Chapter XXXI: Awakened Interest in America 567 (3)

By November 29th the lack of money was thinning the lines of the rebel forces, and Dictator Yuan, at Peking, was growing in strength with small foreign loans and arms from Russia, Japan and Germany. The rebels, at Wu Ting Fang’s suggestion, in desperation, threatened to boycott the commerce of any nation making loans to the Manchu government, and a German compradore was shot down at Hankau as he was in the act of delivering arms over to the imperialists. The Manchu Tsai princes sold their art treasures for arms. The rebels melted the idols of the nation to make coin. In accord with the protocol of 1901, America now formally offered the Peking government 2,500 troops to assist in keeping the railway from Peking to Tientsin open to the sea. The Japanese had already landed their quota of this foreign force. Naturally the rebels looked on this landing of foreign troops in the Manchu section of the country as, to a degree, foreign aid to the Manchus, as it increased their prestige and sources of advice in the north. More subtle forces than those of arms began to work now on some of the rebel leaders, and the cause lapsed into darker days because of the lack of money. Dictator Yuan, in Peking, was exultant, and said to one member of the legations: “I give the rebellion eight more days to live; I expect to have 100,000 modern troops and a railway.” Professor E. H. Parker, the eminent sinologue, now of Manchester University, England, when a British consul in Korea, wrote of “Yuan’s Machiavellian character” in his book, _John Chinaman_. Even some of the Manchus agreed in the cry of the rebels: “Yuan is making himself dictator; he may seek the throne; he may split off Northern China; Peking is too near Russian Siberia.” He had sent the Manchu troops away from Peking, and gathered his old divisions (like Cæsar with his Thirteenth Legion) of Shangtung and Honan troops around him.

Yuan appealed to the provinces to send delegates to Peking to discuss a constitution, but the rebel provinces replied: “No National Assembly can discuss constitutional government with freedom while your troops, pounding their rifle stocks, stand at the door; remember the Parliaments of King Charles.” The rebels cried: “If Yuan and the Manchus win now, it is foreign money that does it. Why can’t we get foreign money; we’re the overwhelming majority of the people.” Some of the foreign governments replied: “We are only interested in trade and order; we can’t wait for you to fight this out, and possibly kill some of our missionaries; you must win quickly or we’ll stand by the powers that be.” The rebels replied: “Cromwell and Washington, Thiers and Grant didn’t win quickly, and if you let us lose now, we’ll fight it out again. You can’t withstand the constitutional rights of 400 million people for the sake of a dynasty of raiders, who seized and entrenched their throne with five million subsidized cavalrymen, who have now grown effete by subsidy. We are opposed to entrenched privilege just as much as you are. In Roosevelt’s words: ‘The land has got to be as good for all of us as it is for some of us.’ These minority Manchus must cease to usurp office, pensions, privileges and concession granting. We of the south are taxed without representation. If America could go to war with this as a cause, why can’t we?”

Yuan, under certain foreign advice, planned to throw a bridge across the Yangtze River at Hankau, and get his railway down into the heart of the southern rebel provinces. He believed in quick facilities for throwing his modern troops against uprisings, for his railway from Peking to Hankau had won him the present turn in the tide of affairs by enabling him to flank the long rebel lines. Oh! at this time, some cried, for an emperor warrior of the real Chinese, a descendant of the Mings; a descendant of the house of Confucius (the Duke Kungs); or a Washington-like president of a Chinese republic, who could get foreign loans. This was the cry that was arising against the return of the Manchu ghost, and the ominous shadow of a dictator. However, something had been won. The agitation and the battles had taught the sweet themes of deathless liberty and a new Chinese nationalism to thousands who had been supine, provincial, or anarchistic in their despair. It was recalled that Tau Sze Tung, the reformer and son of a Hupeh governor, who was beheaded in 1898, said on his way to the place of execution: “Martyrdom must always precede revolution; shall I not be the first martyr?” Liberty is never defeated, for each time she falls she makes her conqueror concede something, for she only falls to her knees and rises again. The reactionary empress dowager, Tse Hsi, after her victory in 1898, conceded reforms from 1900 to 1908, and it would be so with her successors, perhaps, after this lesson of protest. A plan was laid by some foreign bankers, and some Chinese, that if the republican government was not a success, a direct descendant of Confucius, one Kung, an American Presbyterian Christian of Shangtung province, would be backed for the throne in the hope that the Chinese race would flock to his banner.

On November 28th, 29th and 30th, the rebels, under Generals Hsu and Ling, made a master effort on their right wing, for which purpose they had weakened their left wing, allowing the two Hankau cities to go. The Canton bomb throwing levies and artillerymen went into battle singing this new hymn to Liberty, which is certainly rugged poetry of merit:

“Freedom will work on this earth,
Great as a giant rising to the skies,
Come, Liberty, because of the black hell of our slavery,
Come enlighten us with a ray of thy sun.

“Behold the woes of our fatherland.
Other men are becoming all kings.
Can we forget what our people are suffering?
China the Great is as an immense desert.

“We are working to open a new age in China;
All real men are calling for a new heaven and a new earth.
May the soul of the people rise as high as Kwangtung’s highest peak
(Nan Mountain);
Spirit of Freedom, lead, protect us.”

