THE UPSURGE OF CHINA by HEWLETT JOHNSON, Dean of Canterbury, Aided by the Diaries and Drawings of NOWELL JOHNSON, his wife, and KEZIA AND KEREN, his daughters NEW WORLD PRESS PEKING 1961 * Printed in the People's Republic of China CONTENDS PREFACE 1 BOOK I PREAMBLE AND PROGRAMME 1956 9 CHAPTER I. KAZAKSTAN 12 1. The Greenest City 12 2. Kazakstan's Underground Wealth 13 3. Virgin Lands Unlimited 14 4. A State Farm on the Virgin Lands: Alma-Ata 15 5. The Park and the Orthodox Church 18 6. An Evening with a Private Family 19 CHAPTER II. SINKIANG 21 1. Urumchi: Gentlemen, You Are Now in China! 21 2. The Oil-Laden Basin 23 ' 24 3. China's Westernmost City 25 4. Sinkiang 26 5. Urumchi Yesterday 28 6. Urumchi Today 31 7. Sunday Morning Playground 33 8. Ladder of Learning 36 9. Soldiers Turn Civilians ', 40 10. A State Farm 42 11. A Cotton Mill . 45 12. Varied Races 47 13. The -Common Citizen Tells 49 14. A Day with the Nomads 55 15. The^Oil Wells 58 16. The Tarim Basin CHAPTER III. THE OLD SILK ROAD AND TUNHUANG 60 CAVES , eo 1. Into the Chess-Board of China r IC 2. Relics of Subman ^^e ^^ ^^ ,^n ?iD/lr 3. A Modern Caravanserai 64 4. Thfe Old Silk Road 65 5. Marco Polo Found the Old Silk Road 68 6. We Follow Suit "68 7. Yumen's Oil Wells 70 71 8. The Pilgrim Monk and the Buddhist Faith 9. The Caves of the Thousand Buddhas 74 75 10. The Wei Dynasty 386 A,D. to 534 A.D. 11. Sui Dynasty and Tang Dynasty 75 12. The Caves in Decline 76 79 13. Religious Art Through a Thousand Years 14. The Great Wall 82 CHAPTER IV. EASTWARDS TO LANCHOW, SINING AND THE YELLOW RIVER 86 86 1. Opera at Suchow 2. Lanchow 87 3. Liberated Manhood 89 4. Liberated Womanhood 93 5. "China's Sorrow" . 94 6. Radical Measures and Overall Plan 98 7. The Sanmen Gorge 100 8. Local Effort Pulls Its Weight 101 9. Rewi Alley 103 , 10. The Northwest Academy for the Minorities 105 11. Sining 106 12. Its Students 109 . 13. Its Wealth HI ' 14. Its Lamas < 114 , 15. The Kumbum Lamasery 116 16. Priority Industrialization of the Northwest 120 CHAPTER V. CENTRAL CHINA DOWN THE KANSU COR- RIDOR TO SIAN 122 1. The Heart of Old China: Historical Retrospect 122 2. The Shang Dynasty 122 3. The Warring States and the Classical Age 124 4. The Chin Dynasty Gives China Its Name 125 5. the Home of the Dynasty 126 Sian, Tang ; 6. An Adventure in 1932 127; 7. The Pool of the Immaculate Flower 127 8. An Astonishing Episode 128 9. Chou En-lai Intervenes 130 10. The Mighty Han Capital 130 11. A Civil Service Is Born 133 12. Tea Arrives 134 13. Sunday in Sian 135 14. The Nestorian Tablet 136 15. The "Big Wild Goose Pagoda" of the Tang Dynasty, ' Memorial of 400 Creative Years 138 16. Factors Aiding Unity of All China 140 CHAPTER VI. SOUTHWEST CHINA SZECHUAN AND CHUNGKING 142 1. Another Chapter Opens 142 2. Chinese Names 143 3. Physical Features of Szechuan 144 4. Capital in China 145 5. Mao Tse-tung and Chou En-lai at the "Red Rocky Village" 146 6. Where the Rivers Meet 147 CHAPTER VII. SOUTHWEST CHINA YUNNAN AND KUN- MING 149 1. The Park 149 2. The Multi-National State 151 3. Education in China 152 * 4. Work While You Learn 154 ' " 5. And Pray Too 155 6. The "Warm Springs" Village and the Sanatorium 155 7. Healing, Old and New 157 8. Acupuncture 159 9. Pharmacology and Medicinal Products 160 10. China's Battle for Health 162 11. Taoist Temple on the Western Hills 163 12. Taoism . 164 13. Taoism Opposes Feudalism and Seeks Collectivism 167 14. The Famous Rocky Forest 168 15. Landmarks of the Christian Chureh in China 172 16. % China's Christian Reform Movement 173 17. Personal Recollections 174 18. The Lotus of China 175 CHAPTER VIIL CHUNGKING TO PEKING 177 1. The Moon Festival 177 2. Housekeeping for 650 Millions 178 3. Life on a River Boat 180 4. Wanhsien 182 5. On the Captain's Bridge 183 6. Making the Yangtse Work 186 7. An Unforgettable Sight 188 8. Hankow and the Flood of 1954 190 9. A Yangtse Bridge at Last 192 10. Women Work on the Girders 194 11. The Sung Dynasty 195 12. Northwards to Peking, Across the Huai River 198 13. Radical Control 199 14. China's New Great Wall 201 15. Marco Polo and Kublai Khan 203 CHAPTER IX. PEKING 208 1. The Stately City 208 2. A Ming City 209 3. Civic Planning at Its Noblest 210 4. The Temple of Heaven 211 5. China's Former State Religion 213 6. Ming Sea Power 216 7. The Great Clean-up of Liberated Peking 216 8. The Street Committees 218 9. A People's Court 220 10. China Goes Gay 223 11. Clothes Go Gay 224 12. An Opera School 224 13. Christians Confer 227 14. Are Christians Free in China? 