking following as a matter of course. Let Japan, Russia and others beware how they take advantage of China, whether in Manchuria, the Yangtze provinces, Shangtung, Yunnan, Szechuen or other provinces, or territories like Tibet, Mongolia and Turkestan; the Chinese guilds with their boycott are a sure refuge in time of trouble, back of any failing walls of arms, finance or diplomacy.

The following are some of the sociological proverbs of the Chinese:

“The chain is as strong as its weakest ring, and a corporation is as moral as its most corrupt director.”

“Taking rocks away makes a smooth stream, as removing wrongs makes a placid nation.”

“We can’t all agree exactly, for many faces, many minds, and the ten fingers are not all of one length; but they are all useful.”

“Money covers a multitude of sins.”

“Fire will burn through anything, and money will get through anything.”

“The deeper you go in your cave, the smaller seems your heaven.”

“A living poor man is better than a dead rich man.”

“Some have had a thousand years of sorrow in a hundred years of life.”

“You may think you’re on the right way, but you lose nothing by asking.”

“You can’t carve much on a rotten stick.”

“Some dogs are so intent on chasing the rabbit that they don’t see the tiger chasing them.”

“Right is the only might that lasts.”

“Of all the fools the greatest is the miser. He breaks his back with the burden which he carries when the goal is in sight.”

“Before you beat an irresponsible dog for its howl, think of the manners you owe to its master.”

“If you would have a long twilight of life, you must begin old age early.”

“Riches may ornament a wall, but only virtue can adorn a person.”

“The heart has one language the world over, but the tongues of men have many languages.”

“When you are rich the whole world is your cousin; when you are poor, even your cousin doesn’t know you.”

“He who deserves an increase in his wage is a coward if he does not ask for it.”

“It’s a pretty mean traveler who destroys the bridge which has served his purpose; there are other brother-travelers.”

“With money you can yell like a lion; without it you must squeak like a mouse.”

“There were two fools: one when he was poor thought of days of riches; the other when he was rich never thought of days of poverty.”

“A kind stranger at hand is better than a cold relative afar.”

“Repentance is only good when it looks forward.”

“Be hard on yourself and easy on your fellows.”

“The same thing can be fact to a friend and fiction to a foe.”

“Rough food is strongest, as rough wool is warmest.”

“Emulation is only proper in charities.”

“Charity is like smoking, hard to learn and hard to stop.”

“Jewels in a pig’s nose and riches in a snob’s hand.”

“He gives more who gives a penny to the poor than he who adds a fortune to the wealth of the rich.”

“Those who rose from nothing lord it most.”

“Get at the cause rather than attack the effect.”

“A headlong hero is not so good as a timid man who knows just what he is after.”

“If you would serve a fair master, work for yourself.”

“Once books, art, music, poetry and gardening used to interest the men of China and the world; now it is the new age, when only food and power engage; is materialism progress?”

“The best place to await your enemy is at the graveyard boundary, for he must pass there at last.”

“Another mouth at the table shrinks the bowl on the fire.”

“You can only give a man a stone for bread once.”

“The old boat is full of nails, and the old man is full of experiences.”

XXXI

AWAKENED INTEREST IN AMERICA

Three recent manifestations, selected from many, will indicate the awakened interest in America in things Chinese and the New China. Like the ostrich which pushed its head in the sand, and concluded that the world that was not seen, did not exist, our stage has for centuries persisted in ignoring Sinim-histrionics. Now Chinese plays are not uncommon. One in particular is worthy of mention. William Winter, the dean of the American critics, says of _The Daughter of Heaven_, playing at the Century Theater, New York: “I have seen every important spectacle displayed in America during the last sixty years and I think _The Daughter of Heaven_ is superior to anything of the kind I ever saw.” The Liebler Company state that it has cost them $100,000.00 to stage the play. How my eminent Thespian friends in old China will marvel when they read this amount! For the same sum they would agree to give four thousand simultaneous plays in the four thousand walled cities of China! _Revenons à nos moutons._ There are eight gorgeous scenes, the exact detail of which the stage manager brought from Peking and Nanking, where he specially went for local color, and where the play is laid. Scene one introduces a moving state sanpan boat, lighted by lanterns, as a setting for a beautiful tenor love song. Scene two shows the Manchu emperor’s room in the Peking palace. Scene three is of the Ming empress’ gardens at Nanking. This lovely scene is made realistic by living flocks of sacred cranes and peacocks moving about the stage. Scene four is the throne room of the Ming palace at Nanking, a gorgeous representation of Chinese luxury such as we shall never see again, now that the old royal China has passed away. Scene five is outside the pavilion of the Ming empress. Scene six, in contrast to previous gorgeousness, gives a somber Craig-like setting to the battlements of Nanking, and all the remarkable modern art of the stage manager is called into exercise to produce thrilling battle effects. Scene seven is outside the Chien Men gate at Peking, executions taking place, and all the daily life of the Manchus holding one spellbound by its accuracy. Scene eight is the Manchu throne room at Peking.