Nanking was attached in force. The American navy withdrew, while the small rebel navy of fifteen vessels, under the protection of captured forts holding back free play of the Lion fort guns, moved up within range to support the wide rebel attack of fifteen miles frontage. It will be remembered that General Chang the Second, of the imperialists, held some of the peaks of Purple Hill outside the northeast walls, and Yuwatei fort on the south, and nearly all the city. The rebels took the Tiger Hill fort and four of the northwest gates and forts, after bombardment by the Cantonese, sapping, and a spirited rush. Then Purple Hill and Yuwatei forts were bombarded and rushed after a terrific engagement, the imperialists, under Generals Chang and Tieh, making a last stubborn stand behind the ninety-foot high and thirty-foot thick walls of the vast city. The scene was terrible to view. Clouds of cannon smoke, lighted by terrific flashes of gun fire, made the night of November 30th memorable. The revolutionists, practising Wolfe’s strategy before Quebec was taken, by a secret path, rushed up a peak of Purple Mountain, above the imperial position, and shelled the imperial park of guns. Then in the night a charge, led by Colonel Wen, was made by the “Dare to Die” picked brigade, who carried hand bombs and swords. A wild retreat followed down the mountain. Even boys fought with the greatest bravery. The dying down of the terrific cannonade in the south meant that the republicans had rushed the Nan Men fort, and an explosion showed that they had successfully blown it up. Just as daylight broke, the strong Chao Yang, Tiger and Lion forts were again rushed and taken. The rebels were bitter, and there was great slaughter of the imperialists in revenge for General Chang’s merciless massacre of innocents when he declared a state of war at the beginning of the month. Great lawlessness overspread the land, the rebels as well as the imperialists being unable to establish a police force, while they fought out the reform questions. Even in British Hongkong, where 500,000 Chinese are ruled by 5,000 British, the authorities had to institute the public whipping of offenders, so as to keep disorder on the part of the lawless intimidated. Complaint increased along the Yangtze valley that the Germans were supplying arms to the imperialists at Hankau, as well as in the northern provinces, from their colony base of Kiaochou. Bitter complaint was also made that Baron Cottu was the go-between in asking Russia, France and Belgium for a $30,000,000 loan for the Manchus and Yuan Shih Kai, which would give the Russo-Asiatique Bank the same intrusive excuses that Russia availed of in 1898. The rebels were weak in Shensi province, and American missionaries were killed by the mob in Singan. Dictator Yuan threw the Sixth Division from Honan into Shensi to take the province back.

On Saturday, December 2nd, at ten o’clock, a memorable scene occurred at Nanking. General Chang the Second escaped across the Yangtze River through the Ta Ping gate on the morning of December 1st to Pukow, the northern railway terminus, after planting a mine under the Tartar General’s yamen, which was to be blown when the rebel General Hsu was caught in the trap at the capitulation. He also secreted eighteen other mines in the Tartar city, which had therefore to be burned so as to make the explosion safe. General Chao succeeded in command of the imperialists. The investiture was complete, and the situation was now hopeless for the defenders. Twelve brave Americans had remained on the scene, the great missionaries, Doctor Macklin, Mr. Garrett, Doctor Blackstone, President A. J. Bowen, of Nanking University, and others, and the vice-consul, Mr. Gilbert, who dramatically, with field glasses, watched the bombardment from a high graveyard within the city. They believed in saving blood (“Chiu Ming,” as the Chinese say), much provocation for revenge as there was on the side of General Hsu’s victorious men. They pleaded with Hsu for the first humanitarian surrender in Chinese civil war, as a thrilling example for all time that Chinese revolutionists, like George Washington’s and Oliver Cromwell’s men, were patriots and gentlemen at heart, and not mere feudists fighting under the name of a great cause.

General Hsu, with the advice of Generals Ling, Li and Hwang, and Foreign Minister Wu Ting Fang, rose to the high level. He agreed to a surrender with honors, even guaranteeing the life of the notorious murderer of non-combatants, General Chang the Second. The negotiations took place under the guns of historic Purple Hill, while the panting troops held enthusiasm in control. Behind the walls the imperialists breathed hard, and the great populace of shopkeepers eagerly waited and watched the republican sun flags on Purple Mountain. Hurrah! a shout went up that lives would be guaranteed (“Chiu Ming”); yes, honor, too! Fling open the pounded, riddled iron “Great Peace” gate! The steel muzzles of the hot Armstrongs, the deadly four-point-sevens, the spitting Rexer rapid fire and three-inch Krupp guns on Purple, Lion and Tiger Hills, held their smoky breath like good hounds in leash, but straining. The generals and captains marked time; the troops craned their heads; the Cantonese artillery hitched up the limbers to the gun carriages. The American missionaries thanked God and led on the way of peace for a China that would never forget the moving scene, where forgiveness towered over revenge. Here they come, General Chao riding ahead of the doughty Shangtung territorials with their yellow dragon flags flying for the last time, and the bloody turbaned men of escaped Chang’s army. Ground arms and mark time! The victorious rebels kept their places, and under the fluttering red, white and blue sun flags of the new republic, looked on at the impressive acts. The great column of imperialists deployed with music playing, saluted and piled their arms before the feet of the victors, General Hsu sitting on horseback where the pacificators stood. Sun flags and white flags fluttered everywhere as the sign of rebel dominance. Who are these who now come up with reversed arms? They do not wear the German peaked caps, and the khaki uniform of modern troops, but the old turban and slovenly blue uniform of the ancient troops of China. They are Chang’s bloody old-style warriors, 1,000 of them, wearing white bands in deep contrition and as a seal of their lives from massacre. They, too, salute Hsu, the giver of their lives, some of them giving the unmilitary kotow instead of the modern salute. A cheer went up, the bands playing with greater spirit. Hold open the “Great Peace” gate! Victorious Generals Hsu and Ling, and their men, they of a hundred cold steel and bomb charges, blowing hot the trumpets of victory, and led by the shaven heroes, the “Dare to Die” regiment of immortal night charges, are on the ringing, clanging march for the ancient Ming city, which they have conquered, Nanking the cultured; Nanking the proud capital of capitals; Nanking where was the yamen of the illustrious Viceroy Liu Kun Yih; Nanking of the Taipings, and Nanking of the world’s widest republic! A friendly hand had touched off the mine under the Tartar general’s yamen, and the eighteen other dastardly mines, so that the victors should not be blown up treacherously in the crowning hour of their rejoicing. White flags flutter everywhere. Once the sign of death in China, they are now the sign of peace in China, as well as in the rest of the world. A shout of welcome goes up from the populace, who from the beginning, like all the rest of the central and southern provinces, have been in sympathy with the revolution. Generals Hsu, Ling and Hwang at Nanking then have indeed balanced for the rebels the imperialist victory at Hanyang won by General Feng. The rebels lost their left wing, which was turned. The imperialists have also now lost their left wing, which has been thus crumpled up at Nanking. New moves must now be made on the checker-board by Dictator Yuan at Peking.

