December 7, 1908.]
WESTERN EDUCATION IN CHINA,
(Daily Press, 30th November.)
We
Many
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT
youths It might on the contrary, and perhaps with far more justice, be said to show that the moral side of their education had not been neglected, and that they had learnt to hate injustice and evil in all its forms with a burning hate. CHANG CHIH TONG when he wrote his plea for the encouragement of Western learning was as fully alive to the importance of moral training as is any educationist anywhere, and it cannot be said that the ethical side of education is neglected in Japan. The writer we have quoted goes so far as to say that the future of the country will turn on the issue of the struggle between the force of revolution inspired by non-moral Western learning" and the force of order. progress inspired by Christian ideals. By which of these is Dr. SUN YAT SEN inspired ?
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PEACE IN THE PACIFIC.
It will be generally admitted that ther are few men in China in a better position to offer an opinion on the educational progress of the country thau are the missionaries who are scatter d over the whole Empire and whose business inevitably brings them into close touch with the educational move. ment. Their contributions to our knowledge on this subject ar always interesting and, #o far as actual facts are related, they can hardly fail to be instructive; but cannot say the same of many of the opinions they deduce from their facts. When CHANG CHIH TUNG, nine or ten years ago, published his notable plea for the popularising in China of Western learning in the arts and sciences, and advocated the sending of students abroad to study, he suggested sending them e-pecially to Japan. thousands of selected Chinese students have
(Daily Press, 1st December.) pas d through the schools and colleges of The agrement that Japan a d the United Japan during the last decade, and the States have eutered into, amounting education they have received apparently virtually to an alliance for the maintenance fills the missionaries with dismay. Scarcely of the status quo in the Pacific as well as in an article is writte or speech made China, is one of those surprises which the by a missionary on the educational que astute statesmen of Japan apparently delight tion which does not express concern in springing upon a suspecting world on the subject. It is a dismay cle rly from time to time. Nowhere, we imagine, horn of prejudice. The complaint is that will the surprise be greater than in America the education mparted in Japan is entire itself where the New York Herald has for ly practical; that there is no "decidedly months past been telling the nation that relig ous influence" in the schools, and Japan is the natural enemy of the United consequently the education received is Stat a as well as of China, and that it is calculated to raise up strenuous opposition the plan duty of the American Govern- to existing order and methods of government to enter into an alliance with China ment." Can that be considered a highly by way of checking the aggressiveness of immoral result of education? Is it Japan. It is not at all unlikely that the not the natural result of education; agreement now announced is the direct whether with or without the de- cidedly religious influence ? If CHANG CHIE TUNG did not intend Western edu a tion ti have that result, his plea for its encouragement was meaningless. Among the Chinese,” he wrote, "there is no incentive to thought or action,
**strenuous
21
Was
*
That too may
outcome of this campaign of slander. The Japanese Government were admitedly much annoyed and it is no secret that letters passed between the two Governments breathing sentiments of the utmost friend. liness and regard. What more natural and the condi-han that this compact should result? When the Anglo-Japanese agreement under discussion in the House of Commons the Under Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the day made the memorable announcement that "We do not seek alliances; we grant them." be regarded as America's attitude, and it is practically certain that this is an agree- ment of Japan's own seeking, in order to dispel in the most effective manner the suspicion in the minds of the American public regarding her aims in China and the The ticence which has been Pacific. joung
maintained on the subject on both sides of the Pacific during the progress of the negotiations is, under the circumstances, somewhat remarkable, and has led to some strange inferences. A telegram which reached Japan last week froin Berlin reported the rumour that the agreement had referepce to a dynastic change in Chin
a report which seems to have provoked a denial from the Government of Japa in such terms as to convey the impression that no negotiations whatever were in progr. as. We must now assume that the denial covered only the rum ur regarding the character of the negociations. Though the precise terme of the agreem at are not yet officially, announcel, the bare statement that the agreement is in the interests of peaceful development in the Pacific, is/one of the best guarantees of peace that th world can have. England, Japan, Germa y France, Russia and the United States are all now definitely pledged to defend the maintenance of the status quo in the Far East, and, so far as international strife is
