THE REAL CHINESE QUESTION CHESTER HOLCOMBE H7a
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THE REAL CHINESE QUESTION CHESTER HOLCOMBE H7a QJornell IntBEraitjj ffiibrara Stiiuta. ^tta fnrk CHARLES WILLIAM WASON COLLECTION CHINA AND THE CHINESE THE GIFT OF CHARLES WILLIAM WASON CLASS OF 1876 1918 Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023496247 The Real Chinese Ouestion By Chester Holcombe For many years Interpreter, Secretary of Legation, and Acting Minister of the United States at Pekin. Author (?/'"The Real Chinaman," etc. NEW YORK DODD, MEAD & COMPANY 1909 Wis f ' H7^ V15od;i Copyright, 1900, By DoDD, Meap anp Compant. PREFACE That is a charitable rule of life which bids us take every man at his best. It is, however, wiser and safer to study each individual as thoroughly as circumstances will permit, and then to strike a balance between good and evil traits of char- acter, accepting the result as a basis for judgment and action, so far as he is concerned. The same rule may be broadened with safety, and applied to nations or races. If, in such use, it serves no other purpose, it will, at least, act as a corrective to ignorant prejudice, and to that most common 'fault, prejudgment.' There is much force, and a wide range of " applicability, to that French saying : Les absens ont toujours tort" the absent are always in the wrong. Their story is seldom fairly told, the motives and causes which led to any particular conduct are seldom brought into a plain light, and judgment goes against them by misrepresen- tation or default. This rule of common practice is, also, not less applicable to nations and races than to individual members of the human family. iv PREFACE ; The Chinese, whether the term be used as referring to persons of the race, or to the nation, or to the government of the nation, have suffered enormously from it. They have been " the absent" in the past. And one has only to glance at the columns of the daily press, or to read some more serious articles in magazine literature, to realize how closely the French quotation applies to them. Any statement, any tale,' however in- coherent, absurd, grotesque, or self-contradictory, is accepted, if it only be applied to the Chinese. The Travels of Gulliver, fairy tales, and the Wonderful Adventures of Mother Hubbard's Dog all sink into the most insipid and unexciting, matter-of-fact prose when brought into contrast with current stories about the Chinese. It is not merely in the tales and fictitious de- scriptions, such as may serve to while away an idle hour, that they have suffered, and that wrong has been done to them. In matters of the gravest importance, in those upon which turn the issues of peace or war, upon which national existence may hang, the Chinese have been " the absent," and have been judged and found 'guilty, either upon no statement, or the enemies' statement, of their case. For until recently, at least, the Chinese have also been silent. They have been PREFACE unable, or have not cared, to defend themselves or maintain their cause before the great Western world of thinking men and w^omen. They have failed to recognize the power which this body holds to control and direct the actions of govern- ments, and which it has been known, upon occa- sion, to exercise. Hence, everything has gone against them. By way of example, it is not possible to believe that if the fair-minded and generous-spirited men and women of Great Britain had been accu- rately and plainly informed of the facts; if they had known what ruin was being wrought upon I the Chinese ; if they had been made at all familiar with the arguments, protests, and appeals of the Imperial Government, and with its bitter opposi- tion ; if they had understood the infamous purpose for which British soldiers and British ships of war were sent to China, and used there, and blood was shed, and lives wasted—if they could have been made to see all these things, it is not possible to believe that their government would have been allowed to persist in the opium traffic, and to work such a cruel wrong upon China. But China was " absent." And China was silent when she should have appealed to a larger audi- ence than the ministers, who cared little for VI PREFACE appeals and protests; she should have appealed to a power higher than the Throne, to the power behind it. Chinese statesmen have been fond of saying that "China is a slumbering dragon." Of late China has been, not that, perhaps, but a dragon not fully awake to his danger and the necessities of his condition. Long outside the whirl of modern life, but being gradually drawn within it, he has neither adjusted himself to the situation nor realized its demands. And he can only com- plain in a language which the world does not understand. Too much has been written about China from a purely foreign standpoint. The shelves are full of books—notably English—telling with great detail and much ingenuity what China wants, what China desires, and what is best for China, with the sole object of promoting the interests' of British commerce, and thwarting the possible designs of Russia, and every other Power. But regarding what China needs, for China's sake, the world of literature is markedly silent. It hardly need be said that volumes, written either in defence or elaboration of some foreign policy, are seldom or never just and fair to the Chinese. They are not written in order to describe how the natives of the empire feel, what they desire, ; PREFACE vii nor what they say. Nor are they written to give broad and general views of any question from the native standpoint, as well as from that of the foreigner. Upon the contrary, everything is focused down to a single point of view, and that of foreign interest and profit. The result is most unfortunate, as the present situation must plainly show. A cyclone, a vol- cano, an earthquake, or by any other fearful name that it may be called, has suddenly burst into terrible activity in the Chinese Empire, ac- companied with horrors and agonies which no man dare describe. Tens of thousands of un- offending men and women and helpless children have been slain. Millions upon millions of money have been wasted in brutal riot, and as much more in the effort to suppress it, and none can yet see the end. The continued existence of China as a nation hangs quivering in the balance. And yet, in these days of quick communication and, what may be termed, universal information when everybody is supposed to know everything when every nook and cranny of the world have been invaded and explored ; when floods of books and avalanches of newspapers cover the earth, telling everything that is true and much that is not; when the contents of this globe have ceased to be matters of speculation^ and men have turned viii PREFACE their eyes to Mars and other planets—in such times as these, in the presence of such a hideous catastrophe as the uprising of an immense race of men in frenzied defiance of all Western na- tions, the great masses of the most intelligent and best-informed in those nations are gazing at each other in astonishment, wondering what has been the cause of it all. Whereas, any fair knowledge of events and influences at work in China during the past sixty years, knowledge which involved even a moderate acquaintance with the Chinese side of the history, . no less than the foreign, would cause wonder, not at the outbreak, but that it had delayed so long. Better than that, such just information would have prevented the outbreak, by destroying the cause. It is the purpose of this volume to bring before the thoughtful and fair-minded public some portions of the history referred to, and to explain certain forces and influences which operate in China to give those who may read it an oppor- tunity to realize how certain events and certain lines of Western policy must have appeared to and have affected the Chinese. In doing this, it may help to furnish a wiser and safer basis for judgment and decision of the real Chinese ques- tion PREFACE IX The volume apologizes for and defends no one, least of all the Chinese. It states facts, some of which are painful and humiliating, but which ought to be stated, and which are neither exag- gerated nor overdrawn. It appeals not for China, but for fair play. Chester Holcombe. September 15, 1900. ANALYSIS OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I. PAGES Some Serious Mistakes 1-29 Insufficient grounds of prejudice, I. Friction and conflict result from misconception of Chinese - character, 2. Importance of better understand- ing, 3. Empire not in condition of anarchy, 3. Chinese satisfied with form of government, 4. Much freedom of action permitted, 4. Chinese obedient and fond of order, 4. Orderly disposition of Chinese in United States, 5. Prefer their own systems, 6. Will not allow others to decide for them, 6. Chinese and foreigners at cross pur- poses, 7. Chinese resent being imposed upon or treated as children, 8. Shanghai-Woosung Rail- way, 8. Restrictions upon foreign commerce, 12. Source of trouble and dispute, 12. Chinese side of question, 13. Forces discrimination against Chinese, 13. Interferes with Government rev- enue, 15.