Governor Chan Kwang Ming and President Wu Hon Man, of the Canton Assembly, sent out their torpedo-destroyers _Wu Ying_ and _Wupang_, and with the British gunboats _Robin_, _Sandpiper_ and _Moorhen_ from Hongkong, and the American gunboat _Callao_, attacked the West River pirates, and patrolled that romantic river as far as the shadow of Wuchow Pagoda, 220 miles of varied temples, islands, gorges, reaches and river peaks. Mercantile vessels steamed up two by two, their wheel-houses sheathed with steel, their gun racks full, the barred hatches, which let air in but no smuggled pirates out, nailed down on the ’tween decks, a guard at each hatch and over each port, and double quartermasters manning the wheel. Commerce had gone back to medieval conditions, and it was exciting. Rich compradores of Hongkong, like Chan Kang Yu, of Douglas, Lapraik and Company, contributed 2,000 uniforms and outfits to equip a regiment of President Wu’s provincial troops. Part of the rebel navy now made a four-hundred-mile dash at forced draught to Wuchang and Hanyang, from Shanghai, to try to keep the successful right wing of the imperialists from crossing to the rebels’ temporary capital. If the gunboats could keep the loyalists engaged at Hanyang, it was not impossible that the rebels, if greatly reinforced from Canton, could turn the flank and strike the loyalists’ supply railway in the rear.

On December 5, 1911, new moves were made at Peking. Prince Chun, the regent father of the baby Emperor Pu Yi (his real and not his throne name), resigned in favor of two co-regents, one a Manchu, Prince Tsai Su, and the other a Chinese, Hsu Shao Ching. This was a buffer move to save the throne from the republican demands. For the first time in the three hundred years’ history of the Manchu dynasty, a Chinese was thus brought to share the regent’s power. Prince Tsai Su had been a grand councilor in the old days; and when a national assembly was granted he was put in as its president by Manchu power. Later he was president of the Navy Board, and president of the Wai Wu Pu (Foreign Board). He is a moderate progressive, a Manchu of the Manchus and related to the emperor. Hsu Shao Ching, a Pechili Chinese, is well known as a former minister to Russia and Germany, and the first president of the Chinese Eastern Railway. He was a grand councilor in the old days, a viceroy of Manchuria, and president of the Railway Board (Yu Chuan Pu) in charge of loans. He has visited America. The appointment of this republican general-in-chief was, of course, mere flattery, and he did not serve.

Copyright, 1913, The Bobbs-Merrill Company.

Mortuary statues near tombs of the last native Chinese dynasty, the
Ming, near Nanking. The crowning battle of the revolution swept
over this hillside.
]

Copyright, 1913, The Bobbs-Merrill Company.

American, French and British gunboats protecting foreigners
at Shameen Island, Canton, during revolution, 1911–12. In
foreground, wupan, or boat of “five boards.” Note wide awnings
required on gunboats. The awnings on second gunboat (British)
were riddled by bullets of contesting forces.
]

Copyright, 1913, The Bobbs-Merrill Company.

The famous gate giving entrance to the native city, Tientsin.
Reform in schools, industries and army really started in this
city under the viceroyships of Li Hung Chang and Yuan Shih Kai,
and the taotaiship of Tang Shao Yi.
]

These moves on the recommendation of Dictator Yuan, who was an old enemy of Regent Chun, who exiled him, did not satisfy the rebels, who named Nanking as their permanent capital, called for delegates from all the rebel provinces, and pressed on the war. “The name is changed at Peking, but it is the same old game,” they said. A republican loan of ten million taels, bearing twelve per cent. interest, and sold at about eighty per cent. of face value, was sought at Shanghai, Wu Ting Fang seeking American subscriptions especially, for he kept reminding Americans: “You are the mother of republics; the greatest republic, as we will be the largest republic.” Wu also wired prominent American and British financiers and their governments, pleading that loans should not be made to the Manchu government, and respectfully warning that: “The republican rebels would remember if loans were made to fight their cause.” This really had a deterrent influence, for Americans and Britons were able to influence France to suspend financial action for a while. The American-educated Tang Shao Yi, Dictator Yuan’s chief assistant, now went to the rebel headquarters at Wuchang and Shanghai to interview General Li, Minister Wu and General Hsu regarding peace, and the rebels held sessions of delegates from the Yangtze, southern and western provinces. Kwangtung province began its republican organization, and sent up another quota of 3,000 modern troops from Canton, added to 10,000 previously sent, to reinforce General Li, who stood marking time at Wuchang against General Feng of the imperialists at Hanyang.

