Chapter X: Some Chinese Seaports and Commerce 205 (2)

We eagerly inquired as to the prospects of being allowed to go eastwards, and were informed that the robbers were most aggressive and had taken prisoners three missionaries, besides securing much loot from other quarters. I confess my spirits sank low that night, despite our having got a much-longed-for mail, and it was with some misgivings we set off to the British Consulate next morning. The postal commissioner, a portly Frenchman, had told us that he didn’t consider it at all dangerous to go eastward, but it was true that he had ceased to send money orders, owing to the number of robbers! He could transmit no money for us, but promised to see what could be done in the matter through merchants.

We found that the British Consul, Mr. Otterwell, remembered me as an old traveller. I had been his guest at Tengyueh twelve years before, though he was at the time absent in the district. He was quite encouraging, and promised at once to have our passports visé-ed and a military escort obtained for the following week. Our further doings in Yünnan Province are chronicled in Chapter III. Suffice it to say that from Yünnanfu we set off in carrying-chairs, and travelled north-eastward into the province of Kweichow—a wild and beautiful mountainous country, far from railways and steamboats and all the busy bustle of the West. There we were to make friends with strange aboriginal tribes in their native haunts and to see unadulterated China once more.

Kweichow (the Land of Demons) surpassed our most sanguine hopes. It was far more beautiful and interesting than we had been told, and not nearly so difficult to travel in as I had been led to expect. We had provided ourselves with tinned meats, as we were told that we could expect to get no meat or chickens or vegetables in so poor a province, whereas we found all these things in abundance, and every mission station to which we came most hospitable in supplying us with bread and cakes. It is true we only came to five stations in the next seven weeks, that is in crossing the whole province. There is no road in any part of it—sixty thousand square miles, roughly speaking—suitable for wheeled traffic; so no wonder it must be considered as one of the most backward parts of China, and has rarely been visited by travellers. To carry a load of rice for a hundred miles more than doubles its cost.

_Page 40_]

From Yünnanfu we took the ordinary route via Malong, Kütsingfu, and the Yünnan Pass into Kweichow Province. It has been admirably and fully described in Sir A. Hosie’s latest book _On the Trail of the Opium Poppy_, so it is unnecessary for me to do it, and I shall merely describe the things which struck us as of special interest.

The journey from Yünnanfu to Anshun took us seventeen days—a distance altogether of about three hundred miles.[6] From Anshunfu we struck north, through much wilder and less-frequented country, in order to visit the haunts of aboriginal tribes, and made a wide detour, returning to the main road near Kwei Yang, the capital. We greatly wished to visit other tribes in the eastern part of the province, but that was absolutely vetoed by the governor, and we were obliged to follow the high road through Ping-yüe and Huang Ping Chow to Chen Yüen. Here we took to the waterway, from which we did not once swerve till we reached Shanghai. The first part of the journey, up the Yüen Kiang, is a distance of four hundred and forty-six miles, and one may go down it in five days, if it is in flood, with a fair chance of getting drowned! We took ten days, but a good deal of time was spent at places on the way. Coming up stream the journey is long and tedious: it may extend to months instead of days. The natural superstition of the Chinese is displayed on such a journey by the lavish use of crackers[7] and incense to ward off evil spirits. These superstitions will die hard: nothing less vital than genuine Christianity can displace them.

We entered Hunan on May 14, having spent forty-two days in Kweichow Province. The frontier is indicated by two elaborate archways, as we saw on entering the province from Yünnan. Although Hunan is within fifteen days’ reach of Shanghai, it has so far no facilities for travel better than by water. It is true there is a short railway line on its western border, but we were not encouraged to try it, and in summer there is always a good steamship line from the capital Changsha to Hankow—a distance of two hundred and twenty miles. The railway is part of the projected line from Hankow to Canton, and will be of great trade value when it is completed, as there is no good route to connect this part of the country with the south. We intended going from Changsha into Kwangsi Province on account of the beautiful scenery, but unfortunately that was impossible owing to the fighting going on between the troops of the north and the south exactly in the region where our road lay. It might be supposed that we could have taken an alternative route through so vast a country, but such is not the case. If you leave the great high road (and what a misnomer that is!) there is no way except by devious paths through endless mountain ranges, where no accommodation and little food would be obtainable. In a province of 83,398 square miles there appear to be only two main roads running from north to south, and three from east to west; yet it has a population of over twenty-one millions. The two main roads running from north to south are near the eastern and western borders, and all the central part of the province has none. We crossed the province entirely by water, first in a house-boat as far as Changteh, thence in a miserable little native steamer across the Tong Ting Lake to Changsha; from Changsha up the Siang-kiang,[8] across the Tong Ting on to the Yangtze, which bounds the province on the north.

