The Problem of China on Superphysics

Higher Education In China

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

China, like Italy and Greece, is frequently misjudged by persons of culture because they regard it as a museum. The preservation of ancient beauty is very important, but no vigorous forward-looking man is content to be a mere curator.

Industrialism In China

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

China is as yet only slightly industrialized, but the industrial possibilities of the country are very great, and it may be taken as nearly certain that there will be a rapid development throughout the next few decades. China’s future depends as much upon the manner of this development as upon any other single factor; and China’s difficulties are very largely connected with the present industrial situation. I will therefore first briefly describe this situation, and then consider the possibilities of the near future.

Questions

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The Ruler of the Southern Ocean was Shû (Heedless), the Ruler of the Northern Ocean was Hû (Sudden), and the Ruler of the Centre was Chaos. Shû and Hû were continually meeting in the land of Chaos, who treated them very well. They consulted together how they might repay his kindness, and said, “Men all have seven orifices for the purpose of seeing, hearing, eating, and breathing, while this poor Ruler alone has not one. Let us try and make them for him.” Accordingly they dug one orifice in him every day; and at the end of seven days Chaos died.—[Chuang Tze, Legge’s translation.]

The 3 Requisites for China

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

1. The establishment of an orderly government

At the moment of writing, the condition of China is as anarchic as it has ever been.

A battle between Chang-tso-lin and Wu-Pei-Fu is imminent.

The Chinese Character

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

There is a theory among Occidentals that the Chinaman is inscrutable, full of secret thoughts, and impossible for us to understand. It may be that a greater experience of China would have brought me to share this opinion; but I could see nothing to support it during the time when I was working in that country. I talked to the Chinese as I should have talked to English people, and they answered me much as English people would have answered a Chinese whom they considered educated and not wholly unintelligent. I do not believe in the myth of the “Subtle Oriental”: I am convinced that in a game of mutual deception an Englishman or American can beat a Chinese nine times out of ten. But as many comparatively poor Chinese have dealings with rich white men, the game is often played only on one side. Then, no doubt, the white man is deceived and swindled; but not more than a Chinese mandarin would be in London.

The Outlook For China

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

In this chapter I take the standpoint of a progressive and public-spirited Chinese and consider what reforms I should advocate.

China must be saved by her own efforts. It cannot rely on outside help.

China Before The 19th Century

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Where the Chinese came from is a matter of conjecture.

Their early history is known only from their own annals, which throw no light upon the question.

The Shu-King, one of the Confucian classics (edited, not composed, by Confucius), begins, like Livy, with legendary accounts of princes whose virtues and vices are intended to supply edification or warning to subsequent rulers. Yao and Shun were two model Emperors, whose date (if any) was somewhere in the third millennium B.C. “The age of Yao and Shun,” in Chinese literature, means what “the Golden Age” mean with us. It seems certain that, when Chinese history begins, the Chinese occupied only a small part of what is now China, along the banks of the Yellow River. They were agricultural, and had already reached a fairly high level of civilization—much higher than that of any other part of Eastern Asia.

China And The Western Powers

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

In order to understand the international position of China, some facts concerning its nineteenth-century history are indispensable.

China was for many ages the supreme empire of the Far East, embracing a vast and fertile area, inhabited by an industrious and civilized people.

Modern China

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The position of China among the nations of the world is quite peculiar, because in population and potential strength China is the greatest nation in the world, while in actual strength at the moment it is one of the least. The international problems raised by this situation have been brought into the forefront of world-politics by the Washington Conference. What settlement, if any, will ultimately be arrived at, it is as yet impossible to foresee.

Japan Before The Restoration

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For modern China, the most important foreign nation is Japan. In order to understand the part played by Japan, it is necessary to know something of that country, to which we must now turn our attention.

Modern Japan

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Modern Japan is unique, not only in this age, but in the history of the world.

It combines elements which most Europeans would have supposed totally incompatible, and it has realized an original plan to a degree hardly known in human affairs.

Japan And China Before 1914

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Before going into the detail of Japan’s policy towards China, it is necessary to put the reader on his guard against the habit of thinking of the “Yellow Races,” as though China and Japan formed some kind of unity.

Japan And China During The War

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The most urgent problem in China’s relations with foreign powers is Japanese aggression. Originally Japan was less powerful than China, but after 1868 the Japanese rapidly learnt from us whatever we had to teach in the way of skilful homicide, and in 1894 they resolved to test their new armaments upon China, just as Bismarck tested his on Denmark.

The Washington Conference

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The Washington Conference was between the Chinese and Japanese. It has somewhat modified the Far Eastern situation.

The general aspects of the new situation will be dealt with in the next chapter; for the present it is the actual decisions arrived at in Washington that concern us, as well as their effect upon the Japanese position in Siberia.

Present Forces And Tendencies In The Far East

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The Far Eastern situation is so complex. It is very difficult to guess what will be the ultimate outcome of the Washington Conference. It is still more difficult to know what outcome we should want.

Japan

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Japan’s relations with the Powers are not of her own seeking; all that Japan asked of the world was to be let alone. This, however, did not suit the white nations, among whom America led the way. It was a United States squadron under Commodore Perry that first made Japan aware of Western aggressiveness.

Chinese And Western Civilization Contrasted

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

There is at present in China, as we have seen in previous chapters, a close contact between our civilization and that which is native to the Celestial Empire. It is still a doubtful question whether this contact will breed a new civilization better than either of its parents, or whether it will merely destroy the native culture and replace it by that of America.