By this time the fine Tyne-built, gray Chinese cruiser _Hai Chi_, which sailed from New York in October, arrived at Shanghai, and amid wild rejoicing, such as only the southern Chinese can express, ran down the triangular yellow dragon and hoisted the square tri-color sun flag of the republican revolution. She was at once ordered to report at the arsenal with her heavy load of ammunition, which was a godsend to the revolutionists. This cruiser was the best known abroad of Chinese war vessels, and at once became the flagship of the rebel navy. She is armed with two eight-inch, and ten four-point-seven guns. On December 14th, Doctor Sun Yat Sen (Sunyacius), with the American, Homer Lea, arrived safely at Penang, Straits Settlements, a hotbed of Chinese reform, which has from time to time sheltered all the reformers like Sun, Kang, etc., since the coup d’état in 1898. The rich foreignized Cantonese owners of tin mines have been loyal to reform from the beginning. When Sun arrived at Singapore on December 16th, a band of Chinese girls met him, each waving the tri-color of the revolution and of the emancipation of Chinese womanhood, and singing the Chinese Marseillaise, _Chung Kwan_. The Chinese wore no queues, and the caricatures which they distributed showed the pig, the dog, the monkey and the Manchu as all belonging to the races which wear queues! Who will say that the Chinese are not distinguished for humor! I have for years been trying to point out this quality in them.

The first wave of the revolution, which had died down somewhat by the Hankau defeat, had rolled on even into far mountainous Tibet, and Gyangze, a walled and fortified town on the trade route between Lhasa and Darjeeling, fell before the revolutionists on December 14th. Gyangze will be remembered for the stand it made against Sir Francis Younghusband’s brilliant campaign in 1904 to open up the way from India to Lhasa, and also for the operations in its neighborhood by General Chao Ehr Feng, who drove the sacred plotting Dalai Lama for the first time out of China into India in the startling campaign of 1910.

During this week the Yangtze River for six hundred miles presented a remarkable scene, as Tang Shao Yi, the emissary of Dictator Yuan, sailed down to Shanghai to discuss peace terms with the revolutionists at the Town Hall at Shanghai, which was guarded by British, Sikh and other troops of the international settlement. At Hankau the last yellow dragon flag of the imperialists was seen, as the imperial legates, Tang Shao Yi, Yen Shih Si and Yang Shih Chih, on the steamer _Tung Ting_, sailed between the new navy of the rebels on patrol of the great river, which was now their six hundred miles of front. The fine cruiser _Hai Chi_, with New York Chinese among the crew, the companion cruisers _Hai Yung_ and _Hai Sun_, the gunboats _Kwang Kang_, _Kwang Poa_, _On Nam_, etc., headed the republican fleet, which flew the red, white and blue sun flag. The armistice was not kept in Shansi or Shensi provinces by the imperialist general, Sheng Yun. When the pourparler opened, the six powers, at America’s suggestion, informed Wu and Tang that they would appreciate a settlement, because neither side seemed to be able to keep down piracy, it being as bad along the Liao River in the north as along the Si valley in the distant south. It will be recalled that the Manchus of Shansi province early in the campaign assassinated the great rebel general, Wu Lu Cheng. It was now rumored that the Chinese had induced Tuan Fang’s troops in the same province to murder that noble Manchu, who was the greatest friend the foreigners had among the Manchu officials in the dark “Boxer” days of 1900. Tuan had been governor of Pechili and Szechuen provinces, head of the railway development in the Yangtze basin, and above all head of the famous constitutional committee (Hsien Cheng Pien Cha Kuan), which, in 1906, went abroad to study foreign parliaments and congresses. He was the noblest of the Manchus, a repetition in character of Prince Kung of Victorian days, and he died like a modern hero. “Kneel and be decapitated,” his troops demanded. “You’ll shoot or cut me down where I stand,” he declared. Individual virtue does not belong exclusively to any organization.

The rebels went on with their work in calling up troops from Premier Wu Hon Man at Canton, and in equipping aeroplanes, run by Americanized Chinese, for a possible air attack on Peking, if the peace conference should break up in failure, and Hankau could be won back. The missionaries agreed to flee to the Methodist compound which adjoined the legation quarter in the Tartar city of Peking, on a signal being given by rocket. The foreigners in the northern provinces were dubious that a republican government could be established, but it must be remembered that many of these foreigners were more surprised than the rest of the world that the reformers ever shouldered arms for reform and declared for a republic on October 10, 1911. The foreigners of the northern provinces were accordingly at first largely in sympathy with the retention of the Manchu, under a limited monarchy system, and the election of Yuan as premier. Many of the foreigners of Peking and Tientsin tried to impose their views upon the foreigners of Shanghai and Hongkong, who naturally knew more about the reform and republican movement in China, for the initial reformers of China all came from Canton, Penang, Manila and Shanghai, where they were influenced by British Hongkong, Singapore and America. The income of the imperial authority had been levied mainly on the southern provinces, which had least representation on the Peking Boards (Pus) since the coup d’état of 1898. Taxation again without representation! The doubt in the minds of the reformers was that if the Manchu was retained, he might revert to his old faults of by turns oppressing China, and by turns looting it, for certain foreign concessionaires. True, said some, peace could be fixed up now, and matters fought out again, if faith was not kept. But, said others, by that time certain foreigners will have given Yuan Shih Kai an army of forty divisions with a fortified base at Peking in touch with the Russian railway, a navy of battleships, 2,500 miles of new flanking railways down into the south, and a full exchequer box, while the new parliaments may be without a Cromwell, a Pym, a Hampden, a Jefferson, a Franklin, a Lincoln. It was a great question, the largest any nation has ever handled, and the one answer was: “Well, then, develop your Cromwells, Pyms, Hampdens, Jeffersons, Franklins, Lincolns, out of such timber as you have in Sun, Wu, Kang, Li, etc., and let us have peace.”

