December 11, 1905,]
year. I cannot give this as an absolute fact, however. Moreover, comparison of statistical figures is often misleading--owing perhaps to different basis of working. It is recognised that the trade of Hongkong is small in propor- tion to the traffle in and out, as so many vessels merely call in."
We may add that Mr. Maher might have given the tonnage pre-eminence as an absolute fact, for our recently published figures were taken from Board of Trade Blue-book No. 297 (Aug. '05).
NEGOTIATION WITH CHINA THREE CENTURIES AGO.
80
At the present moment, when such important stage has been reached in the relations between China, Korea, and Japan, it is interesting to turn back to the negotiations which took place between the thres countries in the closing years of the sixteenth century, and note the position occupied by each Power. Then, as now, a great war had been waged. for which the relations of Korea to ber neighbours had provided the necessary exonse. Hideyoshi having long cherished designs upon China, remarked to the Korean envoys apropos
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
Eventually the Korean Government appointed an ambassador to accompany the Chinese envoy on his visit to Japan to invest Hideyoshi as as King. All this time Hid-yoshi had been kept quite ignorant of the steps taken by Konishi to bring about peace, and he received the crown and robe presented to him graciously.
very His disgust when he called two learned priests to explain the patent of investiture may be imagined when its contents are considered. Konishi had first had a private interview with the priests, and urged them to modify the language of the document, but they appear to have declined, for Hideyoshi was faithfully placed in possession of its terms. The document is too long to give here in fall, but its general purport may be gathered from the following paragraph:
of the death of the infant son born to him in his old
When reflect that the life of age,
one hundred years, why man is less than shoul
spend
my days in sorrow for one thing only I will assemble a mighty host, and, invading the country of the great Ming, I will fill with the hoar-frost from my sword the whole sky over the four hundred provinces. Should I carry out this purpose, I hope that Korea will be my van. guard. Let her not fail to do
80, for my friendship with your honourable country depends solely on your conduct when I lead my army against China." In those days it was China who was regarded as the enemy. ussia was unknown, for the earliest explorer had not. yet ventured seross the trackless wastes which separated the country of the Muscovites from the Pacific shores. Korea, loyal to China, did not see why a way should be afforded the islanders with which to attack her suzerain, and so the King of Korea replied "What talk is this of our joining you against China? From the earliest times we have followed law and right. From within and from without, all lands are subject to China. The relations which have subsisted between us are those of
parent and child. This you well know. Can we desert both Emperor and parent and join with you?" Needless to say, the answer did not satisfy Hideyoshi, who before many years had passed launched a mighty army against Korea, which, uniformly successful at first eventually found its position seriously threatened by the superiority of the Koreans at sea, who effectually out the Japanese communications, and the growth of a spirit of resistance among the Kores country people, who began to inflict serious damage upon the Japanese by a guerilla warfare. The Japanese would probably have been annihilated or starved out had the Koreans not been led to rely less on their own efforts than on those of the Chinese army sent to their assistance.
You, Toyotomi Taira Hideyoshi, having established an Island Kingdom and kuowing the west an envoy, and with gladness and affection offered your allegiance. On the north you knocked at the barrier of ten thousand and earnestly requested to be admitted within our dominions. Your mind is already confirmed in reverent submissiveness. How can we grudge our favour to such great meekness? We do of King of Japan, and to that intent issue that therefore specially invest you with the dignity
our commission. Treasure it up carefully. Over the sea we send you a crown and robe, so that you may follow our ancient custom as respects dress. Faithfully defend the froutier worthily of your position as of the empire; let it be your duty to act practice moderation and self-restraint; cherish our minister; gratitude for the Imperial favour so boun. fully bestowed upon you change not your fid-lity be humbly guided by our admonitions; Respect this! continue always to follow our instructions.
the reverence due to the Central Land, sent to
After the failure of his first attempt Hideyo- shi was willing to make peace if China would grant certain concessions, among which is the curiously modern demand that a port, Ningpo, should be opened to trade. Owing to the diplomacy" of a Japanese envoy named Konishi Hida no Kami, the Chinese Court appears to have obtained the idea that Hideyoshi
was anxious to make his submission. The Koreans were therefore told that no further assistance would be afforded them by China, and they reluctantly consented to make peace at a moment when victory seemed to be in their own hands. Konishi, who had meanwhile been de- tained in Liaotung, was now permitted to proceed to Peking where he gave his solemn adhesion to the three articles of peace-China to grant investitue to Hideyoshi as King of Japan; all Japanese to leave Korea; the Japanese never again to invade the peninsula. The last two items curiously recall the conditions of the Treaty of Peace recently negotiated between Russia and Japan, by which Russia agrees to evacuate Manchuria.
But the letter of instructions with which the patent of investiture was accompanied was still more pronounced in its terms, for in it Hideyoshi was most severely lectured for his past conduct. Here is an extract :-
411
and a half, it is evident that Japan has obtained her preponderating influence in the qualities, about which we hear so much at the Far East not so much by certain inuale present day, but by a Revolution fortuitous moment which enabled the pro- gressive forces to come into play and Japan to avail herself of the new knowledge of the West.-Japan Chronicle.
at a
HOW TO “DON CHINA THOUGH
IN HONGKONG.
