The intelligentsia in China has a very peculiar position, unlike that which it has in any other country.  Hereditary aristocracy has been practically extinct in China for about 2,000 years, and for many centuries the country has been governed by the successful candidates in competitive examinations.  This has given to the educated the kind of prestige elsewhere belonging to a governing aristocracy.  Although the old traditional education is fast dying out, and higher education now teaches modern subjects, the prestige of education has survived, and public opinion is still ready to be influenced by those who have intellectual qualifications.  The Tuchuns, many of whom, including Chang-tso-lin, have begun by being brigands,[36] are, of course, mostly too stupid and ignorant to share this attitude, but that in itself makes their regime weak and unstable.  The influence of Young China—­i.e. of those who have been educated either abroad or in modern colleges at home—­is far greater than it would be in a country with less respect for learning.  This is, perhaps, the most hopeful feature in the situation, because the number of modern students is rapidly increasing, and their outlook and aims are admirable.  In another ten years or so they will probably be strong enough to regenerate China—­if only the Powers will allow ten years to elapse without taking any drastic action.

It is important to try to understand the outlook and potentialities of Young China.  Most of my time was spent among those Chinese who had had a modern education, and I should like to give some idea of their mentality.  It seemed to me that one could already distinguish two generations:  the older men, who had fought their way with great difficulty and almost in solitude out of the traditional Confucian prejudices; and the younger men, who had found modern schools and colleges waiting for them, containing a whole world of modern-minded people ready to give sympathy and encouragement in the inevitable fight against the family.  The older men—­men varying in age from 30 to 50—­have gone through an inward and outward struggle resembling that of the rationalists of Darwin’s and Mill’s generation.  They have had, painfully and with infinite difficulty, to free their minds from the beliefs instilled in youth, and to turn their thoughts to a new science and a new ethic.  Imagine (say) Plotinus recalled from the shades and miraculously compelled to respect Mr. Henry Ford; this will give you some idea of the centuries across which these men have had to travel in becoming European.  Some of them are a little weary with the effort, their forces somewhat spent and their originality no longer creative.  But this can astonish no one who realizes the internal revolution they have achieved in their own minds.