There are two things that the writer believes and prays for, viz.: that China will remain a republic, and will become a republic based on the worship of Christ and the study of the Christian’s Bible. Such a wonderful nation of four hundred millions, preserved from the immemorial past as one people, must have been preserved for some providential purpose, to put irresistible might behind certain altruistic world ideas. Are those ideas the giving of a truer republicanism, and a more unselfish Christianity than we have exemplified, to mankind? Japan made one irremediable and lamentable mistake; she has ignored the fact that the strength of the West is not in fleets, but in Bible knowledge, certain trusts and occasional wars notwithstanding. It will be remembered that the secretary of the Board of Rites, Wang Chao, recommended to the reform emperor, Kwang Hsu, in 1898, that Christianity should be named as the state religion. President Sun and General Li of the republicans are, as I have said before, a Congregationalist and an Episcopalian.

As the friendly note from the six powers to the imperialists and revolutionists at Shanghai was, at America’s and Britain’s suggestion, identical, it was virtually a tentative recognition by the powers of the belligerents, which happy result the latter had been trying to obtain at Minister Wu’s urgency for over two months. Yuan threatened to fight if a republic was insisted on, and he seized a great part of the Manchu hoards at Peking and Tientsin, under the name of a forced loan. He needed two million dollars a month to pay the Manchu and northern bannermen. Four of the powers were in favor of lending Yuan money, but the rebels said, if you don’t also lend us money, we will boycott your trade in the central and southern provinces, and you know that most of the foreign trade emanates from Southern China, that is, your tea and silk come from that section, and your exports go there in exchange. If you want to know what a trade boycott by us means, ask the Japanese, who will recall the “Tatsu Maru” incident. The rebels also threatened that if loans were made by foreigners to the imperialists, and the rebels were successful, the latter would repudiate these loans. This was the most brilliant move to date of the republican diplomacy. The rebels now made a surprising and broad-minded move. They wanted to save bloodshed. They knew that a Paul converted had been made out of a stubborn Saul unconverted; that some reformers were in their day stanch “standpat machine” men! They offered Yuan the presidency of a republic, with Sunyacius as vice-president possibly, and Wu as a possible foreign minister, until real elective assemblies could form parties, and elect their nominees. Yuan’s emissary at the Shanghai Conference, Tang Shao Yi, was impressed with the fact that Yuan and others in North China had no idea how strongly the republican idea had seized on the rebel provinces. Tang, it will be remembered, is a graduate of an American university, and he is even more progressive than his patron, Yuan. In making overtures to Yuan, Sunyacius and Wu of the rebels were showing that they were strong and calm diplomats, who could waive a detail to win a general cause. Recent Occidental politics exhibit no such example of the suppression of factiousness. Wu, however, did not hesitate a minute to tell the six powers that if they loaned money to the north, or interfered, they would only prolong the war indefinitely.

On December 21, 1911, the line-up was as follows. Yuan, three of the powers and some of the world’s financial syndicates, in favor of a monarchy or war, with a loan to the north, arrayed against the republicans. Wu, ever persistent in demanding a republic, or renewing the war, with a trade boycott in the southern and central provinces, against any foreign nation that loaned the north money. Some of the American journals, surprisingly, opposed the republic. For instance, on the very day that Doctor Sunyacius was named president, the New York _Outlook_ (December 30, 1911), with snap judgment, stated that a Chinese republic could, would and should not be set up at present, and further that “Americans would do well to throw all their influence on the side of a constitutional monarchy”. Nine-tenths of the _Outlook’s_ readers doubtless thought that if Homer could sometimes nod, such surprising retrogressive words as these might be forgiven the generally progressive _Outlook_. Similarly in England, the large London house of Montagu, which has been prominent in very profitable railway loans to China under the Manchu régime, issued a circular stating its “satisfaction” when the republicans lost Hankau to General Feng, under atrocious circumstances of unforgivable massacre and unnecessary arson. _Memoria longa, lingua brevis!_ Some of Britain’s diplomatic force, arguing like the reactionaries of George the Third’s day, said that they favored a monarchy because India might want a greater share in self-government than she had, forgetting that a wide-awake and fully developed India meant greater trade for Britain. Three monarchical nations said that they would favor destroying the American doctrine of the “non-partition of China” and splitting the four dependencies and the eight provinces north of the Yellow River from the rebel provinces.

Now, if ever, was the time for America to act, to give the largest and oldest nation on earth true freedom, and stop massacre and the sowing of eternal hate between the yellow and the white races. If the republican idea was decapitated by three of the monarchical nations willingly, and two of the constitutional nations unwillingly, revulsion would sweep through the camp of the republicans, and foreigners and missionaries would be slain by the mobs, who always act before they think the important second time. This was just what the plotting Manchus had been endeavoring to bring about since October 10, 1911. “Make the republicans, or the mob in their provinces, massacre; that will bring in foreign interference, which will save the Manchu dynasty.” In return, the Manchus promised certain foreign interests almost any concessions which they might ask for. They could loot China, the mineral Eldorado of the ages, and exploit the labor host of a new Goshen. _Perfide!_ ye who are retroactive at this late day after all the lessons of the crowded past, and who love Money more than Man. Hail! American republic, the mother of republics, and hail, too, the germinating Chinese republic! Even Count Okuma, the most liberal of the Japanese, the founder of the enlightened Waseda University, of whom most sympathy was expected with China’s effort for freedom, came out with a pessimistic article at this time, prophesying the “failure of the republic, years of degeneration, and an inevitable new dynasty”. Did he mean that Japan would supply one, after first absorbing two provinces of Manchuria?