We had no choice, therefore, of leaving Hunan except by going to Hankow, and we found good accommodation on a British steamer, the _Sinkiang_. There are six good lines between Changsha and Hankow—two British, a Japanese, and several Chinese steamship companies, whose ships run in the summer; owing to the extraordinary subsidence of the lake in winter (_see_ Chapter VI) it has to be discontinued then for several months. The journey from Changsha to Hankow takes about thirty-two hours: at Hankow we transhipped for Shanghai on a most comfortable steamer (with nice beds), the _Nganking_, belonging to Messrs. Butterfield & Swire. It is quite easy for travellers knowing no Chinese to penetrate by this route into the very centre of China. I am so often asked about the possibilities of doing this that I can only recommend this as a wholly charming and easy way of getting about and much to be preferred to railway travelling.

Hankow itself is a big bustling cosmopolitan town, with a rapidly increasing volume of commerce. It is a link between old and new, and has no less than thirty-six associations, called “hangs,” for different kinds of goods. It has its foreign concessions like the seaports, and the important trading companies have their own floating wharves, where the big ocean liners moor, six hundred miles away from the coast. There are said to be 25,000 junks engaged here in river traffic, and they connect Hankow with all the central and western provinces, often travelling as much as a hundred miles a day.

Hankow is a great centre of educational and missionary activity, and many European nationalities are engaged in it. The great viceroy, Chang Chih Tung, ardently promoted education here when he was in office. He said in his book, _China’s Only Hope_ (p. 61), “In order to render China powerful, and at the same time preserve our own institutions, it is absolutely necessary that we should utilize Western knowledge. But unless Chinese learning is made the basis of education and a Chinese direction is given to thought, the strong will become anarchists, and the weak slaves.” It is most deplorable that this is ignored by so many Chinese of the present day.[9] He urged that old Buddhist and Taoist temples, falling into decay, be transformed into schools, and he estimated that seven out of ten, with their property, might well be devoted to this purpose. This is quite in accordance with what is now being done, especially in Northern China. He argued that the temples are national property, and should be used for the common good.

Hankow is wonderfully situated as the internal trade centre of China, being the meeting-point of its main railways as well as waterways (when the former shall have been completed), linking up north, south, east and west. There are three cities in the angles formed by the junction of the Yangtze and the Han rivers—Hanyang, Hankow and Wu-chang; the last was far the most important in the past, and is the capital of Hupeh, but now Hankow rivals Shanghai in commercial importance, and is rapidly growing. The three cities have a joint native population of 1,150,000, of which Hankow has 800,000, and as its native quarter was completely destroyed by fire during the civil war in 1911, the fine old monuments of the past were destroyed with it. Its whole interest is modern.

Between Hankow and Shanghai are several important cities which must be most interesting to visit, several of them being treaty ports with foreign concessions, such as Chin-kiang and Wu-hu; the steamers stop at least fourteen times on the way. It is delightful to spend the days sitting in comfortable chairs on deck, watching all the varied life on the river, hearing the “honk-honk” of the wild geese soaring overhead, or watching the wedges of ducks crossing the river on strong wing to the big marshes, or lakes, into which it pours its overflow.

From time to time the steamer draws to the riverside and loads or unloads its cargo. One of the most interesting stopping-places is Nanking; indeed, it is said to be one of the most interesting in China, and is only about two hundred miles from Shanghai. It has an hotel kept by an Englishman. We greatly enjoyed the river scenery of the Yangtze: there are so many picturesque monuments in this lower part on the numerous islands and along its banks; although it has not the wild charm of the gorges, it is well worth making the trip. Now there is a steam service all the way up to Chunking, so that travellers can easily do one of the most beautiful journeys in the world at reasonable cost, in reasonable comfort and in reasonable time, going about a thousand miles up the finest of the great rivers of the world.[10]

On reaching Shanghai I had to part with my travelling companion and start the journey home alone, but as events proved my steamer was delayed, and I had several weeks in which to visit the coastal provinces of Chekiang, Fukien and Kwantung, and to study the student movement, as described in the concluding chapters of this book.

_Chapter II_

_The Model Governor—Yen Hsi-Shan_

“Who is the true and who is the false statesman?

“The true statesman is he who brings order out of disorder;
who first organizes and then administers the government of his
own country; and having made a nation, seeks to reconcile the
national interest with those of Europe and of mankind. He is
not a mere theorist, nor yet a dealer in expedients; the whole
and the parts grow together in his mind; while the head is
conceiving, the hand is executing. Although obliged to descend
to the world, he is not of the world. His thoughts are fixed
not on power, or riches, or extension of territory, but on an
ideal state, in which all the citizens have an equal chance
of health and life, and the highest education is within the
reach of all, and the moral and intellectual qualities of every
individual are freely developed, and ‘the idea of good’ is the
animating principle of the whole. Not the attainment of freedom
alone, or of order alone, but how to unite freedom with order
is the problem which he has to solve.

“The statesman who places before himself these lofty
aims has undertaken a task which will call forth all his
powers.”—BENJAMIN JOWETT.

