The abominations associated with such a type of society are inconsistent with any but a low grade of civilisation—­they are eunuchs, slavery, unnatural vice, and, more than all, a general debasement of the female sex.  In Chinese society, woman occupies a shaded hemisphere—­not inaptly represented by the dark portion in their national symbol the Yinyang-tse or Diagram of the Dual principles.  So completely has she hitherto been excluded from the benefits of education that a young man in a native high school recently began an essay with the exclamation—­“I am glad I am not a Chinese woman.  Scarcely one in a thousand is able to read!”

[Page 298] If “Knowledge is power,” as Bacon said, and Confucius before him, what a source of weakness has this neglect of woman been to China.  Happily she is not excluded from the new system of national education, and there is reason to believe that with the reign of ignorance polygamy will also disappear as a state of things repugnant to the right feeling of an intelligent woman.  But would it not hasten the enfranchisement of the sex, and rouse the fair daughters of the East to a nobler conception of human life if the rulers would issue a decree placing concubinage under the ban of law?  Nothing would do more to secure for China the respect of the Western world.

3.  DOMESTIC SLAVERY

Since writing the first part of this paper, I have learned that some of the Commissioners have expressed themselves in favour of a change of costume.  I have also learned that the regulation of slavery is to have a place in the revised statutes, though not referred to by the Commissioners.  Had this information reached me earlier, it might have led me to omit the word “unmentioned” from my general title, but it would not have altered a syllable in my treatment of the subject.

Cheering it is to the well-wishers of China to see that she has a government strong enough and bold enough to deal with social questions of this class.  How urgent is the slave question may be seen from the daily items in your own columns.  What, for example, was the lady from Szechuen doing but carrying on a customary [Page 299] form of the slave traffic?  What was the case of those singing girls under the age of fifteen, of whom you spoke last week, but a form of slavery?  Again, by way of climax, what will the Western world think of a country that permits a mistress to beat a slave girl to death for eating a piece of watermelon—­as reported by your correspondent from Hankow?  The triviality of the provocation reminds us of the divorce of a wife for offering her mother-in-law a dish of half-cooked pears.  The latter, which is a classic instance, is excused on the ground of filial duty, but I have too much respect for the author of the “Hiaoking,” to accept a tradition which does a grievous wrong to one of the best men of ancient times.  The tradition, however unfounded, may serve as a guide to public opinion.  It suggests another subject, which we might (but will not) reserve for another section, viz., the regulation of divorce and the limitation of marital power.  It is indeed intimately connected with my present topic, for what is wife or concubine but a slave, as long as a husband has power to divorce or sell her at will—­with or without provocation?