It is useless to deny that the Chinese have brought these troubles upon themselves, by their inability to produce capable and honest officials.  This inability has its roots in Chinese ethics, which lay stress upon a man’s duty to his family rather than to the public.  An official is expected to keep all his relations supplied with funds, and therefore can only be honest at the expense of filial piety.  The decay of the family system is a vital condition of progress in China.  All Young China realizes this, and one may hope that twenty years hence the level of honesty among officials may be not lower in China than in Europe—­no very extravagant hope.  But for this purpose friendly contact with Western nations is essential.  If we insist upon rousing Chinese nationalism as we have roused that of India and Japan, the Chinese will begin to think that wherever they differ from Europe, they differ for the better.  There is more truth in this than Europeans like to think, but it is not wholly true, and if it comes to be believed our power for good in China will be at an end.

I have described briefly in this chapter what the Christian Powers did to China while they were able to act independently of Japan.  But in modern China it is Japanese aggression that is the most urgent problem.  Before considering this, however, we must deal briefly with the rise of modern Japan—­a quite peculiar blend of East and West, which I hope is not prophetic of the blend to be ultimately achieved in China.  But before passing to Japan, I will give a brief description of the social and political condition of modern China, without which Japan’s action in China would be unintelligible.

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote 24:  In 1691 the Emperor Kang Hsi issued an edict explaining his attitude towards various religions.  Of Roman Catholicism he says:  “As to the western doctrine which glorifies Tien Chu, the Lord of the Sky, that, too, is heterodox; but because its priests are thoroughly conversant with mathematics, the Government makes use of them—­a point which you soldiers and people should understand.” (Giles, op. cit. p. 252.)]

[Footnote 25:  Annals and Memoirs of the Court of Peking, pp. 322 ff.]

[Footnote 26:  The Summer Palace now shown to tourists is modern, chiefly built by the Empress Dowager.]

[Footnote 27:  There is an admirable account of this question in Chap. vii. of Sih-Gung Cheng’s Modern China, Clarendon Press, 1919.]

[Footnote 28:  A new revision has been decided upon by the Washington Conference.]

[Footnote 29:  If you lived in a town where the burglars had obtained possession of the Town Council, they would very likely insist upon the policy of the Open Door, but you might not consider it wholly satisfactory.  Such is China’s situation among the Great Powers.]