John Chinaman at Home, by the Rev. E. J
HARDY, author of "How to be happy though Married" London. T. Fisher Unwin. Hongkong Kelly & Walsh, Ld. 4s.
:
The Rev. Mr. Hardy says he came to China with the hope of gaining distinction by not been wittier if it had been true. writing a book about it. This would have It is very evident that the author lost no chance of noting the thousand and one little things of everyday that we see but do not observe" bere, that he was a diligent collector of scraps of knowledge. chiefly anecdotal and humorous, and that, in short, if he did actually mean to refrain from
mind. writing of what he saw, he soon changed his We may as well say, before coming to the critical part of our work, that we are glad be did. His book is a bargain at four shillings, crammed with good things. But we hope readers will not take all they find in it for gospel. The author has the habit, excusable in exaggeration, and even of fibbing to score a anyone not wearing his cloth, of humorons
point.
i
He
"You
The first chapter is about Hongkong, which he dubs "a sort of cosmopolitan Clapham June- tion." Every funny story that was told him at the Mess table (do army chaplains sit at Mess ?; he seems to have jotted down at once, with the result that we meet some very old friends, He harps upon Hongkong's love of scandal, and gives the impression that a reputation is torn to shreds every time a tram climbs the Peak. "You, Taira Hideyoshi of Japan, lately says: "If you live on the Peak your clothes made war on Korea, a country which for two rot; if you live below, you rot. True, some hundred years has been tributary to this escape with their lives, but they will probably Empire. The Koreans having appealed to us
have lost first their teeth, then their hearing. in their distress, our indignation flamed forth, and then their minds." That, we hope, is and we dispatched a body of troops to their humorous exaggeration. assistance. But it was against our real wishes man reading Chinese characters on the front of A lady observed a to resort to bloodshed, and when your general
a silver belt which she was wearing. Toyotomi Yukinaga sent his messenger Fuji-understand the language" she said,
80 do wara Yakiyasu (Kouishi Hida no Kami) to tell me the literal meaning of these characters. explain the reason of your sending an expedition I am told they stand for happiness." With and making war, viz., that it arose in the shy hesitation the Chinese scholar answered, first place from your desire to request investiture from this Empire, that had asked Korea to prefer this petition on thrown obstacles in the way, and your behalf but that that country had would not consent to communicate to 13 your wishes.
This you said had excited your opposi tion and was the cause of troubling the Celestial troops. You showed regret for your error, and retired, giving up the royal capital of Korea and sending back the captured prines and grandees. You also presented a respectful memorial embodying the above mentioned request."
you
After recapitulating at length the facts of the late war as they appeared to China, the instructions thus concluded:-
Respectfully follow our commands; let there be no deviation from them. Severe is the glance precepts. Respect this!" of Heaven: resplendently bright are the Royal
Hideyoshi's rage was unbounded. Konishi narrowly escaped losing his head, and the Korean and Chinese envoys were for a time in considerable danger. The war in due course was resumed, but Hideyoshi never attained his bject of invading the country of the great Ming, as he failed with his efforts to subdue the peninsular kingdom which stood in his way. It is interesting to recall this historical incident and compare the situation with the relations China, Korea, and Japan bear to each other after the passing of three centuries. Japan, with a population of forty millions, now in effot decides the policy of the three hundred millious of China and Korea. And when is is recalled that little change took place in the relations of the three Powers for the space of more
than two centuries
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They may mean that indirectly, but the literal translation of what is on the clasp of your belt is Distended with food,' That is a welcome meeting with an old friend. So is the statement that "houses, servants, and food cost about double what they did a dozen years ago." The happy style of the author is typified in the remark that
The Governor, the two Admirals, the General, and the Chief Justice lead society, and the Bishop blesses their doings as far as he conscientiously can." Then follows the stale talk of the social distinction between the Services and Com. merce, the "
dollar-lackers" and the "dollar- snatchers." There is, we say, a society that neither of those nick. are happy to
names fits, and it is the snobs who have the keenest nose for snobbery. (Honestly, that was not meant for the author.) One of his humorous exaggerations is that age and awkwardness at games are considered here unpardonable sins.“ The author took trips as occasion offered to Canton, Macao, Shang. hai, and even Tientsin and Peking, and the result is a collection of obser- vations and traveller's tales, such 88 We all put into letters Home, only, ours, of course, are not so wittily written. It seems to us rather stupid to say of Shanghai that “it is the Paris of China, and many young men are ruined by its attractions," or that it is a place distinguished by "the vices of foreigners." Also,
Europeans pride themselves ignoring old Shanghai, and think it is bad on stupidly form to visit it.” We heard nothing about bad form, but much about bad smells. Except for those who "want to say I've seen it, you know," or those who are going to write a book, there is little to be gained by penetrating native/
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