230 15. The Great Wall and Ming Tombs 231 16. A Round of Churches 232 17. The National Day 233 18. Mao Tse-tung and Chou En-lai Greet the Guests 235 19. The Mayor's Garden Party 236 20. From Ming to Mao 236 "21. The Opium Wars 238 22. The Taiping Rebellion 239 23. The Long March and the People's Republic of China 241 BOOK II CHAPTER I. UPSURGE OF 1959-60 245 1. Two Doleful Prophecies - 245 2. The Reality the Industrial Leap 246 3. The Agricultural Leap 247 4. Cultural Advance 248 5. Swift Progress 248 6. Peking 1959-60 250 7. The Cultural Palace of, Nationalities 250 8. The New Spirit in Construction 252 9. Breaking the Barriers 253 10. Cultivating an Experimental Farm Plot 254 11. Officials Face Facts 255 12. New Codes of Honour 256 13. National People's Congress Hall 257 14. Peking's New Railway Station 260 CHAPTER II. THE AGRICULTURAL EXHIBITION AND THE PEOPLE'S COMMUNES 263 1. The Peoples Communes 263 2. Water Conservancy 263 3. Inventiveness and Creativity 264 4. Deep Ploughing 265 5. Labour Shortage 266 6. Communes Differ from Co-operatives 267 7. Immediate Benefits of the New Communes 268 8. New Family Life in the Communes 269 9. Dining Rooms' and Housing in th$ Communes 270 10. Communism, Not Yet 271 272 11. We Plan Our Programme and Preserve Our ^Precautions 12. Upsurge of the Agricultural Front the Chinese Grass Roots 273 13. Chengtu 274 14. Hungkuang (Red Light) Commune 276 15. How the Commune Grew 277 16. Mutual-Aid Teams 278 17. Then Producers' Co-operatives 279 18. Advanced Co-operatives Pool the Land 279 19. Advanced Co-operatives Merge into One Commune 280 20. Difficulties Faced and Conquered 281 21. We Visit the Commune < 281 22. More Pigs 283 23. The Chinniu (Golden Cattle) Commune 284 24. Hsinmin (New People) Commune 289 25. The Weichu People's Commune 295 26. Chengtu's Beauty and Tu Fu's Poetry 296 CHAPTER III. DEVELOPED RICHES, 1959-60 299 1. Agricultural and Cultural Side-Lines 299 2. Industrial Side-Lines 301 3. China's Urgent Need for Steel 303 4. China's Underground Eiches 304 5. Extensive Oil Resources 304 6. Immense Reserves of Coal and Iron Ore 307 7. Local Search and Farm Furnaces 307 8. Schemes of Organization 309 9. The Wuhan Giant Steel Plant 311 , 10. The Raw Material: Iron Ore at the Tayeh Mines 314 11. Transport in China 315 12. Priority Transport for Steel 317 13. China's New Bridges -the Yangtse Bridge 318 14. The Chungking, Yellow River and Canton Bridges 320 15. Revolution in Technical Machinery 321 16. Training the Workers 325 17.. Loyang Tractor Factory 326 18. Chinese Textile Factories 327 CHAPTER IV. WATER CONTROL AND UTILIZATION 330 1. The Sanmen Gorge 330 2. The Crucial Battle 332 3. T&e Achievement 334 4. Conserving the Snow Waters 335 5. The Mountain Canal 336 6. The Premier and the Miyun Reservoir 336 7. New Plans for the Yangtse Gorges 339 8. New Plans for Even Distribution of Water 340 9. Floods in the South in 1959 341 10. Floods in the North in 1959 342 11. Drought Conquered, 1959 343 12. Deserts 344 13. Pushing Back the Desert Sands 345 14. A Great Wall of Trees 347 CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS 349 1. Emancipated Womanhood 349 2. The Girl Crew of Express No. 12 351 3. Chen Builds a Road 353 4. Chinese Education in 1960 353 5. Agricultural Middle School 355 6. Higher. Education: Peking University 356 7. Workers* Spare-Time Education 358 8. Art in Ancient China: The Dragon Gate of the Buddhas; the Neolithic Village 358 9. Some Personalities: Mr. Chen Yi, Vice-Premier and Foreign Minister 360 10. Bishop Ting 362 11. An Evening with Anna Louise Strong, Rewi Alley and Others 364 12. Summary and Conclusions 365 366 13. Spiritual Horizons . POSTSCRIPT 371 PREFACE After relinquishing his high post on the League of Nations and before settling down to his Scottish estate, Lord Boyd Orr paid a visit to Canterbury. Before he left, knowing my in- terest in China, he said, "Talking lately to two young Amer- icans I remarked, 'When I was your age, Great Britain was top of the world. I have lived to see the crest travel west- wards; now you are top; but I can add with all confidence that, when you reach my age, the crest will have travelled still further westwards; China will be top of the world."' More than likely Boyd Orr is right for China, with her im- mense and rapidly increasing population and now standing/ upright on her feet after a century of subjugation, advances with giant strides, marching side by side with Russia, both ideologically and physically.