212
AN AGGRIEVED HUSBAND'S
REVENGE,
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
[March 19, 1898.
conservative country of the world! The pre-recent war between China and Japan, there sont dynasty has already had a longer tenure is B curious error. It is there stated than the majority of its predecessors, and the that the events of 1884 in Seoul
A jealons husband attempted to murder his young Emperor Kwang Su must have misgivings people of Japan beyond mesensed the
wife in a house at No. 2, Tung Man Lane, on Wednesday night. He had suspicions that she was unfaithful, and on going to his bedroom at seven o'clock he saw convincing proof of the fact. The lover bolted through the skylight on to the roof and the angry husband picked up a knife, stabbed his wife on the head and also cut her hand, and then followed the lover through the skylight, leaving the guilty wife on the bed bleeding severely. The pursuit was quickly out short, as the infuriated husband in his haste to capture his rival rolled off the roof and fell plump on the top of a young postman who was passing, down the
But for the postman being in the way the husband would have been killed, as the pavement was made of granite blocks. The poor postman suffered more bodily injury than the husband and they were both despatched to the hospital by the police. The woman's wounds were temporarily dressed and she was also sent to the hospital, and the trio are now detained there. Detective Inspector Hanson is enquiring into the matter, but as yet the lover has not deemed it prudent to show himself, although it is only as a witness that he is wanted.
REVIEWS.
that the time is approaching when the famous iron chest containing the records of his dynasty will be opened and its contents made public, not a pleasant subject of contemplation for a monarch whose reign falls in the period of deca- dence and disgrace. The recent historical records of China, if written with that honesty which Mr. Macgowan claims for them, must be mainly records of humiliation and defeat. The sup- pression of the Taiping and Mahomedan Re- bellions and the reconquest of Kasgaria will no doubt be set down as heroic achievements, but these were domestic affairs and will not avail to blot out the humiliation and loss of territory to which the Empire has been subjected in its dealings with foreign Powers by reason of the ignorant self-conceit and arrogance of its rulers. Mr. Macgowan says he has not attempted to give a literal translation of the Chinese his tory, his aim being rather to produce as faith fully as possible the very thoughts and images of the Chinese historians. Those portions of it that would have no interest for the English reader have been omitted." The work of con- densation might, we think, have been carried a little further with advantage. In the earlier portion we are presented with material from which history, in the popular sense, should be written, rather than with the finished history itself. Names, dates, and events are set down in arid sequence, but their bearing on the life of the people the reader is left for the most part
to search out for himself. But the official his-
The author has not
Un-
A History of China, from the Earliest Days down to the Present. By Rev. J. Macgowan, London Missionary Society. Shanghai: Printed by the Presbyterian Mission Press. torical records of China are, as Mr. Macgowan 1897. (Hongkong: W. Brewer & Co.) Mr. MACGOWAN's work deserves a hearty wel- says, concerned mostly about wars and conquests and court intrigues. Hence as a complete his- come from all who are interested in the history tory of the nation they are unsatisfying, and of China. The method he has adopted in its require to be supplemented from other sources. compilation is explained in the preface. The The most interesting section of the book before volume professes to give the history of China
us is naturally the last one, dealing with the in a form that is new to the English reader. It is not a compilation gathered from all kinds period of the Tsing dynasty, which is brought of sources, but a reproduction, from the original, to the close of the war with Japan and the
conquest of Formosa. of the Standard History of China. That the allowed himself to be biassed by his clerical native history is on the whole a reliable one, calling, even upon such a controversial mat- Mr. Macgowan says, we have no reason to
ter as the opium question, which he treats with doubt, especially when we consider the system judicial impartiality. While it may be inferred that was adopted to protect the writers of that Mr. MacGowan personally disapproves of it, so that they might tell the most unpleas- the opium traffic, in his review of the events ant truths without any fear of risk to them-leading up to the first war he says:- selves. Ever since the Han dynasty (B,C. 206- fortunately the Imperial Government at Peking A.D. 25) historians have been appointed to had not taken a decided position on the question, write the history of their times, and no one but
The statesmen there were divided into two themselves has been allowed to look
upon what
parties. One was for legalising the drug, has been recorded. There have been times when
and the other was for total exclusion a ruler has attempted to coerce them to reveal
from the country. It is a fact worthy of what they have written about himself, but they have been willing to suffer death rather than betray the trust committed to them. The con- sequence has been that the writers have been able to write impartially when they were com- pelled to write some story to the discredit of an Emperor, or of some powerful statesman, or that reflected dishonour upon the nation. As each do- cument was written it was deposited in an iron chest, which remained locked until the dynasty had ceased to rule. The box was then opened by command of some sovereign of the next, when all the documents it contained were handed over to the royal historians, who proceeded from them to write the history of the dynasty that had passed away. The story of the Manchu dynasty, being still concealed within the recesses of the historical chest, has not been available in the preparation of this history, and other sources of information have had to be relied
проп.