Yuan, the dictator, began moving his divisions, the Twentieth, now rid of its reform general, Chang Shao Tsen, being sent from the Lanchow camp to a point north of Tientsin, to split the republicans of the three provinces of Manchuria from joining the republicans of Shangtung. Sunyacius, with Premier Wu Hon Man, of Canton, now left Hongkong for Shanghai, and the world stood back and waited for the lightning to come out of the clouds. The half million Chinese of British Hongkong gave them a rousing send-off, which was at heart approved by the five thousand British merchants and troops of Hongkong, for Hongkong knew what a trade boycott in the southern provinces meant. Canton had now struck a swinging pace, and Premier Wu had sent bodies of troops, particularly his fine artillery and bomb-throwers, to strengthen the two wings of the rebels under Generals Li, Ling and Hsu at Wuchang and Nanking, respectively. Among these troops were one thousand students recruited by the Fong Yuen College at Canton. God send great things to earth! God save liberty for China, and keep progress from slipping back a thousand years!

So far, the strongest move in the rebellion was the declaration of Foreign Minister Wu Ting Fang that if Britain joined the three monarchical powers in loaning Yuan money, a trade boycott would be instituted in the southern and central provinces against foreign trade, of which Britain held the largest share. This won Hongkong, and Hongkong was able to hold British diplomacy on Downing Street, London, and indirectly on Legation Street, Peking. It was a master move, as brilliantly effective as Napoleon’s Berlin Decree of November 21, 1806, blockading British commerce, and only for it the rebellion would have been swamped by four of the six nations arming and provisioning Yuan, the Manchu and the north. Whatever comes in the next few years, this cry surely is forever in the heart of Lincoln’s and Washington’s America: “Long live the republican idea of distributed wealth and distributed liberty in good old China, America’s yellow brother across the narrowing purple Pacific.” On Christmas day, 1911, the steamship _Cleveland_, from New York and San Francisco, with five hundred American world tourists, arrived at Hongkong. The republican army immediately invited them to Canton to see their barracks at the Five Hundred Genii Temple and elsewhere, the resolution saying: “as America was the first country to become a republic.” Auspiciously on December 26th, Sun Yat Sen arrived at Shanghai, two war-ships escorting his launch up the river from the Wusung bar. He immediately took an automobile at the bund wharf and proceeded to Wu’s residence, where conferences were held, and Nanking decided on as the provisional capital of the fighting republic. The republican Chinese were delighted that the Americans had eleven war-ships at Shanghai.

On December 26th, Yuan and the Manchu princes wired Tang Shao Yi from Peking that they would leave the decision as to a form of government to a national convention of the twenty-one provinces, the delegates to meet as soon as possible. The harmony which prevailed in the conferences at Shanghai between Sun, Wu and Li’s representatives was delightful to those interested in Chinese progress. The harmony which prevailed between the missionaries and the revolutionists was also inspiring. In a village of Hupeh province (Taiping) the people insisted that Mr. Landahl, of the Netherlands Mission, should head the local Safety League which was maintaining order, and they pushed that astonished gentleman to the head in the successful pursuit of notorious pirates who were injuring the causes of both revolutionists and imperialists. One notorious brigand of Honan province, named Wang, collected a band of 2,000 robbers, and at Harbin in Manchuria a band of Hunghutz captured an imperial treasure train with half a million of money. Vast preparations should now have been made to protect Chinese and foreigners in the north from massacre, if the National Assembly should on convening declare for a republic. There could not but be bitterness when only 17 million Manchus abdicated the rule of 400 millions Chinese, and the widest and most absolute throne the earth has known, wider than Pharaoh’s, Alexander’s, Xerxes’, Cæsar’s, Charlemagne’s, Baber Mogul’s, or Tsar’s. The problem of ruling 17 million Manchu discontents was a greater one than the long dominion which the subsidized Manchus had enjoyed over 400 millions of disunited and supine Chinese. The republic of China has mighty problems before it. Let all the world help her; above all, let education, hope and creature comforts be bestowed as quickly as possible. There is glorious altruistic work ahead of everybody for the whole of one’s life.

As the republicans solidified their government about Nanking, the enemies of China--the land-grabbing nations--who forgot their old antipathies and quarrels and acted in accord in their scheme of aggrandizement, prepared to strip her of her vast dependencies, Russia towering over Turkestan, Mongolia and Northern Manchuria, and Japan gathering about Lower Manchuria, a secret treaty between the two having been effected. No place was to be reserved for the great Chinese people to accommodate their emigration, as the size of farms should be necessarily increased throughout the land. The American and British doctrine of the “non-partition of China” was to be struck down. America, Britain and China will remember, for a Chinese republic can yet gather an army of millions to take these provinces back, and American and British naval forces, as a world’s altruistic police, can, if necessary, stand at the doors of the Baltic and Black Seas and remind Russia of her broken promises and greed. What a conflict there will yet be, won either by a swamping emigration, or by an engulfing army, as Russia, Japan and China come nearer together in the old Chinese dependencies of Turkestan, Mongolia and Manchuria. Mongolia, with her capital at Urga, and Turkestan, with her capital at Kashgar, practically seceded on December 29th under Russian intrigue. Religious Khans and Lamas, named by Russia, drove the Chinese ambans out and took charge, a Russian railway policy to break across country and control Peking being at once planned. The Manchu dynasty, with a following of from ten to seventeen million Manchus, sheltered in either Mongolia, Pechili province, Shangtung or Manchuria, under the egis of either Russia, Japan, or other nations, will always be a covert weapon for intrigue, which the bureaucrats of those nations can use against a Chinese republic.

On December 29th, the military convention at Nanking--one vote to a province--voted unanimously for Sun Yat Sen as the first president of the provisional republic, until elective assemblies could meet. The civil delegates from fourteen of the provinces, meeting at Shanghai, also agreed on Sun Yat Sen as provisional president. The armistice was now extended, President Sun calling upon the imperialists to respect the neutral zone between the opposing armies. The rise of President Sun was astounding and his task immense. From an impoverished propagandist and exile, wandering over the earth for a whole lifetime, with the Bible in one hand and _Progress and Poverty_ in the other, he suddenly became the head of the largest nation upon the earth, and the government of that nation he was expected to change from being the most absolute monarchy into the freest of republics. His career is the most inspiring example that was ever presented to reformers in the world’s history. They say of typhoons and of troubles, that when things are at their worst, only a change for the better can be looked for, and so it has been with President Sun’s career.

