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The Leonard Library OTpcliffe College Toronto Register No .\. PRESENTED TO THE LIBRARY China of the Chinese UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME COUNTRIES AND PEOPLES SERIES Each in imperial 16mo, cloth gilt, gilt top, with about 30 full-page plate illustrations. ITALY OF THE ITALIANS BY HELEN ZIMMERN FRANCE OF THE FRENCH BY E. HARRISON BARKER SPAIN OF THE SPANISH BY MRS. VILLIERS-WARDELL SWITZERLAND OF THE Swiss BY FRANK WEBB GERMANY OF THE GERMANS BY ROBERT M. BERRY TURKEY OF THE OTTOMANS BY LUCY M. J. GARNETT BELGIUM OF THE BELGIANS BY DEMETRIUS C. BOULGER SERVIA OF THE SERVIANS BY CHEDO MIJATOVICH JAPAN OF THE JAPANESE BY PROF. J. H. LONGFORD AUSTRIA OF THE AUSTRIANS, AND HUNGARY OF THE HUNGARIANS BY L. KELLNER, PAULA ARNOLD, AND ARTHUR L. DELISLE RUSSIA OF THE RUSSIANS BY H. W. WILLIAMS, PH.D. AMERICA OF THE AMERICANS BY HENRY C. SHELLEY GREECE OF THE HELLENES BY LUCY M. J. GARNETT HOLLAND OF THE DUTCH BY DEMETRIUS C. BOULGER SCANDINAVIA OF THE SCANDINAVIANS BY H. GODDARD LEACH EGYPT OF THE EGYPTIANS BY W. LAWRENCE BALLS SCOTLAND OF THE SCOTS BY G. R. BLAKE MEXICO OF THE MEXICANS BY LEWIS SPENCE PORTUGAL OF THE PORTUGUESE BY AUBREY F. G. BELL CAPPED COLUMN OF VICTORY, WESTERN IMPERIAL TOMBS Frontispiece China of the Chinese By E. T. C. Werner H.B.M. CONSUL, FOOCHOW (RETIRED); BARRISTER-AT-LAW, MIDDLE TEMPLE AUTHOR OF DESCRIPTIVE SOCIOLOGY CHINESE," ETC. NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER S SONS 597-599 Fifth Avenue 1920 PRINTED BY SIR ISAAC PITMAN & SONS, LTD., LONDON, ENGLAND To MY WIFE (" PREFACE THE history of China may be broadly divided into two equal parts the Feudal period and the Monarchical period. Each of these lasted twenty-one centuries. Subject to the quali fication presently to be mentioned, the duration in both cases was exactly 2,136 years. The reign of the Great Yao, the first authentic ruler of China, began in 2357 B.C. The feudal system which obtained from that time and became more definite and developed under the Kings of Chou, ended in 221 B.C. From 221 B.C. to A.D. 1915 counting in the four years, A D. 1912-1915, during which the Republic, though nominally established, was not consolidated the monarchical form of government prevailed. Of course, these two main divisions admit of sub-division, but for the purpose of the present work they will serve very well. Anyone who at this time undertakes to give a des " cription of China of the Chinese," is confronted with this difficulty : The period covered by the rule of the Manchu Monarchy, generally known as the Great Ch ing Dynasty (A.D. 1644-1912), recently concluded, would belong to " "China of the Manchus rather than to "China of the Chinese." Moreover, considering the enormous number of existing works dealing with that period, to write another on the same plan would, to say the least, be superfluous, unless the treatment were original or the subject or sub-period one not yet adequately dealt with. Whereas, to write a book dealing with the four or five years since the overthrow of the Manchu supremacy, during which things have been formu lating, but have not yet formulated themselves, would be like writing the life-history of an infant still in its cradle. I have therefore adopted a plan which not only avoids these difficulties but is, I submit, in itself sociologically viii Preface .e.,-.,.^ --., ^i justifiable. I have endeavoured first, to describe the Chinese national life in its earlier phase its birth, childhood, adolescence, and coming of age- and then to indicate the changes which that life underwent during the second phase its full-grown and fully-expanded manhood, which continued until the nation decided to reform its life as hitherto lived. Reckoning centuries as years, these two periods of China s life take her from birth to 20, and from 20 to 40 respectively. She has now entered upon the third great phase of her national existence one which cannot but be pregnant with vital issues, profoundly affecting both herself and the world in general. Respecting this phase, I have added to most of the sections a few remarks indicating as far as possible what changes have already occurred. The above general plan, with its broad outlines, represents neither the popular nor the academical method of viewing Chinese history. The former pictures a misty past, in which figures of the great Patriarchs and great Sages, the Builder of the Great Wall and Burner of Books, with here and there a chivalrous hero, are dimly discerned, and later epochs, of " which the knowledge is also misty, known as Augustan " Ages of Chinese literature and poetry, all of which are completely overshadowed by the modern periods of foreign intercourse and foreign wars, openings for trade and robbing of territory which, though