This iron chest, a veritable memento mori to
each succeeding dynasty, is one of those singu. lar institutions of the Chinese Empire that show the contradictory and well-nigh incom- prehensible characteristics of the race. In other countries of monarchical institutious it is al- ways assumed that the reigning dynasty is se- curely fixed, and even where it is felt that their rule is shaky no official. admission to that effect is made. Theoretically a dynasty is regarded as
note that neither of these looked at
the subject from a moral point of view." Elsewhere he says:-" Although the war was unquestionably the result of the refusal of the Chinese officials to recognise the English as
anything but tributary to their Emperors, there is no doubt but that the mandarins who were present at the signing of the treaty all believed that the real cause of it was the opium traffic." The opium traffic was undoubtedly the proximate cause of the war, but the real cause was, as Mr. Macgowan says, the refusal of the
any Chinese to recognise the English as thing but a tributary nation. It is only people who are incapable of looking beneath the surface that can be content to accept the as correctly describ- title of "the opinion war ing our first conflict with China. Mr. Macgo- wan is equally sound on the audience question. Referring to the first reception of the foreign ambassadors by the Emperor Kwang Su be Bays:-"It is inconceivable to all students of allowed herself to be insulted by the Chinese in Chinese history why England should have their demanding that her representative should appear in a building which had been specially reserved for the reception of men that were bringing tribute to the Chinese Emperor as their over-load." England's unfortunate atti- tude on this question had much to do with the loss of prestige from which she suffered for 80 attitude taken up by France and Russia mater- ially assisted in promoting the influence of
that they
loudly cried for war, and that the Mikado's deciding for peace "led to the Satsuma Re.. bellion. The Satsuma Rebellion occurred in 1877, that is, seven years before the events which Mr. Macgowan says led up to it. The mistake has evidently arisen from an error in making or copying notes. The Rebellion in question was in part due to the moderation of the Mikado's policy in reference to Korea, but the particular events to which that policy - applied were long anterior to those men- tioned by Mr. Macgowan. This is the only error of importance we have noticed, and we can cordially recommend Mr. Macgowan's his- tory both as a work of reference and, as regards the latter portion of it, interesting and instructive narrative of modern events in China. There is no obtrusion of the missionary question, in fact it seems tó, have been rather unduly kept in the background, and in the index we do not find even the word "mis- sionary." It is only in the concluding lines that there is any special reference to the evangelisa- tion of China, and it occurs there in a connec- tion that will command respect, if not universal assent. We quote the whole paragraph:-
4
Our history is now finished. We began in the gloom and mist of those remote and ancient times where myth and legend struggled with each other, and where the light of authentic history had not yet penetrated. By and by we saw the historic figures that fill so large a space in the Chinese annals, come forth and take their place in the story of this people, and then kings, and queens, and princes, and statesmen
and famous generals, some whose names shall
shine with perpetual honour, and others that to the end of time. We have told the story of shall have everlasting infamy heaped upon them how the nation has grown from a small begin- ning to be a mighty empire, and how through the indomitable energy and perseverance of its the tribes and peoples that lay along its borders, people it has not only conquered and subdued
but also absorbed its conquerors and turned them into Chinamen and made their country an integral part of China, The Chinese are an imperial race, and can hold their own physically
They
The
in the face of any other in the world. their great powers pointed out as belonging to bave, however, failed to fulfil the destiny that them. They are proud and haughty and con- temptuous of all other nationalities. educated and uneducated alike are the slaves of the grossest superstitions, that not only affect. them in their every-day life, but have also been by closing as if with the hand of fate the the means of retarding the national prosperity
mineral wealth of the country. Education, in the proper sense of the term, does not, and has never existed in China, and the people of every class, from the highest to the lowest, are as immoral and corrupt as the pages of this history show they were two thousand years ago. If there is one thing taught more plainly than another in this story of China it is that no nation that has not a knowledge and reverence for God can ever become truly great, and that without morality, though it may be powerful and extensive, its life will be honey-combed and sapped by vices and failings that shall eat into the national prosperity and cause it to fail in all the great purposes for which it exists as a nation. The time of China's purification and regeneration will come when Christianity shall become the dominant force in its life as idolatry has been in the past."
:
Under the Dragon Flag. My Experiences in the Chino-Japanese War. By JAMES ALLAN, London: William Heinemann, 1898. THIS book purports to be a record of the writer's personal experiences during the mem- orable war between China and Japan. The writer has, however, drawn largely on his im- agination for his "experiences," a great part
destined to continue for ever, or, should it expire for want of issue, to be peacefully long, and on the other hand the more dignified of the book being pure fiction. The writer
succeeded by a collateral family. But in China it would seem to be officially reognised and taken as a matter of course that a time must come when each succeeding dynasty will be forcibly overthrown. And this in the most
those Powers.
In a footnote on page 595, in explana
that led up to the tion of the
causes
до doubt BBW a good deal of the war and so is able to give an air of reality to what he writes, but to present such fiction to the world as sober history is a transaction that does not square with morality,