At the peace conferences at Shanghai, the imperialists pressed for some northern city as the venue of the convention of provincial delegates, and the republicans pressed as strongly for Shanghai, because in distinction from Peking, it was removed from Russian influence. Yuan refused to disband his army and gave notice that if the republicans advanced, he would order an attack. The imperialists then tried to get the republicans to agree to pay the northern troops a sum of money in return for laying down their arms, but the republicans wisely refused to provision the imperialists in this way for a continuance of the fighting. They did, however, offer to pay for the surrender of artillery and ammunition. Yuan held many fruitless conferences with the Manchu princes and dowager, offering to continue the war if they would give up their hoards, but of the hundreds of millions of dollars of their wealth, all he could get was a subscription of $100,000 from the old lion, Prince Ching, who has been the mentor of the Manchus since Prince Kung died in the 60’s. The whole of the south, in emulation of the Christian president, Doctor Sun (Sunyacius), began cutting off their queues and wearing khaki, as a sign that servility to the Manchus was ended. Committees of persuasion, the members of which carried shears, operated even in Yaumati and Kowloon (mainland sections of Hongkong colony). The Chinese were approached and asked to go to the barbers. If they refused, shears were drawn and the ancient badge of servitude to the Manchu, the queue, was severed. The Chinese of Bangkok, Siam, were humorous in their methods. The republican tri-color was hoisted to the peak, and two hundred sheared queues were hoisted under it, up the flagpole! Doctor Sun, president, named the following as his provisional cabinet:

Vice-President, General Li Yuen Heng, commander of the republican left wing;

Premier, Hwang Hing, organizer in Japan of the rebellion;

Minister of Justice, Wu Ting Fang, formerly Minister to the United States, and reformer of the Chinese penal code;

Minister of Communications, Posts and Commerce, Wen Tsung Yao, American educated, formerly Amban in Tibet, unusually able official;

Colonial Secretary, Fung Chi Yueh, represented Sun in the United States;

Secretary of State, Wu Hon Man, President Canton Assembly;

Ministers of Finance, Chin Tao Chen, and M. Y. Sung, Manager Chung Hua rebel bank. I know both well.

Minister of Navy and Marine, General Hwang Hing, second in command at Hankau, and Sun’s personal representative while he was absent in America and England;

Foreign Minister, Wang Chung Wei, American educated;

Chief of Staff, General Hsu, the victor of Nanking.

The subject of adopting the Christian calendar was discussed and decided on, though it was decided to please Chinese pride by letting the republican bank-notes, issued in December, stand. These notes went back to mythological times, and named 1911 as the 4609th year since the first Emperor Huang Ti! The custom of dating the year with each Manchu emperor’s succession was of course at once discarded in fourteen of the rebelling provinces. President Sun assumed charge at Nanking and immediately collected a strong garrison in the old capital of China. In his former work, _The Chinese_, the author strongly recommended the change of the capital of China farther south so as to be nearer the center of China, closer in touch with the majority of the people who popularly desire the change, and safely removed from Russian influence and possibility of attack by Mongolian railway. Preparations were at once made to bring finance, education, army, navy and a federal government under the control of the coming parliament, the provincial parliaments already being in tentative operation in half of the provinces. We have already quoted the text of notes issued by the republican government of Kwangtung province. Dictator Yuan, at Peking, in a temporary huff, wired that he would not recognize Tang Shao Yi as his representative any more at the Shanghai and Nanking conferences, and that he would only confer by telegram. He demanded that Peking, and not Nanking, should be named as the meeting place of the proposed national assembly, which was to select the form of government. This really broke up the peace conferences, and Wu Ting Fang so informed the foreign governments.

Yuan then called upon the Manchu princes and royalty for money, saying that if they would draw two millions a month for six months from their foreign banks, he could carry on the war. Fearing that the republicans would send an army by sea from Shanghai to Chin Wang Tao (where the Great Wall and Peking railway meet the sea, and the only ice free port in the north) to break Manchuria from the north, and march on Peking, Yuan sent an army to Chin Wang Tao, but several of the Chinese regiments rebelled. The republicans had arranged for such a transport service, as they had seized the ships of the government steamship line, the China Merchants’ Steamship Company. At the Lanchow camp east of Peking, several Chinese regiments also rebelled, and there was much bloodshed in putting down the riots. Yuan had five strong northern armies, one under General Feng at Hanyang, one under Chang the Second north of Nanking on the railway, one under Sheng Yun operating in Shensi and Shansi provinces, and an army in both Shangtung and Honan provinces. It looked as though the war would continue, the republican strength being mainly in that they threatened, if successful, to repudiate any loans made after January 1, 1912, by foreigners to the Manchus. Hongkong now sent the One Hundred and Twenty-sixth Indian Regiment of Baluchis, a battalion of the Yorkshires and a battery of English garrison artillery to Shameen Island, Canton, to protect the famous foreign settlement and assist President Wu, of Canton, in maintaining order. The island was fortified with sand-bags and barbed wire entanglements. The Hongkong Chinese were enthusiastic for a republic, and the British government did not prohibit their rejoicing. Their processions included the use of automobiles and brass bands. What a changed Hongkong, which used to hide its head in a monster dragon and parade the streets!

