At The Latter's
Suggestion, Edicts Were Put Forth Decreeing Important Administrative
Reforms Which Would Have Deprived The Mandarins Of Their Opportunities Of
Embezzlement, And Also Indicating An Intention To Reorganize The
Educational System Of China Upon European Models.
The necessity of such
changes is obvious enough if China is to follow Japan in the path of
progress,
But it is equally plain that the advocacy of them would render
the emperor obnoxious to the whole body of mandarins and of the literati.
The unpopularity caused by his proposed innovations proved fatal to
Kwangsu; for the party at court, headed by the Empress-dowager Tsi An,
took advantage of it to arrest and imprison him. Kang Yu Wei, having
received warning of the conspiracy, had fled, and succeeded in gaining an
asylum under the British flag, but many of the emperor's personal
followers were put to death. On September 22, appeared an edict ostensibly
signed by Kwangsu announcing that he had requested the empress-dowager to
resume authority over the affairs of State. It has been since reported
that he has been killed. The immediate effect of the _coup d'etat_ was to
place all power at Pekin in the hands of Manchus least friendly to the
adoption of European ideas, and more willing to lean upon Russia than
upon any other foreign power. The early restoration to high office of Li
Hung Chang, who has, for some time, been a useful tool of the St.
Petersburg government, and who is a favorite of the empress-dowager, may
be looked upon as probable.
THE FUTURE OF CHINA
It is obvious that arterial communication is the first organic need of all
civilized States, and pre-eminently of a country so vast and various in
its terrestrial conditions as is China. This need has been recognized by
the ablest of its rulers, who, from time to time, have made serious
efforts to connect the most distant parts of the empire by both land and
water routes. The Grand Canal, or Yunho ("River of Transports"), is
pronounced as memorable a monument of human industry in its way as is the
Great Wall. It is not, however, a canal in the Western sense of the word,
but merely, as Richthofen has explained, "a series of abandoned river
beds, lakes and marshes, connected one with another by cuttings of no
importance, fed by the Wanho in Shantung, which divides into two currents
at its summit, and by other streams and rivers along its course. A part of
the water of the Wanho descends toward the Hoangho and Gulf of Pechihli;
the larger part runs south in the direction of the Yangtse." The Grand
Canal links Hangchow, a port on the East China Sea, south of the Yangtse,
with Tientsin in Chihli, where it unites with the Peiho, and thus may be
said to extend to Tungchow in the neighborhood of Pekin. When the canal
was in order, before the inflow of the Yellow River failed, there was
uninterrupted water communication from Pekin to Canton, and to the many
cities and towns met with on the way. For many years past, however, and
especially since the carriage of tribute-rice by steamers along the coast
began, repairs of the Grand Canal have been practically abandoned. The
roads in China, confined generally to the northern and western sections of
the country, are described as the very worst in the world. The paving,
according to Baber, "is of the usual Chinese pattern, rough bowlders and
blocks of stone being laid somewhat loosely together on the surface of the
ground; 'good for ten years and bad for ten thousand,' as the Chinese
proverb admits. On the level plains of China, where the population is
sufficiently affluent to subscribe for occasional repairs, the system has
much practical value. But, in the Yunnari mountains, the roads are never
repaired; so far from it, the indigent natives extract the most convenient
blocks to stop the holes in their hovel walls, or to build a fence on the
windward side of their poppy patches. The rains soon undermine the
pavement, especially where it is laid on a steep incline; sections of it
topple down the slope, leaving chasms a yard or more in depth." Where
traveling by water is impossible, sedan chairs are used to carry
passengers, and coolies with poles and slings transport the luggage and
goods. The distances covered by the sedan chair porters are remarkable,
being sometimes as much as thirty-five miles a day, even on a journey
extending over a month. The transport animals - ponies, mules, oxen and
donkeys - are strong and hardy, and manage to drag carts along the
execrable roads. The ponies are said to be admirable, and the mules
unequaled in any other country. The distances which these animals will
cover on the very poorest of forage are surprising.
The rapid adoption of steamers along the coast and on the Yangtse has
paved the way for railways. Shallow steamers have yet to traverse the
Poyang and the Tungting Lakes, which lie near the Yangtse, and Peiho and
Canton Rivers, as well as many minor streams. It is the railway, however,
that is the supreme necessity. Mr. Colquhoun has pointed out that, except
along the Yangtse for the thousand-odd miles now covered by steamers,
there is not a single trade route of importance in China where a railway
would not pay. Especially would a line from Pekin carried through the
heart of China to the extreme south, along the existing trade routes, be
advantageous and remunerative. The enormous traffic carried on throughout
the Celestial Empire in the face of appalling difficulties, on men's
backs, or by caravans of mules or ponies, or by the rudest of carts and
wheelbarrows, must be, some day, undertaken by railways. In the judgment
of careful observers, too much stress should not be laid on the
introduction of the locomotive for strategic purposes. The capital aim of
railway construction should be, they think, the development of the
interprovincial trade of China, the interchange of the varied products of
a country which boasts so many climates and soils.
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