_Chapter II_[11]

_The Model Governor—Yen Hsi-Shan_

The province of Shansi boasts having the best governor in the Chinese Empire, and he has accomplished in the last ten years a remarkable change in the entire province—a province which is considerably larger than Great Britain. The city of Taiyuanfu is perhaps the most striking evidence of this change. The whole place is unrecognizable since the days when I first knew it in 1893. The streets are wide and well kept; at night they are lighted by electricity, and an efficient police force keeps order and regulates the traffic, whereas in old days the crowd used to fight their quarrels out in their own sweet way. The horrible pariah dogs which infested the streets without let or hindrance have entirely disappeared; for a dog, licence has now to be obtained, and any unlicensed dogs are promptly destroyed. The Governor Yen Hsi-Shan is the promoter of education in all its manifold aspects; though not a Christian, he realizes that there must be a radical change in morals, as well as in education, if China is to become a strong nation, capable of taking her place among the Great Powers.

To this end he has formed an organization called the “Wash the Heart Society,” which strongly reminds one of the Mission of John the Baptist, although he does not recognize the fact that repentance is only the first step on the upward path. A large hall has been built in a nice open part of the city, close to the city wall, but, alas! not in Chinese style. The Governor is unfortunately under the influence of a Teuton, who is the worst possible adviser in matters of architecture, as well as other things. The hall is a deplorable mixture of every conceivable style of Western art; it holds 3,000 people and services are held there every Sunday morning, each lasting one hour, and each for the benefit of a separate class of people—merchants, military, students. So far there seems to be no provision for women, but perhaps that will come later. The population is bidden to come and reflect on its evil ways and to seek amendment of life. A special feature of the service is a time of silence for self-examination. This Society was started in the province of Shansi, but I found its halls in other parts of the Empire as well, and it is a hopeful sign of the times. The approach to the hall is by a good macadamized road, and near by is a tea-house beside the tiny lake—the Haizabien—and a bandstand where the élite of the city gather on summer evenings to listen to sweet music and sip countless cups of tea.

_Page 49_]

Big houses are being built by wealthy Chinese in this neighbourhood, and there are large Government schools for girls as well as boys. Facing the entrance to a girls’ school, which is housed in a disused temple, we saw a list pasted up on a wall, giving the names of successful girl students in a recent Government examination. What an amazing contrast to the old days, when no Government schools for girls were in existence; they only came into being since the downfall of the old regime in 1907, but the Chinese Ministry of Education, which based its present system on that of Japan, is recognizing the importance of women’s education and is encouraging it by this official recognition of success in examinations.

It is not sufficient only to give the women schools, but it is imperative to supply them also with scope for wider culture and congenial activities when they leave school. To this end a kind of club, or institute, is to be started at once on ground opposite the Governor’s hall, and it is in response to the ladies’ own request: they have long been saying, “The men have their Y.M.C.A., why cannot we have such a place?” and although the mission ladies have done their best to meet the need, obviously no private house can be adequate, not to mention the fact that Chinese ladies have too much self-respect to be willing to be always guests of ladies with limited incomes, to whom they can make but scant return. It is hoped that the new hall will do much to forward the woman’s movement in Taiyuanfu; there will be social gatherings, lectures on hygiene (for illustration of which there is to be a complete installation of sanitary fittings), a child-welfare department, invalid cooking, lessons on nursing, and many other classes connected with women’s welfare. There is room for a garden and tennis courts in order that recreation and physical culture may be encouraged and the place made attractive to girls as well as women. The Governor is promoting this last matter indirectly, by putting a fine on foot-binding, which is unfortunately still extremely prevalent. The movement that took place some years ago in favour of a natural foot seems to have died down, and everywhere there is foot-binding in full swing. The queue has practically disappeared from China during the last few years, and men wear their hair mostly rather short, while some go in for a clean shave. I find this quite attractive when the skull is well-shaped, and if the man is in immaculate summer garb, the effect of cleanliness is wonderful. If the women of China were less conservative, and would make an equally clean sweep of foot-binding, it would make an immense difference to their health.

The Governor has encouraged physical culture not only indirectly but directly as well, for he even went so far as to ride in a bicycle race once in Shansi, and in 1918 public sports took place at Taiyuanfu, which Sir John Jordan honoured by his presence, having taken the tiresome nineteen hours’ journey from Peking for the purpose.[12] A disused temple acted as the grand-stand and an angle of the city wall was converted into the arena, the tiers of seats being hewn in the base of the wall. Quite a fine sports ground was prepared under the superintendence of one of the missionaries, whose advice in practical matters is continually sought by the Governor. The only matter for regret on this occasion was the deplorable weather, for even sunny Shansi has moments when a dusty fit of temper obscures its lustre.

