THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 



MONTHLY. 



SEPTEMBER, 1905. 



CHINA'S KENAISSANCE. 



Bv CHARLES KEYSER EDMUNDS, Ph.D.. 

 CANTON CHRISTIAN COLLEGE. 



SO long as constant forces and invariable conditions characterize a 

 phenomenon, it is more or less easy to determine its course. But 

 no matter how regular any known part of the representative curve of 

 coordinates may be, extrapolation is always precarious and fraught 

 with uncertainties. The careful observer is ever on the watch for so- 

 called ' critical points/ times or places when or where entirely new and 

 extraneous forces or hitherto latent internal potentialities begin to 

 operate, and for a time at least, if not henceforth, to dominate the 

 course of events. It is generally true that a comprehensive knowledge 

 of such critical points is far more illuminating as to the real nature 

 of the phenomenon in question than that of any other part of the curve, 

 though of course it is essential to be familiar with the ' normal trend ' 

 as well. Many examples could be cited in the realm of physical science, 

 but the one to which this series of papers attempts to call attention is 

 of far more lively interest and pregnant with the destinies of the whole 

 human race. 



That China is facing a crisis amid the tramping of armies on her 

 north and amid the increasing murmur of a discontented people within 

 her own borders is clear to all close observers of the empire. The 

 oldest, largest and most conservative nation of the world, with its home 

 in the orient, is awakening under the impact of western ideas in trade, 

 religion and education. Albeit that from the start there could be but 

 one final issue, the progress of events well repays careful study. 



This impact began along entirely commercial lines, then religious 

 and hence educational, and finally because of the growth and future 