Now, as to the plot and theme. Pierre Loti, the Orientalist, of course knows his China, for he fought in the relief of Peking, and I have related elsewhere in this volume, his unique pilgrimage to Angkor. Judith Gautier, his collaborator, knows the passionate human heart, as should the daughter of the famous romantic French poet, Theophile Gautier. They have combined their skill to write a tragic Shakespearean theme in a Chinese setting, but the human heart beats to the same pulse under all colors of complexion. In short, the theme is as follows: As there has been for three hundred years, in this play there is war between the Ming and Manchu races. Neither the beautiful young widow, the Ming empress, nor the bachelor Manchu emperor, has been allowed by the factionists of their respective parties to consider the national suicide of race strife. The Manchu emperor resolves if possible to do two things: to restrain in time his army which is attacking the Mings, and in disguise personally to sue at Nanking for the hand of the remarkable beauty, the Ming empress. He can not sue as a Manchu emperor; he knows the Ming empress has only too much cause to hate his race. This worthy Romeo gains admittance to the audience chamber of the Ming empress, and his unusual address and fire carry away the forlorn empress’ heart, despite herself. He therefore has made the personal conquest that could only be made on love’s unsupported basis, and he can afford to wait. In the meantime, the Manchu emperor’s real character is discovered, but he escapes from the Ming palace. His armies, controlled by a cabal of generals, against his will, overcome the Mings, kill the Ming empress’ adored little son and thus break her heart by destroying the dynasty. The Ming empress is captured by the Manchu armies, and is brought to the Manchu emperor’s palace at Peking. There, in real character, the emperor sues for two things: for the fruition of long deferred love, and for the patriotic union of the warring races, in their marriage. In an awful scene of Homeric passion, the Ming empress finally decides that too much blood has flowed between the races for her selfishly to accept of the offered love and honor. She sees the shades of the leaders of the great Ming race, led by her adored little son, and she decides in Oriental fashion, just as General Nogi did, that duty calls her to follow them into the spirit land. The fiery hearted Manchu emperor stands by spellbound, for he can not refute the Cathayan viewpoint, terrible as is his personal suffering. He, too, must be willing to resign love. The Ming empress allows the Manchu emperor to escort her up the privileged central stairway reserved for royalty, to the widest and oldest throne of the human race, and for a hushed and glorious moment she sits radiant in the place of power. The shades of her race, in clouds, approach and reproach her. She asks the emperor to return to her the pearl which she gave him at Nanking, when, incognito, he was an accepted suitor. He hands it to her, and she suddenly swallows it. The lines of Loti and Gautier draw out passion, as the French feel it, in this scene to the limit of endurance, and to its exquisite pain the brave Anglo-Saxon acting of the actor Basil Gill adds a tempestuous power that is thrilling and convincing. When the Manchu emperor at last realizes that the long silent Ming empress really sits dead on the throne, with overflowing emotion he strikes the great audience gong, and commands “to their knees and kotows” the host of viceroys and courtiers which enters; yes, though proud Manchus, they must, indeed, at last worship a Ming empress. As I have pointed out in a chapter on the Portuguese in China in my former book, _The Chinese_, such a scene is historically correct, for the frenzied king, Don Pedro, once placed the remains of his beautiful bride, Ignez de Castro, who was murdered for love by his enemies, on the throne and compelled a before unwilling people, to pay homage to her. Such is the deathless pride of true love, which mocks at fate even at the triumphant gates of death.

What further shall be said of the acting of Basil Gill and Viola Allen. He makes a brave, eloquent, manly lover, and his reading of the lines can be heard round and full throughout the immense vault of the Century Theater. Viola Allen, as the Ming empress, touches with finished skill, every chord of emotional acting, ever with burning fire and yet ever with artistic control, which best brings the sympathetic tear. They both ring the changes, both in what they suggest and in what they say, on the noble chord: _Dulce et decorum est pro patriâ mori_. Compared with the silly themes of some popular plays, what a wholesome one is _The Daughter of Heaven_. While there is little accurate Chinese music, one wishes for more of it, as the Chinese throughout their plays use more music than this play uses. The costumes, the most gorgeous ever seen, will be seen no more, as the old China has passed away. The Liebler Company have rendered a public service by staging so accurate, expensive and educational a production, even if the actors repeatedly mispronounce the word “dynasty”! All Orientalists eagerly hope that the public will avail themselves of the unique opportunity without delay, as there is no telling how long it will pay the producer to stage such an expensive play. No such spectacle will again be seen; the old China has passed away, but it is caught and preserved in the amber in _The Daughter of Heaven_.

Among the Americans who deserve special credit for awakening an interest in the New China should be mentioned Professor George H. Blakeslee, of the Department of History of Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, who for years has brought together a remarkable World’s Oriental Congress, the influence of which, in its published proceedings, etc., is rolling like a golden wheel around the globe, raying forth information, reconciliation, altruism and a forward Americanism in the Orient, which is pro-Oriental and not incursive in any sense, in the opinion of the Orientals. At the last conference there were thirty-six major addresses by specialists.