President Sun now informed foreigners that while he could employ them in all the remainder of China’s development, he could not do so in the republican army, as the republicans desired to be free of suspicion, and did not want to create foreign entanglements or embarrassments. The foreign nations divided up the Tientsin-Peking railway, and foreign men of war, independent of the republican navy, patrolled the whole rebel front from Shanghai to Hankau. Germany despatched another full regiment to Tsingtau in addition to the large garrison already there, America alone up to January 7, 1912, had held her troops at Manila. When the imperialists were evacuating Hanyang on January 4th, a regiment broke parole, necessitating an attack by General Li’s republicans, which attack was promptly and effectively sent in. On the right wing the republicans advanced up the Nanking-Tientsin railway, forcing General Chang the Second to withdraw to the north. President Sun was now active in appeals to the foreigners for recognition of the republic, his manifesto of January 5th, reading as follows:

1. Treaties of Manchus up to October 13, 1911, will be observed.

2. Concessions granted by Manchus up to October 13, 1911, will be respected.

3. Foreign loans and indemnities incurred by Manchus up to October 13, 1911, will be recognized.

4. Foreigners and their property will be protected by the republic.

5. Manchus and their property will be protected by the republic.

6. We will remodel laws; revise civic, criminal, commercial and mining codes; reform finances; abolish restrictions on trade and commerce; insure religious toleration; and cultivate better relations with foreign peoples and governments.

It will be noted that President Sun does not here take up that difficult question, the nationalization of railways, the premature forcing of which by the five banking nations on the Manchus largely precipitated the preliminary revolution in Szechuen province in September, 1911. When the republican finances will permit just compensation of provincial owners of railways, the nationalization of trunk railways will be a proper and opportune project, but confiscation of railways by a promissory note at sixty per cent. of investment, as was offered by the Manchus to the Kwangtung province owners, can only bring revolt. By the end of the first week in January, 1912, certain of the banking groups and powers, fearing that there would be a long civil strife, attacked the American doctrine of the “non-partition of China” and canvassed for two Chinas, the northern section to be retained by the Manchu monarchy, or a republic with Yuan at the head. Even this would bring its difficulties. To mention one of a thousand, where would the dividing line be, the Yellow River or the Yangtze River? The feeling of the republicans on this division can be gaged by asking what was the feeling of the Americans on the subject of secession. On January 8th the republicans approved a heavy bond issue, based on internal revenue (the customs being already pledged by the Manchus for foreign loans made before October 13, 1911, which loans the republicans recognized), and bearing eight per cent. It was also decided to put the currency on a gold basis, and though one-dollar, fifty-cent and subsidiary silver coins would be issued, they were to be only tokens, and their face value was to be secured by a gold reserve, as in the case of America’s and Japan’s silver coinage, which is only a token system.

On January 12, 1912, Major-General Franklin Bell despatched on the transport _Logan_ from Manila the First Battalion of the Fifteenth Infantry, under Major Arrasmith, to take care of that part of the Peking-to-the-coast railway allotted to the Americans. This was a confession of two things: first, that the Manchus might not be able to restrain the “Boxer” mobs in the north, and second, that it was expected that the republicans would be able to come north with their three old and two new armies when hostilities should be opened. Part of General Bell’s thrilling and characteristic American speech to the troops should be quoted: “The Chinese are worthy of a square deal. Treat them in a worthy way.” The expedition was a trying one, and was provided with cords of fire-wood. The enervated troops left the hot humid climate of Manila for the cold windy climate of North China. The news that came from the Lanchow camp at this time was most distressing, to the effect that Yuan’s imperialists were massacring and torturing republicans by the fiendish lin chee (cutting into a thousand pieces, the victim being placed in a cage). Men who had adopted the republican badge of the New China by cutting off their queues were being slain. Even the Red Cross attendants were attacked. Clearly the Manchu troops at Lanchow had gone out of hand and become a mob. The American Bishop Bashford now telegraphed from Shanghai to Dictator Yuan, urging the Manchus to abdicate for humanity’s sake. General Hwang Hing, minister of war, was now arranging for five republican armies to march north and converge on Peking. These armies were:

General Li, with the left wing, from Hankau to Peking, through Honan province.

Generals Hsu and Ling, with the right wing, from Nanking, through Kiangsu and Shangtung provinces, along the railway.

A new army, by transport and cruisers, from Shanghai to Chifu, or some northern port.

A new army of Canton and Hupeh troops to march north in General Li’s rear.

The combined republican forces of Shensi and Shansi provinces to march northeast.

The Chinese are exceedingly excitable when aroused from their usually placid state. This is because their experience is limited, and they have not yet learned to adapt themselves rapidly to new conditions. They therefore commit suicide in surprising numbers under the sudden pressure of anger, shame, poverty, trouble, uncertainty and fear. At this time of revolution, especially in the northern provinces of Shensi and Shansi where the republicans were strongly opposed, many officials, widows of soldiers and the poor, jumped into wells, swallowed balls of opium, or begged their friends to strangle them.

On January 15th, the republicans sent three cruisers and three transports, with three battalions, machine and mountain guns, from Shanghai to Chifu, in preparation for a converging attack on Peking, America sent in the cruiser _Cincinnati_, and the Japanese sent in two cruisers to watch proceedings and protect the foreign colony, which, however, was not menaced. On January 19th, Foreign Minister Wang Chung Wei sent a despatch to the powers, requesting recognition of the republic “to avoid a disastrous interregnum”. On the same day the republic from Shanghai sent the following drastic demand to Yuan and the Manchus:

1. Abdicate.

2. No Manchu to participate in the provisional government until the country is quiet.

3. The provisional capital can not be Peking.

4. Yuan can not participate in the provisional government until the republic has been recognized.

President Sun gave the Associated Press this statement:

1. I have taken an oath to oust the Manchu rulers and restore peace to the country before resigning.