One of the Governor’s most valuable new institutions is a farm for cattle-breeding. It is just outside the city and has been successfully started by an American and his wife. The main object is to improve the breed of horses, cows, sheep, etc., and for this purpose stock is being imported from the United States, whose Government has recently supplied the necessary transport for horses, when this difficulty of shipment arose with regard to animals already purchased; a large number of sheep have already been imported from Australia. Shansi is a suitable province for this experiment and missionaries have already proved there the excellent results of cross-breeding cows, obtaining supplies of milk of improved quality, as well as largely-increased quantity. In a recent book on China, highly recommended to me, an American writer states that there is only one milk-giving cow in the Empire, and that tinned milk supplies the rest, but evidently the traveller had not travelled far!

Another of the Governor’s institutions is a College of Agriculture and Forestry in connexion with which there are many mulberry trees being planted for the promotion of sericulture. This has never been pursued with success in Shansi; hitherto only the commoner kinds of silk have been produced, but it is considered a patriotic deed to promote it, and the most exquisite and costly silk is now being made in a disused temple, by Yen’s order. Perhaps the almost religious way in which it was regarded in bygone times, when the Empress herself took a ceremonial part in the rearing of silkworms 3,000 years ago, has caused this revival of schools of sericulture. I visited one in the South, and after seeing all the processes was invited to take a handful of worms away as a memento! Governor Yen has sent 100 students to France to study textiles. Afforestation is nowhere more needed than in Shansi, and it is to be hoped that the Government will push this side of the work of the college. We found such a college had been started in remote Kweichow also, cut off from most of the new movements in China. Plantations had been made in various parts, but they will need to be carefully guarded, as the poverty of the inhabitants lead them to destroy ruthlessly every twig they can for firewood; where there used to be large forests nothing now remains of them. The genius of the Chinese race for agriculture is so remarkable that one may well expect great results from these colleges: the vast population has been able in the past to produce food more or less according to its needs, but when there is a dearth of rain, or other cause producing bad harvests, there is at once terrible scarcity, and the application of Western knowledge and agricultural implements ought to be of considerable value.

There are in some parts such as Chekiang as many as four harvests per annum, and no sooner is one reaped than the land is prepared for the next. The introduction of new trees, vegetables, etc., would add greatly to the wealth of the country, and with its unrivalled climate and soil there is every reason to promote the multiplication of agricultural colleges.

One of the most noticeable changes in Taiyuanfu is the complete absence of the beggar of hideous mien, who dogs the steps of strangers in every other city in China, and who seems to be the most immovable feature of life in the East. He was an integral part, one had been taught to believe, of the social fabric, and as hallowed as the very temple itself; yet Taiyuanfu has the glory of having solved this difficult problem. All the male beggars have been collected into the splendid old temple of Heaven and Hell to be taught a trade, so as to be able to earn a living, and they are not dismissed until they are capable of doing so. They seemed quite a jolly crew, and were hard at work in various buildings, though others of these were closed for the New Year. The most interesting part of the institution was the town band which has been formed out of the younger part of the beggar population. They were summoned to play for our amusement, and they ended by playing for their own. The performance was most creditable, especially considering that the band was only seven months old; if there was some defect in tune, there was an excellent sense of rhythm, which I have found lacking in many bands of long standing at home; and it was really fascinating to see the gusto with which they all played. The band has already taken part in various town functions, and is making itself useful. The music is, of course, Western, as are the instruments. Chinese musical instruments do not give enough sound, as a rule, for large gatherings.

The rules of the workhouse seem good, and the inmates can earn money (five dollars per month) so as to have something in hand when they leave. The women’s department is in another part of the city and we had not time to visit it. It is very noticeable how the temples are being everywhere used for such useful purposes, for the housing question is here, as at home, a serious problem. No doubt it would be good from a practical point of view that these buildings should be replaced by new ones, built for the purpose, but the loss of beauty would be incalculable. The temple of Heaven and Hell has glorious turquoise-blue roofs and handsome tiles and large medallions of green pottery on the walls. It is the most beautiful of all the temples, in my opinion, though the Imperial Temple, where the Dowager Empress stayed on her historic flight to Sianfu, is also very fine. This is now used as a school for the teaching of the new script, which is a simplified form of the Chinese character. It was devised in 1918 by the Ministry of Education in order to make literacy easier for the population. The ordinary Chinese boy takes three or four years longer than the Western boy to learn to read. When the old system of education was abolished in 1907 a new one had to be devised, but it is an extremely difficult thing to carry out such a reform throughout so vast an empire. Governor Yen Hsi-Shan is an ardent promoter of the scheme, and he has established the school for the express purpose of promoting it. Every household in Taiyuanfu is required to send at least one member to study the script; in order to make it easier, there are a few characters, with their equivalent in the old script, put up outside many of the shops, so that people may learn it as they go about their business. Not only so, but all over the city may be seen notice boards with the two scripts in parallel columns, and these boards have generally some one studying them, not infrequently with notebook in hand. Many of the schools are teaching it, but it is difficult to add this to an already well-filled time-table. It may be of interest to know that it is “a phonetic system containing thirty-nine symbols (divided into three denominations, viz. twenty-four initials, three medials and twelve finals).”—_North China Daily News._

This is one part of an important movement for the unification of the language, the importance of which can only be fully realized by those who have travelled widely in China. Not only every province varies from every other province, but also every district from every other district. There are sixty-four dialects in Fukien alone. The unification of the Empire would be greatly promoted by the unification of the language, and this has been frankly recognized by the Ministry of Education, which has issued a notice to that effect:

“We recognize that because of the difference between our classical and spoken language, education in the schools makes slow progress, and the keen edge of the spirit of union both between individuals and in society at large has thereby been blunted. Moreover, if we do not take prompt steps to make the written and the spoken language the same quickly, any plans for developing our civilization will surely fail.

