82 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



cites the experience of Abbe Hue. Having occasion to send a messen- 

 ger, the latter thought that a Chinese schoolmaster who was working for 

 him might desire to improve the opportunity to send a letter to his 

 old mother whom he had not seen for four years. The schoolmaster, 

 upon hearing that the messenger would leave soon, called one of 

 his pupils, saying: "Take this paper and write me a letter to my 

 mother." M. Hue was surprised and proceeded to inquire whether the 

 boy was acquainted with the teacher's mother. Receiving a negative re- 

 ply, he said : " How then is he to know what to write ? " The schoolmas- 

 ter answered : " Doesn't he know quite well what to say ? For more 

 than a year he has been studying literary composition, and he is ac- 

 quainted with a number of elegant formulas. Do you think he does 

 not know perfectly well how a son ought to write to a mother ? " 8 The 

 boy returned the letter to his teacher sealed, and it was thus forwarded. 

 It would "have answered equally well for any other mother in the 

 Empire." 



The tremendous population of China is also largely the outgrowth 

 of the requirement of Confucianism that the son shall worship at the 

 grave of his deceased parents. No greater honor can come to a woman 

 than to be the mother of a son. If she fails of this, she is not infre- 

 quently obliged to make room for another who can bear a son, for no man 

 is content until he has a son who can worship at his grave. Until this 

 superstition is brought under the light of reflection, excessive propa- 

 gation will continue and with it moral development will be retarded. 



But withal the situation is somewhat better than it would appear. 

 Fortunately for China, agencies have been at work in the past that were 

 operative in the right direction. Of these, we may distinguish both 

 rationalizing and socializing forces. The value of these agencies as 

 factors in promoting moral development depends largely upon their 

 advancing pari passu. Eationalizing forces make for systematic con- 

 duct based upon natural law as a result of reflection and scientific con- 

 trol; socializing forces contribute to a more equal distribution of the 

 concrete things that satisfy the health, wealth, sociability, knowledge, 

 beauty, Tightness, and religion desires of the human being. Two men 

 stand out very prominently in Chinese history, previous to the present 

 reform movement, as making a serious attempt to break away from 

 custom and advance the moral condition of the Chinese. Their efforts 

 were not crowned with success at the time, but they served to keep alive 

 the spark of progress which was all but extinguished. 



The first was Wang An-shih of the Sung Dynasty, a.d. 1055-1085. 

 Realizing the poverty -stricken condition of his people in contrast to 

 their prosperity under the sage emperors Yao and Shun and Chou Kung, 

 he was very anxious to do something for them. The Emperor Shen- 



s ibid., pp. 180, 181. 