of historical value, are accorded too large a space in the picture to constitute it a properly- proportioned representation of the whole of Chinese history. Votaries of the latter method, while not escaping this pit fall of want of perspective are, moreover, one and all open to the charge of treating history unscientifically. They are " " obsessed by the struggle-and-conquest," the wars-and- " changes-of-dynasties aspects of history rather than by the world-wide and permanent causes and effects which make up the life of a people. The histories hitherto written have been political rather than sociological in character, and give us long, wearisome lists of dynasties and insipid accounts of Preface ix wars and battles, political intrigue, plot and counter-plot, with most of the things that matter left out of the account altogether. Writers unable to consult the original Chinese sources naturally find this result difficult to avoid, for all the existing histories in foreign languages are either un scientific or out of proportion, or both. Professor Herbert H. Gowen, Lecturer on Oriental History at the University of Washington, in his Outline History of China, recently published in two volumes of 200 pages each, recognizes this " defect since he in his : Chinese has ; says preface history almost invariably been treated from the point of view of foreign relations, with the result that a few pages have sufficed for the four millenniums prior to the Manchu occupation, while hundreds of pages have been used to discuss (from a foreign point of view) the events of the past few decades." Yet we find the first of these two volumes devoted to Chinese history from the beginning of the mythical ages to the end of the Ming Dynasty, a period of more than 4,500 years, and the second to the history from the Manchu conquest in 1644 to the recognition of the Republic in 1913, a period of only 269 years ! In another work in English by a Chinese author, Mr. Li Ung Bing, exactly the same proportion is observed, one-half of a volume of 600 pages being devoted to the Manchu Dynasty and the other half to the enormously long period which preceded it. These works have their intrinsic value, but a properly-proportioned history of the Chinese people has yet to be written. Careful study of that history reveals the fact that, just as the influences to which youth is subject largely determine the character for the rest of life, so did the Feudal period leave its impress upon the Chinese nation for at least two thousand years. During that the Chinese nation was in its period growing up home ; during the Monarchical -period it spread further afield. According to the popular view, China became active to any great degree only after the beginning of foreign intercourse, but in reality its most significant activities took place during these two x Preface periods, and, contrary to the general impression, during tlie Feudal as much as during the Monarchical. During the former, the activity was no less real or important, because it was chiefly formative in character. This fact has not hitherto been properly appreciated. Fully to understand China of the Chinese, we must study both its youth and its manhood, note the changes which took place during each, and endeavour to grasp the true signi ficance of those changes. China has now, apparently once for all, put off the garment of monarchism with its lining of feudalism and ; any superficial opinion, lightly expressed, regarding the probable results of this act, is sure to be dis proved by the course of events, so long as it omits to take into account both the true nature of the garment and the fact that whether its style be feudal, monarchical, or repub lican, there has all the time been the same nature underneath. My labours in the field of Sinology have been mainly sociological. Since completing the Descriptive Sociology Chinese, the first work presenting the phenomena of the Chinese civilization its morphology, physiology, and develop ment in a complete and scientific form, and the outcome of many years of arduous toil, my studies have been concen trated on the superstructure. The method of investigation involves the combination of two processes, which may best be explained by the simile of a building composed of several floors each containing many rooms, such as a large house or hotel. In describing such a building completely, we may begin with the first room on the ground floor, then proceed to the corresponding room on the first floor, then that on the second^floor, and so on until we reach the top, then beginning again with the second room on the ground floor, we may in like manner trace it up through the several floors, and so on, until all the rooms of all the floors have been described.

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