“This Ministry of Education has for several years made positive advances in promoting such a National Language. All educationists, moreover, throughout the country are in favour of a change by which the teaching of the national spoken language shall take the place of the classical language. Inasmuch, therefore, as all desire to promote education in the National Language, we deem it wise not to delay longer in the matter.

“We therefore now order that from the autumn of this current year, beginning in the primary schools for the first and second years, all shall be taught the National Spoken Language, rather than the National Classical Language. Thus the spoken and written languages will become one. This Ministry requests all officials to take notice and act accordingly.”

It is not sufficient, as we all know, merely to issue such an order. Governor Yen has taken various practical ways of enforcing it. Posters with large script characters have been widely set up, exhorting the people to study the script, and a daily paper is issued in it. He has had 2,500,000 copies printed of a simple script primer, and has published at a nominal price, and in vast numbers, various educational books, such as _What the People Ought to Know_,[13] _New Criminal Laws of the Republic_, and _Handbook for Village Leaders_. The last-named is of special importance in view of the fact that by his order reading- and lecture-rooms have been established in all the cities and large villages of the province, where lectures and talks are given from time to time on various subjects of interest to the people. A regular educational campaign may be said to have been inaugurated by Yen. On every post and wall in the remotest villages may be seen maxims inculcating honesty, diligence, industry, patriotism and military preparedness.

_Page 53_]

An important new book which Governor Yen has recently published, is called _What Every Family Ought to Know_, and is a description of what he conceives to be a good home and the happiness which results from it. “If we desire to have a good home, virtue is of first importance,” he says, but alas! he gives no clue as to how it is to be achieved.

The chief rules for family life are, (i) Friendliness, (ii) Magnanimity, (iii) Dignity, (iv) Rectitude, (v) Diligence, (vi) Economy, (vii) Cleanliness, (viii) Quietness. He makes the Head of the House responsible, as setting the example, and exhorts him to repentance (if he falls short) before God and his ancestors. The whole book is eminently practical, and he recommends what would be a startling change of immemorial custom, that the son should not marry until he is grown up and able to support a wife in a home of his own—namely, not under his father’s roof. This is an innovation which is beginning to be seen elsewhere, as the result of foreign intercourse.

As a writer, Governor Yen is concise and practical: he has completely broken away from the old Chinese classical style. His last work is written, like all his books, in simple mandarin instead of in beautiful classical mandarin, so that every one may be able to understand it. This is the more noteworthy, because the additional cost entailed was $5,400 per leaf; he states this fact in the preface of _What the People Ought to Know_.

His one object appears to be the uplift of the people in every way, and he believes in God and in righteousness. As an index of his view of life it may be interesting to quote a few of the forty Family Maxims which form the concluding chapter of his above-named book.

“Unjust wealth brings calamity.”

“Vitiated air kills more people than prison.”

“To be cruel to one’s own is to be worse than a beast.”

“Of people who lack a sense of responsibility—the fewer the
better.”

“If your conscience tells you a thing is wrong, it _is_ wrong:
DON’T do it.”

“The experience of the uneducated is much to be preferred to
the inexperience of the educated.”

“The wise are self-reliant, the stupid apply to others.”

“There is no greater calamity than to give reins to one’s
desires, and no greater evil than self-deception.”

Governor Yen, it will be seen, from his words as well as from his deeds, is a clear-sighted, independent thinker, and he believes in religious liberty. His reforms deal with a wide range of things—opium-smoking, narcotics, polygamy, infanticide, early marriages, early burial, gambling, training and morals of the troops, compulsory free education for boys, the introduction of uniform weights and measures, alteration in legal affairs. All these and other matters have within the last five years occupied his thoughts and been practically dealt with—no small achievement, especially when the insecurity of his position and lack of trained men to carry out his projects is taken into consideration.

As will be readily understood, all these enterprises cost money, and taxation is never looked on kindly by the taxed, so there is some discontent among the people of Shansi, and the Central Government, instead of showing satisfaction at the prosperity and good government of the province, which is in striking contrast to that of so many others, has taken the opportunity of threatening to impose a Civil Governor in Shansi—that means a heavy squeeze, and in consequence, the stoppage of many of the Governor’s schemes. He is continually threatened by those who would like to see him out of the way, and is consequently rarely seen, and then strongly guarded.

