6o2 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



THE PEACTICAL BASIS FOE EEPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS 



FOE CHINA 



By GUSTAVUS OHLINGER, A.B., LL.B. 



TOLEDO, OHIO 



AEECENT issue of a Chinese daily published in Shanghai records 

 this incident: The venerable teacher Chang, a man well known 

 and respected in his community, was stricken with a mortal disease. 

 Three days before his death he requested his eldest son to shear off his 

 queue, explaining that "though he had worn this badge of servitude 

 to the Manchu usurpers for over three score years, now that the day 

 of freedom was at hand, he desired to appear in the other world, 

 not as a slave, but as a free son of Han." The native press, which is 

 almost entirely revolutionary in its sympathies, refers to the contending 

 armies as the "patriots of Han" and the "Manchu slaves." The 

 revolutionary manifestoes run in the name of the " People of Han," and 

 some bear date from the " founding of the Han Dynasty." 



These references all hark back to the golden age of Chinese history, 

 when the house of Han, of pure Chinese blood, wielded the vermilion 

 pencil in the ancient capital of Nankin. Their pertinency in the 

 present struggle for constitutional liberty is further emphasized by the 

 fact that under this dynasty the Chinese received their first charter 

 of rights. In 206 B.C. the emperor Han Kao Ti, as wise, far-seeing and 

 gracious as our o-^ti King John was stubborn and recalcitrant, made 

 what is known in Chinese chronicles as " the Tripartite Bargain with 

 the Elders of the People." This oriental Magna Charta is summarized 

 in the terse Chinese ideographs as follows : " ( 1 ) Death for homicide ; 

 (2) compensation and imprisonment for wounds and robbery; (3) all 

 else left to the people." 



From that day to this the " bargain," particularly the " all else left 

 to the people," has epitomized the Chinese conception of the functions 

 of government. There have been many codifications of the laws of the 

 empire, nearly every dynasty having signalized its accession by a new 

 code. One feature, however, characterizes all this legislation — the 

 entire body of the law is criminal. What concerns the people in their 

 business and social relations has, in the words of the charter, been left 

 to the people. Search the " Ta Tsing Leu Lee," or the " General Laws 

 of the Imperial Dynasty of Tsing," as the present code is known, and 

 there will be found a most careful classification of crimes, one, more- 

 over, which faithfully reflects the ethical standards of the people. In 