tion of things ha become stagnant and effete. Effeteness has begotten stupidity, and stupidity lethargy; lethargy has produced idleness and idleness waste. Again: "If we do not cha ge soon, what will become of us? Furopean knowledge will increase more and more, and Chin e stupidity will become more denge." If that is not a call for opp sition to the existing order of things what does it mean? Happily the Government has recognis d the need for radical reform of the exist ing order of thi gs and these men who have been chosen to receive 20 education abroad are destined to be largely employed in carring out this great under aking. We have no difficulty in believing that Chinese whe acquire Western learning at homo are as a class more docile and les impatient than those who have seen with their own but eyes the fruits of that learning abroad; we are hardly pparel to accept the stat ment that they are better men and better citizens because they have not been abroad, It is natural to expect that the young en who have studie ! in more
advance countries, and are consequently better able to appreciate what has to be acc mplished in China before this great Empire can enter the emity of nations, should be m re impatient and more stre uous in their oppositin to the existing order of things. The missionary whose observations we have in mind in pena ng these few comments puts all the sir nuousness and impatience down to an assumed absence of religious influence in the educational training of these
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concerned, we can surely say that peace is absolutely assured. The agreement just concluded between Japan and the United States will be welcomed everywhere with satisfaction, for there has undoubtedly been a growing disposition to regard a war between Japan and the United States as inevitable, and much significance has been attached to the decision on the part of the United States to fortify and garrison the Hawaiian islands, and to strengthen the defences of the Pacific slope. But so far as this is inspired by fear of Japanese aggression,' tie calm student of affaire can well believe that it is all a delusion. Japan is not seeking further worlds to conquer. She has quite as much territory as she can affor the means to develop and her intereste for many years must lie in the maintenance S of peace and in the development of her industries, trade and commerce.
THE POSITION AT PEKI G.
(Daily Press, December 2nd.) The new Government at Peking, whatever may eventually prove to be its line of policy, has certainly, up to the present, dis- played no lack of administrative efficiency, and the new reign starts with all the prestige of having surmounted the formidable ini- tiatory difficulties attending a succession in the East, without a single false stop. Indee the very first act of the new alministration
ay
the arrest of the interfering eunuchs whose Court influence had been the baue of the latter days of the late Dowager Tss Hi, was one well calculated to show that the incom- iug Rezeny we'l understood that first. principle of successful government-the necessity of striking n early and decisive blow, before those e ements of disorder that hang about a new accession had time to mature their plots. The prompiness with which the reiguing title for the new monarch was announced was a clear indication that all eventu ilities had been well considered befor hand, and the title itself, Sun Tung which may be paraphrased 'Keep moving," was probably intended, as it has been inle prete, to be an indication that promptitude and decisi a are meant to be the watchwords of the new égime; and that the principles of reformed administration, paraded, but not acted on, during the late reign, are really intended to be made fea-
As tures of the new régime.
we have frequently observed these doctrines of the responsibility of sover igus and ministers to the will of the nat on at large are of no modern growth in China. They were pro- mulgated with no uncertain sound as long ago as the period, of the early Sages, and have over formel an important part of the constitutional law of the Empire. A cer- lain disciple of MENC US is represented as thus addressing him :-" May I venture to ask regarding the presentation to heaven, and heave.'s accepta ce,-low it was laid before the people; accepted by them"? The tacher replied:-" The rulers were cou missioned to 8 crifice, and the hosts of spirits received the offerings: this represented heaven's acceptauce. Again, the rulers were- commissi ned to take in hand the affairs. of government; when they ruled correctly, the people were at peace: this indicated the people's acceptance, As with heaven, so with the people Therefore it is said, the
'ientse in dealing with the State cannot act merely as an individual." The inference to be drawn is that in his relations with the Empire, the ruler has higher duties to per- form than those of a mere man, and must always bear in mind, that while his authority
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