The system of having military governors is extremely bad, but in the case of an exceptional man like Yen it has worked well, and the Government saved its “face” by uniting the civil and military governorship in his one person. At the present time the Government has ordered the military governor of Shensi to retire in favour of another Tuchun. He refuses to do so, and his various military friends are all hurrying to the rescue. It is estimated that there are one and a half million soldiers in China, largely unpaid, so that they are glad of any excuse to loot and pillage. Feng Yu Hsiang has been sent up to Shensi by the Government to compel the Tuchun to leave, and has carried out the work with brilliant success. He has in vain been demanding money to pay his troops, while turbulent, unscrupulous generals have been receiving large sums to prevent them from committing excesses.

The Tuchuns have been encouraging opium-growing in order to get funds, and now there is hardly a province where it is not done more or less openly. Governor Yen has set his face against it, but smuggling goes on all the time, mainly from Japan, and morphia is also becoming increasingly popular. No wonder Young China is clamouring for the suppression of the Tuchuns and disarmament: there can be no peace in China till this is done.

One of the most interesting places in the city is the model gaol, which was planned and carried out by Mr. Hsü, who studied in Japan and has progressive views. It covers a considerable space of ground and is entirely one-storied; it is in the shape of a wheel, with many spokes radiating from the centre. The entrance is charming, as unlike as it is possible to imagine to any English prison. Within the gates is a lovely garden, for Chinese are first-rate gardeners, and the prisoners raise all the vegetables necessary for the inmates, and a grand show of flowers to boot. An avenue of trees leads to the offices, and when we were there in February we saw beautiful little trees of prunus in full bloom on the office table! All the prisoners have to work at useful trades, and if it were not for their fetters it would be difficult to imagine one was in a prison at all. The workshops were bright and airy; every one looked well cared for and not unhappy. A feature of the workrooms was the boards on which all tools were hung up when not in use, each tool being numbered and outlined on the board, so that it should be hung on its own peg. Every kind of trade was in full swing, and the work is so well executed that there is never any lack of orders. Certainly one would be only too glad to have things made under such good conditions.

The sleeping accommodation was excellent: the cells and beds of remarkable cleanliness and comfort; no one could object to them. The bath-house was of some interest. All the inmates have to undergo a weekly bath on Sundays, in batches of ten at a time, and their clothes are also kept thoroughly clean. The kitchen looked most attractive, and the rice and soup, which form the staple of their food, compared favourably with what one sees in the inns. The prisoners, too, are allowed as much as they like at their two daily meals. Throughout the Army there are no more than two meals a day. The place of punishment looked uncommonly like a theatre stage, and one cannot but hope that soon all executions will take place within the prison precincts instead of in public; but as Europe has not yet learnt to do this, one cannot be surprised that China has not.

After inspecting the Delco Engine, which provides light for the whole place, we went to visit the women’s prison, which is within the same enclosure as the men’s, though separated by a wall. It was very much smaller in extent but equally well kept, and even, I must add, _attractive_. The matron was a pleasant-faced, comely woman, and her own room quite a picture. The white-curtained bed, pretty coverlet, vase of flowers, and various little treasures suggested a home, and as she took us round, it was easy to see that she was happy in her work. We passed through the dining-room, where the tables were spread with clean cloths, and bowls and chopsticks were ready for the forthcoming meal. The prisoners were only about thirty in number, and were busy making mattresses and clothing, knitting and crocheting. It was suggested that they should sing a hymn, which they did with evident pleasure, and some of them talked with the missionary, who comes to see them once a week. The matron is not a Christian, but finds the singing and reading does them so much good that she has taken to learning and to teaching them herself. The missionaries were originally invited by the master to come and speak to the prisoners, and it is now a regular custom. One woman who is in for murder has become quite a changed character, and her term has been shortened in consequence of her good behaviour. Some were in for opium-smoking, which is here a punishable offence, while in other parts of the empire it is frankly encouraged.

The prisoners are allowed to have a visitor once a month, but no complaints are allowed to be made. Visits are stopped if this happens. The prisoners can earn money—if they work sufficiently well—which is placed to their credit for payment when their sentence is up.

The prison system was appalling in China previous to 1912, but it was then decided that it must be radically changed. It was reckoned that it would take seven years completely to re-model it in the twenty-two provinces. I have only seen one other of these new prisons at Tientsin, and it was not nearly so attractive as the Taiyuanfu one, but still worthy of imitation in many European countries. It had a sort of chapel in which moral addresses were given, but, it is only in the one at Changteh—under General Feng’s jurisdiction[14]—that a chapel was to be found where missionaries had regular services, each mission being responsible for a month at a time, in rotation. The Chinese Government has no small task still before it, for it is estimated that a sum of at least $24,000,000 will be required to provide the new gaols, besides which the Government scheme provides reformatories, Prisoners’ Protection and Aid Societies.

So much is said at present in the European Press about the disorders and misgovernment in China, that it is only fair to let people know that a steady tide of reform is flowing on at the same time, which will render possible a great forward movement when once there is a settled government. Not only are there new gaols, but new barracks, and a large military hospital of which the M.O. is a fine capable Chinaman, trained in the Mission Hospital; he is always ready to lend a hand there still when needed. I was interested to see him doing so one day when the young Chinaman in charge had a serious operation to perform, and if comparison were to be made between that and some European ones I have seen, it would not be in favour of the latter. The mission-trained Chinese are the only men capable of carrying out many of the reforms now taking place in China, owing to the dearth of trained Chinese. The Governor has sent nine students, selected by competitive examination, to study medicine at the Tsinanfu Christian university,[15] and 100 to France to study textiles.

One of the latest reforms of Governor Yen is particularly interesting: it is the power to make his will known in any part of the 70,000 square miles (or thereabouts) of Shansi within twenty-four hours. Considering that the railway line only runs up to Taiyuanfu—seventy miles or less through the province, and that the telegraph wires coincide with it—this is a truly amazing achievement. It is managed by means of telephone and of fast runners.

The mineral wealth of Shansi is phenomenal, and Baron v. Richthoven estimated that its coal would supply the whole world for several thousand years. Anthracite and iron are found in large quantities, besides other minerals. Given, therefore, a stable government and a progressive Governor like Yen, the province of Shansi is capable of becoming a most important place, in fact, of world-wide importance.

The difficulty of transport is one of the main drawbacks at present, and the loess formation is not only a bar to this, but also to irrigation of Taiyuanfu, owing to the curious ravines, sometimes as much as a hundred feet deep, through which traffic often passes, and the sides of which may at any time give way, burying the luckless travellers beneath them. The Governor has sent to England to buy 100 second-hand Government transport lorries, and no doubt he has plans for overcoming the difficulties, if only he is left in peace to develop them. He was formally proclaimed “Model Tuchun” by the Chinese Government in 1918, and although he is not yet forty, has proved himself one of China’s ablest governors.

_Chapter III_

_The Province of Yünnan_

“International life—a product of science, industry and economic
relations—is hardly yet born; yet it is daily becoming a more
and more comprehensive reality, including within its sphere
items whose numbers and importance are steadily increasing. Nor
is this common life merely international. Might not one say
that it is also inter-ethnic, in the sense of embracing the
most diverse races, not only in Europe, but also in America,
Asia and Africa? Over the whole globe we are witnessing the
spread and propagation of ideas that are also forces—motor
ideas, which are everywhere identical and are drawing very
different minds in the same directions.”—ALFRED FOUILLÉE.

_Chapter III_

_The Province of Yünnan_

Yünnanfu, the capital of the province, is a most fascinating place and situated in a most lovely district. I visited it thirteen years ago, before the coming of the French and their railway, and found it very interesting to study the changes which have taken place. These are important, but not so deep-reaching as in other cities, and I asked myself what the reason was.

There has grown up quite a foreign suburb round the station, and there are French hotels, in one of which we stayed—the _Terminus_. There are plenty of shops there, full of the cheaper kind of European goods; but beyond this small area French influence does not seem to extend. It seems out of harmony with the Chinese psychology, and all that we heard about their relations was disappointing. The railway has been useful for trade purposes, but has not promoted a good understanding between the races. The management of it leaves much to be desired in every way, and there is constant friction between the French and the Chinese.

It is extremely desirable that France should be represented in China by a different quality of people from those at present in Yünnan: the bulk of them entirely ignore the French traditions of courtesy and treat the Chinese as a lower and subservient race; almost they look upon them as if they had been conquered. It is a tragedy that Westerners should invade any areas against the will of the people, and still further increase the ill-will by their lack of manners in daily intercourse. Of course it is not only French people who do this, but Europeans of every kind, and the day of reckoning will surely come.

We went to see our missionary friends, who had entertained us on our last visit, and found their premises were overflowing with guests, as all the missionaries working in the district to the north and west had been called in by the officials on account of the activity of the brigands. In fact we met no less than three who had been prisoners in their hands. Two of these had made their escape, with hairbreadth adventures, and gave us most interesting accounts of these people. We also heard a lecture by one who had been seven weeks in the hands of the brigands, and from him we gathered a vivid picture of their life; always pursued, and fleeing day and night from the soldiers sent out against them. It made us feel much sympathy for that particular band.

Many brigands are disbanded soldiers who have taken to the life as a last resource. Their pay was rarely forthcoming, and they have been not infrequently disbanded with no means of earning a living. The captain of this band is a modern Robin Hood, with certain chivalrous ideals and strict in enforcing discipline. He treated his prisoner with consideration, allowed him to ride his beast while he himself walked. Mr. S. had to endure the same hardships as the robbers, but no more; the hardships were, however, too great a strain on his health, which speedily gave way, and he was very seriously ill by the time he was rescued, as the result of urgent remonstrances of his American Consul.

His robber guards treated him with genuine kindness and lent him their wraps at night to keep him warm. The chief was very anxious that Mr. S. should mediate with the Governor of Yünnan on his behalf, and promised that he and his men would settle down to a peaceful life, if they might have a free pardon for their past misdeeds. They had got a considerable amount of loot shortly before, which may have influenced them in this. He also offered to make Mr. S. his chaplain, with a salary of a thousand dollars a month and six months’ salary deposited in advance in a bank in Yünnanfu! He promised that all his men should become Christians: some of them certainly were in sympathy with Christianity. But Mr. S. knew that it was impossible to succeed in obtaining any favourable terms for the robbers, and declined to attempt it. A French abbé, at great personal risk, got permission to visit the sick man and was the greatest comfort to him, but the abbé told me that he never expected to be allowed to go away. What the reason of the robbers was for leaving the abbé at liberty is decidedly obscure.

Mrs. S. had begged the robbers to take her prisoner with her husband, but they refused, as in the case of another missionary’s wife. This was a great encouragement to us, as we were women; but when I told it to our young interpreter, he asked tragically, “But what about me?” and was by no means reassured when I pointed out that he was neither a man of substance nor of political importance, and so need have no fear.

The captain of the robbers was extremely particular with regard to the treatment of women and girls by his men. They were strictly forbidden to molest them. On one occasion, Mr. S. told us, the parents of a girl came to complain that a smart young fellow had taken her from their home the night before. After inquiry into the matter and finding that the accusation was just, the captain had the culprit taken eighty yards up the road and shot, all the band being witnesses and obliged to pass the dead body as they left the village where this happened. I quote this story because we so often heard ghastly stories about the ferocity of brigands that justice seems to demand that something be said in their defence. If there were a better Government, brigandage might soon be put down, as may be seen by the fact that it has entirely ceased in the province of Shansi, under Yen Hsi Shan’s wise rule.

We stayed for ten days at Yünnan and saw many interesting things while the preparations for our journey went on apace. As soon as we had got permission for it we ordered chairs, which had to be made, and looked out for a cook. By means of the Y.M.C.A. we got an admirable one, called Yao. The Y.M.C.A. is run by Americans and is mainly educational in character at Yünnan: they have a charming Chinese house for their premises, but look forward to the day when funds will be sufficient to have an American one!

One of the most important pieces of work done by foreigners is the C.M.S.[16] Medical Mission, and they are building a fine new hospital besides having a beautiful native house in the city. Dr. Bradley told us of the successful work done in curing opium smokers, who wished to break themselves of the habit. A wealthy young official had presented complimentary tablets in gratitude for his cure. The work was rather in abeyance pending the completion of the hospital.

There is also a fine, well-managed French hospital for Europeans, but it is not in the railway suburb, as it was built a great many years ago, before the railway was built, in the days when the French were first getting a footing in the province.

But the most interesting thing to us of all the things we saw was the Chinese Home Mission—a Society formed in 1919, by which the Chinese take up the evangelization of China as their own special duty. This is as it should be. The time has come when the burden of responsibility should begin to be taken up by the Chinese Christians, because it is of paramount importance that Christian mission work should cease to be looked on as a foreign institution. The Chinese Church of the future is beginning to take shape, and must grow in accordance with national needs. It is to be the outcome of the honest hard spiritual work of many sections of the Christian Church, but the copy of none. It is of happy augury that in this particular section seven members of the party represented the Presbyterians, Methodists, and American Board; while twelve different societies are represented on their advisory board. They have not so far formulated any creed, but have gone out rather as pioneers to learn the needs of the people and the way in which they can best work. They will then report to those who sent them. Not only are Christians of all churches supporting the movement financially, but also non-Christians show a great interest in it. The chief of the Governor’s staff in Yünnan wrote most cordially, welcoming their coming and promising to help them in any way he could. The missionaries have all done the same, and they are now working most happily alongside one another. We went to call on the two ladies of the C.H.M. settled in the city, the others of the party being unfortunately some distance away in robber-ridden areas of the country. Miss Li Ching Chien and Miss Chen Yu Ling have a girls’ school in a charming old temple building, and we found about thirty girls there, some having a lesson in the classics, others doing needlework. They are drawn from the exclusive upper-class families, whose doors are rigorously closed against the foreigner. They are glad to have their daughters instructed in Western knowledge, even if it does include Christian doctrine. The teachers told them in the opening ceremony that the main object of the school was to promote Christianity. They did not speak much English, but we took our interpreter, who was pleased to find he knew one of them in Peking, when she was working in the North China Union College for Women. They told us how they now visit in more than a hundred houses, owing to their school work, and are allowed to talk freely of the message, which is their chief aim. On Sundays they hold a service in their house and a Chinese pastor preaches: to this service men come as well as women and girls.